About ReWild Long Island

MISSION

The mission of ReWild Long Island is to work with communities on Long Island to protect and improve the biodiversity, resilience and health of regional ecosystems by adopting sustainable landscaping practices centered around native plants.

ReWild believes in persuasion through practical and positive demonstrations.

For example, programs like the Sustainable Gardens Tour demonstrate how sustainable landscaping can be beautiful and practical by walking our neighbors through examples of pollinator patches, rain gardens, meadows and low-maintenance lawns in yards that are just like theirs. Another example of leading through example is the ReWild Garden at Dodge with a community compost that shows how kitchen and yard wastes can turn into fertility to raise organic produce that is then donated to local food pantries. In short, ReWild believes that winning hearts and minds to the cause of sustainable landscaping is the path to climate resilience, biodiversity, clean air and water, as well as the general well being of Long Island residents.

Key practices for sustainability: crown

ReWild promotes five practices that are key to sustainability, easily memorable as CROWN.

Compost: Our yards and kitchens produce a steady stream of organic waste that can be turned into fertile soil that sequesters carbon and creates habitat under ground. Soil is the foundation of all civilization. We promote practices such as Composting, Vermiculture and Bokashi Fermentation to turn organic waste streams into valuable fertilizer for our gardens.
Reduce/Reuse/Recycle: Sustainable gardening should not become yet another excuse for buying stuff we don’t really need. Planting perennials reduces the carbon footprint associated with annual plants purchased from box stores each year. Our yards and kitchens produce a steady stream of organic and plastic waste that should be reduced and recycled with creative “second uses” for things that would otherwise be junked.
Organic Gardening: We also believe that locally grown healthy food enhances our health and our connection to the land. We encourage residents to grow food alongside their native plants that attract pollinators and use composted yard waste to mulch and fertilize gardens. We need to stop spraying chemicals that hurt pollinators and devastate the ecosystem. ReWild has also created strong partnerships with local organizations that focus on issues of food security and sustainability to help mitigate hunger in our community.
Water Wisely: Long Island’s aquifers, streams and ocean waters need to be protected from pollution and recharged as part of the water cycle. The use of rain barrels, bioswales, rain gardens and smart irrigation systems, coupled with native plantings, provide an feasible pathway towards landscaping that protects rather than degrades our waters.
Plant Natives: We work to introduce native plant based gardens in public and private spaces, transforming them into thriving micro-habitats for a variety of insects, bees, birds and butterflies. In addition, our mission is to educate the public at large the value of ReWilding, as well as to advocate for change in community practices and regulations. We seek to achieve the benefits of conserving water, using fewer chemicals & pesticides, as well as bringing more bees/birds/butterflies to our neighborhoods.

What we´ve learned at Rewild is that it only takes a handful of like-minded to raise the awareness and inspire repair and restoration. Rewild is now ready to shift the cultural narrative away from perfectly maintained spaces that are barren of pollinators, towards responsibility and dedication to life-sustaining habits. ReWild also believes in engaging our political representatives and working together to refine laws to better protect our environment.

It starts with the very ground of our being, the Earth we all live on. 

learn More: chapters & Programs

Rooted in the soil we grow, we have helped create more than 10 sustainable gardens and 4 chapters dedicated to creating earth-friendly habitats in their yards.

Join us as a member, contributor, ReWilder or to start a chapter in your own neighborhood!

What we do

 Education: Providing the community with information about the value of sustainable landscaping together with in-depth information on how to accomplish this. Such information includes, for instance, plant selection, design, composting, water use, vendor selection and other practical advice on implementation in private and public spaces. Education is delivered through our website, blogs, zoom sessions, social media and in-person meetings.

 Enablement: Procuring and making available the resources for sustainable landscaping so that they are cost-affordable and locally relevant. Enablement actions includes ReWild's native plant sales where we obtain hard-to-find native plants from specialized nurseries at wholesale prices and make them available to the general public. ReWild also contracts with native plant experts to create and customize garden designs based on native plants and makes affordable consulting services available.

