UDALLS COVE PRESERVATION | Douglaston Civic

UDALLS COVE PRESERVATION COMMITTEE

May 9, 2026

Dear Friends of Udalls Cove Park,

If you walk the North Ravine Trail in Udalls Cove Park (see our map here: https://www.udallscove.org/map-and-trails), you may notice that many of the trees -- those with a diameter greater than 6" -- have small metal tags affixed. A week ago our contractor, GEI Consultants, carried out a Tree Survey in which each such tree in our target area was identified by species, size, condition and exact location. This survey is a requirement of the New York City Parks Department to support our eventual application for permits to carry out our planned North Ravine Invasive Species Removal and Ecological Restoration Project at the north end of the Ravine section of Udalls Cove Park.

The surveyors tagged trees in our planned restoration site, and also for some distance south of the site. This will show what native species of trees are generally occupying the area, which can help in identifying appropriate species for replanting as part of our restoration project. It can also help in case we wish to expand the size of the planned restoration site a little further south than currently contemplated.

Our contractor also carried out a detailed invasive species survey of our planned restoration site. As anyone who has walked past the area knows, it is almost entirely overrun by invasive Japanese Knotweed (a plant that looks vaguely like bamboo and grows as high as 8-10 feet); Multiflora Rose (a thorny rose bush that is common throughout the park); and Porcelainberry Vine (which grows over both the Knotweed and the Rose shrubs). Along the western edge of our planned restoration site there are a few larger and many smaller (younger) invasive Norway Maple trees, which are also common throughout the park.

The aim of our restoration project is to remove the invasives and replant with appropriate native trees, shrubs and groundcover. We have received a grant of $125,000 from the NY State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) to carry out this project. The state grant requires that we provide a 25% ($31,250) match. We will cover that match using part of a $75,000 grant we received from Con Edison. We are also using the Con Ed grant to pay for the design now being prepared for us by GEI Consultants. The "60% Design Report" is expected to be ready in June, when it will be shared with the City Parks Department and NYSDEC for review. With feedback from those agencies and our organization, GEI will prepare the "90% Design Report," which will be used to support our applications for permits from both the City and State agencies. We hope those applications may be ready for submission by Fall of this year.

If and when we receive our permits, any further permit conditions and requirements will be incorporated into the "100% Design Report," and that will be used to solicit bids from qualified contractors to carry out the field work. If all goes smoothly (which is, alas!, unlikely), we could have a contractor on board and working in the field by late 2027.

Once the initial work is completed, we will shift into "maintenance mode" for 5-10 more years, to minimize reinvasion and maximize the chance of success for our new plantings. We will need more funding for that maintenance work, and we will be applying for additional grants in the coming years.

Stay tuned! We'll provide occasional progress reports to let you know how the project is progressing.

Walter Mugdan

Udalls Cove Preservation Committee

917-832-0208

Udalls Cove Preservation Committee/Park/Nature Preserve/Queens&Nassau NY

Since 1969 UCPC has provided CPR -- Conservation, Preservation and Restoration -- to the remaining undeveloped w...

2021 Annual Meeting of the Udalls Cove Preservation Committee will be held “virtually” on Zoom on Saturday, April 10 from 4:00 to 5:00 PM. We will email the link for the Zoom meeting a week in advance. If you would like to do so, you would be very welcome to share this information -- and the link when we send it -- with your own organization's membership.

Our meeting will feature a slide show of beautiful photos of birds taken by Peter Reinharz in Udalls Cove Park and nearby areas. We are sure participants will enjoy seeing Peter’s spectacular images of our avian neighbors, both familiar and rare.

52nd Annual Cleanup ... but it will not be "virtual." The only way to make a dent in the large amount of trash that has washed up on our shoreline and accumulated in our park is to spend some time outdoors with a trash bag. But we can maintain appropriate social distancing while we’re doing that. We are asking our members and friends to participate for an hour or two on Saturday morning, April 17. From 9:00 AM to Noon on that day we’ll be on the Back Road (Sandhill Road) near Aurora Pond to provide all volunteers with heavy duty trash bags, work gloves and maps suggesting locations where their help is most needed. We encourage folks to bring the family along and work as a “quaranteam” while maintaining appropriate distance from other volunteers.

The Udalls Cove Preservation Committee (UCPC) is a volunteer organization founded in 1969, dedicated to the preservation, conservation and restoration of Udalls Cove and its associated wetlands and wooded uplands. Much of the area is now protected as the Udalls Cove Wildlife Preserve, managed by the New York City Parks Department.

Udalls Cove is an inlet of Little Neck Bay, part of Long Island Sound, between the Douglaston and Great Neck peninsulas. At the head of the Cove is a large and healthy salt water marsh. Behind that, Aurora Pond lies at the center of freshwater wetlands, bounded by steep, wooded slopes.

To learn more about the UDALLS COVE PRESERVATION COMMITTTEE

Reduce, Restrict, RestoreInvasive Species at Udalls Cove Park PreservePresentation by Samantha PalmadessaGirl Scout Gold AwardClick here to view presentation