Sandy Pond, NY — Twelve years ago, the dunes and beach at Sandy Island between North and South Sandy Pond were cluttered with garbage, starved for vegetation, marred by cars stuck in the sand and ablaze at night with bonfires.
Today, the sand is clean, the dunes boast glorious vegetation, and trespassing is no longer a problem. The transformation is due to work by The Ontario Dune Coalition, which celebrated its 25th anniversary with a special program Thursday evening at Sandy Island Beach State Park.
The coalition was formed to help local camp owners, homeowners and the public learn about the sand dunes and wetlands along this 17-mile stretch of Lake Ontario shoreline. The goal is to maintain the natural beauty, while allowing people to use and enjoy the area.
John Dehollander, director of Oswego County Soil and Water Conservation District and a coalition member, said even before the problems on the dunes and beach 12 years ago, locals were concerned about destruction of the dunes by natural and unnatural causes.
“They tried to get help. If they called the town, they were told it wasn’t the town’s jurisdiction and to call so-and-so,” he said. “Then they’d call so-and-so, and they couldn’t help. They kept getting the runaround.”
This is when the coalition was formed. It consists of representatives from federal, state, county and town agencies, town and county governments, wildlife, soil and water and conservation organizations, agriculture groups, camp associations and owners of camps and homes.
The Sandy Island Beach area at one time in the 1920s and 30s was a privately owned beach. When the owners stopped maintaining it, problems arose. Sandy Bonanno, a coalition member with the Oswego County Environmental Management Council, said it became an Oswego County Park in 1999, and the coalition began its work to revive its beauty.
“The coalition is a group of organizations with very different views of the land,” she said. “But we all share information, obtain grants. This (Sandy Island Beach State Park) park is one example. We have to educate how to use the park without damaging it.”
During Thursday’s celebration, an interpretive board was unveiled near the walkway to the beach and dunes in memory of Anthony Kotz, who was a founding member of the coalition and a landscape architect from Syracuse. Bonanno said Kotz, who died in 2009, was a strong advocate for the Lake Ontario dunes.