We, however, many times forget or ignore the lush woodlands that surround our parkways. These government-owned properties, measuring hundreds of acres, are vital ecosystems that support local flora and fauna.
They are, however, dying.
The government, whether it be federal, state, county or town, often neglects these slices of wilderness amid suburbia, leaving them to vandals.
The problem, officials say, is in large part money. The government hasn't the funding to keep up its regularly maintained parks, let alone tracts of woodland that no one is supposed to use.
The trouble is that people use these properties -- for all the wrong reasons. Teenagers who tear dirt bikes up and down walking trails. Young people who party into the night around secluded fire pits, drinking and doing drugs. If you're a parent and wondering where your kid goes for a Friday-night rave, look no farther than the forests along the parkways.
These greenways, which could form the basis for an incredible biking/hiking trail and/or series of parks and preserves, deserve protection. There's so little of the natural world left in Nassau County. The government should do all it can to preserve these lands.
We shouldn't count on our government, however. The state Department of Transportation, which is supposed to maintain these rights-of-way but most times does not, appears to care little about what happens to these woodlands.
That's because the DOT, more aptly called the Department of Tar, seems to think of them merely as extensions of the parkways; that is, as places where they reserve the right to lay down road or build buildings. The DOT isn't about conservation; it's about construction.
What would happen to local communities if these green corridors were gone? We would become citified.
This week, the Herald begins a series examining the plight of green spaces along central Nassau parkways. We start with a roughly 75-acre woodland in Merrick, off Exit M8. The idea behind the series is to raise awareness of the serious -- and numerous -- threats to these properties. The hope is that local residents will rally behind these green spaces and seek to save them.
At least some of the properties are slated to be restored during Nassau County's First Annual Earth Day Cleanup on Saturday and Sunday, April 20 and 21 and April 27 and 28. To join in the effort, call the county at (516) 572-0230.
Mother Nature needs you!
