The Long Island Central Pine Barrens (also known as the Long Island Pine Barrens) is a large area of publicly protected pine barrens in Suffolk County, New York, on Long Island, covering more than . The Barrens operates in a similar manner to Adirondack Park, with public lands managed by a mix of federal, state, county and local public land managers intermixed with private inholdings. It is Long Island's largest natural area and its last remaining wilderness. The region contains a remnant of the Atlantic coastal pine barrens ecoregion, whose forests might once have covered a quarter million acres (1,000 km²) on Long Island. The Central Pine Barrens overlays and recharges a portion of a federally designated sole source aquifer for Long Island's drinking water. All of Long Island's drinking water comes from ground water wells; none of the island's water comes from reservoirs. Almost all of the Peconic River and Carmans River (two of Long Island's four biggest rivers) as well as much of their watersheds are in the Barrens. Two other large, contiguous examples of this ecosystem remain in the northeastern United States: including the Massachusetts Coastal Pine Barrens and the New Jersey Pine Barrens. History In the 1970s the State of New York began acquiring large parcels to create a greenbelt. The federal government at Brookhaven National Laboratory transferred in 1971 and RCA transferred around Rocky Point in 1978 (for a cost of $1). In 1984 the Pine Barrens Review Commission was created to review development in the region. In 1986 the Suffolk County Open Space Program financed by a 0.25% sales tax was to result in 28 new Suffolk County Parks in the region totalling Despite the efforts development pressure continued and in 1989 the Long Island Pine Barrens Society filed a multibillion-dollar suit against Suffolk County, and the towns of Brookhaven, Riverhead and Southampton. The Society eventually lost its suit in the New York's highest court—the New York Court of Appeals—after winning in earlier courts. In 1993 the New York State Legislature approved the Long Island Pine Barrens Protection Act to protect the region through the development and implementation of a comprehensive land use plan. The act also created the Central Pine Barrens Joint Planning & Policy Commission to oversee the plan, and divided the area into two regions: A core area where no development is permitted at all. The area was expanded to in