Earth Day Volunteers Scour Smith Point Park

The Long Island Beach Buggy Association had a big Earth Day turnout. Robert Chartuk

The planet is a bit cleaner thanks to the Earth Day volunteers that scoured Smith Point Park Saturday in a cleanup event sponsored by Coastal Steward Long Island and LIBBA, the island’s Beach Buggy Association, two organizations that have decades-long commitments to protecting and improving the region’s environmental resources.

The cleanup was in memory of Dave Johnson, who founded the steward organization and spearheaded cleanups, oyster revitalization and education programs for over 30 years. Drawing concerned citizens from all over the island, the Earth Day effort had volunteers from Stony Brook’s Kappa phi Lambda, Penske Truck Leasing, American Regent in Shirley, and other area businesses, along with many families and kids.

More than 100 beach combers showed up to scour the park’s Atlantic oceanfront and the shoreline along Moriches Bay, according to Pat Kuchcicki, a Coastal Steward director. The organization has an active oyster hatchery in Mt. Sinai that raised and released more than 80,000 oysters in Mt. Sinai and Port Jefferson harbors. The mollusks, capable of filtering about 50 gallons of water a day, are vital to the local marine infrastructure, noted Tom Vicale, another director.

Turning out dozens of its members for the cleanup was LIBBA, one of the nation’s largest organizations dedicated to maintaining beach access and conducting programs such as food banks, scholarships, fishing clinics and contests, beach replenishment, and services for veterans and others in need since 1958. LIBBA President Cookie Rondinella was particularly proud of an effort to take cancer patients and others with physical challengers fishing to aid in their recoveries. “We also partner with local state, county and town agents to collaborate on environmental topics,” the president said. At Smith Point, the group maintains air hoses and compressors for off-road vehicles accessing the Outer Beach and is part of the Christmas tree collection effort to help bolster Fire Island’s protective dunes.

Celebrated across the globe in 190 countries, Earth Day has involved more than a billion people in environmental stewardship since it was first recognized in 1970. The environmental movement focuses attention on the need to protect the Earth’s natural resources in the face of industrialization and pollution.