Plum Island Animal Disease Center
Plum Island is a 822-acre island located about a mile east of Orient Point, Long Island. The 1869 Plum Island Lighthouse and the 1897 Fort Terry army barracks on the island are both of listed on the National Register of Historic Places. After Fort Terry was decommissioned, in 1954 Plum Island became home to the Plum Island Animal Disease Center, established by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Despite these buildings and activities, about 90 percent of Plum Island is undeveloped, forming an ecological gem with a 97-acre freshwater wetland and numerous wildlife breeding grounds. It has habitat for 228 bird species, significant ecological communities, including marine rocky intertidal shores, marine eelgrass beds, and maritime bluffs, and rich fish populations in Plum Gut and several distinct sub-tidal marine habitats.
The ADC will be relocated to the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, a $1.25 billion Biosafety Level 4 laboratory/fortress currently under construction in Kansas, by next year. When it does leave, preservationists and environmentalists want the island to be designated as a national monument.
Louise Harrison, New York Natural Areas coordinator for Save the Sound, will lead us on a tour of Plum Island and its waters, describe its unique aspects and the history of preservation activities, and make the case for the Plum Island National Monument.
Louise is a conservation biologist Louise Harrison who first visited Plum Island in 2010 when she was working as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service liaison to the Long Island Sound Study. She was enthralled by the tiny island’s importance to resident and migrating animals. She has extensive field experience working in Long Island’s coastal communities and natural ecosystems, from the boroughs of New York City to Montauk and Orient Points and has received numerous awards for open space preservation efforts.