Mattituck Park District recently announced that they have begun revitalizing Sabat Field on Bay Avenue. This fall and again next spring, they will be trimming phragmites, planting a native pollinator meadow with a half-mile path through it, and adding a kayak storage and launch. The park district’s current work on the property will prepare for planting day, when 1,750 plants will be delivered to Bay Avenue for planting. The park district will need at least 50 volunteers to get all plants in the ground between 1 p.m. and nightfall.
The district is calling for volunteers on Saturday, Nov. 16, beginning at 1 p.m. to make this vision a reality. A rain date is set for Sunday, Nov. 17, also at 1 p.m. Same-day, walk-in volunteers are also welcome.
The district has already begun scraping the property to build berms along stretches of the property borders, which will eventually be 2 to 3 feet tall and be topped with plantings. They released drone footage to get a sense of the “now” of the property.
The finished berms will both provide buffering and make the property visually more interesting, according to Alexandra Getches, a commissioner at the park district. “We are revitalizing the Bay Avenue park property, and what we’re doing is putting in a half-mile nature trail around the property, and we’re going to be planting pollinators, native pollinator meadows,” said Ms. Getches. “So, it’s really a restoration of the property to native species. And we’re working on beautifying it and giving habitat [back] to birds, bees and butterflies.”
Over the next few years, they plan to further revitalize the area by replacing the worn-out tennis courts with new ones in a different location on the property, putting a gazebo where the existing courts are, and building a small bridge across the narrow part of James Creek.
Ms. Getches said that getting the tennis courts moved will be one of the most difficult parts of the project. “That’s something that’s requiring us to seek grants, because it’s a really expensive project to undertake that we just don’t have the funding for,” she said. “But we’re hopeful that we’ll be getting that grant potentially next year to move them, and then that area is going to be turned into additional meadow. We’ve been talking about doing a gazebo and some benches around the trail for serene sit spots. And we’re going to be making a little trail for a kayak launch.”
Remaking Sabat Field is only the first of many projects necessary to repurpose and revitalize the park system. “We also are looking to do a similar project at Wolf Pit,” said Ms. Getches. “We’re going to have a walking trail, and we’re doing native plantings around it, and we’re trying to revitalize the property and clean the water of Wolf Pit and make it a spectacular place for people to go and have recreation. So we will probably have another volunteer planting day in the spring for Wolf Pit.”