Parkway wasteland

      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 one of the few remaining in the Merricks is dying a slow death, in part by neglect, in part by abuse.
Where vandals rule
      The land is government owned and might be a nature preserve, but neither the state, county nor town has taken responsibility for it. Instead, it has largely been left to vandals, who tear up walking paths with dirt bikes; dump mounds of garbage in the woods and water; set fires; cut down trees; and spray-paint graffiti.
      The property has also become the personal playground of local teenagers, who throw parties in hidden corners, getting drunk and high off marijuana, then leaving beer kegs, bottles and drug paraphernalia around their fire pits.
      Homeless people often sleep in the woods, and the El Salvadoran gang MS-13, Mara Salvatrucha, is reported to have claimed the side of the property west of the Meadowbrook, in Freeport, as its turf.
      Robert Young, 48, a Merrick civic activist, recently gave the Herald a tour of the roughly 75-acre ecosystem. Young would like the property cleaned up and preserved as a park that all local residents can enjoy.
       Referring to the Town of Hempstead's Levy Preserve in south Merrick, which was created atop a landfill, Young said, If they can make a garbage dump into a park, why can't they make unprotected woodland into a park?
       Young, who is in sales, organized the protest march against Freeport's diesel Power Plant No. 2 last June and has taken part in dune restoration efforts with the National Parks Service at Fire Island National Seashore and Boy and Girl Scout cleanups at Jones Beach State Park.
      Now, he wants to mobilize community members to reclaim Merrick's forgotten woodland. Young believes residents must launch a concerted, community-wide effort to restore the property. Then, the government will be forced to protect it long-term.
      The Herald's tour, on a recent sunny Thursday, was indeed revealing.
       A homeless man was found resting in a sleeping bag along the pond's shore. Shortly after, nine adolescent boys, ranging in age from about 11 to 14 or 15, were spotted jumping dirt bikes off a hastily constructed ramp.
      One said he was 14. All said they live in Merrick. Half were on dirt bikes and the others on bicycles.
      All said they race dirt bikes through the property at least once a week. One, who looked the youngest, said he'd driven a dirt bike there since he was 5.
       Suddenly during the interview, one of the boys noticed the homeless man on the pond's west side. The teenager, who appeared to be the oldest, blurted out, Let's go hit the bum! Let's hit him with rocks! Let's stone him to death! He laughed and pedaled off on his bicycle.
       The other boys followed in a line behind him, and threw rocks at the homeless man and drove their dirt bikes in circles around him. The man, who was African-American, roused, and the boys returned to the woods on the pond's east side, where a smaller group of them slipped behind a patch of reeds and smoked marijuana.
       It's like the Wild West back here, remarked Young.
       Most such incidents go unreported because of the property's isolated nature. It borders homes in central Merrick, but neighbors and passersby cannot see most goings-on there because of the dense forest.
      First Precinct Police said they have received no complaints about the property, except three weeks ago, they were called to respond to a forest fire. In the end, state police handled the emergency, they said.
       In part because the property is closed off from public view, it should become a park, Young believes. Having a ranger or attendant stationed there would ensure the woodland's protection, as well as the safety of surrounding neighborhoods. He notes that the forest fire, which charred about a half-acre of bushes and smaller trees, could have easily spread to nearby homes if the woods were drier during summer.

Question of ownership
      Such properties, which are virtually abandoned by the government, are scattered along parkways throughout Nassau, said Richard Schary, a North Bellmore environmentalist who sits on the county's Open Space Committee.
       The problem, Schary said, is that you have a divided jurisdiction between our agencies. There is nobody designated to protect these properties.
       That's certainly true of the Merrick woodland.
       A sign on a locked gate off Babylon Turnpike states, No trespassing NYS, but it does not say which agency controls the property.
      Schary assumed it was part of the Meadowbrook Parkway right-of-way. The state Parks Department owns the rights-of-way, but the Transportation Department maintains them, he said.
       David Denenberg (D-Merrick), Nassau County legislator who has gained a reputation as an environmental advocate, said, The Department of Transportation simply doesn't maintain anything.
      The Herald called the DOT's Nassau office to ask whether the department is responsible for the Merrick property's upkeep. The paper was referred to the DOT's legal office in Hauppauge. There, a man, who called himself Phil and refused to give his last name, said the Herald had to file a Freedom of Information request to find out who maintains the property. The paper is doing just that.
       Interestingly, a DOT maintenance depot sits on the property's west side in Freeport, only a few hundred yards from the Merrick woodland.
       The property, though, might not be entirely state owned. Denenberg said he had called state Sen. Charles Fuschillo Jr.'s office about the endangered ecosystem recently. Fuschillo, who could not be reached for comment, told Denenberg that he would investigate and that the property was called the Roosevelt South Preserve.
       If that's true, said Schary, the woodland might in part belong to the county. The state doesn't own any preserves in Nassau, he said.
      According to records, Nassau County perpetually preserved the Roosevelt South Preserve in 1984. A 1995 Hagstrom map lists the Merrick woodland as part of the Roosevelt preserve; however, Schary said that such maps are often wrong. Other maps show it as simply a green space, he noted.
      Only four hours after the Herald began calling about the property, a spokesman for County Executive Thomas Suozzi and a legislative aide to Denenberg telephoned to say the county would clean up the property. Neither could say why Nassau would restore the woodland if it were state owned.
      Stephanie Siejka, Denenberg's aide, said, Dave wants to make sure this gets cleaned up. We're going to keep this as a front issue. There has to be more awareness. People can't just dump at this preserve. People think they can.
      Denenberg said that he would like the property deeded to the county if it is state owned, and he would make sure it is perpetually preserved and better maintained.
      The property will at least in part be restored during the county's First Annual Earth Day Cleanup on Saturday and Sunday, April 20 and 21 and April 27 and 28, when community volunteers will help refurbish Nassau's ailing parks and preserves, Siejka said.
      Additionally, a representative of Sen. Fuschillo telephoned as the Herald went to press to say the state Transportation Department would remove debris from he pond's perimeter, as well as the Meadowbrook Parkway median.
      Mark Lowery, spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Conservation, said New York State, Nassau County, the Town of Hempstead and Long Island Rail Road all own a piece of the property, but determining which government branch owns what is a difficult proposition, he said.
According to a recent Nassau County tax map, the state, county and New York City own parts of the property.
County Legis. Norma Gonsalves (R-East Meadow) said that often a government-community partnership is needed to ensure continued upkeep of a green space such as the South Roosevelt Preserve. She offered the Council of East Meadow Civic Organizations adopting county Sumps 51 and 272 as examples. Three times annually, the group cleans up the properties, which, like the Merrick woodland, are continually vandalized.
Gonsalves, a CEMCO member, said, If we don't clean [the sumps] up, [they] will certainly be overrun.
      The county, she said, hasn't the money to maintain
all its parks, preserves and green spaces such as the sumps, particularly during the fiscal crisis Nassau now faces. She noted that the county owns more than 600 sumps alone.