Letters to the Editor: Heartfelt thank-you
Cutchogue
Heartfelt thank-you
I’m writing to express my gratitude to the North Fork Audubon for hosting Doug Tallamy’s inspiring talk, “The Bird Song Project: Landscaping for the Birds,” on June 7. As I listened to Doug’s presentation, I was struck by the simple yet profound message: We desperately need to invite insects back into our lives.
By making a few conscious choices in our own backyards, we can create a haven for pollinators, caterpillars, and other vital species. This means adding native plants, removing invasives, reducing lawn size and ditching pesticides. It also means being mindful of light pollution by using motion-detecting yellow bulbs, using bird-safe windows and doors, and swapping leaf blowers for more gentle yard care methods.
The truth is, bird populations are plummeting due to habitat loss. But by planting keystone native species like oak trees, we can provide the food source birds need to thrive. It’s really that simple: By feeding caterpillars, we’re feeding birds and supporting biodiversity. As Doug stated, “Insects are the currency in our ecological bank account.”
I encourage everyone to learn more about creating a welcoming habitat for wildlife and to join the Homegrown National Park initiative (homegrownnationalpark.org) and the North Fork Audubon. By working together, one backyard at a time, we can make a real difference. Thank you again to the North Fork Audubon for sharing this important message.
Sharon Kelly
Southold
A complex relationship
Last week, the Southold Town Board unanimously voted to extend the hotel moratorium for another year—this, as small business owners continue to report serious declines in revenue and foot traffic. The community has spoken. We are a tourism-based economy now, not an agriculture-based economy alone.
Let me explain to those who may not fully see the connection: Tourists come out here because of the charm of our farmland and scenic landscape. But it’s not agriculture alone that paves our streets, funds our schools, or keeps our storefronts open — it’s tourism that brings people into town, gets them spending in shops, tasting wine, dining out and staying overnight. That’s what builds a tax base.
Meanwhile, the same farms that people admire are closing at a record pace. If tourism doesn’t increase, agriculture cannot survive the slow death it’s undergoing right now.
All of this is unfolding while the town is simultaneously undergoing a rezoning effort that, according to multiple analyses, could reduce up to 50% of commercial lot usage. That includes pavement, parking and buildable area — things essential for a small business to even function. If a business can’t provide parking or expand, it dies. If rent outweighs use, the building stays empty.
This isn’t just paperwork. This is the future of our economy. It begs the questions: Who does this help? Who does this hurt? And most of all — who tasked ZoneCo with these sweeping changes?
We owe our residents transparency. We owe our business community respect. And we owe our future an honest discussion about how agriculture and tourism must work hand-in-hand — because one will not survive without the other.
Vincent Guastamacchia
Riverhead
Support scientific research
I decided the North Fork of Long Island was the place for me as I was leaving it. I’d just interviewed at Cornell’s Long Island Horticultural Research Lab in Riverhead. They needed a plant pathologist to work on diseases of ornamentals.
After the interview, en route to Orient, I saw this huge weeping beech on the North Road. What a gorgeous tree, I thought. I should come here where people treasure such beauty. Others can work on soybeans: I want to work with flowers and trees because they bring happiness!
A week later I got a job-offer. Since the beech tree had me primed to accept, I happily came here, in 1978. I’ve seen a lot of microbes through my microscope; I’ve conquered some plant diseases and am still working on others. I’ve helped nurserymen manage diseases of rhododendrons, dogwood and boxwood. I’ve helped greenhouse growers with geraniums, poinsettias and impatiens. I learned everything I could by firsthand research and networking, so that I had useful information to pass on in my Extension education role.
I also learned that my work wasn’t about the plants or the microbes, it was about the people: skilled, hardworking growers, gardeners, arborists and landscapers who put their all into growing beautiful plants, providing for their families and their children’s future — always willing to learn from me and to share with me.
Besides supportive people, I’ve needed funding to do research. It’s come from grower groups, companies and, since 1998, the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Those federal dollars have made all the difference — they’ve strongly bolstered my efforts to protect Long Island’s floral and nursery crop growers from plant disease losses, so that their community benefiting businesses can stay right here.
Please continue to support scientific research.
Margery Daughtrey
Calverton
Nick LaLota and the ‘big beautiful bill’
Nick LaLota voted for Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” without reading it. That’s understandable because Republicans released the 1,000-plus-page bill only eight hours before he had to vote for it.
