Dan's Papers - September 21, 2007 - Puzzling Occurances At Napeague Park

The Eastern End of Long Island is so blessed to have literally hundreds of saved parklands administered by the villages and towns, the county, state and federal government. In Montauk, just in my lifetime, about 20% of this beautiful open land has been purchased and preserved, to add to the 15% that had been saved before. This is a remarkable achievement.

There is, however, one governmental agency that has not been able to keep up with these purchases for budgetary reasons, and that is the State Park Commission. According to a Newsday investigation, many of the State Parks are simply being chained off or closed, with whatever amenities built in them left to crumble, and with the property being left as little more than a nature preserve. You can argue that nature preserves are a good thing, and they are, but I don't think you want to create them by default.

According to Newsday, some of the parks affected on the East End include the Jamesport State Park in Wading River, Amsterdam Beach in Montauk, Hither Woods State Park in Montauk and Brookhaven State Park in Brookhaven.

Another park mentioned in the report was Napeague State Park, which has been closed for the past five months - it just reopened on August 15 - for a different reason. For many years, this park on the south side of the Montauk Highway between Amagansett and Montauk has been a favorite spot for fishermen to visit with their gear and four-wheel drive vehicles to go surfcasting. The park is isolated, pristine and beautiful. Mostly it is rolling dunes. It occupies about a mile of oceanfront and about a mile and a half of land from the surf line to Montauk Highway. For the aforementioned five months, however, there have been barriers at the entrances to the sand road that lead into the park. There are big "CLOSED" signs on them. You can get a $150 ticket from a State Ranger if you drive in there. And you can get another ticket if you simply park along the side of the road there. As the entrances are along Montauk Highway, you can't park within a mile of the place in any direction. So basically there is no way to even get in, except to have somebody drive up and drop you off and then proceed on foot.

The reason for the closing, the sign says, is piping plovers. These little birds have nested on the beach in there. And they are an endangered species. So the park has been shut down.

But since when do you shut down a park because of piping plovers? Where these endangered birds nest in other oceanfront parks - they only nest on the ocean beaches - those in charge rope off the nests and warn people to stay away from them. They do not close the park. And, I might add, this effort to save the plovers has resulted in a dramatic increase in their numbers during the past ten years. Roping off the nests works.

I have been completely baffled by the decision to close the Napeague State Park up until now, and when I read the Newsday study, I concluded that the State Park Commission had simply used the plover situation as an excuse to shut down the place for budgetary reasons.

I mean, clearly, it's not like the plovers fly up from the south in April and look down as they fly over and say, "Oh, there's that terrific Napeague State Park and it's all ready for us. You two over there go to this park and you two over there go this other park, and the rest of us will all crowd into Napeague."

But when I contacted the State Park office in Montauk, I was told the decision to close Napeague was not made by the State Park Commission, but by the East Hampton Town Environmental Office.

"We wouldn't have closed the park if they hadn't told us to," is what the State Park people told me.

But this makes no sense. The oceanfront at Napeague State Park is adjacent to the East Hampton Town Oceanfront Park in Napeague. Along the beach, they actually abut. If the goal is to give greater protection to the plovers nesting in the State Park, they have neglected to make it illegal to drive onto the Town Beach and then just drive down the beach into the State Beach Park. So the one place where they could use the excuse about the plovers is not protected at all.

I decided to talk to the people at the Environmental Group. I spoke to Latisha Coy.

"We put the rope around the areas where the plovers make their nests. And we are responsible for doing this everywhere, even on the beach at the State Park," she said.

"Then, a few weeks after the chicklings hatch, we put up snow fences all the way from the back of the dune to the water's edge to block lateral movement of vehicles entirely so the young fledglings can learn how to fly, which they do between the nests and the surfline. At that time the State padlocks the park."

"Why? The town doesn't padlock their parks or shut down the sand roads to the beach."

"The Town has different laws. They keep the sand roads from the Highway to the beach open for emergency vehicles and for those with beach driving equipment. The State says that when the snow fences go up so the plovers can learn to fly, they have to padlock the roads."

"What happens if there's an emergency in a State Park?"

"They have a key. They unlock the chains so the emergency vehicles can get through."

"Napeague was padlocked from April to August. How long does it take a plover to learn how to fly?"

"Not all the eggs hatch at the same time. We keep track of them and so we know when each nest of hatchlings needs to learn how to fly. They overlap."

After I hung up, it occurred to me that putting up a snow fence from the back of the dunes to the sea north to south might block certain east west beach migration patterns for other endangered species. For example, the bi-annual East Coast buffalo migration in June. Or the Amagansett hooded turkey resettlement surge that takes place in July. I thought I ought to call her back about these problems. But then I thought maybe not.

I think that what might make more sense is to have our local Chambers of Commerce stay in close touch with the Town Environmental Departments so everyone knows which plovers are in diapers, which are doing their first fluttering and which are now successfully flying. Street fairs and celebrations could be held to celebrate the final successful flight efforts of the last piping plover on the beach. It would be a surprise. The Chambers would learn when the last plover took off, and the celebration would be held by tradition just 48 hours after that.

As for the State Parks that are chained closed, I think the whole idea about having a government owned park is for the people, at one level or another, to be able to use it. The officials can decide what level of activity they want to have inside the park. They could have an active affair, with golf courses or tennis courts or other recreational facilities. Or they could have a quiet place only accessible to climbers or environmentalists with special passes.

In any case, there is an obligation to maintain and monitor what has been decided upon. To not do so means that the property is little different from what it was before they saved it. Go in at your peril. Do not take down this sign. Trespassers will be shot.