BUFFALO, N.Y. — The high winds that whipped through Western New York earlier this month is the latest weather event to cause damage to the Times Beach Nature Preserve.
The Erie County Parks Department said in a release on Tuesday the recent seiche caused by winds has caused damage to the preserve's trails. The preserve has been closed since October 2019 when another seiche caused significant damage.
A $500,000 grant from the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York (DASNY) State Municipal Facilities Program was awarded in 2018 for improvements to the site. This funding will now be applied to a Coastal Resiliency Study that would help better protect the site from future seiche damage.
“The Times Beach Nature Preserve is a beautiful but fragile ecosystem and is highly vulnerable to bad weather, due to its location. The site has taken a beating over the past few years from wind and waves every time we have severe weather and has been either partly or fully closed at various times during that span,” said Commissioner of Parks, Recreation and Forestry Troy P. Schinzel.
“For safety reasons we will now be closing Times Beach until further notice. In the spring our Department plans to work with the Friends of Times Beach to explore clean ups that could result in certain trails within Times Beach being opened to the public once again. I also want to thank NYS Senator Ryan for helping to secure this grant funding, which will be critical to protecting times beach in the future.”
