Foundation Gives Big Grants To Baykeeper and Pine Barrens Society

The Long Island Community Foundation, a nonprofit that aims to make Long Island a better place to live and work, announced sizable grants this month for a number of East End organizations.

Locally, the Baykeeper received $20,000 to advocate for nature-based solutions to coastal hazards and climate change, like wetlands and eelgrass beds instead of hardening shore structures and the Pine Barrens Society for $20,000 for a multi-year plan to protect Long Island water quality.

The recent grants total $607,000, distributed all across Nassau and Suffolk.

Elsewhere on the East End, the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook Southampton in Shinnecock Hills was granted $15,000 toward the Shinnecock Bay Restoration Program,which includes seeding eelgrass and shellfish beds to improve water quality in the beleaguered bay. The East End Arts & Humanities Council received $10,000 for an arts program designed to bolster economic and community development. The North Fork Spanish Apostolate received $10,000 to create a volunteer program and help more Latino immigrants, and Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County got $22,000 for environmentally sound pest-management at six North Fork vineyards. In addition, the Amagansett Food Institute received $20,000 and the Nature Conservancy in East Hampton was granted $35,000.