Enrollment at East Hampton High School has increased by approximately 100 students this year, to 972, the high school principal, Adam Fine, said at a school board meeting on Tuesday. This year’s freshman class, he said, is the largest on record, with 260 students. 

In the middle school, 367 students will attend grades six through eight, showing an increase of six children since the end of the last school year, according to the school’s principal, Charles Soriano.

The only school in the district to show a decrease was the John M. Marshall Elementary School. Beth Doyle, the school’s principal, announced that the 2017-18 school year began with 525 students in kindergarten through fifth grade, whereas last year, school opened with 543 pupils.

At the Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center, where the district had budgeted for 72 East Hampton students to attend the free, full-day prekindergarten program, 70 of those slots had been filled as of earlier this week.

Lisa Seff, a veteran science teacher at the Springs School, was on top of the world on Monday. While many here may have felt on top of the world in Labor Day’s perfect weather, Ms. Seff was actually there.

She was on board the 261-foot Research Vessel Sikuliaq, which is traveling north of the Arctic Circle in the world’s northernmost and coldest ocean basin, where the air temperature was approximately 36 degrees and the water, a mere 41 degrees. The area is only traversable during late summer when thick ice melts and creates a channel.

Since Aug. 24, Ms. Seff has lived on the ship along with about 20 researchers and 22 crew members selected to be part of PolarTREC (Teachers and Researchers Exploring and Collaborating), a program managed by ARCUS, the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States, and funded by the National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs. Led by Carin Ashjian of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the ship is coursing through the Arctic Ocean and will remain at sea until Sept. 18, while the team studies currents, salinity, food, from plankton to zooplankton, Arctic cod, beluga whales, and sea birds. 

In an email from the ship, Ms. Seff wrote that the expedition had been named “Arctic Winds, Fish, Fins, and Feathers.”

Next Thursday at 9 a.m., the entire Springs School will be connected to Ms. Seff and the scientists on board the Sikuliaq via a live webinar, during which students will have an opportunity to speak with the researchers and ask about their expedition and discoveries.

Some curious Springs students have already been keeping track of their teacher’s adventures. The PolarTREC funding she received included a web platform on which she keeps a journal that allows students and the public to chart her course and get a glimpse of life on board an oceangoing vessel. Each journal post includes an Ask the Team link, Ms. Seff explained, creating a rare experience for those interested to live through her journey vicariously.

Through the journal entries, students and fellow scientists can learn of detailed accounts of the team’s daily work. According to Ms. Seff, each researcher works in 12-hour shifts so that studies are conducted around the clock. While zooplankton and other microscopic floating vegetation provide learning opportunities, perhaps even more fascinating for students is what life is like on board one of the newest and most advanced oceanographic research vessels in the world, designed to cut through a 2.5-foot ice shelf as easily as a knife through warm butter.

To that end, Ms. Seff provided details of her voyage on the sometimes tumultuous sea. “When we’re on deck and any work is going on, everyone is required to wear a floatation device and a hard hat. We need to think about every step we take, whether it’s to use the bathroom, move equipment on a wet or icy deck, walk from one lab to another, or move between decks. “Though the Sikuliaq has been relatively stable, it is constantly rolling and as the seas grow and winds increase, even taking a shower or sleeping can be a challenge,” she wrote. 

She also posted pictures of her room, which she called cozy and shared with a fellow researcher. “All the drawers in our room, and on the ship, have special latches so they stay shut in rough and rolling seas,” Ms. Seff wrote. “One of my favorite parts of the room is the television. And while we can’t tune into the latest ‘Game of Thrones’ or ‘Sponge Bob,’ we can see” the back deck, the position on a map screen, the present weather trends, and the ship’s course. “It’s all ‘live’ TV and really very helpful. The Sikuliaq is a big ship and the television stations help us all stay tuned into what’s going on in every part of the ship.”

