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Community Corner

Sands Point Preserve's Environmental Practices Examined

Environmental groups hope for more oversight.

Some Port Washington environmentalists put Friends of Sands Point Preserve, a nonprofit, under scrutiny as they look to ensure that the group fulfills its mission to protect the habitat at Sands Point Preserve.

Recent assurances from Friends of Sands Point Preserve, and also from Nassau County, are not enough right now to feel fully at ease, some environmentalists said early this week.

These environmentalists express concern that Friends of Sands Point Preserve, the not-for-profit group that began managing the property in January, lacks board members who are experts in wildlife and bird populations, said Peggy Maslow, president of the North Shore Audubon Society.

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They point to the removal of bird eggs and the nest of killdeer native species and the removal of large copper beech trees. Add to that the spraying of herbicides on lawn areas at the Sands Point Preserve. 

Maslow said she had seen "no evidence of any naturalists or persons trained to protect wildlife and wildlife habitat, which is the goal of friends of a preserve." Instead, she said they did the opposite by cutting down brush in areas that are bird habitat. What she wants to ensure now, she said, is that they protect these areas. After all, she pointed out, "It's a preserve."

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The environmentalists aired these and other concerns with Nassau County administrators back in August. The county, and Friends of Sands Point Preserve, have since taken note and responded.

"This was an unfortunate incident," said Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano, R-Bethpage. "The Friends of Sands Point have assured the administration that measures have been taken to prevent this from happening again."

Karli Hagedorn, chair of Friends of Sands Point Preserve, said that many people are misinformed about the preserve. She said that the organization operates within Nassau County guidelines, and that it is their first year of being fully responsible for maintenance of the property.

"We have engaged experts in environmental conservation, wildlife protection, and public safety, at our expense, to learn more about biodiversity and bird habitats," Hagedorn said in September. "Two copper beech trees fell down a month ago and had to be taken down for safety reasons and about a half dozen other trees were taken down due to liability reasons. We consulted Bartlett Tree Experts, a professional arborist, as well as Nassau County, before any tree was taken down."

The groups are staying in touch with Nassau County, according to Jenifer Wilson-Pines, co-chair of the Port Washington Parks Conservancy.

They have brought to light other concerns, including a fitness trail on Trail #4 that environmentalists say is intrusive to the site's natural qualities. However, Jean-Marie Posner, vice-chair of Friends of Sands Point Preserve, said, "The fitness trail that was installed on Trail #4 is not intrusive and is actually improving Nassau's fitness campaign." 

The environmentalists also inquired about a badly deteriorated wall that threatened to destabilize the bluffs directly below Falaise, the mansion that once belonged to railroad heir Howard Gould and later Daniel and Florence Guggenheim.

"We have acknowledged the problems affecting the sea wall and the bluffs and now we are just waiting for the repair work to begin, which will hopefully be in the near future," Posner said.

Another matter – the question of inhumanely trapping raccoons inside Castle Gould – briefly put the preserve on the radar of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). But Martin Mersereau, director in the emergency response division at PETA, said that after learning that the "raccoons were trapped by a pest control person and then released outside immediately," the matter is now "considered a non-issue to us."

"There have been too many misconceptions going around, such as the spraying of herbicides on lawn areas," Posner said. "We are only spraying poison ivy shrubs, not entire lawn areas. We are trying to operate in accordance with government procedure directed by Nassau County.""

But Board Member Herb Mills of Port Washington Green, Inc., wants more oversight, especially concerning the removal of bird eggs and nests. And he's not alone.

"I and other groups are keeping an open dialogue with Mangano," Wilson-Pines said. "A preserve means to protect wildlife and habitat, not to create active recreation activities at the expense of nature."

Yet while Maslow is grateful for Mangano's response, on Monday she said she "cannot feel 100 percent confident" that the preserve will abide by all of the county's guidelines.

Mills, meanwhile, remains skeptical.

"The response from County Executive Edward Mangano does not give me any great assurance," Mills said Tuesday. "What measures are the county speaking of to assure oversight at Sands Point Preserve?"

He added: "Mangano should give some assurance that there is going to be county oversight, such as having a person with knowledge of environmental issues who works for the county, and the laying out of a basic document about ground rules of what should and should not be done at the preserve."

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