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Flushing Meadows-Corona Park
Dedication of a Sign at Meadow Lake by Senator Frank Padavan June 10 2008

Flushing Meadows-Corona Park (Meadow Lake)
Local Boy Scout Troop with Senator Frank Padavan helping clean up Meadow Lake May 17 2008

A WILDERNESS LOST ON THE CITY
By William C. Thompson and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
New York Times OpEd, May 29, 2008

MANY people are astounded to learn that there is a teeming wildlife preserve in New York City. Ridgewood Reservoir on the Brooklyn-Queens border is an oasis where an amazing range of plant and animal species thrive in a verdant landscape of steep hills and narrow valleys amid the city’s paved sidewalks.

But what’s more astounding, the city’s Parks Department could wind up destroying it. Ridgewood is an accidental wilderness, tucked alongside the Jackie Robinson Parkway. Built in 1858 to provide drinking water to Brooklyn, the reservoir was abandoned in 1989. As the 50 acres reverted to wetlands, meadows and forests, tens of thousands of plants and trees took root and flourished. Turtles, fish, frogs and millions of insects moved in. Songbirds nested in the glades, transforming the area into a migratory rest stop. According to the National Audubon Society, 137 species of birds use the reservoir, including eight rare species. It is a place as close to unspoiled nature as you’re likely to find anywhere within city limits.

Yet, the New York City Parks Department is considering a $50 million “renovation” project that would cover more than 20 acres of the reservoir with athletic fields and facilities. This plan flies in the face of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s widely hailed environmental blueprint, which bemoans the loss of the city’s natural areas. The Parks Department’s own scientific consultants have warned against disturbing the reservoir, an area they call “highly significant for the biodiversity of New York City and the region.” The parks commissioner has said the city needs the athletic fields to combat childhood obesity. This is an important objective, but the money that would be used to destroy this extraordinary natural habitat could be better spent improving Highland Park, next to Ridgewood Reservoir. Highland Park has plenty of ball fields to serve its neighborhood, but they are in such deplorable condition that few people use them.

Ridgewood’s natural preserve is a great place for people of all ages to walk and hike. Its trails should be upgraded with benches and rest areas as well as markers pointing out unique flora and fauna. The Parks Department should also open areas of the reservoir for guided nature walks, a great educational tool. Ridgewood Reservoir offers visitors a rare chance to lose themselves in a forest, to hear bird song, to touch wilderness and to sense the divine. The city shouldn’t let that slip away.

Flames from a brush fire leapt 20 feet high, and smoke blackened the skies, shutting down the Van Wyck Expressway near the Willow Lake section of Flushing Meadows Park on Friday. A relay of helicopters hovered over the park carrying water to douse the flames.

Bus drivers milled around Jewel Avenue, their parked buses adding to the traffic chaos in the area. “When I first saw the blaze on 208th Street, around 2 p.m., the flames were above the street lights. They told us to stop driving and we haven’t moved since,” said driver Bob Graziano, as he stood at the corner of Jewel Avenue and the Grand Central Parkway waiting for the order to return to his bus. By 3:30 p.m., the Van Wyck was open again, but Jewel Avenue was still blocked even to pedestrian traffic. “I’m just trying to get to my home for the holidays,” said a man who was told he couldn’t walk across the Jewel Avenue bridge over the Grand Central Parkway.

Police and firefighters at the scene could not confirm how the fire started or how many acres were affected. “It’s all over,” said one, as he walked up the ramp from the expressway, his face smeared black with carbon.

Friday was the warmest day of the year so far, and just as the weather brought people outside to enjoy the spring sunshine, the sky darkened and plumes of smoke rose hundreds of feet into the air engulfing the roads and nearby homes.

Christian Villarroel, a Fire Department spokesman, said that the fire was a three alarm, meaning that 138 firefighters in 33 fire vehicles were called. The FDNY received the call at 12:26 p.m. and the fire was declared under control at 3:20 p.m.

Located near the train yard at Union Turnpike and 141st Street, the fire was classified as a rubbish fire because it took place in brush, not buildings. Villarroel was unable to confirm how many acres had burned by Monday, although the cause and extent of the fire is under investigation by fire marshals. No injuries were reported. The Flushing Meadows Corona Park Conservancy had planned to celebrate Earth Day, 2008 with a walk around Willow Lake on Sunday, but were forced to cancel because of the fire. “Acres of it were burned out,” said Pat Dolan, FMCPC president, noting that Willow Lake Natural Area is a New York state protected wetland.

While a fire such as this can renew wild places, Dolan didn’t see the need in an urban setting. “This is a rare stretch of green in the middle of the city,” she said adding that the nearby residents of Forest Hills wouldn’t be happy. Judging by past experience, however, it is anticipated that the area will be green again within a month.

According to NY1, despite the fire trucks and helicopters, about 20 acres of wetlands were damaged. Greg Godfrey, president of the Flushing Meadows-Corona Park World’s Fair Association, said that nature has her forces of renewal. “The smoke was intense with large embers carrying through the wind across the Van Wyck Expressway,” he said, noting that the smell of smoke quickly reached the Unisphere.

He blamed the Parks Department for not maintaining the area properly, adding that the man-made nature preserve should have been on the Parks Department’s watch list, and the overgrown marshes should have been the subject of a program to prune the growth. “I went out for a simple bike ride through the park, left coughing and cleaned carbon off my face when I returned home.”

Dorothy Lewandowski, Queens parks commissioner, explained that Willow Lake was not a lawn area, but a wild area, and the reeds there provide habitat for animals. “The combination of dry vegetation, warm weather and children home from school on break, can sometimes lead to fires,” she said.

Although she couldn’t confirm that the fire was started by children, she said that there had been reports of youngsters fleeing the area around the time the fire started. Godfrey was outraged that the lives of firefighters were put in jeopardy and said that the police had to send basketball players in the park home because of smoke. “Too bad the smoke was blowing
northeast and not toward City Hall — maybe the “green” mayor would finally see the smoke signals that all is not well in the park systems of the ‘outer boroughs,’” Godfrey said.

Earth day was celebrated by the Flushing Meadows-Corona Park Conservancy along with the Urban Park Rangers and the citizens of our community by attending a "Canoe Ride" at Meadow Lake, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. Under the supervision of Sergeant Howward Kreft who is the supervisor of the Queens Urband Park Rangers, memmbers of the Queens community A canoe ride. Sunday morning at 11:30 members of the Queens community and their children gathered at the southern end of Meadow lake and signed up for a canoe ride the first ever given in celebration of "Earth Day".

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Waiting for the canoe ride	Signing Up	Checking things out
Handing out Life Vests	Showing how to adjust Life Vest	This is how you paddle
Oops the canoe rolls over	All is well and now in the water	Another successful lanuch
Isn't the lake wonderful???		Dave Kulik "Treasurer" FMCP soncervancy in Kayak

Park Rangers Take Residents Out For a Canoe Trip!
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Photo by Edward Fisher

During the later days of August, our Flushing Meadows-Corona Park rangers took residents of our fair borough of Queens out in canoes and led them paddle their way from Meadow lake (formerly the "Blue Lagoon" of the World's fair to Willow lake which is on the other side of Jewel Avenue and in the Federal Wildlife preserve.. The canoes and paddles and life jackets were supplied at no cost to those who participated in this event. During the fall months we should have some outings for "Bird Watchers and Leaf Peepers". These events will be announced here as well as on the Flushing Meadows-Corona Park Conservancy site.. www.fmcpconservancy.org