Out & About
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
In the people, their attitudes, and the things they do, each year the Hamptons and Manhattan are more and more alike.
Thankfully, though, the land, air, and water at Long Island’s East End stay about the same – with the help of the Group for the South Fork, a 33-year-old nonprofit organization devoted to protecting the environment and rural character of East Hampton, Southampton, and Shelter Island. This may be a region of well-manicured estates, but it is also an area of ecologically rich wetlands, bays, harbors, forests, coastlines, and farmlands.
At the organization’s annual benefit Saturday, the 480 nature-lovers in attendance included Dick Cavett, Somers White, Cynthia and Dan Lufkin, John Mahdessian, Michael Perez, and Hayley and Stuart Boesky. Their gathering at the Wolffer Estate Vineyard raised more than $500,000 for current projects of the group, such as advocating for the preservation of the natural beach shoreline.
“Bulkheads and sea walls shorten the beach, limit public access, and destroy habitats,” the president of the Group for the South Fork, Robert DeLuca, said.
The group also asks individuals to do their part. It worked with the town of East Hampton to publicize a $500 rebate to homeowners who eliminate old fuel-storage tanks. “This protects the groundwater,” Mr. DeLuca said.
In addition to advocacy and education, the Group for the South Fork gets down to earth. This spring it planted 8,000 plugs of beach grass. Tomorrow it will lead a paddle ride to the ocean beach through Sagg Pond.
For all its efforts, the Group for the South Fork can’t stop developers from taking an interest in the area. The group says one-third of the South Fork’s 30,000 acres is protected, one-third is developed, and one-third is up for grabs.
Nor can the group stop the throngs of city folk arriving on those big buses, with those big exhaust pipes, each summer.
It can be hoped that the savviest New Yorkers and developers recognize that the value of the South Fork depends on keeping it a refuge from the city.
***
The New York Public Library held a benefit last week that wasn’t black-tie: its annual corporate dinner, which this year honored the chairman and chief executive of New York Life Insurance Company, Sy Sternberg. A library trustee, Henry Louis Gates Jr., gave the keynote address.
