LONG POND GREEBELT
Southampton Trails Preservation Society
The Long Pond Greenbelt encompasses a magnificent 1,100-acre expanse of interconnected ponds, woods, and wetlands that stretches
nine miles from Ligonee Brook and Otter Pond in Sag Harbor south to Sagg Pond and the Atlantic Ocean shore in Sagaponack.
Spectacular for its wealth of rare plants, animals, and ecological communities, the Greenbelt is widely recognized as one of the most
ecologically significant areas in all of New York State.
A splendid feature of the Greenbelt is its magnificent collection of coastal plain pond and pondshore communities, 13 of which occur in this
system. Both statewide and globally, these environments are considered very rare and vulnerable to extinction. They also harbor the
highest concentration of rare plants and animals in New York. New York Natural Heritage Program has confirmed the presence of more
than 30 rare species of plants and animals.
This unique area encompasses a chain of freshwater coastal plain ponds, wetlands, and vernal ponds as well as Sagg Pond (a coastal salt
pond), the tidal waters of Otter Pond, and the lower reaches of Ligonee Brook. The area was created some 21,000 years ago by glacial
advance and retreat creating the east-west trending moraines on Long Island (the Harbor Hills and Ronkonkoma Moraines). The large-
scale subsurface ice formation and subsequent collapse due to melting caused ponds to form north of the morainal deposits. These ponds
became south-flowing streams which eventually eroded the moraine to form the north-south trending channel between Sag Harbor and
Sagaponack. Repeated seasonal meltwater streams created the present remarkable landscape.
Extravagantly rich in plant and animal life, the Greenbelt forms one of the most biologically diverse eco-systems in the Town. More than 100
different bird species have been found in the area alone, many of which depend directly or indirectly on the wetland complexes found in this
corridor.
Efforts to preserve the Long Pond Greenbelt began in earnest in 1969. The Greenbelt was officially designated as a high priority for
preservation in 1985 through the Town’s adoption of the Long Pond Greenbelt Action Plan. The town’s Comprehensive Plan Update and
1995-96 Open Space and Greenbelt Acquisition Programs have likewise noted this areas significance, and identified it as one of the
highest priorities for the Town. As a result of these initiatives, more than 500 acres have already been preserved.
Interesting Facts
The Old Railroad Spur was an actual railway connection from the Bridgehampton Train Station to Sag Harbor’s Long Wharf between 1870
and 1939. A 1400-foot connection was constructed between the spur and the Round Pond ice house to facilitate shipping ice to New York
City. The track was pulled up to supply steel during World War II.
Native American habitation dates back possibly 6,000 years and centered on freshwater ponds. The first European settlers arrived on the
South Fork in the late 1640s. Many colonial roads followed the long used trails of the Native Americans. The present-day trails in the Long
Pond Greenbelt are known colonial road-beds.
In the late 1600’s to the mid 1800’s, grist mills operated in the area of Sagg Swamp and Sagg Pond.
An ice house was run from Round Pond for approximately 70 years in the mid 1800s, and a dam was built in the late 1800s at the north end
of Long Pond to provide public water for Sag Harbor.
In the late 1800s a mile long trench was dug between Crooked Pond, Deer Drink Pond, Long Pond and Otter Pond to increase the flow of
water needed to operate a mill on Otter Pond.
From the early 1960s through the 1990s, Old Hickory Farm on Haines Path offered horseback riding by the hour through the beautiful trails
in the Long Pond Greenbelt.
Coastal plain ponds are characterized by nutrient poor, acidic water and a gently sloping shore. Most coastal plain ponds are not stream-
fed, but are directly connected to groundwater. Pond water levels rise and fall with the water table, reflecting seasonal and annual rainfall
patterns. As a result, a unique community of plants grow along the pond shores. Periods of both low and high water levels are essential for
their survival.
The Long Pond Greenbelt was created 21,000 years ago by large scale, subsurface ice formation and subsequent melting. Geologist
William Neiter describes it as a rare, near-glacial relic, the likes of which are found only in the tundra regions of Russia.
PLANT COMMUNITIES
OAK FOREST
TREES: Scarlet oak, white oak, black oak, chestnut oak, American beech, hickories, pitch pine, American dogwood, and Sassafras.