Eco-system development: Conventional landscaping is a $100 Billion business annually. A sustainable future requires multiple facets of this industry to move towards sustainability. This includes landscapers, architects, garden centers, nurseries/growers, real estate developers, landscape equipment manufacturers, chain stores, chemical manufacturers and so on, that are invested in conventional chemical-based monocultures. ReWild forms alliances and partnerships to bring conventional landscaping industry from extractive and monocultural practices to regenerative and resilient practices. This sustainable system is an essential tool to realizing ReWild’s mission. A big aspect of ReWild’s ecosystem is partnership with other community organizations that work towards similar goals with, perhaps, differences in emphasis. ReWild believes in actively seeking and creating linkages so that duplicative efforts are minimized while impact is maximized. ReWild also believes in engaging our political representatives to educate them and improve the quality of laws that impact the environment.

Our work spans the entire year, and include a seasonally specific activities spanning education, enablement and eco-system development.

calendar of activities

Our activities are always fluid as new ideas emerge and old activities are improved. Below is a calendar of times when our volunteers are busy.

 When What

March - May ReWild Spring Native Plant Education and Sales
April ReWild Gardens Design
May - October ReWild Garden Garden @ Dodge (with CNPHS)
June Garden Pots Recycling (with TTPW)
July ReWild Bokashi/Composting Education and Sales
July - October Summer Program to Fight Hunger and Climate Change (with PAR, GLCG & MC)
August - September Monarch Butterfly Awareness Events
September ReWild Fall Native Plant Education and Sales
October - March ReWild Gardens Program Preparation

native Plant Sales

ReWild organizes two native plant sales, in the Spring (typically May) and Fall (October) of each year. We source hard-to-find varieties directly from wholesale nurseries, ensuring availability, quality, affordability and convenience for aspiring ReWilders. Sales are conducted online, with easy safe pickup from the ReWild Garden at Dodge Homestead in Port Washington.

Join our announcements list at the bottom of the page to be notified of our next sale.

Rewild Gardens Program

ReWild maintains a garden at the Thomas Dodge Homestead in Port Washington in partnership with CNPHS. In 2023, ReWild applied the lessons learned at Dodge to help 10 community groups across Long Island with local sustainable spaces. ReWild provides free design, consulting, plants and other items required to make these new gardens much easier to create and maintain.

Read about the ReWild Gardens Program. Join a group near you, or create a new space.

Recycling and Reuse

ReWild reduces waste by educating and enabling homeowners to recycle organic and inorganic materials. We have conducted seminars, as well as practical training. We maintain and active compost pile to recycle waste at the Dodge Homestead. We have also conducted projects to reuse what would be otherwise wasted — for example, sending plastic pots back to growers (with TTPW).

Reach out to us to partner, learn or volunteer around Recycling and Reuse.

Current Board of Directors

Nancy erber

Kathy Coley

Kathy Coley is a lifelong gardener from a long line of gardening enthusiasts and farmers. She retired in September 2020 after 40 plus years from Farmingdale State College. At Farmingdale, she advised students, coordinated media/government relations, created marketing strategies, co-chaired two presidential inauguration committees, and worked with the college president on the annual start-of-the-semester convocation.  

Kathy’s involvement with environmental issues is longstanding, serving on FSC’s Sustainability Committee and organizing the annual Earth Day Fair.  She was campus liaison with Transit Solutions and 511NY Rideshare, working on Car Free Day LI. A member of the Board of Directors for SUNYCUAD, SUNY’s professional development association, she co-chaired the 2013 Conference on Long Island.

Kathy continues to serves as a Director on the Board of Landmark on Main Street in Port Washington. She has lived in Port Washington since 1979, where she raises vegetables and composts as much as possible. She is the proud grandmother of August who arrived in June 2019.

Elizabeth Skolnick

Kimberly Simmen

Beth Sutherland

A lifelong organic home gardener, in recent years Beth Sutherland has become interested in native plants and herbal medicine. She has been studying the historical and current uses of native plants and local weeds in making medicine and supporting healthy living.

In early 2020 Beth retired from a 40 year career in not-for-profit insurance companies. She has held a number of actuarial, financial, and business leadership roles in the retirement services industry.

Since retirement she has volunteered with Long Island Native Plant Initiative, the Ketcham Inn gardening team, and will participate in the 2023 Suffolk County Master Gardener program.

