EDITORIAL: The loss of a pine barrens hero

The death of Raymond Corwin, the impartial and widely respected custodian of Long Island's wilderness, the pine barrens, is not only a difficult loss for his family and those who worked with him, but it marks a major transition for the Island, too.

Corwin died suddenly last week at age 56, while working at the job he had held since 1993: executive director of the Central Pine Barrens Joint Planning and Policy Commission. His combination of environmental sensitivity, analytical skill, decency and fairness made him the ideal day-to-day custodian of the most important environmental legislation in our region's history, the Pine Barrens Protection Act of 1993.

The act was a minor land-use miracle, requiring agreement among the competing interests of environmentalists, developers and public officials about the future of 100,000-plus acres of pine barrens in the towns of Brookhaven, Riverhead and Southampton. Beneath that land lies a vast supply of pristine water that will serve us for many generations to come.

This is a pivotal time, as the commission's role has been shifting from primarily that of regulating land-use decisions to stewardship of the land that the law has protected.

Replacing Corwin's institutional memory will be tough, but the commission and the many stakeholders must find someone with the same simple agenda as his: the statute, the comprehensive plan he helped draw, and the resource they serve. hN