Preservation > The Native America Preserve
When the ground was still groaning under heavy cold in 1995, two acres of land in Hauppauge in the middle of Long Island, New York were put aside as a private preserve called Native America. The term Native America was chosen because the purpose of the preserve was to remove the invasive plants and the ornamental plants and allow the local native plants to reclaim the landscape of these two acres of America.
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The preserve consisted of a small summer cottage that was built in 1945, a front lawn of planted Zoysia turf grass and bordered with non-native shrubs and a backyard field that was mowed regularly. There were some native trees around the border along with sparse native bushes, grasses and wildflowers that escaped traditional landscaping. For 30 years, the Native America Preserve grew to twice its size, but then, in 2019, the land was sold off to purchase larger tracts of property further south.
Image: Native America Preserve Cottage.
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Nonnative Zoysia grass is a tough turfgrass that is good for a lawn appearance, but is basically impenetrable to native grasses and wildflowers. As the Zoysia grass was removed or "weeded out", native bunch grasses such as broomsedge moved in to replace it. The method used at the Native America Preserve was to avoid introducing plants. That means, no "native plants" were bought from stores, catalogs or nurseries. The soil is simply made inviting to windblown seeds and those dropped by birds or squirrels.
Image: Broom Side at Native America Preserve.
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In the back portion of the property were many spruces that were planted as Christmas trees. These conifers have grown to heights of fifty feet. While many houses today boast high ceilings, not too many could accommodate these overgrown evergreens as disposable indoor holiday trees. They do provide good cover for wildlife, but are nonnative to Long Island and are being culled out, one at a time. As they are either removed or girdled and left to wither for the woodpeckers, native oak, hickory and maple are taking their place. The restoration took place from 1990 to 2019, at which time the private preserve was sold. However, there was much conversion to native plants during those those 30 years and documentation and a photographic log will be forthcoming on this website.
Image: Spruce grove at Native Preserve.