take home and cook. During the
garden clean up, a large garter
snake was discovered dormant. We
took it to the bodega to show it to the
families shopping there. The kids
were astonished as the garter snake
continuously flicked its tongue.
South
On October 18, NRPA members
cleaned a half mile portion of Confer-
ence House Beach at Page Avenue
in Tottenville. This was part of Its
My Park Day of NYC Dept. of Parks
and Recreation. The parking lot
holds about a dozen vehicles, it
was larger than I remembered.
Stefanie Gutierrez and Vinnie
Iaiconne of Parks assisted us with
supplies. The beach was only a
little soiled. There were several
large driftwood timbers.
We were pleasantly surprised to
view several osprey with menha-
den fish in their talons.
Also, we pulled a medium size
washed-out tree off the beach to
the debris pile. We had a chance to
visit the shoreline meditation areas
constructed by Doug Schwartz and
his team of volunteers. It was an
outdoor temple constructed from
stones, driftwood and decorated
plastic beverage containers.
A
beautiful place for solitude and
reflection. The clean up stretched
from Surf Ave. to Butler Manor. A
hundred- year old coffee creamer
ceramic cup from an old hotel was
recovered from the surf. All told
we removed 300 lbs. of trash and
recycled 20 lbs. of glass and met-
al.
East
Under the leadership of Laura Piil
Crequa, NRPA members cleaned
Crescent Beach south at Groton Av-
enue in Eltingville on October 25
th
.
We had help from Assemblywoman
Nicole MalliotakIs, State Senator
Andrew Lanza and people from N. Y.
Cares. It was a nice, sunny day and
there was lots of debris, especial-
ly at Littlefield Street and near
the Armstrong Avenue storm wa-
ter outfall jetty. There was
30
ft. of extended snow
fence from previous beach
restoration that we couldn't
get off the rip rap stone wall,
it was too dangerous. But 22
volunteers did remove over
600
lbs. of debris including
plastic bags, cigarette butts
and beverage containers.
We also trimmed back the
weeds that were overtaking the
guardrail and emptied the exist-
ing trash containers of dog ex-
crement and fishing bait packag-
ing.
West
About twelve members of Protectors
of Pine Oak Woods, FCA and NRPA
gathered at Arthur Kill Road and
Page 7
Fall 2014
NATURAL RESOURCES PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION
Rossville Ave. to visit and clean up
Blazing Star Marsh and cemetery on
November 8
th
.
It was a cold but sun-
ny day. The marsh is beautiful and
leads to the graveyard of abandoned
ships. We had cleaned this area in
May 2014. Please see the article by
Anthony Rose.
As an addendum to West, I visited
Clay Pit Pond on November 11
th
.
White tail deer bounded through a
trail.
The deer have completely
wiped out any chance of successive
vegetation, this is a disgrace. In fifty
years, Clay Pit may be a barren ar-
ea. A mini clean up removed 30
lbs. of debris including roof flash-
ing, sealer compound buckets and
uncovered a beautiful red-backed
salamander.
At Mill Creek the tide was up and
just outgoing. A felled tree had
ensnared a snapper popper rig.
The mini-clean up here removed a
propane tank and packaging de-
bris.
I hope you've enjoyed the stories of
the Quadrants clean ups. If you
have any questions or comments
or would like to schedule a clean up
of your shoreline, send an email to
nrpa2@aol.com.
Taking part in an
annual beach cleanup
is one way to keep the
oceans healthy for
generations to come.
Join us at our next
beach cleanup!