With regard to seasickness, Ms. Seff wrote, “I don’t usually get seasick. My hypothesis is that my parents threw my sister and me into boats when we were very young and I just am used to the motion. The Arctic can get pretty rough, especially at this time of the year, a few people have been seasick, however, it seems that medications and fortitude allow them to get through it and continue with the work.”

Ms. Seff, who has taught at Springs for 17 years, called herself a proponent of “blowing the walls off of the classroom” by virtually taking students along on her far-flung expeditions. “By engaging students with some of the top research scientists in the world, and providing a means for them to directly connect with the research team is something that I’ve found has direct impacts on student interest in science and the world around them.” 

The public at large will be welcomed to join the live webinar next Thursday at 9 a.m. by preregistering at www.polartrec.com. On the same page, viewers can also connect to Ms. Seff’s journals and post questions. To follow Research Vessel Sikuliaq’s course over the next 10 days, one would visit: www.sikuliaq.alaska.edu/track/.

On Tuesday, registered Democrats can vote in a primary election to select the party’s two candidates for a seat on the East Hampton Town Board, and members of the town’s Independence Party can select its 9 candidates for town trustee from a field of 10. 

In the Democratic primary, voters will choose between Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, an incumbent councilwoman, Jeffrey Bragman, an attorney, and Zachary Cohen, former candidate for supervisor who serves on a number of town and county committees. 

Ms. Burke-Gonzalez and Mr. Bragman received the East Hampton Town Democratic Committee’s endorsement. Mr. Cohen, who has also run for town trustee in the past, sought but did not receive the party’s endorsement, but forced a primary by filing a petition with well over the required number of signatures. The top two vote getters on Tuesday will win a spot on the Democratic ballot.

Mr. Bragman has represented the town’s architectural review board, zoning board of appeals, and planning board, as well as private applicants before various appointed boards. He was counsel to the North Haven Village Zoning Board of Appeals and served as that village’s attorney. He is a member of the Community Preservation Fund Advisory Opinions Bureau. East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell and Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. have endorsed his candidacy, he told the audience at an Aug. 28 Democratic primary debate at the East Hampton Library.

“For more than 30 years I’ve been a working dad here,” he said at the debate. “I’m running because East Hampton is my home, and I want to protect it. We all are entitled to have a future for our kids here. . . . My work requires me to listen to local residents, and increasingly I notice that many folks are uneasy about the power of money and the fact that it may drive us out of our small-town life.” The workings of government and “the honest rule of law” are the best tools to preserve the community, he said.

In materials distributed to the audience at the debate, Ms. Burke-Gonzalez, who prior to serving on the town board was a nine-year member of the Springs School Board, wrote that she is proud of “how I have worked with my colleagues on the town board to return civility, dignity, and respect to the business of the board.” 

Confidence in the town government has been restored, she wrote, citing the town’s recent budgets, which she said were both balanced and socially responsible. As a reflection of priorities, the budget demonstrates the community’s values, she wrote, pointing to funding for Meals on Wheels, mental health services for youth, the Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center, and Project Most, an after-school program that operates in the East Hampton and Springs Schools. “As a working mother myself, I am fiercely committed to addressing the pressing needs of our children, seniors, and hard-working families,” she wrote.

“My service over last the four years on the town board and nine years on the school board has proven my dedication to this community and understanding of this community,” she said at the debate.

Mr. Cohen chairs the town’s nature preserve committee. “Most of my volunteer work has centered upon preserving and protecting our land and water,” he said at the debate. “It’s time to set our sights on preserving our community and the people and traditions that have shaped it.”

In the materials distributed at the debate, he said that he “will not allow shortsighted planning or inadequate science [to] lead to flawed outcomes.” If elected, “I will continue to fight to reduce our housing imbalance, and use my management skills to close gaps in our human services.”

Turning to the Independence Party primary for town trustee, like Mr. Cohen, Julie Evans was also passed over by her party, but gathered enough signatures to force a primary. 

