LI environment groups share in toxic weed killer settlement funds to help restore native pollinators at risk of extinction

Four Long Island environmental groups each received $20,000 from New York Attorney General Letitia James and The New York Community Trust to expand pollinator habitats and conservation efforts.

James announced Monday more than $500,000 in grant funding for 28 community organizations across the state. The grants particularly support projects in historically underserved communities.

“Every New Yorker deserves to live in a community with clean air and green space, no matter their zip code," James said in Monday’s news release. “These grants will bring pollinator gardens, workforce development, environmental education, and other benefits directly to communities that have too often been left out of conservation efforts."

The money is from the New York Pollinator Conservation Fund, which was created with proceeds from a 2023 settlement with Bayer CropScience and Monsanto over misleading claims about the safety of certain Roundup consumer weed killers, which can be toxic to pollinator species. Last year, the state gave out grants to seven Long Island environmental organizations from the settlement money. 

Pollinators are creatures that travel from plant to plant feeding on and transporting pollen, which supports growth.

"You would need an insane amount of people power to pollinate each flower," Joe Sackman, executive director of the Long Island Progressive Coalition, said. LIPC is using its grant money to establish beehives and plant native wildlife in Massapequa. "Pollinators are our natural friends who do this work."

According to the Empire State Native Pollinator Survey, at least 38% of New York’s native pollinator species are at risk of disappearing from the state. The funded projects aim to help restore native habitats and support pollinators.

In Brentwood, the Sisters of St. Joseph will use the grant to fund the restoration of a 2-acre leach field on its campus. The field, which is an underground part of a septic system, has been overtaken by invasive plants, which have shallow roots that prevent water from returning to the aquifer.

“Our native plants have roots that can go 6 up to 18 feet deep, depending on the species," Heather Coste, the director of ecological sustainability at the Sisters of St. Joseph, said. “So it brings the water much further down while also supporting a huge number of wildlife, but critically pollinators in that space."

In Mastic Beach, Johnny Panessa, co-vice president of Mastic Beach Conservancy, said the organization plans to use the funding as part of an effort to create a 6.5-mile waterfront trail. The project will include removing invasive plants and introducing more native species to the area.

“The real care is in that first year. In the second year, they really blow up, and the third year is when the only care a native garden needs is weed removal," Panessa said. “Other than that, it has a life of its own."

ReWild Long Island, a nonprofit organization that helps communities protect local ecosystems, is using the funds to help improve its community garden in Valley Stream. The money will be used to introduce more pollinator plants, make upgrades to the garden and create educational materials for public outreach efforts.

“As people are passing by this particular location right next to the LIRR, instead of being urban blight, it now turns into an oasis of urban hope," Raju Rajan, president of ReWild Long Island, said.