By Scott Brinton
The designation could potentially entitle the parkways to federal funding to create hiking and biking trails in the woodlands along the thoroughfares, and to set up a visitor center and develop ecotourism ventures.
The DOT is also looking to declare the Loop, Bay, Ocean and Bethpage parkways Scenic Byways.
The state invited more than 80 representatives to the two-hour meeting. "This is a very exciting day for me...," said Mark Woods, director of the state Scenic Byways Program. "The parkways were designed to humanize the roadways."
Master developer Robert Moses laid out Long Island's parkway system during the late 1920s and early '30s to connect New York City with state parks such as Jones Beach and Bethpage. Richard Schary, a North Bellmore environmental activist who attended last Thursday's meeting, said Moses, who served as Long Island's state parks commissioner from 1924 to 1963, intended for the parkways to be "linear parks." In fact, the state Department of Parks and Recreation owns much of the forested land along the parkways, while the DOT is entrusted with maintaining it.
In recent years, Schary, his wife, Lisa, and Merrick environmental advocate Bob Young have focused on cleaning up the Meadowbrook Parkway woodlands, which have suffered years of abuse at the hands of ATV riders who rip trails through what was once pristine forest, contractors who dump their waste there and teenage vandals.
The Scharys and Young serve on the Nassau County Unprotected Woodlands Taskforce, headed by county Legislators David Denenberg, a Democrat from Merrick, and Norma Gonsalves, a Republican from East Meadow. Last September, the task force and Hofstra University sponsored a BioBlitz in the Meadowbrook woodlands. The 24-hour treasure hunt for flora and fauna identified 1,200 species of plants, birds and animals in the forests. An estimated 670 volunteers took part.
Representing the task force, the Scharys and Young presented the DOT with a management plan for the Meadowbrook Parkway that Nassau County completed in 2004. Also attending the meeting was state Assemblyman David McDonough, a Republican from North Merrick who has worked closely with the task force since it formed in 2002.
Carol Truppi of the RBA Group, a consulting firm hired by the DOT to oversee the byways designation process, said that a road must first have a management plan for it to be named a Scenic Byway.
Congress established the National Scenic Byways Program as part of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 to preserve roads of historical, environmental, cultural or recreational significance. It left implementation of the program largely to the states. A road can be designated a State Scenic Byway without being named a National Scenic Byway.
New York's parkways were grandfathered into the state's Scenic Byways Program in the 1990s, but they were not officially designated as byways at the time. Without official designation, they are ineligible for federal funds, which, RBA representatives noted, are "discretionary," meaning that the federal government does not have to allocate them in any given year.
"The parkways are clearly of national significance," said Annette Schultz of RBA. "We should be proud to be a part of remembering and enhancing them."
Schultz explained that the Scenic Byways Project Advisory Committee assembled by the DOT would be responsible for helping the state develop an integrated management plan for the six targeted parkways. "Every idea is valid and on the table," she said.
To date, $374 million has been spent preserving Scenic Byways across the country -- $18 million of that in New York.
Nancy Solomon, executive director of Long Island Traditions, a nonprofit group, said she welcomes the state's effort to declare the parkways byways. She said it is critical to save what is left of the Island's parkway system, because so much of it has been lost to development. "There is a great sense of loss," she said.
For more information, go to bywaysonline.org.
A history of L.I.'s parkways
¥ Wantagh Parkway: Constructed 1927-1932. Provided first access to Jones Beach State Park.
¥ Ocean Parkway: Constructed 1930-34. Runs west to east 15.7 miles along the barrier island from Jones Beach in Nassau County to Captree State Park in Suffolk County.
¥ Bay Parkway: Constructed 1930-34. Runs 3.2 miles within Jones Beach State Park.
¥ Loop Parkway: Constructed 1932-34. The 2.7-mile parkway was built to connect the Meadowbrook with Point Lookout.
¥ Meadowbrook Parkway: Constructed 1932-35. Built to alleviate southbound traffic on the Wantagh State Parkway.
¥ Bethpage State Parkway: Constructed 1934-36. Opened to connect motorists from the Southern State Parkway to Bethpage State Park.
Source: State Department of Transportation
Comments about this story? SBrinton@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 203.