SHRUBS: low bush blueberry, black huckleberry, mountain laurel, bayberry, and scrub oak.
RED MAPLE SWAMP
TREES: Red Maple and Black Tupelo
SHRUBS: Sweet pepper bush, swamp azalea, arrow-wood, and high bush blueberry.
FERNS: cinnamon, royal, and marsh.
REPRESENTATIVE HERBACEOUS PLANTS:
Canada mayflower, mad-dog skullcap,
Arrow-leafed tearthumb.
RARE PLANTS: Some 38 rare plants occur within several zones along the pond margins, including insectivorous species such as
sundews and hiddenfruit, horned and purple bladderworts. Other rarities include white boneset, short-beaked baldrush, rosy coreopsis,
reticulated nutrush, drowned horned rush, silvery aster and creeping St. John’s wort.
OTHER VEGETATION: Trailing arbutus, bearberry, dwarf blueberry, little bluestem, catfoot, cattail, chokecherry, clubmoss, slender
crabgrass, dangleberry, golden dock, fanwort, southern yellow flax, pine barren gerardia, goldenpert, umbrella grass, reed grass, yellow-
eyed grass, inkberry holly, water horehound, golden hedge hyssop, Indian pipe, lady slipper, sheep laurel, leatherleaf, lespedeza, fragrant
pond lily, ludwigia, wild blue lupine, Virginia meadow beauty, mermaid weed, white milkweed, sphagnum moss, crested fringed orchis,
orange fringed orchis, pigmyweed, pipewort, Carolina redroot, rush (beak, horned, long-beaked bald, swaying), spike and true rushes, St.
Johns wort (Canadian), sedge, staggerbush, bird’s foot violet, wintergreen, and spotted wintergreen.
WILDLIFE COMMUNITIES:
MAMMALS
White-tailed deer, red fox, raccoon, opossum, eastern gray squirrel, eastern chipmunk, eastern cottontail, long-tailed weasel, Norway rat,
white-footed mouse, pine and meadow vole, short-tailed and masked shrew, eastern mole, muskrat, mink, several bat species, and
possibly river otter.
BIRDS
The woods, fields, wetlands and surface waters of the Long Pond Greenbelt provide nesting, foraging, and resting habitat for a rich diversity
of avian life. In fact, more than 125 species of birds regularly use the Greenbelt for all or part of the year. Some of the birds you may
encounter are:
PERMANENT RESIDENTS: Red-tailed hawk, great horned owl and eastern screech owls,
Four woodpecker species (red-bellied, downy, hairy, northern flicker), blue jay, American crow, tufted titmouse, black-capped chickadee,
white-breasted nuthatch, northern mockingbird, song sparrow, American goldfinch.
NON-PERMANENT RESIDENTS: Wood duck, Eastern kingbird, great crested flycatcher, eastern wood-pewee, tree swallow, American
robin, gray catbird, brown thrasher, several vireos (red-eyed, white-eyed, yellow-throated, warbling), various warblers (blue-winged, black-
and-white, pine, prairie, yellow, ovenbird (common yellowthroat), eastern towhee, field sparrow, swamp sparrow, red-winged blackbird,
Baltimore oriole, scarlet tanager.
SPRING AND/OR AUTUMN MIGRANTS: Pied-billed grebe, green-winged teal, northern pintail, ring-necked duck, common merganser,
American coot, greater yellowiegs, solitary sandpiper, sharp-shinned hawk, merlin, eastern phoebe, northern rough-winged and bank
swallow, golden-crowned and rub-crowned kinglets, blue-headed vireo, numerous warblers (e.g., northern parula, black-throated blue, black-
throated green, chestnut-sided, yellow-rumped, blackpoll, palm) dark-eyed junco, white-throated sparrow.
REPTILES:
TURTLES: eastern box, eastern painted, common snapping, spotted (Special concern) common musk or stinkpot, redbelly (origin
unknown).
SNAKES: eastern milk, northern black racer, northern water, eastern ribbon, eastern garter, eastern hognose (Special concern), and
northern ringneck.