The Independence Party endorsed the Republican candidates Diane McNally, an incumbent and the trustees’ former clerk, Joe Bloecker, a former trustee, and Susan Vorpahl, Lyndsey Hayes, and Gary Cobb, each making their first bid. The Independence Party also endorsed the Democrats Rick Drew and Bill Taylor, both incumbents and the trustees’ two deputy clerks, as well as Rona Klopman, a former candidate for trustee, and John Aldred, a new candidate who had been the director of the East Hampton Town Shellfish Hatchery. 

“It’s confusing to me,” Ms. Evans said on Monday. “I don’t know if it was clear to them,” she added, referring to Independence Party officers, “that I was an Independent.” Ms. Evans is a licensed captain who ran a charter fishing business with her late husband, and is a founding member of the Fisherman’s Emergency Fund, a nonprofit “dedicated to providing a safety net to the local fishing community in times of devastating loss,” according to a release she sent out last week. “If elected, it would be an honor to serve as trustee in the town that is my home for the past 32 years and put my degree in environmental science to good use.”

Elaine Jones, chairwoman of the East Hampton Independence Party, said on Monday that, “We chose those we believed have really taken interest. It’s quite an interesting slate.” 

Jerry Larsen, the former chief of the East Hampton Village Police Department and a registered member of the Independence Party, also attempted to force a primary for the Independence nomination, but the Democrats successfully challenged his petition and it was thrown out. He is seeking a seat on the town board and will appear on the Republican Party ticket. 

Only voters registered with the Democratic or Independence Parties can vote in the respective primaries on Tuesday. They can do so at their regular polling places between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m.

The general election will be held on Nov. 7.

Sixteen years removed from the drafting of its comprehensive plan, East Hampton Village is the recipient of a “guerrilla plan” that its creators say would address environmental, transportation, and housing deficiencies while connecting existing and new hubs of activity, restoring the pedestrian and bicycle-friendly village of years past. 

Maziar Behrooz and Bruce Engel, East Hampton architects, took it upon themselves to design a symbiotic “Vision for the Village of East Hampton,” the subject of an article in the debut issue of End magazine. They discussed the document before an audience at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill last Thursday and hope to present it to village officials. 

The Main Street commercial district is bisected by Route 27, a state highway, which is problematic for pedestrians, the architects posited. Guild Hall and the East Hampton Library, the village’s cultural and educational institutions, are not only across that highway from each other, but are distant from the village’s three public schools. 

A goal of the vision, Mr. Behrooz said, is to “extend the village density away from Main Street.” One way to accomplish this, the architects suggested, is to place “the new Guild Hall” in a building adjacent to the East Hampton Middle School. Also adjacent would be a library and a technology and fabrication lab. 

These would be in proximity to the Long Island Rail Road station, on Railroad Avenue, which the architects called an emerging second hub that is at present underutilized but encompasses locally owned stores and the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter. 

“We tried to reimagine,” Mr. Engel said. “How can we bring more activity into this area and take advantage of some of these spaces along the train track?” The idea, he said, “is that maybe everything can happen here, and people can interact and support the local businesses in a more fruitful way.” A two-tier garage, half of which would be underground, would occupy the land currently housing Schenck Fuels, with access from Newtown and Osborne Lanes, alleviating traffic. 

This area, Mr. Behrooz pointed out, is close to “an incredible set of farms. . . . It’s not only an incredible scenic environment, but the produce that you get from these farms is used by the community and restaurants.” 

A waste treatment facility adjacent to the farms would address the water quality degradation for which aging and inefficient septic systems are blamed. “None of the proposal is feasible, or even more development, period, without addressing water quality and wastewater treatment,” Mr. Engel said.

The Reutershan municipal parking lot and Herrick Park would also be reconsidered. “We tried to imagine this area . . . as a potential new town square,” Mr. Engel said, similar to Amagansett Square. “East Hampton Village needs a place like this.” Driverless cars will soon be a reality, he said, so “over time, the parking lot becomes more of a town square, a place where pop-up shops can come, a farmers market, and so on.” Solar canopies would connect and extend Gingerbread Lane to the long-term parking lot and Main Street, he said. 

