Story
Aurora Gareiss: Champion of Udalls Cove
Udalls Cove is a 30-acre inlet off of Little Neck Bay in the northeast Queens neighborhoods of Douglaston & Little Neck. Named after an 18th Century merchant whose descendants owned the Saddle Rock Mill in Great Neck until 1950, Udalls Cove protects one of the few remaining salt marsh wetlands, which at one time surrounded much of the city. Today it is Udall's Cove Park - but it was not always a protected preserve.
Udall's Cove And Ravine Natural Resource Area
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Douglaston Wetlands
By the mid-1960s, most of the remaining wetlands east of Douglas Manor had been purchased by several different developers, each with its own vision of a future that would have seen the winding creek at Udalls Cove filled in and replaced by a range of housing, a golf course, a mall, and a marina.
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Aurora Pond
Local residents resisted the development of this important natural resource and in 1969 a group of local Little Neck-Douglaston residents led by Aurora Gareiss began a letter-writing campaign urging government intervention and formed the Udalls Cove Preservation Committee to protect what they saw as the last vestige of an urban ecosystem left in northeast Queens.
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Aurora Pond
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Udall's Cove Marsh Fill
Mrs. Gareiss, knowing full well the significance of both the marshlands and its inhabitants, declared: "We believe this precious remaining cove, with its upland and marshes, its fresh water streams and its fine springs and wild life, should be saved in its natural state for our present and future generations."
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Udall's Cove Marsh Fill
Udalls Cove Preservation Committee invited everyone from local communities to take a "Walk on the Marsh."
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New York City Hall
The first victory came when Udall's Cove was mapped as a New York City park on December 7, 1972. And in August 1973, the Tri-State Regional Planning Commission issued a report stating that the ravine in Udalls Cove must be preserved "because of its ecological importance in maintaining the fresh water and nutrient inputs to Udalls Cove and Little Neck Bay: it serves as a watershed for the Douglaston-Little Neck area.
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Udall's Cove And Ravine Natural Resource Area
But Gareiss’ fight to keep the park a natural wetland and protect the watershed would last over 22 years.
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Udall's Cove Marsh
Even though Udall's Cove was declared a park it was still not a protected wildlife area. This shows the area of proposed sewer pipe outlet into the cove in 1980
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Udall's Cove And Ravine Natural Resource Area
Finally, after years of working toward wetlands preservation in 1990, Udalls Cove was officially dedicated as a wildlife preserve that included precious wetlands, forest, and ravines on both sides of the Nassau-Queens County line. It is now the Udalls Cove & Ravine Natural Resource Area.
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31-07 Douglas Road
Gareiss passed away in 2000. And in 2011, to mark Gareiss' many achievements, a pond located in the middle of Udalls Cove was named in her honor. Aurora Pond is now home to snapping turtles, shorebirds and waterfowl including egrets, osprey, herons, ducks, geese and swans.
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