Big Rock’s Ecological Renaissance

A collaborative effort for preserving critical habitat in Queens

New York City has lost 85 percent of its tidal marshes over the last century, including marshland around the Douglas Manor neighborhood, on a peninsula in Little Neck Bay, Queens. The result is severe flooding, impaired water quality, and erosion encroaching on an important road for emergency access.

To reverse the damage, Save the Sound is preparing to implement the Big Rock Wetland Restoration Project. We will restore the eroding marsh and protect the shoreline with living features that mitigate erosion and adapt to rising sea levels. Our team will restore four acres of salt marsh and install “oyster castles” (cement structures that attract oysters and form reefs) along 1,100 feet of shoreline. The oyster castles and vegetation will help to filter excess nutrients from the water and stabilize the marsh banks in this wetland inlet off Little Neck Bay, known as Udalls Cove. Named for a giant bolder at the site, the project will break ground in early 2024. “The Big Rock Wetland Restoration Project is a unique opportunity to protect a coastal community from further shoreline erosion while restoring critical habitat in Little Neck Bay,” says Katie Friedman, New York ecological restoration program manager. “We’re now in the process of working with our engineering firm, GEI Consultants, on final design and permitting to be able to bring this exciting project to life.”

Save the Sound is working with the Douglas Manor Association, Douglas Manor Environmental Association, Udalls Cove Preservation Committee, Hofstra University, New York City Audubon, Billion Oyster Project, and NYC Parks. The project has received funding from the New York State’s Water Quality Improvement Program, the National Coastal Resiliency Fund, Congressionally-Directed Spending advocated for by then-Representative Tom Suozzi and administered by the EPA, and the Long Island Sound Futures Fund, which is administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation in partnership with the Long Island Sound Study, the EPA, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.