Suffolk County Looking For Volunteers To Serve As Stewards Overseeing Local Small Parks

SMITHTOWN, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- There's a new push on to keep public parks clean and safe on Long Island.

Volunteers are needed to serve as stewards to be the eyes and ears of often overlooked public parks, CBS2's Carolyn Gusoff reported Tuesday.

Charlie Bravo is on a mission to keep parks clean and visitors safe, as a volunteer steward of his local town park.

"It's incredible how much people just throw stuff away. It's really sad," Bravo said. "Plastic and chips and bottles and discarded masks and gloves."

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Beautiful little parks dot Suffolk County, but not all of them have staff to clean litter or report hazards and abuses. So, the county is launching its own corps of community volunteers for more than 60,000 acres of parkland.

"Neighbors who love it, who use the trails regularly can step up and volunteer to be a park steward," Legislator Kara Hahn said. "To notify the Parks Department if there is vandalism, graffiti. Let the Parks Department know if a tree has fallen."

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Pristine parkland has been dumped on, construction debris by the ton, cars abandoned in the woods.

Park stewards will be the eyes on the ground, a welcome addition to the volunteers who already maintain hundreds of miles of Long Island Greenbelt trails.

"Since Sandy, I have cleared probably 750 trees. This, to me, is the best thing that I have heard in forever," said David Reisfield, president of the Long Island Greenbelt Trail Conference.

Smithtown resident Barbara Hansen said she is signing up.

"I like to have a nice, clean, healthy place to walk for myself and for my dogs to walk," Hansen said.

Patrick Sabo, an orthodontist by day, stewards his local park during his time off.

"We maintain the trails, keep the fields open," Sabo said.

There is no limit to how many park stewards can volunteer. Year-round care of more than 50 small parks is needed.

Suffolk County park stewards will be assigned only parks that are not regularly maintained by Parks Department staff.