A small but dedicated group gathered at Beach 38 Street in Queens with a goal: to spend time at their neighborhood beach. 

“Since 1996, we have not had access to the beach,” Sonia Moise, president of Edgemere Community Civic Association, said. 

Beach 38 Street to Beach 57 Street in Edgemere is closed off to protect wildlife, including piping plover birds.

The Department of Parks and Recreation has monitored this bird since the 1990s.  

The organizers told NY1 the press conference Thursday was long overdue. 

“Imagine if the piping plovers landed on the Great Lawn at Central Park. How long would it last? They would take the eggs and bring them to Edgemere,” John Cori, founder Friends of The Rockaways, said. 

Maraj Dunkley, who has lived in the neighborhood since 1998, says she has to trek to a stretch of the beach where she can actually enjoy it. 

“Why do you have to go to 60 plus or lower teens to have any type of activity for the kids? They took away the beach that was a way of free entertainment for the kids,” Dunkley said. 

Public Advocate Jumani Williams says choosing this neighborhood to close off is a racial inequity issue.

“It was an arbitrary decision that always hits the lower income communities the worst and what we are seeing here is that the homeowners who are predominately black and brown have a little less income than some of the other places is the one area where they cordoned off the whole beach,” Williams said. 

Sonia Moise started Edgemere Community Civic Association two years ago, but she’s lived in the Rockaways for 45 years. She says it’s possible for the community and wildlife to coexist. 

“If you look in any other places that have shore birds or bird sanctuaries that encompasses the shore birds you’ll see they give residents on that area a pathway to the ocean they did not give us a pathway to the ocean and they too up our entire community,” Moise said. 

The American Bird Conservancy says there are just 8,000 piping plovers. Activists warn that their extinction could disrupt the ecosystem of the Rockaways. 

Residents expressed they just want to have a thriving beach community, support the birds and not get shortchanged like they say they’ve been for decades. 

“We love the birds. The birds are great. We just want to enjoy our beach along with the birds,” Dunkley said. 

The Parks Department says: “We hear the call for expanded beach access, and we’re happy to share that we recently reopened four blocks in the Beach 30’s for community access. We will continue to work toward maintaining a balance of protection and access in this area.” 

The department also says it opens up the closures in August to when piping plovers are old enough to start flying. 

People from the community also said opening up the beach during the majority of beach season would be a great boost for the local economy.