As a secondary hub, Railroad Avenue would become a natural fit for the post office and CVS, the architects said, allowing parents to complete shopping and errands as well as pick up their children at school or the playing fields at Herrick Park. 

Like Schenck Fuels, Riverhead Building Supply, on Railroad Avenue, is in a less than ideal location. “We feel that perhaps even they would not like to be in this location anymore,” Mr. Behrooz said, citing traffic difficulties both businesses endure. Left unsaid was a suggestion as to where these businesses would relocate. 

Finally, small, affordable housing would be placed “directly in the middle of the village,” including clusters of houses between Muchmore and Pleasant Lanes, the architects said. This, Mr. Engel said, would also “help ‘densify’ what’s right now a pretty spread-out center of the village, to help not just create more housing, but places that are walkable and nice to move around.” A block of apartments at the western edge of the village would house the seasonal influx of workers that support the village’s businesses. “Since many of those workers are carless, they could maintain being carless by living in the village proper and being able to walk to and from their jobs and amenities.”

Does this plan apply to the real world? “The article itself was thought provoking and stimulating in its content,” Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. said yesterday. “There’s a host of issues that I think you have to deal with in a world of reality, as opposed to idealistically.” But, he said, “something could come out of it. . . . My suggestion would be to offer an invitation to the authorship, let them come in and offer it to the village board at a work session.” 

“Some of the recommendations are certainly thought provoking and definitely outside of the box,” said Becky Hansen, the village administrator. “This could be a discussion point for some policies in the future.” 

Bill Chaleff, an architect who advised the authors, was more bullish on the ideas put forth. “I find my life is bounded by the laws of physics, so to that degree I am a realist,” he said. “But I also find there are rules and regulations that are words on paper, and when sufficient amounts of political will are mustered and educational efforts joined with that, the conventional wisdom can change about what’s appropriate, and things that have been in practice for over 100 years can suddenly shift.”

Degraded water quality, Mr. Chaleff said, demands a change in land use and settlement patterns. “I think these changes are more in order and more likely to occur than most people think, and on an abbreviated time scale,” he said. The unbuilt landscape has multiple, specific functions, and “we have to change our perspective to include that functionality, and be sure the unbuilt and built landscapes work harmoniously and interdependently.” 

The election of Donald Trump created a wave of uncertainty and fear among undocumented immigrants across the country, prompting rumors of detentions and deportations to spread quickly through the South Fork towns and East Hampton officials to assert that local law enforcement personnel would not carry out immigration enforcement. 

Now, South Fork residents who own businesses in the tourism and hospitality industries have a related cause for concern: Under Mr. Trump’s “Buy American and Hire American” executive order, signed in April, the J-1 visa exchange visitor program, which provides a sizable portion of the summer work force here, may be eliminated. 

The Wall Street Journal reported on Aug. 27 that an interagency group set up by the White House is focusing on employment aspects of the J-1 visa, including its Summer Work Travel program. More than 100,000 foreign students come to the United States each summer under this program, many to resorts, and it allows workers to stay in the country for up to four months. 

According to a study by the research firm EurekaFacts, Summer Work Travel participants contributed about $509 million to the national economy last year, or $5,300 per person. Half the employers surveyed said the absence of these workers would have a sizable negative impact on their revenues, and one-quarter said that without them they might not be able to operate at all. 

The Journal reported that the federal group reviewing the program is also considering changes to it, such as adding a requirement that participating employers demonstrate that they are not able to find American workers. 

According to Chris Gosman, a manager at the Topside, Inlet Cafe, and Clam Bar restaurants at Gosman’s Dock in Montauk, satisfying that requirement would be improbable at best. 

“We need these people,” he said of the mostly college-age servers, busers, and cashiers who he said comprise 15 to 20 percent of the sprawling Gosman complex’s work force. “It’s important that we have them because we don’t have a local labor force capable of filling these jobs.”

