$2.3M Grant For Udalls Cove, Part Of Anti-Erosion NOAA Efforts

GREAT NECK, NY — Udalls Cove, which sits between Little Neck, Queens and Great Neck, is at risk of shoreline erosion due to coastal storms, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says, which could affect a "critical roadway."

Part of a record $136 million grant from the agency, in partnership with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) will go toward restoring the salt marsh area, one of a handful left on Nassau County's North Shore.

Environmental nonprofit Save the Sound was awarded $2,380,400 to "create a living shoreline" at Udalls Cove, using oyster castles. The group will restore the native salt marsh, using "bioengineering stabilization techniques," the NOAA announcement explained.

Oyster castles are blocks made from concrete and oyster shells, and can jumpstart a living reef where there isn't one. They've been used at Alley Pond Park in Queens.

The 800 feet of "eroding shoreline" at Udalls Cove is vulnerable to what NOAA says is "increasing coastal flooding and more intense storms," along with coastline all around the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic.