Six state parks reopen Wednesday

Six additional Long Island state parks reopened Wednesday after a cleanup of Tropical Storm Irene damage.

The parks are Bayard Cutting Arboretum; Connetquot River; Captree, for fishing boat patrons only; Caumsett, but no fishing is allowed and woodland trails are closed; Nissequogue River; and Planting Fields, where Coe Hall, the Hay Barn and woodland trails will be closed.

On Tuesday, the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation reopened Brentwood, Camp Hero, Heckscher (Field 8 and picnic area only), Hither Hills, Montauk Downs, Montauk Point, Robert Moses (Fields 2 and 3), Sag Harbor Golf Course and Walt Whitman State Historic Site.

At Bethpage, the golf courses and all other facilities are closed except for the catering at the clubhouse.

The parks remaining closed are Belmont Lake, Brookhaven, Caleb Smith, Hempstead Lake, Jones Beach, Orient Beach, Sunken Meadow, Valley Stream and Wildwood.

Nassau County partially reopened Nickerson Beach, including the east end cabanas.

Most Suffolk County parks, beaches, campgrounds and golf courses were open Tuesday, some with restrictions.

All county beaches reopened with the exception of the outer beach at Smith Point and Meschutt, which remained closed because of runoff.

All Suffolk County golf courses are open, with the following limitations: West Sayville, no golf carts; Timber Point, white course, no carts, and blue course closed indefinitely because of severe erosion.

Most Suffolk campgrounds are open with the following restrictions: Southaven, only camping on north side; Montauk, only 40 spaces open; Shinnecock East bayside has 20 sites, 30 sites on the hill and sites 1 to 15 on the ocean; Smith Point, no outer beach camping. Indian Island and Sears Bellows are closed until electricity is restored. Blydenburgh remains closed because of the presence of West Nile in mosquitoes.

At other Suffolk County park units, Shinnecock West remains closed because of damage, the St. James General Store is closed until power is restored, Blydenburgh has no boat rentals, and Gardiner has limited trail access. All marinas are open, but Timber Point has no electricity and no gas sales.

All Town of Hempstead beaches were open Tuesday.

In Oyster Bay Town, Tobay Beach and other South Shore beaches were closed because of power outages. On the North Shore, only Stehli Beach, Charles Ransom Beach and Centre Island Beach bayside were open.

All Town of North Hempstead beaches and parks were open Tuesday. Long Beach lifeguards were on duty Tuesday.

Huntington's beaches are open, but swimming is prohibited because of runoff. In Brookhaven, West Meadow, Cedar and Corey beaches are open but closed for swimming because of high bacteria counts.

In Babylon, Overlook Beach and Cedar Beach are open and fully operational. Gilgo Beach is open but without power. Cedar Beach Marina will open at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

A few town and village beaches on the East End opened Tuesday, and others will be open for the Labor Day weekend.

Riverhead Town beaches were open Tuesday but closed to swimming. Ray Coyne, the town's recreation superintendent, said lifeguards will back on duty Wednesday.

Southold officials said their beaches were closed Tuesday because of health department restrictions, but they will be open Wednesday.

On Shelter Island, Supervisor Jim Dougherty said the town beaches were open Tuesday.

Southampton Town officials inspected all their beaches east of the Shinnecock Inlet on Monday, and they are inspecting the town and bay beaches west of the inlet Tuesday. Monday's inspection showed all the beaches in good shape -- some of them actually gained sand because of the storm -- and the town is predicting all the beaches will be open Labor Day weekend.

Ponquogue Beach in Southampton was open Tuesday, but Tiana Beach was closed because of flooding on Dune Road that is expected to be gone by the weekend.

In East Hampton, the beaches were open to sit on, but lifeguards were on duty keeping people out of the water. The town expects beaches to be open by Labor Day and is waiting to hear from the health department.

In East Hampton Village, Georgica Beach has been fenced off and will remain closed for "the indefinite future" because of severe erosion, according to Village Manager Larry Cantwell.

With Mitchell Freedman, Aisha Al-Muslim, Emily C. Dooley, Nicholas Spangler, Patrick Whittle, Deborah S. Morris and Denise M. Bonilla