Shadmoor

Shadmoor, Columbus Day weekend. A stone rolls down the cliff, the ocean is almost heartbreakingly blue, and a handful of surfers take towels, wetsuits, the usual, out of their van. It could be 25 years ago, given a Volkswagen and longboards.

There's no one else to be seen. Except, half a mile to the west, three mountain bikers inspecting a decrepit World War II bunker. Looking out through slits in concrete, they see the same ocean, but with an international aspect and tankers on the horizon.

Two hikers exit a trail a little farther west and stop where the surface ends and precipice begins. Facing south, they are surrounded on three sides by low brush over which they can see for miles. They are plainly amazed at their good fortune in time, place - and weather.

Is this a magnificent public park? Unfortunately not. The 99-acre Montauk property just west of Rheinstein Park, which is in turn just west of the western Ditch Plain parking lot, is privately owned and will be completely off- limits when sold as four ultra-exclusive house lots.

The East Hampton Town Planning Board is ready to approve its subdivision, and hope for a public purchase plummeted a week ago when a Congressional committee declined to set aside the money needed to preserve it, citing a huge discrepancy between the owner's asking price and the Government's appraisal. The price, indeed the disparity, is in the millions.

We are talking about an irreplaceable piece of the coastline. The public has access to nothing like Shadmoor on the East End, and those who have not seen it are well advised to do so before it's too late. The surveyor's stakes are up, the fortune-fetching views are being inventoried, and the Nature Conservancy - which has been working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service toward purchasing Shadmoor to save a protected wildflower, the sandplain gerardia, said once to have blanketed Montauk in purple - seems almost resigned to the idea of the developers' simply putting some 50 acres into a private preserve.

Are we really going to allow so few to enjoy so priceless a chunk of wilderness? Is there no way to pool the resources of those who use the land unobtrusively with those who want to protect the habitat, even perhaps the history?

The town and the Nature Conservancy are publicly committed to joining a partnership with the Federal Government to purchase Shadmoor. The land is on the Fish and Wildlife Service's wish list. Instead of complaining that the loss of $2.5 million from Congress leaves them nothing to negotiate with, the three parties should take the lead to put something substantial back on the table. Perhaps that would convince the state and county to follow suit.

Anything less than a Herculean effort is a recipe for regret.