By Scott Brinton
Again and again, he commented about the preserve's nearly pristine condition and how it serves as a model of nature conservancy.
Referring to the town, he said, "They have gates here. They maintain them. They have trash cans. They empty them.
"This is the model. This is how you do it"; that is, keep up a nature preserve.
Behind Schary, more than 50 people lined a well-worn path beside the preserve's northern lake. All were taking part in a 2 1/2-hour hike that Schary and his wife, Lisa, organized to build momentum behind a plan of theirs to connect government woodlands, parks and preserves surrounding Wantagh State Parkway.
Hikers began the day at Wantagh High School, headed south to a state bicycle path along the Wantagh Parkway, and then on to the Twin Lakes Preserve and back again.
Along the way, the Scharys dazzled hikers with numerous stops to check out a natural side of Long Island that many had believed could only be found in upstate New York. Among the breaks were two to watch rare osprey birds as they swooped across the lake, dove straight into the water with a tremendous splash and carried off fish to nearby nests high in the maple and oak trees.
Richard Schary, a retired New York City school teacher, now a trustee of the Long Island Greenbelt Trail Conference and member of Nassau County's Open Space Committee, first proposed the idea of an expanded park more than two years ago. Since, he and his wife have cultivated relationships with local elected leaders, seeking support for the plan.
Joining them on the hike were Nassau County Legislators David Denenberg (D-Merrick) and Norma Gonsalves (R-East Meadow), both of whom have rallied behind the Scharys' proposal.
"We have great dreams for this corridor," Gonsalves said, referring to the green spaces that line the Wantagh State Parkway.
The Scharys said they will continue to lobby government officials in hopes of eventually seeing their dream of a larger park come to fruition.
The couple fear that, unless the woodlands surrounding the Wantagh Parkway are declared as parklands and "perpetually preserved," they will eventually be used to widen the parkway, or they will continue to fall victim to vandals. During the hike, the Scharys pointed out several areas outside the Twin Lakes Preserve where teenagers had held drinking parties in well-hidden, wooded areas, as well as spray-painted trees.
If people regularly hiked or bicycled through the woodlands, the Scharys said, they will spot vandalism and stop it before it gets out of hand.
"Having access to it by people allows the beauty to remain. If it's left alone, it's abused instead of appreciated," said Lisa Schary, also a retired teacher and Greenbelt Conference Board member. "We have a scarcity of open space in Nassau County, and we can't afford to lose anything that we do have."
The Scharys' plan would string together Cedar Creek County Park in Wantagh-Seaford, Mill Pond County Park in Bellmore-Wantagh, the town's Twin Lakes Preserve in Wantagh, the Wantagh wetlands (a mix of state and town lands) and green spaces along the Wantagh Parkway that extend as far as the Southern State Parkway on the North Bellmore-Wantagh border.
In all, the plan would create a more than 800-acre park that would stretch roughly four miles long and would include 10 to 15 miles of hiking/bicycling trails. Richard Schary also noted that the park would be for "passive" use only. There would be no fire pits or structures of any kind on it. It would, in effect, become one significantly wider nature preserve.
Schary, who regularly organizes hikes for the Greenbelt Conference, believes that turnout for Saturday's hike reflects a "keen" interest in preserving such green spaces on Long Island. The hike, in fact, brought out more people than he's seen for such a walkabout. "To get this many people is a huge success," he said. Generally, Schary said, Greenbelt Trail walks attract 10 to 15 people.
Hike participants came from the Merricks, Bellmores, Long Beach, Oceanside, Lynbrook, Cedarhurst and as far as Suffolk County and Connecticut.
Grace Peterson drove from Darien, Conn. to take part in the hike with her niece Kate Kaspzyk of Cutchogue, a Greenbelt Conference member. Peterson said, "We think this is an important thing to preserve. There is so little green space out here," on Long Island. "It's too bad the profile is development."
Dennis Duffy, of Lynbrook, who works in the Town of Hempstead's job bank, said he "most definitely" supports the idea of an expanded park/preserve. "I think it's wonderful," he said, adding that the plan would have to include safety improvements to trails. He noted that, in certain areas, the hiking/bicycling trail would wind onto streets and nearby the parkways.
From the start, Richard Schary has said government would have to add signs and crosswalks in such areas for the plan to work.
