Great natural area on the northern shore of Queens

Nathan Kensinger/Curbed

From Curbed:

Running roughly 6,000 feet from its head near Northern Boulevard to its mouth in Udalls Cove, this diminutive stream travels through a bucolic backyard ravine in Little Neck, Queens, which has largely been saved from developers by several generations of local volunteers. Their successful battle to preserve their neighborhood’s waterfront, and to restore it to health, continues to be one of the most impressive community organizing efforts in the city. And yet, like Hook Creek and Bridge Creek, Gabler’s Creek remains a relatively unknown Queens waterway, flowing out of sight at the very edge of the city.

The fact that Gabler’s Creek even exists today is largely due to the work of the Udalls Cove Preservation Committee (UCPC), a small neighborhood organization founded in 1969 by the concerned residents of Douglaston and Little Neck. "A golf course had been planned, filling in the wetlands. That was the pivotal moment," says Walter Mugdan, who has been the president of the group since 2002. Their initial efforts helped to create the 30-acre Udalls Park Preserve, a protected area now jointly managed by the NYC Parks Department and the NY State Department of Environmental Conservation.

In recent years, the UCPC has continued to protect the preserve from overdevelopment, invasive species, erosion, flooding, and a host of other challenges. "Altogether, our organization has spent between $225,000 and $250,000 over the last 12 years on various large projects," says Mugdan. "For a tiny organization like ours, that’s pretty good."

Funded by grants and donations, these projects include planting over 1,000 new trees, removing more than a million pounds of concrete rubble, building and maintaining numerous new trail systems and foot bridges, and helping the city to identify and purchase the final few properties that would make Gabler’s Creek into a single, continuous public space. "This is a last little remnant of the natural world here," explains Mugdan, reflecting on the importance of the preserve. "It is hardly a pristine wilderness, but you make the best of what you’ve got."

Kids destroy Udall's Cove osprey nest

From CBS 2:

Little Neck residents are outraged after an osprey nest was deliberately set on fire.

CBS2’s Tracee Carrasco reported that state investigators are trying to find who started the blaze along the Nassau-Queens border by the Long Island Sound.

Chris DeGeorge witnessed last Sunday someone setting fire to the osprey nest in Udalls Cove as neighbors said it was set by two boys and a girl.

Udalls Cove is a designated bird sanctuary and ospreys are protected under both federal and state law.

Joseph DeGeorge said it appears the ospreys are trying to build a new nest, but it may be too late in the season for any hatchling to survive.

The reward leading to an arrest has grown to more than $4,000.

Udall's Cove Preserve may expand with new funding

From the Queens Chronicle:

Volunteers for the Udalls Cove Preservation Committee’s annual wetlands cleanup on Saturday filled a 25-cubic-yard Dumpster and got rewarded with a total of $710,000 in city and state funding.

Walter Mugdan, president of the UCPC, said he was “absolutely thrilled” with the surprise announcements from City Councilman Paul Vallone (D-Bayside) and state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) at Saturday’s event, held on Sandhill Road, between Douglaston and Little Neck.

“We now have the good problem of determining where to use the money,” Mugdan said.

Avella provided $210,000 from the state budget that can be used to help purchase the Callender property, a privately owned land just outside the nature preserve. The 11,8000-square-foot parcel went on the market last spring and the UCPC has urged the city to acquire it.

Mugdan’s group and other area associations have pledged $50,000 toward the purchase. The owner is asking $585,000 for the site, but has said he’s flexible about negotiating.

Vallone announced at the cleanup that he and Borough President Melinda Katz were both providing $250,000 each to the UCPC for land acquisition. But Mugdan said they have specified they want the money for purchases within the preserve.

“That means we can’t use the money for the Callender property, but we will talk to them and they might be flexible about its use,” he said.

The UCPC and area groups such as the Douglas Manor Association, the Douglas Manor Environmental Association, Douglas Shores and the Westmoreland Association fear that if the Callender property is sold privately for residential construction, any house would tower over the park and be “an undesirable visual intrusion.”

It's funny how some well-heeled communities get government money to stop development but others, well...

Udalls Cove needs more protection

From Bayside Patch:

A Douglaston civic organization is calling on the city to purchase five parcels of Udalls Cove to protect it from possibly being developed.

The Udalls Cove Preservation Committee sent a letter to Mayor Michael Bloomberg earlier this week, calling on him to allocate funding for the acquisition of five parcels of the cove.

Walter Mugdan, the group’s president said he recently discovered that the parcels’ owner intended to sell the land.

Mugdan said the last time such a threat arose in 2002. Two years later, the mayor agreed to allocate funding to acquire a section of Udalls Cove for preservation purposes and to prevent 18 homes from being constructed at the site.

Bloomberg actually bought land to prevent development somewhere? Why is Douglaston so different from the rest of the city?

City rewards Douglaston while crapping on College Point

From the Times Ledger:

The city will be digging up streets in College Point as part of a long-term plan to upgrade the area’s sewer system and prevent pollution from flowing into Flushing Bay and Flushing Creek. To make the construction more palatable, the city has offered to help restore coastal wetlands and put in a kayak launch, according to a plan from the city Department of Environmental Protection.

But a study from the department indicated those wetlands will be in Udalls Cove in Douglaston instead of the coastal areas of College Point, which flabbergasted James Cervino, a scientist and wetlands expert who is also the environmental adviser and a member of Community Board 7.

“I couldn’t believe that,” Cervino said during a presentation to the board’s Environmental Committee. “We need it more.”

The report listed several reasons why the city deemed the College Point coastline unworthy of money. Some parts are under the Whitestone Bridge and the water’s edge is populated with manufacturing buildings, difficult to access and not owned by the city, the report said.

“Therefore, the potential for great ecological benefits can be enhanced by a more robust cumulative wetland restoration that is proposed for a nearby site at Udalls Cove,” DEP said in a report.

Lots of ponds

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