Do you know where Plum Island is and what is on the now?
After World War II the agriculture department took over the island at the east end of Long Island and made it into a research lab to study hoof and mouth disease. Now they want to move the research station out to Kansas, it was originally located on the island to prevent the spread of livestock diseases that they study there if there was an accident. But the government in its infinite wisdom is moving it right into the middle of cattle country.
In the Hartford Courant Sunday they had an article about the island on their Opinion section,
I think as the author of the commentary said the island should be preserved as a wildlife sanctuary. For one thing the islands has historical significance dating back to the Revolutionary and all the way up to World War II. It was during the early days of WWII that my father was stationed on the island, he was a lieutenant in the National Guard in the 242nd Coastal Artillery Harbor Defense (My father is on the right). His unit was tasked with defending the entrances to Long Island Sound and the New London submarine base. Fort Terry was located on the eastern end of Plum Island. I remember the stories that my father told about Fort Wright, Fort Terry and Fort Michie.
One story was about my mother coming out to Fishers Island for Thanksgiving and being caught in a blizzard on the ferry on the way back to the mainland and then driving back to Fairfield where they lived.
At the end of WWII Fort Wright on Fishers Island was sold and the island is now just about all private, they frown on outsiders coming to the island. There are big estates now that cover the island with a private golf course and very little public land left on the island. I would hate to see Plum Island become another Fishers Island.
The article goes on to say,
After World War II the agriculture department took over the island at the east end of Long Island and made it into a research lab to study hoof and mouth disease. Now they want to move the research station out to Kansas, it was originally located on the island to prevent the spread of livestock diseases that they study there if there was an accident. But the government in its infinite wisdom is moving it right into the middle of cattle country.
In the Hartford Courant Sunday they had an article about the island on their Opinion section,
No Place For 'For Sale' Sign On Plum IslandCongress told the General Service Administration to sell it to the highest bidder.
By LEAH SCHMALZ | COMMENTARY The Hartford Courant
7:19 p.m. EDT, July 5, 2013
Plum Island — located off Orient Point, N.Y., within Long Island Sound's "Race" — is a cultural, historical and environmental haven — a rare place in danger of being lost.
It was there, 12 miles from Connecticut, that the first battle between Colonial and British troops took place during the Revolutionary War. It's home to historic Plum Island Light and to Fort Terry, which provided essential defenses for the East Coast from the Spanish–American War to World War II. Then it became the Plum Island Animal Disease Laboratory, a high-security federal research center. The lab's work has meant that for six decades the entire 843-acre island was off limits to humans, except those working there, and that restriction created a de facto wildlife refuge.
The sanctuary includes nine miles of wild beach, dune and bluff, an unusual assortment of uplands, and tidal and fresh water marshes. It's a breeding site for threatened birds such as piping plovers, and hosts the largest seal haul-out in southern New England.
When our federal and state governments identified the 33 last great places around the Sound, Plum Island and the nearby Gull Islands — which together host the Western Hemisphere's largest colony of roseate terns — were recognized as an "exemplary" habitat deserving of special protection. It's of international conservation importance, and one of the very last large, undisturbed, wild coastal systems in the highly urbanized Long Island Sound region.
And now, the federal government is hoisting a "For Sale" sign.
I think as the author of the commentary said the island should be preserved as a wildlife sanctuary. For one thing the islands has historical significance dating back to the Revolutionary and all the way up to World War II. It was during the early days of WWII that my father was stationed on the island, he was a lieutenant in the National Guard in the 242nd Coastal Artillery Harbor Defense (My father is on the right). His unit was tasked with defending the entrances to Long Island Sound and the New London submarine base. Fort Terry was located on the eastern end of Plum Island. I remember the stories that my father told about Fort Wright, Fort Terry and Fort Michie.
One story was about my mother coming out to Fishers Island for Thanksgiving and being caught in a blizzard on the ferry on the way back to the mainland and then driving back to Fairfield where they lived.
At the end of WWII Fort Wright on Fishers Island was sold and the island is now just about all private, they frown on outsiders coming to the island. There are big estates now that cover the island with a private golf course and very little public land left on the island. I would hate to see Plum Island become another Fishers Island.
The article goes on to say,
What can be done? Citizens concerned about the potential sale can contact their elected officials and the General Services Administration (comments on the Final Environmental Impact Statement can be submitted until mid-July) to talk about the importance of Plum Island to our region.What I would like to see done to the island is made into a park and wildlife sanctuary. In Portland Maine their coastal defense batteries were made into a beautiful park where you can learn about its history.
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