HECKSCHER STATE PARK
East Islip
1,675 acres

Directions:

Heckscher Parkway extension of Southern State Parkway to the end.

Geology:

The park juts into Great South Bay in East Islip.

History:

1920s -- the park was to be named "Deer Range State Park" when mining magnate and philanthropist August Heckscher donated $262,000 for purchasing land.

1924 -- Robert Moses, Long Island State Park Commission president, began a crusade to turn the unoccupied land into a state park. What ensued was a five-year legal battle.

1929 -- the park opens. Governor Al Smith heard a millionaire complain that the park would be "overrun with rabble from the city" and replied, "Why, that's me," and signed the papers for the new park.

Facilities:

Beaches, camping and fishing facilities and nature trails.

(Cynthia Blair, Newsday Names of Long Island; http://www.newsday.com/features/custom/names)

Habitats:

shore, meadow, and woods.

Trails:

The Long Island Greenbelt Trail starts here at the east end of parking field 8 on the edge of Great South Bay.

PLANT LIST:
Sept. 9, 2000
Chris Mangels

Bidens coronata (northern tickseed sunflower)
Eriophorum virginicum (cotton grass)
Euthamia tenuifolia
Hypericum gentianoides (orangegrass)
Hypericum hypericoides var. multicaule (St. Andrew's Cross) 1999 Skip Blanchard
Iris prismatica (slender-leaved iris)
Jasione montana (sheep's bit)
Paspalum laeve
Polygala cruciata (cross-leaved milkwort)
Quercus stellata (post oak)
Rhexia virginica (meadow beauty)
Spartina pectinata (freshwater cordgrass)
Typha angustifolia (narrow-leaved cattail)