Hempstead Shoreline Corridor Exploration Walk
Salt marsh restoration at the Hempstead Harbor Shoreline Corridor, Mayor Newberger Cove, 2012. Adjacent to Town of North Hempstead Bar Beach Park.
Red fox on the prowl at a yet unnamed inlet with beach, salt marsh, and waste ground habitats.
We will be following a 3 mile walk through the beautiful Hempstead Harbor Shoreline Corridor. The corridor Is part of mosaic of 800 acres of diverse forests, meadows, freshwater marshes and salt marshes with springs, seeps, and streams that flow into Hempstead Harbor. The corridor and interconnected wild areas are Port Washington’s greatest reservoir of biodiversity. The region along the Bay supports hundreds of species of plants, hundreds of species of birds, and other wildlife. It is a refuge for many species of sensitive water birds such as herons and egrets and for large mammals like coyote, deer, and fox that require greater undeveloped tracts of land. The same birds, butterflies, and winged creatures that use the Hempstead Harbor shoreline corridor as a primary habitat area also visit and grace our other preserves and the backyard gardens across our region.
Our coastal ecosystems provide economic value that must no longer be underestimated during development and land-use process planning. In addition to protecting our community from rising sea levels, our salt marshes provide ecosystem services. They remediate pollution, improve water quality, mitigate stormwater run-off, sequester carbon, provide nurseries for fish, support our shell-fishing industry, ecotourism, and bird-watching, and increase property values.
Our community now has the opportunity to take a stand and save whatever shoreline we still have. The Port Washington Peninsula has already lost 90% of its undeveloped open space and 70% of our shoreline to development. It is up to the Town of North Hempstead to keep intact an unfragmented, living, and resilient shoreline corridor.
There is a suggested fee for this walk of $20 per adult and $10 per child.
Meeting Location:
Sandminers Monument Park on West Shore Road, Port Washington, NY.
More Information about the Hempstead Harbor Shoreline Corridor and What We Might Observe
The shoreline corridor supports the nesting of Osprey (Pandion haliaetus), ducks (note: there are many species of ducks, so a specific Latin name isn't provided), swans (Cygnus spp.), egrets (Egretta spp.). During our walk, we will learn to identify invasive species including honeysuckle (Lonicera spp.), English Ivy (Hedera helix), porcelain berry (Ampelopsis brevipedunculata), common reed (Phragmites australis), oriental bittersweet vine (assuming this is what "oriental staff vine" refers to; Celastrus orbiculatus), multi-floral rose (Rosa multiflora), and others.
Edible fruits and seeds that we will have the opportunity to sample include blackberries (Rubus spp.), wineberries (Rubus phoenicolasius), black cherry (Prunus serotina), seeds of touch-me-not (Impatiens spp.), and garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata). For medicinal plants, we'll observe staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina), bay leaf (assuming this refers to the bay laurel; Laurus nobilis), and others.
Furthermore, we may observe butterflies, as well as beach life, which includes crabs (note: specific Latin name isn't provided as there are many crab species). On land, keep an eye out for foxes, deer (Odocoileus spp.), and the newly introduced bobwhite quail (assuming this is what "bobwhite pheasant" refers to; Colinus virginianus).