Making a Lasting Impact on our Coastal Ponds

Like many of our local waterways, our coastal ponds are being negatively impacted by overdevelopment, nitrogen loading, and other factors. The Trust recognizes the importance of combatting this issue. We have been working to remediate several of our South Fork ponds, with a special focus since 2019 on Sagg Pond in Sagaponack.

Sagg Pond had some great news this past month! The Trust was awarded a sizable grant from the Town of Southampton’s Community Preservation Fund (CPF) to support water quality improvements at the pond. This grant was leveraged by private support – the Sagg Pond community! - and will be used to support our efforts to:

• Install permeable reactive barriers to reduce nutrients from entering the pond through groundwater.
• Help install I/A septic systems affordably with public subsidies.
• Support further research and development.
• Educate pond residents on how they can help.
• Leverage private dollars to unlock public funding.
• Sustain the Trust’s coordinating role in this crucial work.
• Inform future remediation work across the East End and beyond.

We are grateful to the Town and watershed donors who make this important work possible.

We were also happy to host Sagg Pond watershed residents in early November at the Bridgehampton Club to hear from scientists working on these research and remediation efforts and how the community can help. Thank you to all of you who attended and showed their support!

Interested in helping? We are happy to connect you with experts in sustainable landscaping, resources available to offset the costs of septic system replacement, and options for shoreline homeowners interested in helping protect the pond.

OR make a gift today to help us reach our 2023 goal of $465,000 (we’re more than halfway there!) to ensure a healthier Sagg Pond and inform research and remediation for other threatened waterways.