Speaker:  Garrett Chelius: In 2018 Mr. Chelius accepted a position with the Town of Huntington believing his efforts would be best spent giving back to the Town that had always been so dear to him. After working in the Department of Planning and Environment, Mr. Chelius began working for the Department of Maritime Services where he currently serves as Deputy Director, combining his lifelong passion of all things water related with his desire to serve the community. Extremely active in the community, Mr. Chelius is the Chairman of the Coindre Hall Advisory Board, Chairman of the Huntington Local Waterfront Revitalization Program (LWRP) as well as a member of the Northport LWRP Committee. He is a Director of the Rotary Environmental Action Coalition of Huntington (REACH) planting sugar kelp and building oyster reefs to improve the Town’s overall water quality. Mr. Chelius also serves as Chairman of the Crab Meadow Watershed Advisory Committee with the goal of restoring habitat and vitality to the watershed.

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Topic: Kelp Farming: Sugar kelp is indigenous on Long Island but it’s greatly overharvested, Kelp farming is a way to bring it back to out shores. Sugar kelp is also a wonderful way of naturally removing large amounts of carbon dioxide from our atmosphere. In fact, it’s more than 10 times
more effective than trees. The Town of Huntington just received permits from The Army Corps of Engineers and the New York State DEC to cultivate sugar kelp in seven locations throughout the Huntington-Northport waterbody this winter! We will plant in December and harvest in April. We anticipate drying and processing about 1,750 pounds of nutrient-rich seaweed into a shredded, powdery product. Dried kelp will be available for use as on organic soil amendment. 

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