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Last weekend members of the Flushing Meadows Corona Park Conservancy and the Queens County Bird Club gathered at Mauro Playground. They waited there, looking out at the Van Wyck Expressway, and beyond that, Willow Lake.
Some could remember a time before the highway ripped through the neighborhood. Everyone recalled when Willow Lake, a State protected wetland since 1976, was left open to the public.
They were met that Saturday morning by two Urban Park Rangers for an hour-long tour with an emphasis on bird watching. The rangers unlocked the gate and led them across the highway pedestrian overpass and down a ramp onto Willow Lake’s circumferential path, ravaged by invasive phragmites. Despite the overgrowth, the group saw muskrats, herrings, mallards and mocking birds.
After a fire in the late 1990’s, the cause of which remains unknown, the area was sealed off and neglected. Both entrances to the Lake – one crossing over the Van Wyck Expressway and the other stretching over the Grand Central Parkway – are closed off; the Parks Department cannot say since when.
An article in an August 2006 issue of the Tribune shed light on the dilapidated state of Willow Lake and the dangerous means by which residents were gaining access. It also cited the Parks Web site’s Willow Lake Trail 2001 update, which stated that a $22,000 grant was provided by the Department of Agriculture’s Urban Resources Partnership Program for the path’s restoration.
According to Parks Spokeswoman Abigail Lootens that grant is no longer on hand.
“There is no money from the Dept. of Agriculture or the National Wildlife Service and State Environmental Bond Act for the Willow Lake area,” Lootens said, adding that various elected officials are providing funding for future repairs.
Councilman Jim Gennaro (D-Fresh Meadows) and Councilwoman Melinda Katz (D-Forest Hills) have contributed $150,000 and $200,000 respectively toward installing wrought iron fencing for a safer entranceway. In addition, $20,000 from State Senator Malcolm Smith will enable Parks to build a bird blind.
Shoreline restoration will be funded by a legislative initiative and is expected to begin by the end of next spring. Replacing the temporary wooden bridge that connects the two path sections with a permanent bridge is also scheduled for spring 2008.
Grants are also instrumental in Willow Lake’s restoration.
“In February, Parks was awarded an $84,480 Recreational Trails Program reimbursement grant through the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (OPRHP) with $21,124 in matching funds coming from Unisphere, Inc.,” Lootens said. “A key element in opening up the trail is the work that will be done through this grant and we are waiting to receive the contract to begin work. Once we have the contract, the work itself should take about six months to be completed.”
Access to Willow Lake is currently only allowed to the public if they are escorted by rangers. Hallet Nature Sanctuary in Central Park, Paerdegat Basin Park Preserve in Brooklyn and North Brother Island in the Bronx operate similarly.
FMCP Conservancy member Pat Dolan is pleased with the recent progress. She credits an environmentally-minded mayor, a well-funded Parks Department and “groups like ours that are out there screaming.” She supports the Park’s “limited access” policy.
“We want it to be escorted,” Dolan said. “We don’t want to see it open.”
Forest Hills resident and avid cyclist Cheryl Lifton, however, is not satisfied.
“I would like to see the area opened up for public use in a manner akin to the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Preserve…where the natural beauty and wildlife of the area is protected but the public has access to enjoy it,” Lifton said, adding that the current policy is incongruous with the Mayor’s PlaNYC program, which seeks in part to ensure that every New Yorker live within a 10-minute walk of a park by 2030.
“The city seems to want to develop its green spaces …Why should this large area in the middle of the city be left behind?” she said.
The next guided bird watching event is scheduled for Dec. 22.