Beth is a 35 year resident of Long Island, first in Centerport and now in Poquott. She is gradually transforming her yard from non-native plantings into a sanctuary for native plants, herbs and wildlife.

Beth serves as Treasurer on the ReWild Board since November 2022.

Gloria Frazee

Maybe it was sitting on the front stoop as a child and observing the little red ants that sparked Gloria’s love of the outdoors… Somehow, this led to wearing Birkenstocks through mud seasons in Vermont, teaching aquatic chemistry, canoeing, and rock climbing at a science camp, and working on organic farms and vineyards. Photography, weaving, poetry and managing produce at the local coop were in the mix, too.

Obviously, the next steps to work high tech manufacturing (ick) and earn an MBA in marketing followed by a career in wine education and brand management. This included developing national training programs and an online wine school as well as interviewing winemakers on video, sharing their stories along with a blend of geography, geology, climate, agriculture, and history that comprise the terroir that shapes a wine’s character.

Gloria eventually “retired,” reclaimed her yard from the mow-and-blow crew, bought a reel-mower (a scythe is next), started watching bees and butterflies and planting natives that are slowly replacing the lawn with life.

Wanting to connect with her community in meaningful ways, she joined the East Hampton Energy & Sustainability Committee, where she is secretary, and ReWild, where she is co-chair of the Social Media & Web Committee and co-leader of the ReWild / South Fork chapter and its Summer Program for high school students. She is also the founder of East Hampton Compost, a ReWild initiative in collaboration with the Town of East Hampton. You can find her talking with folks about turning food scraps into soil food at the ReWild eco/ed table at Springs Farmers Market most Saturdays.

She still wears Birkenstocks and revels in soil (and mud) and compost. It’s all a part of terroir. It’s alive.

Gloria joined the ReWild Board in 2022.

leonard green

Leonard Green is a retired English professor who has taught at private and public universities. At CUNY’s Kingsborough Community College, he served for many years as Director of Freshman English and Assistant Director of the Learning Center. While at Cornell University, in addition to his full time teaching responsibilities, he often worked with COSEP, now the Office of Academic Diversity, teaching a diverse student population in the special summer program.

Born on Long Island, Leonard comes from a family of farmers and gardeners. His grandparents left their Virginia farm for Long Island during the Great Migration. As a child, he helped plant and maintain their family gardens. He now lives in East Hampton, where he and his wife, Nancy, have converted most of their property to native woodland, mixed meadow, and native gardens.

An activist, he helped establish the Friends of Sammy’s Beach, a community group that campaigned for the full restoration of the native plant community destroyed by a misguided dredging project in East Hampton. He is also a co-founder of Change Hampton, a group dedicated to promoting native gardens and sustainable landscaping practices. Change Hampton has been instrumental in installing a native pollinator garden at East Hampton Town Hall.

Len has served on the ReWild Board since December 2022.

Raju Rajan

Raju Rajan is a technologist with a strong communitarian ethic. Since obtaining a PhD in Communication Networks at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, he has enjoyed a long career as researcher and consultant. His entrepreneurial acumen has led him to found two IT start-ups as well as a number of community groups aimed at organizing people for systemic change.

 Raju is one of the founders of ReWild Long Island and currently serves as Board President. He is works with Long Island Together, a progressive collective that organizes around education, immigration and social change.

 An avid gardener and amateur tree-enthusiast, Raju also owns and manages Sharadavanam, a small agroforest farm in Southern India dedicated to rewilding and permaculture.

Raju resides in Port Washington, NY with wife Sonia Arora, an educator & community organizer, and son Kabeera Singh, in college.

Duong vu

Duong (“Dzuong”, pronounced “Zuon”, a.k.a. “Dee”) graduated from City College of New York with a B.A. in International Studies and an M.A. in Economics.  After graduation, she found her place in a small trading company starting as an office assistant.  She learned about the business, became a sourcing merchandiser and now she is a manager. 

Duong was born in rural Vietnam.  Her childhood memories consist of going to the field with her mother, hand-pollinating corn stalks, harvesting peanuts, soybeans, and the big Autumn rice harvest.  She relocated to Dix Hills in 2019 and started her own little garden.  She loves watching plants grow.

