By Scott Brinton
Off the Meadowbrook Parkway at Exit M8, just north of the Sunrise Highway in Merrick, there lies a swath of woodland that serves as a reminder the community's pastoral roots, before suburbia held sway.
The forest of stately oak and maple trees teems with life. Many species of birds land there on their annual migrations. Squirrels and chipmunks scurry through the underbrush. A pond is home to bass, for which local anglers regularly fish.
The trouble is that this slice of green space
