A Native Son Steps Up For Community

According to Tielis Landscaping owner Erik Tielis, it was merely a case of neighbor helping neighbor.

Tielis is referring to tree removal services his company recently donated as part of an effort to clean up the Virginia Point section of Udalls Cove Park.

"It's the neighborhood I grew up in, so I wanted to help keep it nice," Tielis said.

Since a storm ravaged Udalls Cove last June, the nature paths that crisscross this wooded retreat nestled against Little Neck Bay was an impassable mess of downed trees, limbs and brush — that is, until this week.

According to Tielis, he and his crew of nine workers cleared dozens of trees downed by the June 24 storm. "We took down only the trees that were dangerous," he said.

This isn't the first time that Tielis gave his time and expertise to make Udalls Cove accessible to the community.

In November 2009, Tielis provided wheelbarrows in a volunteer effort to construct the existing nature pathways through the park, according to Udalls Cove Preservation Committee founder Walter Mugdan.

"He really has stepped up time and time again," Mugdan said.

According to Mugdan, cleanup would have been delayed for months if not for Tielis' help.

"The [city] Parks Department couldn't have done it in the near term," he said. "They have been swamped with cleaning up after the big, big storms in other parts of the city."

For Tielis, 32, a lifelong resident of Little Neck and a graduate of Benjamin Cardozo High School, answering the call from the Udalls Cove Preservation Committee was a no-brainer.

"They said they really needed to get this done so that people could use the park without getting hurt," Tielis said.

Visiting the work site near the northern terminus of Little Neck Parkway on Tuesday afternoon, work seemed to progressing nicely, with sawed-off pieces of downed trees piled next to cleared-out nature paths.

At the site, an employee of Tielis Landscaping, Cesar Escobar, downplayed the careful technique he used to scale what was easily a 30-foot oak tree to attend to a shaky tree limb. In the process, he echoed his boss' sentiments about how it felt to help a community in need.

"It's no big deal," he said.