Crab Meadow Watershed Hydrology Study, Plan, Accepted By Town Board

FORT SALONGA, NY — The final draft of the Crab Meadow Watershed Hydrology Study and Stewardship Plan was approved by the Huntington Town Board, the town announced. The beach was also renamed after former Supervisor Frank Petrone.

The board accepted the final draft of the Crab Meadow Watershed Hydrology Study and Stewardship Plan, a community-driven best practices guide that is meant to help the town protect local environmental resources and water quality.

The town board renamed Crab Meadow Beach after Petrone, who spent significant time during his 24-year tenure on renovating Crab Meadow Beach and the conservation of the Crab Meadow Watershed area. In 1996, then-Supervisor Petrone and the Huntington Town Board approved a master plan for Crab Meadow Beach and the Jerome A. Ambro Memorial Wetlands Preserve to maintain the integrity of the coastal wetland system while enabling public recreational access.

In 2010, Petrone established the Northport Water Quality Protection Committee to develop an action plan to restore water quality in the Northport Harbor and Bay Complex. The Petrone Administration also created the Crab Meadow Watershed Advisory Committee to invite community input on a local stewardship plan intent on maintaining and enhancing the Crab Meadow Watershed, a 680-acre public land assemblage comprised of the Jerome A. Ambro Memorial Wetlands Preserve, Fuchs Pond Preserve, Henry Ingraham Nature Preserve, Makamah Nature Preserve, Geisslers Beach, and Crab Meadow Beach and Golf Course.

The Crab Meadow Watershed is an interconnected land system of glacially-formed features that drains to the Long Island Sound, according to the study. The Long Island Sound impacts the land resource and the land resource affects the Sound. As the easternmost and largest coastal wetland expanse in the Town of Huntington, the Crab Meadow Watershed serves as a sentinel landmark. Crab Meadow is a designated Long Island Sound Study Stewardship Area.

The document aims to find ways to maintain and enhance local watershed resources, recognizing that the Long Island Sound and its coastal watershed areas are being analyzed in several regional studies that will further define resiliency and protective measures for implementation.