We are always looking for people
to come to the monthly meetings
and bring us ideas and
suggestions for future activity.
All are welcome!
MEETING SCHEDULE ON THE
1
st
TUESDAY
OF THE MONTH
Meetings held at the Nature
Center at Blue Heron Park
January 3, 2017
February 7, 2017
March 7, 2017
April 4, 2017
May 2, 2017
June 6, 2017
July 2017 No meeting
August 1, 2017
September 5, 2017
October 3, 2017
November 7, 2017
December 5, 2017
NATURAL RESOURCES PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION
(continued next page)
Page 4
WINTER 2017
SEASIDE NATURE PARK
CLEANUP
By Jim Scarcella
In November, NRPA cleaned the
shoreline at Seaside Nature Park,
Great Kills Harbor. The site was first
known as 'Fitzgeralds’, for the large
hotel on Fitzgerald Street, one block
away.
The south portion, before it was Port
Regalle, was known as Shoals
Dock. There was a pier, marina and
restaurant here. The area towards
Cleveland Ave was also known as
'Captains Marina'.
Seaside Nature Park came into be-
ing largely through the work of An-
thony Marracini and the Great Kills
Civic Association, Kerry Sullivan of
NRPA and Protectors of Pine Oak
Woods. The park is bounded by
Cleveland Avenue and Nelson Ave.
For this clean up, we had great sup-
port from the South Shore YMCA
(Raia and friends) and Ms. Simo's
students from Susan Wagner HS.
Frank Ninivaggi from Grasmere Civ-
ic also pitched in.
A genuine hero of the harbor, Rich-
ard Tullo of Richmond County Yacht
Club came by and told us about the
Waterfront Watch organization of
1970 to 1972. The Watch was
formed to turn back a misguided
plan to fill in 20 acres of the bay for
incinerators and a mega high rise
development. We are forever grate-
ful for their efforts.
The debris was plentiful and varied.
Some of the bulk objects included
dock parts as well as Styrofoam
floats of all shapes and sizes. There
were plastic storage container piec-
es, boat buffers, fiberglass, plastic,
rubber cleaning products and quart
oil containers. Many of the plastic
items had been on the shore for so
long that they crumbled in our hands
when we attempted to lift them into
the garbage bags.
JAMAICA BAY – A CON-
TROVERSIAL FLOOD CON-
TROL PROJECT
By Ida Sanoff
The Army Corps of Engineers re-
cently released a Draft Environmen-
tal Impact Statement (DEIS) flood
control plan for the Queens/Brooklyn
shoreline. The plan covers the area
from the Head of Bay near the Nas-
sau County border, all the way into
Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn. Both
the ocean facing shorelines and the
interior areas along Jamaica Bay are
addressed in the plan.
NRPA attended the Public Informa-
tional Meeting at Brooklyn’s Kings-
boro Community College in early
October. The meeting which includ-
ed a poster session and a formal
presentation was well attended.
The plan is very complex and in-
cludes natural measures such as
construction of reefs and expansion
of wetlands as well as engineered
structures like flood walls and flood
gates. The plan is designed so that
it can be done incrementally, as
funding becomes available.
The
cost of the entire project as pro-
posed will be over $3 billion. Some
of the funding is available right now
while the rest will have to be author-
ized in the near future. Although the
cost to benefit ratio is high, there is
no guarantee that the needed mon-
ey will materialize.
There are some things in the plan
which make a lot of sense, including
the extension of groin fields/jetties on
the Rockaway Beach shoreline.
Rockaway residents started asking
for this even before Hurricane Sandy
hit and we are glad that this will final-
ly happen. Areas of the Rockaway
shoreline that were protected by jet-
ties had less hurricane damage than
areas that had none.
Another good thing that will come out
of this plan is the buildup of dunes
along Rockaway Beach. These will
most likely be reinforced dunes, con-
structed with some combination of a
sheet pile wall and/or rock founda-
tion, topped by sand and vegetation.
The beach will also be raised and
extended.
But then things get complicated.
The Corps is proposing several com-
plex flood gates, including one that
will stretch across Rockaway Inlet
from somewhere near the Marine
Park Bridge to somewhere on Floyd
Bennet Field.
In order to plan a flood control pro-
ject for Jamaica Bay, it is essential to
know how quickly water moves
around in there. There are several
storm water and combined sewer
overflow outfalls that empty into the
Bay, plus it’s one of the most im-
portant wildlife habitats in the entire
city. All of these projects are de-
The overwhelming trash was cello-
phane wrapping, discarded snack
packaging, bottle caps, cigarette
butts and straws. I also found a
brass plumbing valve tag
(waterproof) Blistex, boat stain re-
mover, sponges, driftwood, 60 sin-
gle use plastic bags, insulation, fish-
ing bobbers and a salt shaker.
The nature was varied and beautiful.
There were gulls diving on menha-
den that were being chased by
striped bass, buffleheads, mallards
and a family of swans. There were
plentiful Spartina patens grasses and
numerous beach fleas under certain
heavy debris.
All in all, we collected 20 bags of
trash and 320 lbs. of debris.
