Great Neck residents gathered in protest on Monday to speak out against environmental damage they said was taking place in the wetlands and protected forested area of Kings Point Park.
They said they believed that workers from the Great Neck Park District, allegedly directed by the Village of Kings Point, cleared a path in the wetlands, including naturally downed trees, using heavy machinery that left the area with wood debris.
“This is an ecosystem,” said Daniel Capruso, a resident for over 20 years, “It’s a wetland, you have to protect the wetland and cutting roads in it for heavy machinery to do this sort of thing just doesn’t make any sense. And also, you know that trees serve an ecological purpose… I think people everybody you know has an obligation to help preserve what little nature we have left and I’m not sure this is preserving nature, doesn’t look that way, I don’t understand why at all.”
The Great Neck Park District was scheduled to meet Wednesday to discuss the property.
Kings Point Park is considered a protected wetlands under the Freshwater Wetlands Act of 1975, which is overseen by the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
Residents fear that the protected status of the parkland could be revoked through legislation and a vote by the Great Neck Park district in a special meeting scheduled to take place Wednesday as was done in the past when one acre of parkland was allocated for use by the village.
Protesters said they are particularly concerned about the large piles of logs in the park’s parking lot. They said the trees are essential to the ecosystem’s sustainability and should not have been disturbed.
In the past, the village was prevented from claiming 5.4 acres of the park for use by the Department of Public Works by the court of appeals, but they were granted permission to use one acre.
Resident Nina Gordon brought her guitar to the rally, where participants sang folk songs.
“It’s kind of frustrating that we’re still having to I mean, two years ago, I was protesting Roe v. Wade, you know, and I helped organize a march for against gun violence,” she said. “We did March for Our Lives. You know, it’s like, this is what my parents taught me, you have to speak up when you see injustice, you can’t just turn away and say, ‘Oh, someone else will take care of it,’ you have to do something. So that’s how I got inspired.”
