S.U.V.s and Dogs Mar Nature Preserve
 Janis Hewitt
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(8/21/2008) A nature preserve that is adjacent to Big Reed and Little Reed Ponds on East Lake Drive in Montauk is suddenly being used as a beach by large crowds on weekends. Last Saturday, a steady flow of groups with coolers, inflatable rafts, and kayaks set up their blankets and beach chairs and settled in among the clammers working the saltwater lake.
There were at least eight S.U.V.s parked on both sides of the sandy, dirt path that leads to the small patch of beach. A sign tucked in the scrub brush at the entrance to the preserve, which was seemingly ignored, read, “No Unauthorized Vehicles, No Littering, No Hunting or Fishing.”
Members of the Concerned Citizens of Montauk, including Bill Akin, the president, appeared at a town board meeting to ask the board to limit access to beachgoers.
“I’m not advocating shutting access entirely, but something has to be done to cut back on the abuse right now. A nature preserve is not a nature preserve when it looks like a public park,” said Mr. Akin, noting that the rules of the preserve are not being enforced.
“Outside of the town’s financial crisis, enforcement has got to be the second biggest problem this town has right now,” he added.
He said people using the preserved area as a beach is symbolic of what’s happening at Lake Montauk, which many feel is starting to deteriorate.
Rav Freidel, a member and past president of C.C.O.M., said he was concerned with nesting terns, alewives, and the eelgrass, all species that he says are diminishing in and around the lake. “We are allowing a valuable resource to be defiled. Life forms are disappearing on our watch,” he said, describing how dogs, which are allowed to run free, disturb the preserve’s nesting sites.
Lake Montauk, he said, used to be one of the most alive places in Montauk. “But not anymore, and that’s a crime,” he said, adding, “Something is radically wrong when a nature preserve isn’t being preserved. We have a New York State wildlife habitat and the wildlife doesn’t have a chance.”
There are over 410 nature preserves in the Town of East Hampton, said Julie Evans Brunn, who is on the Lake Montauk revitalization committee and recently began to sit in on the town’s nature preserve committee meetings. “And it is very difficult to manage them all.” She said there was not one Montauk resident on the nature preserve committee.
Her concern is for the baymen and fishermen, she said, and if beachgoers were clogging up the small area, then the fishermen were probably having a hard time gaining access to the site. “Our business is the environment and this is crossing the line,” she said, noting that she hopes when the Lake Montauk Water Management Plan is complete, a solution will be found to protect the sensitive sites surrounding the lake.
Larry Penny, director of the Natural Resources Department, said that he would like to see the town make a small parking area closer to the road that would limit the number of vehicles that could park at the site. Cars parking near the lake could interfere with the growth of vegetation. “There are very few nature preserves with open access. I would prefer a parking area similar to the one at Shadmoor,” he said. “Too many things going on there will affect the lake; that’s why I’d like to see it limited.”
East Hampton Town Supervisor Bill McGintee said yesterday that the preserve was never intended to be used as a beach. Although he said he was reluctant to close off access, recent photos he saw of dogs running and defecating on the beach made him realize the board had to revisit the situation. “I don’t think a nature preserve should be used as a dog park,” he said.
Marine Patrol officers have been asked to monitor the site and report back to the town board in two weeks, said East Hampton Town Councilwoman Julia Prince, who is also a Montauk resident. The majority of the board does not want to block access, she said.