Senators push Biden administration to preserve Plum Island
With several years to go before the federal Animal Disease Center on Plum Island completes its longawaited decommissioning, U.S. senators from New York and Connecticut last week renewed their push to preserve the 840-acre island off the coast of Orient Point on Long Island, N.Y.
In a letter sent to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the senators called the island an “ecological gem” and urged the secretary to work with President Joe Biden’s administration to protect it through a national monument designation or inclusion in other federal conservation efforts.
“Protecting Plum Island is squarely within the goals outlined in the Biden administration’s ‘America the Beautiful Initiative,’ including supporting locally led conservation efforts and protecting biodiversity and cultural resources,” said the April 25 letter.
It continued, “with your support, the decommissioning of the Plum Island Animal Disease Laboratory by the Department of Homeland Security can present an opportunity to move forward with a vision for managing Plum Island in a way that prioritizes the conservation of the island’s remarkable natural, cultural and historic resources.”
Both of Connecticut’s senators, Democrats Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal, signed the letter along with their counterparts in New York.
Plum Island, in Long Island Sound, is best known for the disease research laboratory that has operated there since 1954 — at times prompting sensational rumors of science experiments gone awry and washing up on the shores of Long Island and Connecticut.
The work on the island mainly focuses on foreign diseases that have the potential to impact livestock, such as African swine fever and foot-andmouth disease. About 400 workers commute to the island every day by boat, with about half coming from Connecticut and the other half from Long Island.
In 2005, the federal government announced plans to move its animal research laboratory from the island to a more modern facility to be built in Kansas, setting off a decade-long dispute over what to do with the island once the facility closes.
Originally, the plan was to sell the island — located just over a mile offshore from some highly priced real estate — and use the proceeds to fund the construction of the new facility in Kansas. But forceful opposition to that plan from local officials and conservation groups prompted Congress to vote , twice, to block the island’s sale and study other alternatives for its use.
Among the island’s attributes that make it attractive to preservationists — and developers — are its miles of beaches, mostly undeveloped interior as well as a historic lighthouse and century-old military fort. It serves as home to the largest seal haul-out site in New York, and once attracted the interest of former President Donald Trump, who reportedly wanted to turn it into a golf resort.
“Saving Plum Island from being sold to the highest bidder was a huge win for Connecticut, but we need to make sure it’s protected once and for all,” Murphy said in a statement last week. “I’m working with my colleagues in Connecticut and New York to push the Biden administration to permanently protect the Island through a national monument designation or any similar measure that will ensure its rich history and irreplaceable natural resources are preserved.”
Patrick Comins, executive director of the Connecticut Audubon Society, said the waters off of the island serve as an important feeding habitat for endangered roseate terns, which nest on nearby Great Gull Island in the Sound.
“There’s no question
that Plum Island has to be preserved and protected from development,” Comins said. “It is a centerpiece of one of the richest areas ecologically in the Northeast. Scores of bird species nest there and stop to rest and feed there during migration.”
The Preserve Plum Island Coalition, a group founded after the decision to close the laboratory, has led the campaign for the island to be designated as a national monument, which would place it under the authority of the Department of Interior along with more than 100 other federally protected sites such as Devils Tower in Wyoming and Castle Clinton at the tip of Manhattan.
The group has also advocated turning the nearly four-fifths of the island not used by the research laboratory into a national wildlife sanctuary.
Dave Anderson, lands campaign manager for Save the Sound, which leads the coalition, said that a national monument designation could be completed
swiftly through a presidential proclamation under the Antiquities Act, while the creation of a national wildlife refuge is a more laborious process.
Either way, Anderson said the island’s future should encompass its varied landscapes and uses.
“Plum Island is pretty unique,” he said, in that its cultural and natural features are of interest to wildlife as well as human visitors. “The island needs to be preserved in a way that recognizes all those important aspects, so I think ideally the island would be preserved in some way that allows for public access.”
The Department of Interior did not respond to a request for comment last week on the senators’ letter.
John Verrico, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security which oversees the lab, said the Kansas facility is scheduled to open later this year after a delay of several months due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Still, it will be at least another two years before Plum Island is fully decommissioned, he said, as the employees from DHS and the Department of Agriculture begin the process of moving their work hundreds of miles away. Anderson said that conservationists hope to push the federal government to secure preservation status while other agencies wind down their work on the island.
“It will be a couple of years of transition before that happens.” Verrico said last week. “The research has to continue.”