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Plum Island:

Permanent Protection as a National Wildlife Refuge

 

UPDATE 9/27/10

From: redknot@optonline.net - Huntington/Oyster Bay Audubon

The Issue:  Currently Congress has enacted legislation to require the GSA to dispose of Plum Island, and the proceeds of the sale are to go toward the construction of a new Animal Disease Control facility in Kansas. A number of senators and some other constituencies are currently fighting the proposal.  Nevertheless GSA is moving forward to sell the island which the administration says will happen sometime in the next 12-18 months. We need legislation to be introduced and passed which will reverse that action and protect the Island's natural resources.

 

What you can do:  Urge your local representatives to introduce legislation to provide permanent protection to Plum Island’s significant ecological resources and environmental features, most appropriately achieved by designating all or a significant portion of the island as a National Wildlife Refuge.  

    

Reasons Plum Island should be preserved:

-The 840-acre Plum Island still contains significant natural resources and possesses remarkable scenic and environmental value.

-The Island's vegetation provides habitat that supports a wide variety of bird and insect species.

-The Island's large freshwater wetland offers suitable habitat for dozens of wetland dependent plant and animal species.

 

-Nearly 90 bird species have been documented as breeding or foraging on Plum Island and adjacent coastal waters.  These include a variety of birds-of-prey, shorebirds, wading birds, waterfowl, and songbird species. Of special interest is the presence of piping plovers, a federally threatened species, which utilize the shoreline habitat for breeding purposes. It shares this shoreline with several dozen Roseate Terns, a federally endangered species, and several hundred common terns, a NYS threatened species, which use the shoreline of the island as developmental habitat. 

 

-As has been documented at other coastal islands and sites situated in southern New England, Plum Island undoubtedly provides critical stopover habitat for many fall migrant songbirds.  Coastal islands can be vital for migrating landbirds such as warblers, vireos, and thrushes, and many others that take advantage of the habitat to rest and feed (thereby refueling) before they continue their migration over water.

 

-The island also possesses significant cultural resources that merit protection such as the Block Island lighthouse and numerous military embankments and buildings from the Spanish-American War.

 

-Despite a remarkable commitment by New York State and local governments to preserve LI open space, the federal government’s role in land protection has been inconsequential. Preserving Plum Island by designating all or a significant fraction as a National Wildlife Refuge would be a meaningful demonstration of the federal government’s commitment to protecting key open spaces in the New York metropolitan area.   

 

-A “Plum Island National Wildlife Refuge” in which the public gains access to explore the island, orient themselves at a visitor center, visit the lighthouse and other cultural features, and enjoy the unparalleled scenic views and wildife viewing opportunites while hiking on the island’s numerous trails would also have a desirable economic outcome.

 

Send your letters or emails to:

Honorable Charles Schumer, U.S. Senator

http://schumer.senate.gov/new_website/contact.cfm

Honorable Kristin Gillibrand, U.S. Senator

http://gillibrand.senate.gov/contact/

Honorable Ken LaValle, NY State Senator

http://www.nysenate.gov/senator/kenneth-p-lavalle/contact

Honorable Tim Bishop

http://timbishop.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=7&sectiontree=7

 

(click here for the complete letter sent to Tim Bishop by the LIAC (Long Island Audubon Council).