In 2020, she learned about native plants and their importance in the local ecosystem.  She was captivated and determined to transform her yard into a wildlife habitat. Her yard is now a place full of life and joy, and she hopes to inspire many homeowners to do the same.

Duong has been on the Board of ReWild since November 2023.

Nancy DePas Reinertsen

Nancy DePas Reinertsen has always had a passion for gardening. It has been a part of her personal, academic, and professional life. She earned various educational degrees in Horticulture and Linguistics from SUNY Farmingdale, Queens College and CUNY Graduate Center. While she began a career as an interior landscaper, she later dedicated 25 years as an English teacher to immigrants at Newcomers HS and LaGuardia CC. Upon retiring, she was drawn back to her first love and became a Master Gardener. 

Nancy was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, into a family of passionate gardeners who instilled in her a love of gardening, baking, and cooking. Today, she tends to her garden in the North Fork. Here, she's learned a lot by transforming useless lawn into native plant oases, planting berries for birds and her family, creating deer-resistant gardens, and growing trees, vegetables, fruits, and herbs. 

Nancy and her husband, Ralph, joined Slow Food East End to meet like-minded people interested in preserving the local environment. She is active in various local programs supporting environmental stewardship and ecological justice. Despite her busy schedule, Nancy still finds time to enjoy the local beaches, swim in Peconic Bay, drink local wine, and host fabulous dinner parties.

Nancy joined the ReWild board in January 2024, co-chairing the North Fork Chapter with Ralph.

Gardens Project Manager

Samantha Jo

Samantha began her quest to find balance in our modern lives to coexist with the natural world since 2021. She graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from Queens College, and carries an entrepreneurial spirit embedded by her immigrant parents. After working a few years in the finance industry, she leaned into her interest in health & wellness, and found a passion for sustainability in regards to regenerative agriculture, composting, and the list expands every year.

While she didn’t grow up around the garden, Samantha was eager to learn and completed her apprenticeship on an organic farm in Indiana, NYC’s Master Composter Program, and Permaculture Design Course. Samantha was inspired to teach beginners to encourage more local food production by creating urban vegetable gardens through her small business, Steady Harvest. 

In her free time, Samantha loves spending time with her family, friends, and fur baby- Oliver. She enjoyed tending her garden, cooking, hiking, or simply anything that brings her loved ones closer.  

Samantha joined ReWild in February 2024.

Committee Chairs

Founding Story

It all started when…

The Rewild Initiative had originally been founded by environmental analyst David Jakim in January 2017 with the aim to protect existing biodiversity and rewild public spaces to benefit wildlife at the Port Washington peninsula.

In the fall of 2018 a group of concerned citizens organized by activists Hildur Palsdottir and Patti Woods got together at the Port Washington Public Library and discussed urgent matters of local and immediate environmental and public health. ReWild Long Island was born out of that meeting to increase biodiversity in both public and private spaces using native plants.

In the Fall of 2018, Raju Rajan and David Jakim started thefirst Fall Planting with seven Pioneer families joining together to ReWild their yards, guided by Landscape Ecologist Rusty Schmidt. A seed donation from an anonymous donor greatly accelerated the growth of the nascent organization. Even in the first season, ReWild Long Island drove two public ReWildings at Whitney Pond Preserve and Sands Point Preserve.

This effort was redoubled in Spring of 2019, when ReWild Long Island worked with 16 families to transform their yards with native plantings, while engaging 32 additional families who started adding natives to their existing gardens. In addition, ReWild Long Island was able to work with five public institutions on their ReWilding including a 1200 square foot planting at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Manhasset and The Science Museum of Long Island in Plandome.

Our work was well received and spread through word of mouth. You can learn of our early successes through the stories told by our pioneer families on the blog pages, or check out the Newsday article on ReWilders or this video that ran on CBS nationally.

ReWild Long Island was incorporated in New York in July 2019 as a non-profit corporation with the New York State Division of Corporations and State Records. The organization is now a fully recognized as a tax exempt Charitable organization with a 501(c)(3) status from the IRS.

We Are Very Grateful To These Founders and Rewild contributors who continue to inspire us