Federal action to reduce the number of young workers protected by DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), or remove them from the work force by deportation, which now seems possible unless Congress acts, would also add to the difficulty managers have in filling seasonal positions.   

Mr. Gosman has worked at his family’s businesses since he was a teenager. Three decades ago, Montauk was a popular summer destination for J-1 visa-bearing college students from Ireland, although many American students also filled positions. “Now I get very few,” he said. “Occasionally, but it’s very rare. We don’t have enough local labor to fill the jobs, and any business out there will tell you they need it — restaurants, certainly, but retail, too.” 

Many of the J-1 employees at the Gosman’s restaurants hail from the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and in recent years Gosman’s Dock has employed citizens of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Poland, Ireland, Romania, and Russia, Mr. Gosman said. 

For Keith Davis, who owns the Golden Pear Cafe, which has branches in East Hampton, Bridgehampton, Sag Harbor, and Southampton, students from Bulgaria and Serbia are an ideal fit. “Their university schedule is perfect. Their exams are done by May 15, so they are able to come between May 15 and 20, and they’re here until about Sept. 10. Your three major holidays are covered,” he said. 

He agreed with Mr. Gosman that Americans alone could not fill his summer staffing needs. “When a high school kid comes to apply,” he said, “you can expect to have parents involved, and that means negotiation over vacation time and early leave — always a concern for completing the summer.” 

At one time, his business used to taper off in the second half of August, Mr. Davis said, but starting about five years ago, “the last two weeks of August have become over-the-top busy. As they go back to college, kids that live locally want to take the last two weeks of summer off,” leaving employers short-handed at a most inopportune time. 

“Demand for seasonal employees is tremendous,” Mr. Davis said, and the J-1 Summer Work Travel program “is definitely an effective solution, not only for the Hamptons but from Kennebunkport all the way to Virginia Beach. There are just not enough applicants that will fill those positions. For the administration to assume or even suggest that Americans are losing these jobs is absolutely ridiculous. It’s not true at all.”

The Summer Work Travel program was also intended to build greater understanding around the world of America’s people and culture. Its opponents argue that the program creates unfair competition for American workers by providing cheap labor. Another criticism is that some J-1 visa workers overstay the time allotted.

“That could be an issue,” Mr. Davis agreed, “But it’s not an issue with a threat of terrorism. These people are significantly vetted. My company is vetted — I get calls and emails every year from the State Department. Once you participate, you are subject to all kinds of oversight. But if you want to run your business, you need the employees to do it. The J-1 is definitely a solution for restaurants, for hospitality.”  

Paul Monte, the president of the Montauk Chamber of Commerce, said that, while J-1 workers were “a very critical component of our seasonal workforce,” alternatives, such as “bringing workers from other parts of the country that may have a supply,” might be able to satisfy local demand. “If we could find them from within the country, that is my and most other business owners’ preferred approach.” 

Mr. Monte, whose family owned Gurney’s Inn for many years, estimated that J-1 visa holders typically comprised around 10 percent of the resort and spa’s summer staff when he was its general manager. “I don’t think that it would be wise of anybody in the administration to think you could just eliminate that supply of labor without coming up with alternatives,” he said. 

Paul DeAngelis, an owner of the Lobster Roll restaurant on Napeague, was less concerned about losing workers. More than half his servers are Americans who return each year, he said, so his business would be less affected if the J-1 visa program were eliminated. “My entire kitchen staff comes from Puerto Rico,” a territory of the United States, he said. “It would have an impact,” he said of the program’s elimination, but “I don’t know how major it would be.” 

The Alliance for International Exchange, an association of nongovernmental organizations that advocates for education and cultural exchanges, is urging business owners and other concerned parties to contact their federal representatives to oppose restrictions or the elimination of the J-1 programs. The Council on International Educational Exchange also is urging opposition.

In August, 17 senators wrote to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urging that the Summer Work Travel program be maintained and strengthened. That followed a July letter to Secretary Tillerson from 33 members of the House of Representatives with the same message. 

