Letter to the Editor: WMHO Clarifies Pepperweed Statements

Editor's Note: The following letter was received in response to the article a Stony Brook School of Journalism project published on Three Village Patch.

Dear Editor:

The Ward Melville Heritage Organization would like to clarify statements made in the article “Perennial Pepperweed Invades Brookhaven Township” by David Morris.

According to the article, it was stated that The Ward Melville Heritage Organization was “uncooperative and hesitant to work with any contractor it had not hired in the past” and WMHO’s “resistance to compromise was one reason the project never fully took off.”

WMHO would like to clarify that the “contractor” being discussed at that time to remove the pepperweed in WMHO’s Wetlands Preserve were volunteers who, in WMHO’s opinion, would not have the appropriate expertise or licenses.  Our overriding concern was that eradication efforts be coordinated with all property owners and that intrusion into the sensitive wetlands be held to a minimum.  WMHO’s mission has always been and continues to be the preservation of these pristine wetlands.  We were and remain uncompromising on these concerns. 

WMHO began to work on their property independently and has continued to remove the pepperweed for the past two years while, at the same time, working with the Town of Brookhaven and Suffolk County on a larger pepperweed removal plan.  Through the efforts of all these parties, this plan is projected to begin in June 2012 during the blooming season, the optimal time for the removal of pepperweed.

–Laura Ernst, WMHO Trustee