<a href="https://www.wliw.org/support/contribute/thank-you-for-supporting-wliw-fm/?ms=wliwfmtopbutton" target="_blank">Donate to WLIW-FM today and have your donation TRIPLED! Help us keep this podcast going!</a>This past Sunday the Nature Conservancy’s stewardship team at Mashomack Preserve on Shelter Island performed the first prescribed burn there in more than a decade. A prescribed burn crew applied fire to 100 acres of oak forest, a fire-adapted ecosystem that benefits from periodic fire to promote its health. Beth Young reports in EAST END BEACON that the plumes of smoke could be seen from Sag Harbor and other areas surrounding the Peconic Bay, causing a stir amongst the public in the wake of a massive wildfire in Westhampton two weeks ago. Mashomack reported Monday that “the burn was executed safely and successfully with the assistance of partners from the New York Department of Environmental Conservation.” “It’s a lot of hard work returning fire to a landscape, but seeing partners come together, work cooperatively, and execute the plan perfectly is a beautiful thing,” said Mashomack Conservation and Stewardship Manager Cody-Marie Miller. “The fire behaved exactly how we planned and resulted in a great mosaic of fire effects.”    Forest managers say prescribed fire, properly implemented, is important for the health of oak forests, suppressing invasive species, prompting biodiversity, and promoting oak regeneration. Controlled burning also reduces tick populations and habitat, a major public health concern due to the numerous diseases they carry. Prescribed burning also abates wildfire risk by reducing a buildup of fuels — dead material that can easily ignite. Prescribed fire was first used at Mashomack in 1980, until the program was stopped in 2011.Land managers are required to prepare a detailed prescribed burn plan well in advance of having a prescribed fire. The plan defines suitable weather and fuel conditions, safety measures, desired fire behavior and the impact on the landscape that they hope to create by the burn.   ***While federal officials are clashing with New York over congestion pricing, the tolling program that President Trump has vowed to kill, there is another transit fight underway between Albany and Washington. Stefanos Chen and Benjamin Oreskes report in THE NY TIMES that the $68 billion capital plan, a five-year budget proposal that includes a slew of critical upgrades for the subway, buses and commuter railroads…including the LIRR…is the biggest such request the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has ever made. The plan, which would run from 2025 to 2029, comes as the Trump administration is not only trying to kill the toll but is also threatening to defund an untold number of other transit priorities. So far, the M.T.A. has identified funding for only about half of the plan and is expecting the federal government to contribute $14 billion, a sum that was optimistic even before its tolling dispute with Washington, budget analysts said.The State of New York is relying on congestion pricing to fund transit upgrades that were part of the last five-year capital plan, and its termination could throw the new budget into disarray, as overdue projects pile up. The capital plan is separate from the M.T.A.’s annual operating budget, which largely pays for expenses like worker salaries, energy expenses and some financing costs and is partly funded by fare revenue.The transit authority’s scramble for funding is emblematic of the many possible shortfalls facing state officials as they attempt to negotiate a budget by April 1. It’s not uncommon for the state budget to arrive several weeks late.Congestion pricing began in January and charges most drivers $9 to enter Manhattan below 60th Street during peak traffic hours. The...

Mashomack Preserve gets first prescribed burn in over a decade