AMPHIBIANS:
FROGS AND TOADS: Bullfrog, green frog, Fowler’s toad, northern spring peeper, northern gray treefrog, pickerel frog and wood frog.
SALAMANDERS: Redback (leadback variation), eastern tiger (Endangered), spotted (Special concern), marbled, red-spotted newt
(aquatic and terrestrial stages).
FISH:
NATIVE: Eastern mudminnow (Rare), pumpkinseed sunfish, alewife, banded killifish, nine-spine stickleback, brown bullhead, chain
pickerel, three-spine stickleback, golden shiner, American eel, white perch.
INTRODUCED: Largemouth bass, blue-gill sunfish, and yellow perch.
INVERTEBRATES:
BUTTERFLIES: Spring azure, brown elfin, eastern pine elfin, frosted elfin, Edward’s hairstreak, banded hairstreak, striped hairstreak,
gray hairstreak, coral hairstreak, monarch, black swallowtail, spicebush swallow tail, eastern tiger swallowtail, cabbage white, clouded
sulphur, orange sulphur, cloudless sulphur, American copper, eastern tailed blue, pearl crescent, question mark, mourning cloak, American
lady, painted lady, red admiral, common buckeye, red-spotted purple, little wood satyr, common wood nymph, silver-spotted skipper, dun
skipper, broad-winged skipper, zabulon skipper, Leonard’s skipper, hobomok skipper, tawny-edged skipper, cobweb skipper, European
skipper, southern cloudywing, northern cloudywing, sleepy duskywing, wild indigo duskywing, Juvenal’s duskywing, common sootywing,
least skipper and little glassywing.
DRAGONFLIES AND DAMSELFLIES:
DAMSELFLIES: Slender spreadwing, swamp spreadwing, variable dancer (violet), azure bluet, familiar bluet, atlantic bluet, skimming
bluet, New England bluet, scarlet bluet, pine barrens bluet, orange bluet, slender bluet, vesper blue, citrine forktail, lilypad forktail, fragile
forktail, Eastern forktail.
DRAGONFLIES: Common green darner, comet darner, swamp darner, lancet clubtail, common baskettail, calico pennant, halloween
pennant, martha’s pennant, Eastern pondhawk, frosted whiteface, spangled skimmer, white corporal, slaty skimmer, common whitetail,
twelve-spotted skimmer, painted skimmer, blue dasher, wandering glider (globetrotter), Eastern amberwing, ruby meadowhawk (sp), yellow-
legged meadowhawk, Carolina saddlebags (red), black saddlebags.
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P.O. Box 1171
Bridgehampton, NY 11932
631-537-5202
info@southamptontrails.org
Bridgehampton, NY 11932
631-537-5202
info@southamptontrails.org
Directions: follow the Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike north to Mashashimuet Park, which is just south playground,
head south past the tennis courts between the athletic field and the railroad bed to the on the Crooked Pond Trail. During a
brisk 2 - 2 1/2 hour hike, you can circle both ponds and also see a stone memorial at pond's edge that was dedicated to
Truman Capote by his partner. The return leg of the hike passes a third pond called Little Long Pond. There is a boat ramp
off of Widow Gavitts Road where you can launch a kayak or canoe onto Long Pond.
Kayakers and local hikers love the seclusion and beauty found here. There are other ways to enter the Long Pond
Greenbelt; the Paumanok Path intersects it from the west near the top of Long Pond, traveling south along the Sprig Tree
Path then between Deer Drink and Long Pond, then onward towards Sagg Road and the Northwest Path.
head south past the tennis courts between the athletic field and the railroad bed to the on the Crooked Pond Trail. During a
brisk 2 - 2 1/2 hour hike, you can circle both ponds and also see a stone memorial at pond's edge that was dedicated to
Truman Capote by his partner. The return leg of the hike passes a third pond called Little Long Pond. There is a boat ramp
off of Widow Gavitts Road where you can launch a kayak or canoe onto Long Pond.
Kayakers and local hikers love the seclusion and beauty found here. There are other ways to enter the Long Pond
Greenbelt; the Paumanok Path intersects it from the west near the top of Long Pond, traveling south along the Sprig Tree
Path then between Deer Drink and Long Pond, then onward towards Sagg Road and the Northwest Path.
