Who Is It Named After? The Edith G. Read Wildlife Sanctuary

HUDSON VALLEY, NY — Edith Mathews Gwynne Read spent her 102 years on earth making this world a better place for the rest of us. It is perhaps fitting that her name lives on as a protector of a cherished patch of unspoiled natural beauty.

But the Edith G. Read sanctuary that encompasses Playland Lake, the surrounding wilds and a nearby undeveloped stretch of the Long Island Sound Shoreline, very nearly didn't bear her name.

Read was a lifelong Rye resident well-known as a passionate conservationist. She played the leading role in the creation of what became the Edith G. Read Wildlife Sanctuary in 1985, according to the Friends of the Edith G. Read Wildlife Sanctuary.

According to the group, the life of the sanctuary began in the 1970s with Read helping to forge an agreement between Westchester County and environmental organizations to stop the dumping of dredge spoil on what would become the land carved out of Playland Park for the sanctuary. Read even paid the legal fees of the organizations who sued to protect the land.

Read later convinced the county in 1983 to agree to dedicate the land as a natural park. She refused to accept anything less than a sanctuary "forever wild" deeded by the county.

Read initially refused the honor that the county wanted to bestow on her by naming the sanctuary after her, but in October 1985, the Edith G. Read Natural Park and Wildlife Sanctuary was dedicated to her.

To commemorate Read's role in creating the park, the now familiar boulder monument with a bronze portrait of her designed by Mike Keropian and Bob Clyatt was installed in 2010.

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