When Judy Jacobs first pulled into the parking lot of the Pathmark shopping center in Woodbury last July, acting on a tip that people were illegally depositing materials onto an adjacent parcel of land, the county legislator was "shocked" to see a long stretch of grassy land smothered in giant tree trunks and scattered litter.

On Tuesday, March 17, after being alerted that a cleanup operation was in full swing, Jacobs took another car ride to that same location, and was equally surprised to witness how swiftly most of the once imposing Woodbury Stump Dump had been reduced to tiny, harmless flakes of mulch.

"I never in a million years expected it to happen this quickly," stated Jacobs, expressing her satisfaction that numerous parties managed to successfully work together in orchestrating a much needed cleanup. "You can't leave something like that in the middle of the community."

The demise of the dump was, indeed, a cooperative effort, as Jacobs, two New York State departments, Pathmark and a generous construction equipment company all chipped in to get the giant wooden chips out, well short of a State Parks Department-imposed deadline.

"We were committed to having it done by April or thereabouts. The weather has cooperated to meet our commitment," said George Gorman, regional Long Island director of the New York State Department of Parks and Recreation. Beginning last Monday, March 16, the Parks Department brought several construction vehicles to the site and recruited workers from nearby Hempstead Lake, Jones Beach, Bethpage and Belmont Lake State Parks.

Because the site, located off of Jericho Turnpike, was at one time going to be an extension for a state parkway, the New York DOT also provided a truck for the cleanup project.

Though it had become unclear which state department was actually responsible for the unusual parcel, because it contained neither park land nor state roads, both were involved in the process.

Neither state department, however, may have even realized a problem had existed if Jacobs had not, in December 1997, conducted a media and letter-writing campaign to curtail dumping at the site and encourage a state cleanup. Jacobs pressed the issue once more as spring approached, to ensure Gorman's deadline would be met.

Monday's work consisted of singling out random garbage, such as bags, orange cones and broken lawn chairs, and discarding them, leaving behind the wooden refuse. The daunting part of the clean-up, however, took place over the next two days. Fortunately, that work was simplified by a powerful, new piece of equipment called a tub grinder, donated by equipment distributor Storr Tractor Company, a Ronkonkoma business.

Mounted on a trailer, a tub grinder is used to shred wood into very fine fragments of mulch, and is far more effective than a regular shredder, according to Storr Tractor equipment manager Joe Silhan.

Workers operating two front end loaders, or bucket trucks, scooped much of the wooden scraps up, placing them onto the conveyor belt of the tub grinder. The grinder, said Gorman, allowed workers to organize a "massive attack" on the football field-long dump, and get a "a significant amount of work done" in the first few days of cleanup.

The shredded, fine specks of wood, much of which was piled up in a huge, steep hill next to the grinder, are to be spread along the grounds of the state land for beautification. Additional mulch, said Gorman, will be collected for the future surfacing of playgrounds and other social locations.

Approximately two dozen workers have been working on the project, which should be completed within a week. Just how soon depends on weather conditions.

Among those that benefit the most from the cleanup is Pathmark, which was having wood dumped on its own property once room on the state parcel ran thin. But also profiting are the members of two organizations that revel in outdoor activity - Concerned Long Island Mountain Bikers (CLIMB) and the Greenbelt Trails Conference. Prior to its dump site status, the site served as a pleasant gathering and parking place for club members to begin their hiking or biking journeys through the scenic trails of the nearby woods.

If the dump had not been attended to, it could have potentially attracted rodents and insects, and also could have posed a fire hazard.

The cost of the project will range between $10,000 and $15,000, said Gorman. The Parks director also asserted that the state continues to seek financial restitution from the people or companies that used the parcel as a dump site. Only one landscaping company was ever brought up on charges, but an investigation is ongoing, said the director. No one has been caught dumping at the site since the media publicized the story.

Meanwhile, to prevent dumping in the future, the DOT is having guardrails built along the edge of the Pathmark parking lot that would hamper future attempts of drivers pulling over to dump materials.

But CLIMB and Greenbelt hope this solution will not, in the end, cause another problem. They would still prefer to be permitted to park their cars directly on the state land, as they had been doing. If barriers are erected, they might not be able to do this.

Using the Pathmark lot would be unfair to the shopping center, the manager of which is helping both organizations by adopting the site and helping in the removal of trash.

"We would like it if [the DOT] will still grant us access," said Richard Schary, a member of the Greenbelt board of directors, and the man who first alerted Jacobs to the dump site.

"We are really happy that they're cleaning [the site] up. I hope that they'll keep it as a parking lot," said president of CLIMB Emily Kelly.

Kelly said that the Woodbury site has always been a popular place to commence a trek along Long Island trails. Hikers and bikers often use the trails at Woodbury to access Bethpage State Park, she said, but can travel as far as the South Shore.