In exchange for the lifting of the SALT cap that will never survive the Senate, LaLota voted to blow up the deficit by trillions, kick many of his constituents off Medicaid, weaken funding to our hospitals, cut the SNAP food support from some of the poorest children in our district and ban N.Y. State from controlling AI for 10 years all to give gigantic tax cuts primarily to the top 1%of taxpayers.
Now LaLota promises to vote “no” if the SALT cap is cut back when the bill returns from the Senate, but he also promised two years ago to move back into CD1 and he still lives in Amityville. The irony is that he votes against our interests and he can’t even vote for himself because he doesn’t live here.
Jerry Silverstein
Orient
The economy!
President Trump gave a speech to Republicans after the so-called Liberation Day saying that the countries of the world were coming to him now because of tariffs. Silly me thought that tariffs were put in place to protect American industries from unfair trade practices. The president also exclaimed that President Xi was going to have to call him. Oops! No call. And the supply of processed rare earths from China severely declined.
Now the average American may not know what rare earths are, but let me just say, they go into modern technological products — including missiles. If you’re going to play high-stakes poker with the Chinese, you darn well better know what cards they hold before you blather on. And if you don’t know, surround yourself with people who do. Competence, not loyalty — but then that’s not the way President Trump governs.
Maybe he’s become so used to the obsequious behavior of the Republicans in Congress that he expects that from the rest of the world. When he came into office, investment money was flowing into the U.S. Now, it’s going out. Tariffs are now by presidential whim, a power the Constitution gives Congress. Amazon reportedly paid $40 million for the rights to a documentary about Melania Trump’s life. Huh? We’re all interested? Why would that happen? I hope you don’t have a suspicious nature and think that Amazon was trying to gain Presidential favor. No. You wouldn’t think that.
And he could end the conflict in Ukraine with one phone call: Vladimir, please stop bombing and killing civilians and kidnapping children. Well. We’re still waiting.
Go Ukraine. Imagine if they were getting the weaponry they need from an ally. With Trump we no longer have allies.
Our universities and research were the envy of the world and made possible the technology that creates new industries. Trump’s brilliant idea: Cut money for research and education and spend it on … how about a parade on Trump’s birthday? No matter that you’re cutting food stamps, Medicaid and veterans’ benefits.
If you think the Republican tax bill is good for the average American, I’ve a bridge I’ll sell you cheap. I can hardly wait for Election Day 2026 when I and other like-minded Americans call tell this Republican Congress: You’re fired.
Sandra Sinclair
Riverhead
Inappropriate stereotypes
As an octogenarian with health issues I’ve often spent time in nursing homes, My experience has found some of the most qualified and compassionate nurses’ aides are from countries [where people are] now barred from applying to emigrate to our great country, I appeal to everyone to contact our president to change his current policy, Stereotypes are unAmerican and inhumane.
Warren McKnight
Southold
Social security
We live in an age of overload. Bill paying, worrying about our kids and/or grandchildren, the prices of everything are overwhelming. So, when The Supreme Court decides that DOGE can access our Social Security information, it can be barely a blip in our lives. We should think about what the DOGE people will do with the information they get. They are exempt from government background checks, and it’s chilling to me how my personal information could be used. We have security systems on our homes, don’t let strangers in the house, are careful about what personal information we provide, check our bank and credit card statements, and yet we have no idea what is happening with all the information Social Security has provided. At this point, Congress has abdicated their oversight responsibilities, so DOGE has unfettered access. I trusted the government to take their responsibility to protect. No more.
Rosellen Storm
Southold
Fakery and cruelty
Trump claims that he is arresting and removing rapists, murderers and drug dealers from our streets. He says that these immigrants are very dangerous criminals. He calls them animals, he calls them scum.
Yet, Trump’s administration is arresting children from their schools. They are illegally deporting people to El Salvador without due process. The Trump administration has defied the Supreme Court’s directives to return people mistakenly deported to foreign countries.
NBC reported that 41% of the 4,422 individuals detained by ICE during a two-week period in February were undocumented immigrants with no criminal history. Other reports corroborate that more than half of those deported in February lacked criminal records and more than half of those in ICE detention have no criminal charges or any convictions.
Trump is putting on a sick show, full of fakery and cruelty. The ICE agents wear masks; Kristi Noem, the Secretary of Homeland Security, masquerades in bizarre costumes and embarrasses herself with her inability to defend her actions — including the deportation of a sick child.
