Just before 10:30 a.m. Thursday, a hawk circled in a cloudless spring sky over the Conscience Bay-Little Bay Tidal Wetland Area in Setauket.

"That means good luck," Helen Hart of Morning Star Sells, chairperson and elder of the Setalcott Nation, said. "It's a blessing for us to see the hawks. We, as Indigenous people, believe that."

The hawk was a fitting symbol for the occasion as members of the state Department of Environmental Conservation and elected officials gathered to announce that the Setalcott Nation — which inhabited Setauket long before European settlers — would be stewards of the newly improved and open wetlandssite at 40 Dyke Rd.

Acting DEC Commissioner Amanda Lefton said at a news conference that the site opening was about a decade in the making.

The DEC first attempted to acquire North Shore lands in 2008, she said. Since 2015, it has acquired six properties on Dyke Road.

"Now here we are, today, in 2025, with this really incredible accomplishment that's bringing these ecologically significant lands into public access, help ensuring greater resilience for the communities here, and really preserving this incredibly beautiful space," Lefton said.

The 15.2-acre site joins the DEC’s existing 52 acres in the area. The sites are part of the 30x30 state and national initiative to conserve 30% of lands and waters.

Brookhaven Supervisor Dan Panico stressed the importance of protecting open spaces, noting that the town has preserved more than 1,000 acres of land in the past 10 years.

In 2022, the town demolished a vacant house at 40 Dyke Rd. to make way for the public site. Improvements were made to accommodate public access, like the installation of a three-car parking lot and an Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant path that travels down to the water.

Patrons can access the site from dawn until dusk.

"This area is a perfect example of a peaceful, tranquil, rare ecosystem that needed to be preserved," said Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment. "We could have had a condo complex or a couple of very large mega-mansions. But instead, there was a collaboration that worked together, from the State of New York to the County of Suffolk, Town of Brookhaven, and a multitude of ...[nongovernmental organizations] and stakeholders."

The body of water was named Conscience Bay by Quakers who settled the area the 1600s after fleeing religious persecution, said Suffolk County Legis. Steven Englebright.

In honor of Arbor Day, Lefton, Panico, Englebright and members of the Setalcott Nation later helped plant five native trees and five native shrubs, including black oak, red maple and Baccharis.

The plantings complement Gov. Kathy Hochul’s 25 Million Trees by 2033 initiative. New Yorkers can record trees they plant through the DEC’s tree tracker website.

Regional forester John Wernet, who will help oversee the maintenance of the area, said native species guarantee a resource for native wildlife while non-native plants do not.

"They're used to the climate here," Wernet said. “They provide habitats for birds, food for deer and animals ... especially for insects. Oaks can handle, I believe, up to 200 different species that need that to survive."

Members of the Setalcott Nation said they hope planting the trees symbolizes the beginning of returning lands back to Native American peoples and working together in a positive way.

"I'm so happy that this land has been returned home," Sells said. "I'm standing here, and I can just feel the presence also of our elders. And they are happy, too."