OntheWilderSide

Just heard the news that there was a brush fire at Edgewood Oak Brush Plains Preserve today, Saturday, April 25th. I am not sure if the fire was related to the way the Edge Wood Preserve is managed. Though, the crisis of a fire might be a good time to reflect on the value of the preserve, and the need to manage it responsibly.

The Edgewood Preserve is located on Long Island, New York. It is managed by New York State, and covers land in the towns of: Huntington, Babylon, and Islip.

Below the Newsday story of today’s event are background stories, photo links, and video of the preserve.

From Newsday:

Firefighters from 26 departments battled a brush fire that charred roughly 20 acres of woods in Dix Hills and Deer Park on Saturday afternoon [4/25/15]….

Friends of the Edgewood Preserve website (the organization is now defunct). Includes great photos and information about the natural habitat. (Also, see message from the Friends website at our readmore.)

Save The Oakbrush Plains website. Edgewood Preserve.(Currently dormant. Looks like an abandoned plan for a website about activism concerning the preserve.)

Video which includes a walk through the preserve. This video was taken for one of the Wilders’ poetry projects…

From the Friends of the Edgewood Preserve website:

Friends of the Edgewoood Preserve suspended its stewardship of the Edgewood Preserve in July 2011, in protest of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s egregious mis-management of the property, a rare and special oak brush plains wildlife habitat….

We remain committed to making sure that the adjacent Pilgrim parcel will not be developed in any way, shape or form and that, as per the law, will be transferred to the preserve, thereby increasing the open space acreage to almost 1,000 acres. In a crowded and recklessly overdeveloped and dangerously polluted Western Suffolk County, this is not some luxury. This is essential to our well-being and the well-being of the life that surrounds and sustains us: the birds and wildlife, bees and butterflies and the water that sits in aquifers below this open space, that provides us with clean drinking water.

Our fight is far from over. We will not rest until this Pilgrim land is transferred. We will not rest until the NYS DEC manages the Edgewood Preserve as a nature preserve and not a park. We will not rest until the agency gets serious about improving and protecting the preserve, instead of believing that maintaining trails and picking up garbage or pulling some invasive plant species willy nilly without any serious science-based plan constitutes management…

Filed under: activism, Ecology, Environment, green, local, long island, Long Island news, Long Island Politics, nature, New York State Politics, News, suffolk county Tagged: | Babylon news, Brentwood Long Island, Dix Hills brush fire, Edewood Preserve, fire at Edgewood preserve, Huntington Long Island, Huntington New York, Huntington news, Long Island news, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, photos of Edgewood Preserve