Representative Lee Zeldin of the First Congressional District, which covers the South and North Forks and Shelter Island, as well as the area westward to Brookhaven and most of Smithtown, was not among the 33 members of Congress to sign the letter. In an email on Tuesday, however, he said there was no indication that changes to the J-1 program were imminent, and that fundamental changes to any visa program would require congressional legislation. The Journal article, however, states that though the J-1 visa was instituted by statute, its individual categories, like Summer Work Travel, can be changed or eliminated by executive action. 

“I recognize the role J-1 and other visa programs play in supporting Long Island’s small businesses, farmers, and the tourist economy,” Mr. Zeldin said.

Four East Hampton Village lifeguards and a former lifeguard were recognized for their role in an ocean rescue at the village board's work session on Thursday morning.

On Aug. 19 at Georgica Beach, a lifeguard spotted a swimmer in distress, said Richard Lawler, a member of the board and the village's police commissioner. The bather had been slammed to the ocean bottom by a large wave and could not get to his feet.

Dana Dragone, Zach Bogetti, Harrison Kennedy, and Andrew Wilson, the lifeguards, and Ethan Dayton, a former lifeguard who was on the scene, "immediately jumped into action" and rescued him, Mr. Lawler said. Believing the bather may have suffered a serious head or neck injury, the rescuers followed protocol, stabilizing him on his own boogie board. He was brought to the beach and an ambulance was called.

The swimmer was taken to Stony Brook University Hospital, where he underwent five hours of emergency surgery. "The doctors there believe that the action of our lifeguards possibly saved his life," Mr. Lawler said, "and certainly saved him from becoming paralyzed for life."

"Please let your team know they saved my friend's life," the swimmer's friend wrote to Francis Mott, the village's beach manager.

Mr. Lawler read a proclamation to publicly recognize the lifeguards and Mr. Dayton's "dedication and efficient service."

Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. told the assembled that, "The village is proud of how they conducted themselves."

A three-vehicle accident at Spring Close Highway closed a portion of Montauk Highway between Brent's Deli and Skimhampton Road in East Hampton Wednesday morning.

The crash occurred just before 9 a.m. According to Sgt. Joe Kearney, a truck towing a trailer with fresh asphalt was making a left-hand turn onto Spring Close Highway when it was rear-ended by a large truck, causing the trailer with the asphalt to flip over. The truck that was towing it veered into the westbound lane of traffic, where it was struck by a New York State Parks pickup truck, also towing a small trailer. 

Two people were taken to Stony Brook Southampton Hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening, Sergeant Kearney said. 

"The road is kind of a mess with the asphalt," he said. The town's Highway Department is coordinating with the state's Department of Transportation to get the road cleaned up and reopened. One of the trucks was leaking oil. Three Rapid Recovery tow trucks were called to remove the vehicles. 

Spring Close Highway is closed off. Sergeant Kearney said it would be at least noon before the road is reopened. 

It’s the end of summer and all matter of flying organisms — bird, bats, dragonflies, and butterflies — are on the wing. On the last evening of August, at least seven nighthawks flew over the Bustamante house on the northeast side of Lake Montauk. Flocks of migrating tree swallows have been swirling around during the past three weeks, migrating and feeding as they go. When a hungry sharp-shinned hawk or merlin comes by, they gather into tight bunches like schools of baitfish trying to elude predators.

Of particular interest in the invertebrate world are the largest migratory insects of them all, the monarch butterflies. Each year at this time, just as butterfly bushes, asters, and goldenrods are blooming, we look for them to flap by with their glorious orange, black-veined wings. They often stop and feed as they go, mostly following the Atlantic Coast dunes on their way to the Jersey coast. Their primary source of nectar on such trips are the seaside goldenrods, which start blooming in September and don’t stop in most years until the middle of October.

