Save the Great South Bay funded to remove invasive plants along Pattersquash Creek

Suffolk County Legis. James Mazzarella has secured three grants from the county’s Water Quality Protection and Restoration Program for improvements in his district.

The grants are:

A $250,000 grant for an observation boardwalk for birdwatching at Cupsogue Beach County Park

A $95,250 matching grant to the Center for Environmental Education and Discovery in Brookhaven Hamlet to help pay for a replacement of the wastewater treatment system at CEED’s Washington Lodge headquarters, and

An $80,155 matching grant to Save the Great South Bay and the Pattersquash Creek Civic Association to remove invasive plant species from five acres along the creek and replace them with native plants.

All three projects have been approved for funding by the Water Quality Protection and Restoration Program board and are scheduled to be voted on by the Suffolk County Legislature on Nov. 26.

Suffolk County’s Water Quality Protection and Restoration Program funds projects that protect and restore surface water and groundwater resources. Each year, 11.75 percent of the money raised from the county’s one-quarter of a cent sales tax is allocated to the WQPRP to provide grants to municipalities and nonprofits.

The “habitat restoration” along Pattersquash Creek in Mastic Beach is something Save the Great South Bay executive director Robyn Silvestri hopes will be a model for restoring the 50 other creeks its creek defenders protect in an area extending from Massapequa to Mastic Beach.

In addition to Save the Great South Bay, Mastic Beach residents Walt Meshenberg and Mike Lovell were also instrumental in developing the initiative the grant will fund, Mazzarella’s office said.

On Oct. 19, Mazzarella, who represents District 3, took part in a community cleanup of the creek. In addition to volunteers from Save the Great South Bay and the Pattersquash Creek Civic Association, participants also included the Mastic Beach Creek Defender, area Boy Scouts, and students from William Paca Middle School.