On the morning of September 7, members of the community joined Fire Island National Seashore (FINS) Park Rangers in hauling trash out of the Carrington Tract or Meatrack, the wooded area between Cherry Grove and Fire Island Pines, in a second annual such effort, spearheaded by Grovite Greg McMullen, with partner Steven Sandoval, and FINS Law Enforcement Specialist Dustin Gunderson. FINS provided trash bags, gloves, implements to grasp and pick up litter, and trucks to cart out the refuse. The community and FINS provided the person power to accomplish it all.
We rid the Meatrack of everything from small items, like used condoms, condom wrappers, and packets of lube, cigarette butts, bits of Styrofoam, and cups, cans and bottles, to larger items, such as a glass shower door, mattress and cushions, and a cooler, as well as blocks of wood and pieces of rusty metal.
Representing FINS, beside Gunderson, were Acting Chief Ranger John Stewart and Steve Olijnyk, Luke De Domenici, and Claire Furmanski. Community members included, beside McMullen, photographers Warren Boyd Wexler and Koitz, Rich McFeaters, and this writer.
There was some discussion with Gunderson and other Rangers about a recent Meatrack incident in which one Ranger had detained half a dozen men for “disorderly conduct (overt sexual activity in public),” as Chief Ranger Lena B. Koschmann put it in an August 26 email to me, adding, “The men were all given verbal warnings for a violation of federal law, Title 36 of the Code of Federal Regulations, 2.34(a)(2).  In this case, the lowest level of enforcement action was utilized (a verbal warning), and no further action was taken.” A Ranger had also threatened to remove from the area an observer, who did not immediately move on when he witnessed the incident.   This did not, however, deter cooperation on the venture at hand and, at the end of the morning, McMullen distributed Meatrack and other t-shirts to participants, and there was also a raffle for tickets for the evening’s Spartacus event, at Belvedere Guest House for Men, donated by presenter Daniel Nardicio.