Herald staffers kayak the Meadow Brook

A group of Herald Community Newspapers executives, editors, reporters and interns took a kayak tour on Nassau County’s wild side last Thursday, launching from the Town of Hempstead’s Norman J. Levy Park and Preserve in Merrick. Among those on the tour was Stuart Richner, who co-owns Richner Communications Inc., the Heralds’ parent company.

The tour was intended to give Herald staffers a chance to get out of the office for an afternoon and enjoy nature and one another’s company. The excursion, led by two town rangers, began at the north end of Levy Preserve, at the foot of “Mt. Merrick” –– a former landfill that was covered over with plantings. From there, the Herald crew headed south on the Meadow Brook, the river that meanders alongside the Meadowbrook Parkway.

The excursion took place under sunny skies, as red-wing blackbirds flitted in between the Phragmites and Spartina marsh grass that lined the river’s edges. The tour led into Merrick Bay, where the Herald staffers dispersed in different directions to explore the canals that cut through the wetlands, before heading back to the mainland.

For more information about kayaking at Levy Preserve, call (516) 804-2000.