Almost every schoolchild knows the story of the monarch: how the female, after mating, lays her eggs, scattering one at a time on a milkweed plant, how the eggs hatch, and how the larvae feed on the poisonous sap of its milkweed host, turning into large yellow and black caterpillars, which after a couple of inches or more of growth pupate into cocoons. In a week or two, the cocoons split open and out comes a large butterfly, not only beautifully adorned, but noxious to the taste. The blue jay that bites a monarch invariably spits it out, and for the rest of its life never tries to feed on one again.

However, for almost a decade now, following a few bumper crops, monarchs have been scarce. Some say it’s because of a partial destruction of their overwintering grounds in the south, particularly in the pine tree-covered mountains of central Mexico. Others say there are fewer and fewer milkweeds to feed on each year. Whatever the reason for their partial demise, we have not seen hordes of them crossing Long Island for a long, long time.

This year may be the beginning of an upsurge, however. As of last Sunday Victoria Bustamante had seen 71. By the same date last year, she had counted only 38, and 55 the year before. Peter Dermody, a hydrogeologist who lives in the Moriches area, has been studying butterflies since he was 7 and each year tries his hand at raising them. He reported seeing about 20 a day for the last few weeks, on his property and elsewhere.

Matthew Galcik, son of the late Walter Galcik, who worked for East Hampton caretaking Shadmoor State Park in Montauk and helping out in the Natural Resources Department for so many years, has made his house on Greenwich Street in Montauk a monarch butterfly oasis. He started two years ago after retiring from his New York City job with the transit authority. He bought several different milkweeds from nurseries and lined them up on his back porch and elsewhere on his property. The first year he had a few monarchs drop by and lay an egg or two. This year the caterpillars on those plants may number 100 or more. Last Friday, Walter, Lois Markle, and I got tired trying to count them all.

The monarch, unlike birds that fly south each fall, is a generational migrator. Adults start out in the south after overwintering and stop to produce young early on. Those young mature and continue the trip north. By the time the last monarch reaches Canada, it may be a great-grandchild of the original one that set out from the overwintering territory.

Like so many other brightly colored insects, several of which lay eggs on milkweeds and close relatives, their colors give them away. They are pungent to the tastebud and would-be predators — frogs, birds, snakes, lizards, and the like — soon catch on. In most cases it only takes one bite to keep a potential predator away for the rest of its life.

The second most populous butterfly here on Long Island, at least as Peter Dermody’s records for this year show, is the American painted lady, also very ornate in orange, black, and yellow hues. It looks a little like a monarch and so may capitalize on the monarch’s foul taste, as does the viceroy butterfly, which is a close mimic of the monarch. We don’t have many viceroys on Long Island, but they are found throughout the United States and southern Canada. On the other hand, the painted lady butterflies occur throughout the world, with the exception of South America. Peter Dermody sees 30 to 50 painted ladies on his butterfly bushes and goldenrods per day.

Hairstreaks, rather small butterflies that may be brightly colored or not, are rare on Long Island, or at least less observed than the bigger, more showy monarchs, viceroys, painted ladies, and swallowtails. Peter Dermody has one around his butterfly bush. 

Jean Held, who lives in Sag Harbor and is both a butterfly and dragonfly aficionado, has a hairstreak among her butterflies and she is still trying to determine its exact species.

One of the best places on Long Island to track monarchs on their way south is the Fire Island National Seashore, but almost any dune-y spot along Long Island’s ocean shores will yield results. If you look very closely, you may be able to tell a male from a female. The male has a tiny black dot on each wing where three veins intersect.

Larry Penny can be reached via email at [email protected].

A water purification project in Accabonac Harbor — the first in East Hampton Town to be funded by the portion of the community preservation fund that voters approved last year for water quality improvement — is moving ahead, Kim Shaw, the town’s natural resources director, told the town board this week.

The project will make use of bioextraction, a natural process through which something is taken up by another organism, to remove nitrogen from the water. An excess of nitrogen, which leaches from septic waste, among other sources, leads to algal blooms, which severely impact aquatic ecosystems and can be toxic for humans. 

