Aurora's 1972 Triumph: The Creation of Udalls Cove Park

In my last column, I explained efforts begun in 1969 by Aurora Gareiss to save the last undeveloped tracts of wetlands and woodlands in the Udalls Cove watershed were a local manifestation of a national awakening of consciousness about the value and importance of such areas, not only in the large wilderness areas with which the United States was still blessed, but also in densely populated urban areas.

In this context, Aurora and her colleagues in the newly formed Udalls Cove Preservation Committee (UCPC), found considerable support from governmental officials and citizens alike. 

New York’s progressive Republican Mayor John Lindsay had already taken his famous “Walk in the Alley” through the wetlands between Northern Boulevard and the Long Island Expressway on the Bayside-Douglaston border. This resulted in the incorporation of those wetlands into Alley Pond Park. 

Lindsay’s Parks commissioner, August Hecksher, was also receptive to the idea of preserving additional wetlands as was his Environmental commissioner, Jerome Kretchmer.

And, in 1972, a young candidate for the local state Senate seat named Frank Padavan also became a champion for Aurora’s vision of a Udalls Cove Park and Nature Preserve. Padavan, who would go on to serve for 38 years in the Senate, was instrumental in securing funding for some of the most important acquisitions that contributed to the creation of the park. 

In his first term, he sponsored legislation creating the Northeast Queens Nature and Historical Preserve Commission, a small state agency that for the next 35 years worked to save natural areas from College Point to the city line.

A feisty, grey-haired, middle-aged woman, Aurora became an indefatigable letter writer – many of them hand written – appealing in her customary direct and impassioned manner to officials both elected and appointed, newspaper editors, friends and neighbors, anyone and everyone to “do the right thing.”

She became well-known to every government official who could help – from the U.S. congressman to the governor and mayor as well as the environmental, parks and planning commissioners at the state and city level. 

Aurora was a charter member of Mayor Lindsay’s Committee on the Environment, which held its first meeting in May 1970. She built coalitions with like-minded citizens and groups in Douglaston and further afield. The Great Neck Estates Marshland Preservation Committee, established in 1969, was one such ally in Aurora’s crusade. 

The Doug-Bay Civic Association, representing the development west of P.S. 98, was another ally, arguing vigorously for preservation of the remaining wetlands beyond 233rd Street. The Douglaston Civic Association and Douglas Manor Association were also strong supporters.

In July 1970, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation was created and, one month later, the city formally requested that the new agency make an ecological evaluation of the Udalls Cove watershed. 

In December 1972 – a scant three years after UCPC was formed – the city’s no-longer-existing Board of Estimate established Udalls Cove Park. Aurora and her colleagues had achieved a great success, and in record time. But many difficult fights still lay ahead. I’ll write more about those in my next column.