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Escape from The Big Apple to Wild Long Island LONG ISLAND, New York, February 25, 2002 (ENS) - Just 46 miles from Manhattan, drive out the Long Island Expressway getting further by the mile from the scramble and rush. Turn off at Exit 53 and find the northern end of the Sunken Meadow Parkway - there lies a low meadowland separating a narrow sandy beach from the uplands of Long Island. Governor Alfred E. Smith Sunken Meadow State Park has glorious views of Long Island Sound and the Connecticut shoreline to the north across the sound.
Strolling along three miles of shoreline, the beachcomber meets tall glacier formed bluffs at the western end of the park. A dam separates the park's brackish creek and marshes from the tidal flats. Sunken Meadow State Park takes its name from the low meadlowland which separates the narrow beach from the uplands. The northern starting point of the Suffolk County Greenbelt Trail begins with the wooden footbridge over the creek and stretches across the island almost 35 miles to Heckscher State Park on Great South Bay. The mouth of the Nissequogue River, a designated Recreational River, is located at the eastern shore of the park. Sunken Meadow Creek, flows through the park into the mouth of the Nissequogue. Throughout the year the river and surrounding marshes are home to fish and wildlife, shorebirds and waterfowl. Ducks enliven the marshes and coastline - mallards and goldeneyes, lovely American black ducks with purple wing patches, and red-breasted mergansers. Canada geese are found in protected sections of bays and harbors and in freshwater ponds near the coast. Gulls swoop and dive along the shore. At dusk black-crowned night-herons can be seen flying to their feeding grounds, crying quock! quock! as they go by.
Access originally was by way of a quarter-mile long boardwalk erected on stilts across the meadows and creek. Later big parking fields and a modern bridge and roadway for automobiles were built. The creek flows though a natural lake on a 21 acre piece of private property that is being purchased by the State of New York as an addition to the park to keep the environmentally sensitive land from encroaching development. Governor George Pataki announced the acquisition last week. "By acquiring this land, we are protecting precious natural resources while adding to the countless outdoor opportunities for families at Sunken Meadow State Park," Governor Pataki said. "Generations of Suffolk County residents and visitors will continue to visit the park to enjoy the pristine ponds, streams, forests and natural habitat of the North Shore." With rapid development occurring along the North Shore, large tracts such as this property are becoming increasingly rare. The property was being actively pursued for residential development, as all of the large tracts surrounding it have been developed or are in the process of obtaining developmental approvals.
The parcel, known as the Gouldstone property, is owned by Robert and Roberta Jane Gouldstone of Donnington Hall, Ledbury Herefordshire, England and is being purchased by the state for $1.25 million. The Gouldstones acquired the property in 1989 for $1.6 million. The Gouldstone property contains 21.7 acres of vacant land featuring brushlands, wetlands, ponds, streams and forested areas. The acquisition will increase the park to 1,287 acres. Sunken Meadow State Park is open year-round. There's a bathing beach on Long Island Sound, and six miles of hiking trails that in the winter become cross-country ski trails. In summer, visitors can go bicycling, horseback riding, and fishing. The park has three nine-hole golf courses, one of which is a wildlife sanctuary, a driving range and a putting green. South of the creek and tidal flats are many acres of undeveloped and heavily wooded rolling hills. Hard to belive, but The Big Apple is only an hour away. Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2002. All rights reserved. |
Sunken Creek (Two photos courtesy
The boardwalk at Sunken Meadow State
Park, a haven for joggers in the afternoon
Black-crowned night-heron, one of the birds seen
in Sunken Meadow State Park (Photo courtesy of Merlin
Benner)