Macro-algae seaweed, which thrives on nitrogen, will be grown on frames set in the harbor. The plants on the frames will be periodically harvested and tested to see how much nitrogen they are taking up. 

Ms. Shaw told the board on Tuesday that it had “already been demonstrated that we have a serious nitrogen problem in Accabonac Harbor, through intense monitoring with Cornell over the past three years.” After winning a state grant, the town has been working with representatives of Cornell Cooperative Extension, which will oversee the project. Stony Brook University professors will join them next week in East Hampton, Ms. Shaw said. 

High levels of nitrogen as well as ammonia from urine that has not begun to chemically break down, have been recorded at the mouth of Pussy’s Pond as its waters enter Accabonac Harbor. A failing septic system at the Springs School, which has had to be pumped out regularly for years, has been targeted as the cause. The school has been repairing the system, which falls below current Suffork Health Department standards, however. 

As required under the legislation allowing 20 percent of the preservation fund to go toward water quality projects, the Accabonac initiative has been vetted and approved by a technical advisory committee. 

A similar macro-algae water purification project in Southampton Town has proven successful, Ms. Shaw said. Should the Accabonac project also be successful, there are plans to create another in Lake Montauk. “This is just one step toward the ultimate goal of reducing nitrogen,” Ms. Shaw said. 

A report is also to be made to the board next month on two other ongoing efforts to reduce water pollution, which employ different strategies. 

Permeable reactive barriers, buried structures that can capture contaminants in groundwater, are showing an 85 percent uptake of nitrogen passing through them, Ms. Shaw said, explaining that some have been installed around Three Mile Harbor.

Cornell also has been working on habitat restoration along the shore of Pussy’s Pond, using native plants to curtail erosion and provide a natural buffer, and Michele Carlson, a designer of sustainable landscapes, has installed bioswales there with plants that will filter contaminants from water runoff before it enters the pond and harbor. 

Also on Tuesday, the natural resources director reported that her department had accepted nine applications so far for the rebates the town is providing for the installation of improved septic systems that treat wastewater for nitrogen. The rebate program began on Friday. 

Owners of commercial and residential properties could be eligible for up to $10,000 or $16,000 in rebates to cover the costs of the new systems, based on location in targeted areas and on income. 

“We can come at this from two different angles,” Town Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc said at the meeting on Tuesday — reducing the amount of nitrogen going into waters while also using various methods to clean and restore already polluted water.

Clarification: The work done by Cornell Cooperative Extension at Pussy’s Pond included the installation of a permeable reactive barrier, along with water testing. Michele Carlson of Carlson Design and Planning has done the habitat restoration and native plantings there in order to curtail erosion and provide a natural buffer.

A temporary no-swimming advisory was issued by Suffolk officials on Thursday for 64 beaches across the country. Of these, only one, at Havens Beach in Sag Harbor, was on the South Fork.

The advisory came after heavy rain swept the area on Wednesday. Based on past samples, the Suffolk Department of Health Services issues warnings based on the potential for bacterial contamination. Officials said that swimming and other contact with water at the affected sites should be avoided until at least two successive tide cycles had passed.

The current advisory will be lifted Friday morning. Up-to-the-minute listings of open and closed beaches can be obtained by phone at 631-852-5822 or the Department of Health Services beach monitoring web page.

Water Tests

In water samples taken by the Concerned Citizens of Montauk before Wednesday's rainfall, bacteria levels in many South Fork locations had declined from highs observed earlier in the season.

Kate Rossi-Snook, who manages the water testing for C.C.O.M., said that a full moon high tide might have helped keep bacteria levels relatively low.

Several traditionally problematic sites continued to show elevated "high" counts of enterococcus, including the shallow creek at Fresh Pond Park in Amagansett. Other sample sites with high readings were Pussy's Pond in Springs, and at the Nature Trail and the south end of Hook Pond in East Hampton Village.

East Hampton Town officials recently posted warnings at Fresh Pond about the possibility of bacterial contamination of swimmers there.