How East Hampton's Preservation Movement Saved the South Fork with Barry Raebeck and Rick Whalen

How East Hampton Was Saved: Voices From the Front Lines of Preservation

In this episode of Changehampton Presents, we sit down with two men who didn’t just witness East Hampton’s environmental battles—they helped shape them.

Rick Whelan and Barry Raebeck trace the arc of East Hampton’s modern preservation movement, from the explosive growth pressures of the 1970s and ’80s to the grassroots organizing that stopped unchecked development and permanently changed land-use policy on the South Fork. Their conversation explores the abolition of the town’s Planning Department, the fight to preserve places like Hither Woods and Northwest Woods, and the innovative policies—upzoning, setbacks, and farmland preservation—that saved thousands of acres.

Before the formal start of the interview, Rick also discusses his forthcoming history of East Hampton, a sweeping project that documents the town’s hamlets, parks, preserves, and environmental struggles through archival research and interviews reaching back into the 19th century.

This is a rare, first-person account of how ordinary residents, faced with extraordinary pressure, organized to protect land, water, and community—and why those lessons matter more than ever today.

🌱 Main Topics Covered

• The environmental and political turning points of East Hampton in the 1970s–1980s
• The abolition of the East Hampton Planning Department and its consequences
• Grassroots organizing to preserve Hither Woods, Northwest Woods, and farmland
• The rise and decline of local baymen and inshore fisheries
• Brown tide and the collapse of the scallop industry
• Upzoning, setbacks, farmland preservation, and development rights
• Citizen activism across political lines
• How preservation laws reshaped East Hampton’s landscape
• Why local environmental history matters now

Quotes:
On the Abolition of the Planning Department

“East Hampton crossed the Rubicon when the town board abolished the planning department in early 1982.”

“They literally crossed the Rubicon at that point in time, and East Hampton has never really been the same.”

On Development Pressure

“At one point, every inch of space out here was for sale — and there were people that were quite happy to develop every inch of space. That includes the beaches.”

“If we didn’t do something, it was going to be gone. There would literally be high-rise hotels on the beaches in Amagansett.”

On the Rise of the Preservation Movement

“When the planning department was abolished, there was a reaction that was across the political spectrum.”

“People realized that if we didn’t act, this place would not look the way it does today.”

On Fisheries and Environmental Decline

“The real downturn began when I went away to law school… a brown tide came in and ruined the scallop industry.”

“When scallop season opened in Northwest Harbor, there were dozens of trucks lined up… people knew they could make a lot of money.”

On Innovation in Preservation Policy

“Upzoning became a great means of preservation.”

“You could sell the development rights but still farm the land — as long as it stayed in agricultural use.”

On Love of Place

“I basically fell in love with the place.”