TIMES HERALD The Village
Stony Brook • old Field • Strong’S neck • Setauket • eaSt Setauket • South Setauket • Poquot t July 2, 2015
Volume 40, No. 18
$1.00
Wine, dine, shine ‘Made in America’
also: golden gatsby highlights, ‘artie Techie’ show in Huntington, ‘cinderella’s glass Slipper’ at the ScPa
Page B1
Photo by Jeff Foster
a scene from Friday’s golden gatsby Party at the long island Museum in Stony Brook. above, tom Manuel jazzes it up with the Jazz loft musicians. See more photos on page B13.
Friends of Flax get friendly with turtles Matz makes history
Ward Melville High School graduate hits mound for first time with Mets
Back cover
Three Village grads toss caps in triumph Page a7
By Phil corSo
It’s hot. It’s muddy. It’s dirty. But it’s exciting work, if you like that sort of thing. That was how Nancy Grant of the Friends of Flax Pond chose to describe her group’s latest initiative this summer tracking Diamondback Terrapin turtles at West Meadow Beach. And while they may move slowly, the Friends have been acting quickly to spot the four-legged reptiles at the height of their nesting season and working to preserve their species. “I think a lot of people don’t realize we actually have turtles here,” Grant said of the program, which has been in operation annually since 2004. “You think you have to go someplace exotic to observes them, but you don’t.” From the third week of June through the entire month of July, the Friends of Flax Pond has set out to conduct its annual six-week search for evidence of nesting turtles, documenting the population numbers and behaviors of what Grant called
an important keystone species. The group meets every Sunday at West Meadow Beach at the park ranger sign at 9:30 a.m. and is accepting volunteers on an ongoing basis. The Friends of Flax Pond have been keeping a vigilant eye on the shorelines of West Meadow Beach and Flax Pond with hopes of spotting the exotic creatures, as Grant referred to them as a vital way of keeping a finger on the pulse of the North Shore’s environment. “They determine the health of the area,” she said. “It’s important to protect them because their numbers have gone down. They used to be over at Flax Pond, but we haven’t seen any there since 2009, with the exception of one recently.” The Friends have spotted on average between nine and 10 nests a year, depending on the number of volunteers, Grant said. Once they find the nest, volunteers dig around it, put a cage over it and hold it in with tent stakes to keep predators away. FLaX continued on page a6
Photo from Nancy grant
Stony Brook university grad student coordinator of the 2015 diamondback terrapin study Martana edeas has her hands full.