By Scott Brinton
"People just don't think there's such big wildlife in this lake," said Adam, obviously distraught at the sight of the dead turtle. Rampant dumping at the lake, he noted, "isn't just killing bugs. It's killing bugs and wildlife."
Adam discovered the tire and turtle last Saturday morning during a massive volunteer cleanup of the roughly 75-acre woodland and lake that lie just west of Babylon Turnpike in Merrick.
The property once belonged to New York City, which sold it to Nassau County in 1981. New York State later bought it from the county.
The woodland then languished as a haven for vandals, forgotten by the state -- until, that is, Merrick civic activist Robert Young recently started speaking out about the property's deteriorated condition. State Sen. Charles Fuschillo Jr. (R-Merrick) and Assemblyman David McDonough (R-Merrick) responded quickly to Young's calls for action, organizing the July 20 volunteer cleanup.
Young, Fuschillo and McDonough rated the project as a resounding success, with more than 170 volunteers turning out to collect trash from the Merrick woodland, as well as a sister property just west of the Meadowbrook Parkway in Freeport.
As Fuschillo hauled off larger debris to an awaiting payloader on Saturday, he said of the volunteer effort: "This is overwhelming support. They [the volunteers] have done a tremendous amount of work. You couldn't ask anything more than for the community to come out as they have."
Young, who led a group of volunteers from the Word of Life Church in Freeport during the cleanup, said, "It's a great week for this property [the woodland]. The people of Merrick came out and did one for Mother Nature."
In addition to Merrick, volunteers also came from Bellmore, East Meadow, Wantagh, Seaford, and some from as far as Bethpage, Centerport and Long Beach.
Overwhelmingly, volunteers said they were shocked at the amount of garbage they uncovered amid the underbrush and in the lake. John Fabian, a former Merrick Fire Department chief, said he found "a lot of beer bottles, beer cans, clothing, golf balls, a fender to a Volkswagen, a car seat to a Volkswagen and at least a dozen car tires."
George Fedorisko, of Merrick, attended the cleanup with his wife, Leslie, and daughter, Elizabeth. Fedorisko, a retired earth-science teacher at Merrick Avenue Middle School, said he found the type of illegal contractor dumping that is more commonly associated with abandoned properties in Queens and Brooklyn.
"There's regular litter here, but there's contractor stuff," said Fedorisko, noting that businesses many times dump in unprotected woodlands to avoid fees at municipal collection sites.
Volunteers: Make it a park
Many volunteers also said they would like the woodland to become a "passive" park, for hiking, bicycling and fishing. Bob O'Shea, of Merrick, said of the forest: "It's beautiful. I've lived here 30 years, and I've never been down here."
O'Shea, who lives six blocks from the property, said that he would "definitely" visit it if it were open to the public.
Richard Smith, a 27-year Merrick resident, said, "I'd love to have access to it. There's fishing here. I can see it. It's a tremendous asset to the area, and it's going to waste."
Mary Ramo, president of the North Merrick Community Association, said, "This is where I grew up," playing childhood games in the woodland. She would like to see it open the public so people could simply "walk a path, enjoy a walk."
Charlie Storms, who lives on Stuyvesant Avenue a few houses down from the woodland, said, "I came down here when my kids were younger," before the state fenced the property off to the public. "And I haven't been here for 15 years." Storms, too, would like the forest preserved as a passive park.
Jay Pitti, a Merrick civic activist who led the campaign to convert the Merrick landfill into a Town of Hempstead nature preserve, said the parkways that weave across the South Shore were very much intended as parks.
"Merrick is surrounded on three sides by a greenbelt," said Pitti. "[For] a lot of this we have to give tribute to Robert Moses," who laid out many of Nassau's traffic arteries. "Along all of his parkways, he set aside" green spaces, said Pitti. "It's a park way. You're going through a park on your way."
Gov't: Management plan needed
Sen. Fuschillo said the next step at the property is to determine definitively "who owns what." Questions about who is responsible for the woodland -- state, county or town -- linger, though most officials now agree that it is state land.
Fuschillo also said the state must develop a long-term management plan for the property. Finally, he said, the state Department of Environmental Conservation must "go after whomever is polluting here. It has to be a full, coordinated effort."
Nassau County Legislators David Denenberg (D-Merrick) and Norma Gonsalves (R-East Meadow) are spearheading a series of "summits" about the Merrick woodland, seeking input from state, county and town government about preserving the property as a park.
The pair convened the first summit July 8. They held a second meeting July 22, two days after the volunteer cleanup.
Attending the two recent summits were representatives from the Nassau County Police, Department of Public Works, Town of Hempstead DPW, Highways Department, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Department of Transportation, Parks Department and State Police.
Denenberg said, "The first thing that government needs to do is come together on a management plan about how best to maintain the property in the future."
Among the concerns that must be addressed in such a plan are "law enforcement, security and recreational uses," as well as the role volunteers can continue to play at the woodland, said Denenberg.
Gonsalves noted that costs of maintaining the property must be factored into the plan, as well.
Monthly summits at the Nassau County Parks Department's administrative building in Eisenhower Park will be held until a management plan is developed, Gonsalves added. The next such summit is set for Monday, Sept. 9.
Richard Schary, a North Bellmore environmental activist who has fought to save parkway woodlands for several years, said government -- state, county and/or town -- must ultimately accept responsibility for the woodland over the long run. "If they clean it up and walk away," he said, "it does no good."
State officials said that, whatever becomes of the woodland, volunteers will be needed to maintain it.
Mike Corbisiero, a special projects coordinator for the state Parks Department who helped organize the cleanup, said volunteers made the effort possible. "We couldn't afford to send a 100 people here, especially on a Saturday in July," said Corbisiero. "Volunteers are crucial."
A community gets involved
Some 18 community organizations and businesses took part in the Saturday volunteer cleanup of the woodland off Babylon Turnpike in Merrick. They were:
1. North Merrick Community Association
2. Central Merrick Homeowners Association
3. Old Lindenmere Civic Association
4. Glow Civic Association of Freeport
5. Merrick Chamber of Commerce
6. Merrick Kiwanis
7. Century 21 American Homes
8. Nassau County Hiking and Outdoors Club
9. Verizon Telephone
10. The Mormon Church
11. Nassau County Office of the Physically Challenged
12. Den 3 of Merrick Cub Scout Pack 277
13. Seaford Cub Scout Pack 690
14. Boy Scout Troop 23 of Cure of Ars Church in Merrick
15. OPAS
16. Friendship Engine and Hose Company of the Merrick Fire Department
17. Empire Hose Company of Merrick F.D.
18. Word of Life Church of Freeport
