Group to Save Goldsmith Inlet

• Goldsmith Inlet Management Plan
• Tips to improve the health of Goldsmith Inlet
• Watershed Watch
• Parking Regulations
• Reporting Illegal Shellfishing
• Reporting Dumping of Pollutants
• History of  Goldsmith Inlet

• Dredging the Channel
• Spring 2010 Cleanup

Goldsmith Inlet is a unique and important ecosystem on Long Island Sound in Peconic, New York, part of the Town of Southold. The ecosystem includes Goldsmith Inlet itself, Autumn Pond, the County Park, the Town Beach and the land surrounding these water bodies. Due to a lack of overall protection and management oversight Goldsmith Inlet is rapidly becoming an environmental disaster.

The Group to Save Goldsmith Inlet (GSGI) was established to create and help implement a management plan to restore the health and safety of the Goldsmith Inlet ecosystem.

GSGI's goals

• Eliminate the primary cause of stagnation and pollution by restoring full tidal flow and removing sand that fills the Inlet.
• Implement ecological best practices for adjacent property owners.
• Mitigate storm water runoff at hot spots.
• Remove invasive plants and restore native habitat.

For hundreds of years Goldsmith Inlet was vibrant and healthy, supporting a wide range of wildlife and plants. The tidal flow was strong and the Inlet channel reopened after storms. The flow allowed Goldsmith Mill to operate from the 1850's until the early 1900's. Wooden jetties kept the entrance open, allowing boats to deliver grain from the Sound. During Prohibition, power boats used the inlet to deliver liquor to Worthwhile Tavern located in the channel.

Tidal flow flushed pollutants from the Inlet and Pond and fostered thriving populations of hard and soft shell clams, oysters, scallops, mussels, eels, blue claw crabs, stripped bass, mackerel, herring, bluefish and other flora and fauna.

The Inlet's health began to decline in 1964 when only the western Jetty was rebuilt after both of the Mill's western and eastern jetties disentigrated in the 1950's. As a result of the single jetty, sand began to accumulate and public dredging was required to open the Inlet periodically. In the late 1960's, the practice of dredging the entire length of the Inlet halted and decline accelerated.

Today, the Inlet channel has nearly filled with sand and sand is rapidly filling the Inlet itself. Autumn Pond is in danger of becoming a fetid swamp. Shell fishing is now banned, oysters and scallops are gone and clam and crab populations are low. Boating is restricted, far fewer fish enter the inlet and invasive plants abound. Recreational use of Goldsmith Inlet, Autumn Pond and nearby beaches is threatened.

The Group to Save Goldsmith Inlet (GSGI) was formed to help coordinate interrelated efforts necessary to save and restore the Goldsmith Inlet ecosystem, working with many groups including the Town of Southold, Suffolk County, NYS DEC, Peconic Land Trust, Cornell Cooperative Extension, Group for the East End, Peconic Baykeeper, Audubon Society, North Fork Environmental Council, SoutholdVoice, Peconic Sound Shore Association, Kennys Beach Association, Army Corps of Engineers and other public and private organizations to build a base of research, funding and action to save this treasure.

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• The 2009 Clean Up
• Town Creates the Management Plan
• First Grant Request Submitted
• Second Grant Request Submitted
• Watershed Watch Program Established

• Photo Gallery
• Fall
• Winter
• Spring
• Summer