SerpApi.Org
Environmentalists and advocates are hailing a major development for the future of Plum Island, an ecologically and historically important 840-acre island off the Connecticut shoreline in the Long Island Sound.
Suffolk County executive Ed Romaine announced that the New York county will seek to acquire the 822-acre island off the tip of Long Island’s North Fork. The announcement has been met with sighs of relief from advocates in New York and Connecticut who have worked for over a decade trying to ensure the island’s preservation.
“This is a tremendous relief,” said Louise Harrison, the Long Island project manager for New York- and Connecticut-based nonprofit Save the Sound. “This has been something that many, many people have been working on since 2008 when it was first put on the auction block. The government took it off the auction block in 2020, but even since then, we never had a clear idea about how the island would be protected into the future. This has been a long time coming. It took 12 years to get Congress to take the island off the auction block for private developers. But for the last six years, we didn’t have a clear path forward. This is a development that opens up several opportunities.”
The island, which sits in Suffolk County, New York, has been under federal control for decades and closed off to the public. Plum Island is home to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal Disease Center, a research lab that studies dangerous and infectious animal diseases. The facility was established by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1954, with the property management transferred from the USDA to the Department of Homeland Security in 2024.
You can’t go to this mysterious land in Long Island Sound. But it’s up for monument status.
In 2008, U.S. President George W. Bush signed a bill which required that Plum Island and the Plum Island Animal Disease Center be sold to help fund a new National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility in Manhattan, Kansas. Shortly after, several environmentalist and advocacy groups formed to petition officials to preserve the island.
Since forming in 2011, the Preserve Plum Island Coalition has been working to bring together stakeholders to determine the public’s vision for the island and to encourage elected officials — including U.S. senators and representatives from New York and Connecticut — to explore every possibility to secure permanent preservation of the island. Harrison also sits on the PPIC and said the group has not missed a monthly meeting since its founding 15 years ago.
“A big change came in 2024, when many of our members got to visit Plum Island and meet each other in person,” Harrison said. “We were trying for a while trying to find a single owner for Plum Island and wondering what federal agency would be a best fit. But we weren’t getting any traction. We were trying to find who was the right size and what their mission was. We felt both stymied and frustrated.
“But we learned that day from some folks at the General Services Administration that we didn’t have to find a single owner for the island, but just a single conveyance for the closing,” Harrison said. “This opened up several possibilities that we didn’t think were possible before. We started thinking about maybe an association of universities or a government with a university system. All of a sudden there were options.”
Harrison said she mentioned this to Romaine and that he immediately took an interest in playing a part of Plum Island’s future. She said that this week’s announcement helps give the island a clearer path forward toward preservation.
“The PPIC appreciates that the county executive recognizes the complexity of preserving an island with a unique collection of disparate features. The island’s legacy includes historic Fort Terry and the Plum Island Light Station, the infrastructure built for the Plum Island Animal Disease Center, colonialism and abundant ecological resources. The coalition supports the county executive’s plans to pursue funding for development of a comprehensive business and operations plan. The county already is undertaking a study of ferry transportation options around the Peconic Estuary region, which may increase options for future public access scenarios,” the group said in a statement.
The island is considered ecologically important as the majority of the island remains undeveloped and has been blocked off from the general public for decades. It hosts over 220 bird species and the largest harbor seal haul-out in the state, serving as a critical refuge for over 111 species of conservation concern, according to Save the Sound. It also hosts a unique ecosystem that remains untouched by humans, a rare ecological research opportunity, Harrison said.
You can’t go to this mysterious land in Long Island Sound. But it’s up for monument status.
“No one has been going to Plum Island since about the 1640s when it became privately held,” Harrison said. “The U.S. government then purchased the island to create Fort Terry in 1899. Then in 1954, it was acquired by the Department of Agriculture, and is now under Homeland Security. It has really been closed to public access since the earliest days of European settlers. So it is really important for people to be able to go there again. It can be used for education, research and conservation purposes. There are so many possibilities that have now opened up.”
Several other environmentalists groups including the Nature Conservancy have hailed the announcement.
“The Nature Conservancy commends Suffolk County for its intent to preserve Plum Island for conservation, research and public access. Just 100 miles from New York City, Plum Island is a national treasure that provides a myriad of benefits for people and wildlife. We applaud Suffolk County executive Ed Romaine for seizing this unique opportunity and members of Congress for their ongoing leadership in protecting this extraordinary place. We look forward to working with public officials and partners to conserve Plum Island for locals, visitors, and the many species that depend on it,” said Long Island policy advisor Kevin McDonald.
Harrison said she hopes one day the island will be open to students from nearby universities like Stony Book University on Long Island to access the island for research opportunities. She said that the PPIC steering committee outlined its vision for the island in 2018 and is now having conversations about how they may be implemented going forward.
Under the 2020 bill that removed the island from private development, the Department of Homeland Security must offer the island for transfer to other federal agencies first, such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. If no federal agency wants to take control, the department can then offer the island to state and local government agencies such as Suffolk County, she said. Harrison said she is not aware of any federal agency that has shown interest in the island. She said she believes conversations between Suffolk County officials and the federal government can happen as early as this year.
The Department of Homeland Security has been given $18.9 million to help clean up contamination on the island, which is scheduled to continue through 2034, she said. All operations at the Animal Disease Center are scheduled to stop on the island by 2028.
Stephen Underwood can be reached at [email protected].
©2026 Hartford Courant. Visit courant.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
