Protecting woodlands, aquifers central to Unitarian mission at Shelter Rock congregation

Dana Gumb threw his hands toward the tree canopy that kissed the blue Manhasset sky on a brisk fall afternoon.

“It’s kind of a cathedral,” he said, as sunlight washed over the woods.

The metaphor extended to another expansive space below Gumb’s feet: Long Island’s aquifer system.

Gumb and the rest of the congregation at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock in Manhasset, which is surrounded by 75 acres of woodlands, are considering placing the land in a conservation easement. An easement would prevent the land from being developed and help protect the region’s aquifer beneath the ground, which is responsible for providing drinking water to Long Islanders.

The congregation would be the latest religious institution to apply for a conservation easement. The Sisters of St. Joseph’s of Brentwood and the Sisters of St. Dominic of Amityville also have put restrictions on their sprawling campuses.

While the institutions have no plans to sell the properties to a developer, clergy leaders said an easement is a way to safeguard them from future construction. By protecting the land, the congregations are preventing further contamination and strain on the region’s sole supply of drinking water, conservation experts said. The effort also aligns with Shelter Rock's spiritual mission to preserve the planet.

“This is a really invaluable resource that we’re protecting,” Gumb said.

Nestled amid a blitz of homes, golf courses, roads and highways in the Town of North Hempstead, Shelter Rock’s undeveloped woodlands represent something of an anomaly on Western Long Island. The 75 acres at Shelter Rock gives way to another 200 acres of woods owned by the Greentree Foundation. The Water Authority of Great Neck North owns three nearby wells that distribute drinking water to the community, according to the district. 

In August, an eight-year study published by the U.S. Geological Survey and the state Department of Environmental Conservation found that Long Island’s aquifer is “under stress," Newsday has reported. Overuse of public and industrial wells, along with the overirrigation of lawns, have caused salt water to seep into the drinking water supply, the study found. When groundwater is pumped too heavily, salt water intrudes and mixes with the fresh water, according to the USGS. 

Wells near the Shelter Rock congregation in Great Neck and Manhasset, on Nassau's North Shore, showed elevated levels of chloride, according to the study. The elevated levels are a sign of saltwater intrusion in those communities, the study found.

By protecting the land, Shelter Rock congregants are hoping to preserve the aquifer and reverse some of these trends.

A growing push

A conservation easement is a legal deed restriction on a specific property between a landowner and a government agency or land trust. The easement restricts future development on the property. Some landowners enter into agreements in which they relinquish their right to develop or subdivide the parcel in exchange for a payment.

In New York, property owners with conservation easements are entitled to tax benefits, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation. The 25% tax credit — not to exceed $5,000 — applies to school, county and town property tax bills, according to the agency.  A federal tax deduction can be for up to the entire value of the land, according to Lisa Ott, president and CEO of the North Shore Land Alliance, a Mill Neck nonprofit.

The DEC was unable to provide the total number of conservation easements on Long Island.

The North Shore Land Alliance holds 26 conservation easements in Nassau County, spanning 184 acres, Ott said.

The Peconic Land Trust, a Southampton nonprofit, holds 161 conservation easements in Suffolk and three in Nassau, spanning about 3,600 acres. The Peconic Land Trust protects nearly 14,000 acres of land on Long Island.

"You think about the productivity of land. It recharges our aquifer, it cleans the trees, cleans our air; it slows stormwater runoff. The land absorbs harmful pollutants before it enters our beaches and bays," Ott said. "Being able to ensure that this land is still working for us — and ensuring our community stays as healthy as possible — that's a very big deal."

Central to their ethos

Preservation has been central to Shelter Rock's ethos since it moved onto the property in 1986, said Jim Peters, chair of the congregation’s green sanctuary committee.

The Sisters of St. Joseph’s inspired the congregation's push for an easement, he said. The nuns operate from a 212-acre plot of land in Brentwood. The congregation placed 28 acres in a conservation easement in 2019, when it sold the land's development rights to Suffolk County, said Heather Coste, the congregation’s director of ecological sustainability.

“One of the points of sustainable and regenerative agriculture is to make sure you’re not having a whole bunch of things like nitrates and phosphates; you’re not fertilizing the things that are going to ultimately leach down into your aquifer, into your waterways, and cause problems,” Coste said.

The nuns also have a wastewater treatment system on campus that treats up to 30,000 gallons of water per day.

The water is then sent into a leaching field, where it filters back into the earth, and then to the aquifer.

The Sisters of St. Joseph’s consider themselves stewards of the world around them, Coste said.

“It’s the birds that fly in the sky, it’s the worms that crawl on the ground, it’s the deer, it’s the rabbits, it’s every living thing,” Coste said. “And not just animals, but also plants, and how the soil is a living, breathing organism on its own.”

Last December, the Sisters of St. Dominic placed 10.4 acres of farmland into an agricultural conservation easement with the Peconic Land Trust.

The land hosts an apiary, pollinator flowers and cover crops, which recharge nutrients into the soil. 

"One of the reasons we did this was to preserve the aquifer beneath the land," Sister Diane Morgan said. "We believe this easement is a concrete example of us trying to participate, in a small way, in care and creation."

Dueling approaches

The nuns' approaches offer dueling blueprints for the Unitarian Universalists.

St. Joseph's, for instance, received $2.3 million to enter into the agreement with Suffolk County.

"They're trying to finance their future mission, and the cash helps them be able to fulfill some of the services they traditionally have been able to provide," Ott said.

St. Dominic's, however, opted to donate its land to the Peconic Land Trust. This way, the nuns retain the right to keep the ground farmland.

The conservation easement provides "more flexibility and fluidity of what we desire for the land, to happen on the land," Sister Diane Capuano said. "We really want it to remain an organic farm."

The Unitarian Universalists' conservation work includes more than just the woodlands. The group plans to convert a portion of its lawn, spanning three quarters of an acre, into a wildflower meadow, which would increase the number of native pollinators.

In doing so, the Unitarian Universalists would take another step toward preserving the environment — and, by extension, fulfilling their spiritual mission. 

“For me, whatever you want to consider God, God is the natural world,” Gumb said, as a bird squawked in the distance. “The more connection we have to the natural world, the more connected we are with the meaning of life. And what is our purpose here on earth? Well, it’s to nurture the planet and pass on something to future generations.”

By Joshua Needelman

joshua.needelman@newsday.com

Joshua Needelman covers the Town of North Hempstead for Newsday. A Long Island native and University of Maryland graduate, his work has appeared in publications including The New York Times and The Washington Post.