In 1960, a new owner on Frost Mill Road was renovating his house when he found a map attached to a door. It showed a "Bird and Game Refuge in and about the Village of Mill Neck." According to the North Shore Wildlife Sanctuary's own history, no one had mentioned a refuge to him. Not the seller, not the broker, not the neighbors.
His name was Bob Deans. He took the map next door to Bill Dunn, then the Mayor of Mill Neck, and the two of them brought in a friend, Len Marshall. Their research led them to revive a refuge that had been dormant for roughly three decades.
What they rebuilt still owns a good share of the open land around Beaver Lake and Frost Mill Road. It was never meant to work like a park, and most of its gates stay closed to anyone without an appointment.
Thirty Years Between the Map and the Mayor
The refuge on that door dated to 1929. The sanctuary describes it as a pioneering effort by Mill Neck landowners to protect native wildlife. Its first warden, Robert Ford, filed a report to the trustees in 1932. Then the Great Depression set in, and the project was neglected until the map turned up.
Deans, Dunn and Marshall retained Humes and Wagner, a local law firm where several Mill Neck residents were partners. In 1963 they formed the North Shore Bird and Game Sanctuary, recruited a board and hired Robert Hornosky as warden. In 1968 the organization became North Shore Wildlife Sanctuary, Inc. It registered as a tax-exempt nonprofit and began accepting gifts of land.
The sanctuary's best-known preserve carries another family's name. A 2025 release from New York State's tourism office says F. Edwin Church set up the Charles T. Church Northshore Bird Sanctuary on adjoining family land in memory of his brother. The Church family were founding members of the sanctuary and gave a significant portion of the land now known as Shu Swamp.
Since 1963, donations of land have grown the sanctuary into a network of eleven preserves, listed on its site and clustered around Mill Neck and Lattingtown. They cover lakes, salt marshes, swamps, meadows and forest.
Preserves, Not Parks
The founders set the land aside for the birds, and the rules posted today still put the wildlife first. The sanctuary's preserves page states it plainly:
"Please note that these properties are preserves for the protection of plants and animals. They are not parks to be used for the recreation activities of people."
The practical rules follow from that. Bicycles, running, picnicking, fishing and swimming are not allowed. Groups larger than eight are asked to contact the warden first, and drones need his permission. Only two properties, Shu Swamp and Coffin Woods, have parking and open to walkers without an appointment. Visits to the others are arranged through Warden Brendan Tully.
So most of the network stays out of sight from the trail. Here is what the sanctuary holds closest to Mill Neck, as each preserve's page describes it:
| Preserve | Where | What's there | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Charles T. Church (Shu Swamp) | Frost Mill Road, Mill Neck, beside the LIRR tracks | Spring-fed wooded wetland, Beaver Brook, brook trout, American brook lamprey | Open Saturday through Thursday |
| O'Rourke Preserve | Beaver Lake, Mill Neck | 16 acres, nearly a third of the lake | By appointment |
| Bird Roost Preserve | Edge of Beaver Lake | Maple and tupelo swamp, summer roost for cormorants and egrets | By appointment |
| Allsopp-Fisher Salt Marsh | Two peninsulas just north of the DeGraff Causeway | Marsh wrens, diamond-back terrapins | Not open to the public |
| Raikes Preserve | Stream from Kaintuck Pond to Beaver Lake | Wet woodland, red maple, spicebush, skunk cabbage | By appointment |
| Coffin Woods | Oyster Bay Road at the LIRR overpass, Locust Valley | 73 acres of oak, beech and tulip woodland | Open, sunrise to sundown |
Beaver Lake, Owned in Part by the Birds
Four of those preserves sit around a single body of water. On the sanctuary's O'Rourke page, Beaver Lake is described as the third-largest lake in Nassau County, with clean fresh water. Sixteen acres of it, nearly a third, are deeded to the sanctuary. The lake holds yellow perch, pumpkinseed, American eel and very large carp, along with snapping and painted turtles. American wigeon, gadwall, wood ducks and ruddy ducks use the water. Mute swans live there year-round, and white pelican, snow goose and barnacle goose have all been recorded.
