​BUFFALO, N.Y. — ​Jay Burney has always loved nature. He’s an avid bird watcher. That’s why the closing of Times Beach is somewhat disappointing.

“The fact that it’s close is not negatively affecting birds and other wildlife,” said Burney, the Friends of Times Beach Nature Preserve founder. “It’s probably protecting them more. It’s sad because humans really love this place and they love to come down here and watch nature and the fact that it’s closed, it hurts our ability to express that we have here and share it with people.”

The area is currently closed after a storm hit in Buffalo in December. Burney says Lake Erie is known for seiches, tsunamis caused by wind, causing the flooding of the area to Furman Boulevard. Burney says this isn’t the first time the beach has been closed. The last big storm was in October 2019.

“In this area, we’ve had a 16-foot seiche,” he said. “And that was disastrous. So since then we’ve had about 15 seiches.”

It was declared a disaster by FEMA. It took The Friends of Times Beach years to get a permit from Erie County to get volunteers to clean it up and open it. They finally did that this past fall, and approximately 40 volunteers came down and opened a section of the trail.

“We’d hoped that it would be open for the winter but the next big seich came within a month, and so that whole section that we opened up got washed out again. It’s covered in debris now,” Burney said.

Burney says there’s isn’t a plan in place to reopen the beach. There’s a possibility it’ll happen in the spring, but it’s a big if. He says climate change, and how that’s going to affect places like Times Beach and the Outer Harbor, plays a big factor into the decision.

“We’re not entirely sure what we want to do,” Burney said. “We don’t want to put people in jeopardy. We don’t want throw good money after bad. So rethinking what this nature preserve should be, could be is part of the work we’re doing right now.”

Members of the Friends of Times Beach are working with the Erie County Parks Department on a plan for reopening. Mark Cornell is the deputy commissioner of parks. He says they’re working with FEMA to secure approximately $1 million in funding to fix up the damages from the 2019 storm. They also received a $500,000 grant from the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York in 2018. Cornell says the funding has been refocused to do a coastal resiliency study in the area.

“It’s clear that we’re going to keep getting these high water events and that it’s gonna keep causing damage, so we’d like to understand what we can do to prevent further damage of any of the work we’ve done and make sure this place is open and enjoyed by all the residents who really enjoy this sort of oasis on the Outer Harbor,” Cornell said.

To find out how to volunteer with the Friends of Times Beach Nature preserve, check out their Facebook page.