Jones Beach (Photo credit: Rashed Mian)
Jones Beach State Park, which boasts up to eight million visitors each year, is one of twelve landscapes placed on a list of endangered spaces across the country.
The Washington D.C.-based group that released the list, The Cultural Landscape Foundation, cited funding shortages and other key factors in its decision to list the iconic park as one of a dozen at-risk landscapes in the nation.
Jones Beach State Park, conceived by Robert Moses in the 1920s, has been a popular spot for beach lovers for decades. But over the years it has been suffering from “funding shortages, deferred maintenance, and a lack of comprehensive preservation planning for the site has led to an incremental yet significant loss of integrity,” the foundation said in a new release.
The majority of the sites, according to the foundation, are threatened by a lack of maintenance. Other sites, however, face far more serious threats that may lead to landscapes being “partially or wholly eradicated.”
The group has highlighted more than 150 at-risk parks since 2003.
Dan Keefe, a New York state Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation spokesperson said the state has set aside $11.7 million to restore the West Bathhouse and for other improvements on the boardwalk.
Full list of at-risk landscapes across the country:
Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Burlington, VT
Fern Dell, Griffith Park, Los Angeles, CA
Garland Farm, Mount Desert, ME
Hannah Carter Japanese Garden, Los Angeles, CA
Innisfree Garden, Millbrook, NY
Isham Park, New York, NY
Jack London Lake, Jack London State Historic Park, Glen Ellen, CA
Jones Beach State Park, Wantagh, NY
Nasher Sculpture Garden, Dallas, TX
Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC
Riverbank Park, Flint, MI
Thieme Drive, Fort Wayne, IN