The Bird Roost Preserve is the small maple and tupelo swamp on the lake's edge. In summer, double-crested cormorants and great and snowy egrets roost there, and the sanctuary lists hawks, herons, kingfishers, young ospreys and a bald eagle among its other sightings. Upstream, the Raikes Preserve covers wet woodland along a fast stream that runs from Kaintuck Pond down to Beaver Lake. Across the DeGraff Causeway to the north, the two Allsopp-Fisher peninsulas hold long-billed marsh wrens and diamond-back terrapins in the cordgrass. A mute swan has nested there at times.
So a drive across the causeway passes a lake and a marsh that are protected largely because neighbors gave the land to a refuge revived from that map. Every one of those preserves is closed to casual walkers.
The sanctuary's winter waterfowl gather a little farther west. Its Powell Pond preserve covers 56 acres of bottomland at Dosoris Pond in Glen Cove, a tidal salt pond that draws wintering ducks such as canvasbacks and greater scaup.
The Two Gates That Open
That leaves Shu Swamp and Coffin Woods for walking, and they suit different mornings.
Shu Swamp, at 28 Frost Mill Road according to Newsday's roundup of hidden-gem preserves, takes its name from the old Dutch "Sheogh," meaning cascading waters. Tulip trees, red maples and tupelos grow over a wetland fed by springs and seeps, and mink, muskrat and river otters use the waterways at times. Its posted rules:
- Open Saturday through Thursday, closed Fridays
- 8:00 a.m. to sundown, with winter gates closing at 5:00 p.m.
- No dogs at any time, because the swamp is a sensitive wetland and nesting area
- No fishing, and no bicycles on the trails
- The preserve may close during heavy rain or dangerous storms
Because dogs are not allowed at Shu Swamp, dog owners head to Coffin Woods. Alice Coffin left those 73 acres of woodland to the sanctuary in 1963, the same year the organization re-formed. The entrance is on Oyster Bay Road beside the railroad overpass in Locust Valley, and leashed dogs are allowed. The woods hold oak, beech and tulip trees, along with box turtles, milk snakes and wood thrushes. The sanctuary also cautions that its dog-friendly woods carry plenty of ticks, fleas and mosquitoes.
Two Saturdays, and the Season After Them
On the sanctuary's events page, Outdoor Program Director Dan Kriesberg's fall series has two walks left, both at 10:00 a.m.:
- Saturday, November 7, at Coffin Woods
- Saturday, December 19, at Shu Swamp
The sanctuary describes the walks as open-ended, shaped by the season and by whatever participants find along the trail, with time spent on both the natural and the human history of the preserves. The December walk falls during the 5:00 p.m. gate schedule, and by then the Humes Japanese Stroll Garden down the road will have finished its season. The North Shore Land Alliance's 2026 calendar set the garden's season from May 2 through November 1.
Shu Swamp also gets one of the area's earliest spring signs. The sanctuary notes that skunk cabbage blooms there as early as February or March, ahead of the marsh marigold, spring beauty and marsh violets.
The neighbors' habit of setting aside land along Frost Mill Road has continued. On June 1, 2026, the North Shore Land Alliance announced the Hoyle Jones Wildlife Corridor, a seven-acre parcel on Frost Mill Road dedicated to its board chair emeritus. The planned improvements include a new entrance, a trail extension with a boardwalk, removal of burning bush, Japanese holly and Asian bittersweet on about an acre, and native plantings such as spicebush, swamp azalea and sweetbay magnolia behind deer fencing. In that announcement, the Alliance said the work would begin once its DEC permits were in hand.
On the sanctuary side of Frost Mill Road, the next guided walk through Shu Swamp starts at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, December 19.
If you'd like to talk about the land around your own home in Mill Neck, its past and what it may hold next, Cottie Maxwell would be glad to hear from you. Schedule a private consultation with Cottie.
