With our help, the Preserve Plum Island Coalition (PPIC) is campaigning to secure comprehensive conservation and management solutions that safeguard this ecological treasure in the public trust as a national monument, wildlife refuge, preserve, or other equivalent protection, with carefully managed and equitable public access, in perpetuity.
We see a pressing need for immediate conservation of the island’s sensitive environmental, historical, and cultural resources.
We see a future that engages stakeholders—including governmental, regional and local entities—and the community with the amazing richness of plant and animal species, cultural heritage, and the history of Plum Island, to help tell the stories of our nation and our region.
Properly managed, Plum Island can showcase a full reckoning of our national and regional history, from times of ecological abundance to those of significant cultural disservice. Our vision is to protect and enhance Plum Island’s remarkable ecological value; unite people with preservation, interpretation, and educational opportunities; and celebrate the rich cultural heritage and history of people interacting with the island over the millennia—all the way to the present day. Public access and activities should be based on ecological sustainability, gauged through careful management planning.
See the 2019 Envision Plum Island stakeholder vision here. Please note our vision evolved following repeal of congressional language that effectively had required the island be sold at auction. The pictorial synopsis (Envision “brochure”) reflects the current vision.
Plum Island is like no other
Largest seal haul-out in New York- Habitat for at least 229 bird species—nearly one out of four bird species found in North America north of Mexico
- Significant ecological communities, including marine rocky intertidal shores, marine eelgrass beds, maritime bluffs, maritime dunes, and maritime beaches
- Rich fish populations in Plum Gut and several distinct subtidal marine habitats, as documented in a 2022 report by the New York Natural Heritage Program and InnerSpace Scientific Diving
- Fort Terry, a National Register Historic Site, federally acquired in 1897 and used until after World War II
- Plum Island Light Station, a National Register Historic Site
- Internationally renowned Plum Island Animal Disease Center, undergoing decommissioning
Save the Sound leads the way
We’re leading advocacy efforts, calling for Plum Island to remain a sanctuary for wildlife yet also transform into a place where people can enjoy walking its beaches and taking in its amazing sights sustainably.
Save the Sound’s multi-year, multi-state effort has included:
- Coordinating the Preserve Plum Island Coalition, made up of about 130 organizations, and its campaign to save Plum Island. Learn more and join the coalition at https://www.preserveplumisland.org/take-action or contact Louise Harrison.
- Working with Plum Island’s champions in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives through several Congresses since at least 2011, reviewing and supporting legislation introduced to preserve Plum Island.
- Supporting bills introduced by Plum Island champions in Congress that successfully repealed the language driving a public sale (auction).
- Coordinating Envision Plum Island, a planning process that included the coalition and 160 stakeholders from diverse fields to develop a vision and plan for the island’s future with broad local and regional consensus. View the report here. To learn more, visit: www.preserveplumisland.org/envision-report.
- Initiating a new and fruitful relationship with leadership of the Plum Island Animal Disease Center, enabling the PPIC to gain a deeper understanding of the island’s resources and infrastructure, learn about the process for the transfer of the island to a new owner, and discover the possibility for partnerships between multiple entities for future ownership and management of Plum Island.
- Supporting New York’s 2016 Open Space Conservation Plan. It says New York could acquire 600–700 acres of open space on Plum Island for “wildlife habitat, shoreline preservation and protection of significant cultural resources,” if the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service does not create a wildlife refuge there. We expect the current update—not yet released—will include Plum Island.
- Suing two federal agencies for their faulty environmental impact statement. Read about the lawsuit.
Save the Sound and the Preserve Plum Island Coalition have led this preservation campaign through 15 years of advocacy. We started when we learned that Plum Island was threatened with a possible auction to a private developer. We later initiated a lawsuit on an inadequate Environmental Impact Statement on the public sale. We worked with 160 stakeholders from a diverse array of sectors to prepare and saw the development of Envision Plum Island, the people’s vision for the island’s future.
Our involvement and experience have positioned Save the Sound and PPIC as well-informed leaders on Plum Island, relied upon by elected officials, agency heads, and members of the public. This campaign has captured the public imagination, engaged multiple elected officials, inspired new ideas for future uses, and opened minds to a range of possible preservation outcomes. Our work has shaped the groundswell of public support for and trajectory toward our goal: Plum Island preservation.
Support Save the Sound in protecting Plum Island—the home of endangered, threatened, rare, and globally significant animals and plants. Join us today.