An immersive, 10-week-long Citizens Police Academy taught by members of the East Hampton Town Police Department gave participants an insider look at what it really takes to “protect and serve” East Hampton.

Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine called it an “aha moment” — an awakening after the Westhampton Pines fire on March 14. He’d had enough of the devastation caused by the southern pine beetle across the county he leads, and he wanted to do something about it.

Hundreds of small mounds with holes, each the diameter of a pencil, surrounded me. Above them zigging, dark, smallish bees traced incomprehensible patterns through the air: cellophane bees.

“My philosophy is to be part of the solution instead of part of the problem, so if you see something wrong step up to try to fix it,” Diane Hausman said as she reflected on her upcoming retirement from the Montauk School Board.