Trump is a showman, a carnival barker. For his second term, he has surrounded himself with loyalists and FOX News personalities that know how to put on a TV performance … no serious adults to temper him this time around. Trump’s cabinet is an indictment of him and the Republican Senators that voted to confirm them [and] antithetical to the positions they are supposed to carry out.
Write to our Congressman, Nick LaLota, and tell him how you feel about how the Trump administration is using masked ICE agents to detain and deport immigrants with no criminal records and even sick children without due process.
Dick Sheehan
Mattituck
Military parade
It is insane that Trump is planning to spend millions of dollars on a military parade in Washington, D.C., on his birthday! He says that it is to honor the Army, however, he has cut funding and services to veterans, and has fired thousands of veterans who had government jobs! The funds would be put to much better use to help the veterans with jobs and services, than to have the type of military parade that dictators put on to celebrate their birthdays. We all need to stand up for the veterans and speak out against this insanity!
Margaret Rutkowski
Greenport
Research and psychedelics
Psychedelics — known to alter an individual’s thoughts and mood, resulting in hallucinogenic experiences encountered only in vivid dreams or psychosis — did not undergo clinical research on their medicinal effects after being scheduled as Schedule 1 drugs. However, with growing interest and emerging studies, such as Johns Hopkins’ examination of psilocybin’s imact on religious growth (“New perspectives through psilocybin,” June 5), I’m excited about the prospect of research regarding the medical usage of psychedelics. The stigma surrounding psychedelics, especially LSD, has existed since the 1960s — with myths such as it causing chromosome damage and making individuals insane. These contrived narratives have led to widespread resistance to psychedelic research.
Although I am excited about researching psychedelics for medicinal, therapeutic or religious purposes, I cannot say the same for people who use them recreationally — with artists and media profiles talking about taking psychedelics such as magic mushrooms in a flippant manner. A psychedelic, whether in the form of a mushroom or a pill, is a drug, and without the correct dosage or administration, it could lead to hallucinogenic Persistent Perception Disorder or any number of other adverse effects.
The rise of recreational marijuana led to an increase in synthetic cannabinoids such as K2 that target youth and cause poisoning. A similar trend could emerge with psychedelics — substances designed to mimic psilocybin but with an entirely different chemical structure and effects — and potentially be more toxic.
Anthony Kuczynski
Cutchogue
Irrigation law update
Last week’s article regarding the Town Board’s consideration of an irrigation law is more timely than you might suspect. A 2025 report from the U.N. noted that 77.6% of the Earth’s surface became permanently drier over the last three decades. Then, last week, a report in Nature magazine confirmed the drying and provided an explanation: The atmosphere is getting thirstier. The report stated that the atmospheric evaporative demand (AED) increased drought severity by an average of 40% globally. Essentially, the AED is the “sucking power” the atmosphere exerts on water molecules, drawing those molecules from the soil, as well as from plants and animals. The report continues, “Not only are typically dry regions becoming drier but also wet areas are experiencing drying trends.” The takeaway: Droughts are increasing, which is detrimental for vegetation, causing widespread plant mortality, increasing the likelihood of wildfires and exacerbating food insecurity — and geopolitical instability!
To compound the problem, The Scripps Institute, which has been monitoring atmospheric carbon dioxide levels since 1957, reported the May results: CO2 levels set a record breaching 430 ppm, higher than any level in human history and the highest in at least the last 14 million years. While atmospheric CO2 occurs naturally, the current record levels are driven by human activities, primarily the combustion of fossil fuels. Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases trap heat the Earth is emitting to space, holding it in the atmosphere and warming the planet. The science is simple and unequivocal: The more humans emit CO2, the higher the atmospheric concentration of CO2, the warmer the Earth becomes. Indefinitely!
While the rest of the world focuses on building more renewable energy resources (though not as fast as they should), the Trump administration doubles down on a 19th-century technology — burning fossil fuels. That’s just going to heat things up even more. Not smart!
Jack Gibbons
Mattituck
Investing in the future
Mattituck-Laurel Library serves as a lifelong community resource and boldly looks ahead to the future.
It is far more than just a place to check out books — it’s a vital hub for community engagement and personal growth. With our varied programming and friendly environment, we strive to provide something for everyone.
Helping the library maintain and grow its current offerings helps maintain a welcoming, informative, and enriching space for current and future patrons. When you support the library’s needs, you support the needs of your community. You secure access to invaluable learning, growth and resource opportunities for all.
To ensure that the library continues to meet the evolving needs of patrons, we’ve launched the library renewal project. With a proposed investment of $5.5 million, it will transform our library into a modern, accessible and future-ready space prepared to serve the entire community for many generations. It is an investment we should be proud to support in light of recent risks to federal funding and uncertain broader economic policies.
The renewal project has five primary goals:
• Replace the building’s aged systems by updating our outdated HVAC system, addressing chronic plumbing issues and replacing our roof.
• Rehabilitate the existing building with crucial exterior building repairs and interior renovations to optimize its layout and to create more meeting and staff areas as well as an art gallery.
• Position the library as a flagship community center with updated fully ADA-compliant accessibility accommodations. Our vision includes stroller parking, clear signage and more quiet areas.
• Improve and upgrade library spaces with additional multipurpose spaces, a mid-size Learning Lab, quiet study rooms, a reconfigured children’s room and a dedicated teen space.
• Improve library functionality by improving user experience and service, including installing sustainable lighting with daylight harvesting and new windows for heating/cooling efficiency. We intend to achieve silver or higher LEED-equivalent certification and complete the Sustainable Libraries Initiative.
A community vote on the project will take place at the library Tuesday, June 17, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. This is your library, and with your support, we can ensure it continues to be a vibrant, safe and cherished place for all.
Shauna Scholl and Mattituck-Laurel Library Board of Trustees
Cutchogue
The clown show
The world has witnessed Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, preside over a successful military operation that may have leveled up to one-third of Russia’s long-range bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons. It was nothing short of a brilliant tactical and operational event.
Recently, Mr. Zelensky was verbally pummeled by our inept tag team of Donald Trump and JD Vance, who yelled that he’d better do as they say to protect his country because he “has no cards to play.”
Well, it seems that Mr. Zelensky does indeed have a deck of cards and he played a few which resulted in enormous damage not only to Russia’s ability to continue its war against Ukraine but maybe even its capacity to pose as much of a threat to the United States.
While Mr. Zelensky was making the world safer, our Secretary of Defense was devoting his time and energies to the matter of a name change for a Navy ship named after Harvey Milk, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors who was murdered in 1977 because he was gay.
The differences in quality and character between Ukraine’s president and the Trump clown show are palpable to say the least. Ukraine is led by a former TV star who has turned out to be a brilliant leader and statesman, while the United States is led by a former TV star who has remained just a former TV star and something of an unserious person.
We out here on the North Fork should keep in mind that our congressman, Nick LaLota, is a key player in our TV star’s clown show. He’s one among the Congressional sheep who voted in favor of taking health care away from Americans in need, including innocent children, to fund a tax cut for millionaires and billionaires. He’s among the heartless politicians who have allowed the clown show to decimate life-saving assistance to people all around the world who will now die from diseases that could have been stemmed but for the elimination of critical foreign aid to dirt-poor places.
Next year, I will vote in the midterms for anyone but Nick LaLota. Whoever runs against him cannot possibly be worse for our country, our state, our county and our town that he has been given the privilege to represent, and he has failed us. His sole accomplishment has been to trade an increase in the SALT deduction for the deaths of what may turn out to be millions of people. Shame on all of us for sending this guy to Congress.
Michael Levy
Laurel
He said, we said
He said on Day One: “I think we’re going to do things that people will be shocked at.”
We said: Our democracy will be tested.
He said: Jan. 6 was a “day of love.” “Nothing” was “done wrong.” The people had “love in their heart.”
Pamela Hemphill (refusing a pardon) said: “The pardons just contribute to their narrative, which is all lies, propaganda. We were guilty, period. … I couldn’t live with myself. I have to be right with me. And with God.”
He said: “Waste, fraud and abuse,” while reducing services to the poor. Children dying needing USAID. Cutting cancer research. Medicaid is next.
We said: Government funding reflects who you think matters and who doesn’t.
He said: “They’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats.”
Police and a Republican governor said: Not so.
He said: “They’re poisoning the blood of our country.”
Hitler said: The same.
He said: Ukraine’s President Zelensky is “a dictator.” About the war, “You should have never started it.”
The rest of the world said: Putin is happy.
He said: “Happy Memorial Day to all, including the scum that spent the last four years trying to destroy our country.”
President George H.W. Bush said: “Memorial Day leaves few hearts unmoved …”
Leonardo DaVinci said: “Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.”
Far too many Republicans have said: Nothing.
We said: Make calls.
My rally sign says: “Left or right, we all know wrong.”
Mary Ellen Tomaszewski
