The following is from Fire Island National Seashore.

For more information go to the Links page and click on Fire Island

National Seashore/newsreleases.

Beach Nourishment Projects To Begin on Fire Island;
      Work Expected to be Completed by the end of March 2009
      Several beach nourishment projects on Fire Island are scheduled to

      begin by late December or early January.  The projects, which are

      being undertaken by Suffolk County and eleven Fire Island

      communities, are expected to be completed by March 31, 2009.   
read more from "News From FINS on Community Beach Protection Projects"
    

ON SPENCER’S POINT

How Oceans Attract Us

By Bob Spencer

Alluring. Mysterious. Relaxing. Inspiring. Awesome. This is what an ocean offers.

And — sniffing the salt laden air, as one approaches the seaside, just adds to an ocean’s appeal.

I first became inspired by the ocean when in my teens, and I would sit by a summer sea in the evening and watch a full moon slowly rise out of the Atlantic. I promised myself then and there that I would seek to recreate such a feeling over my life span. Because it made my mind come alive, it becomes a catalyst of the imagination.

An ocean can reveal its infinite beauty – it can also raise its haunches in powerful strokes of stormy winds and tides to cause a show of respect.

read more from "How Oceans Attract Us"

ON SPENCER’S POINT

On the Nature of Fire Island

By
Bob Spencer

On a summer afternoon, I sometimes can imagine myself
suspended in mid-air about twenty feet above the oceanside
dunes of Fire Island.

Fire Island has many moods of a
simple order. On a clear sunny day, I can see many miles out to the blue sea
and miles along its sandy and grass-green shores as well.
read more from "On the Nature of Fire Island"

By Bob Spencer

Many readers will be aware of some of the story about how Fire Island was saved from the paving of a highway, atop a sand-dike that had been first proposed by Robert Moses back in 1924, when he first became head of the Long Island State Park Commission. With each major storm after that, Bob Moses came back time and again with his same idea. But here, this reporter will try to set down a bit more on how the people of Fire Island, and just across the Great South Bay pulled off a little miracle.
read more from "How Fire Island was Saved from being Paved Over"

ON SPENCER’S POINT

Love for a Barrier Island by the Sea

By Bob Spencer

The ocean has a mystique for millions of people, who are drawn to it for many hidden reasons.

I caught a life-long urge to explore that mystique as a teenager one evening sitting on a beach in Maine staring at the full moon rising out of calm and distant ocean horizon. When I turned 29, I borrowed a dune-full of money and built a small house on the barrier island of Fire Island to espy those moon rises — and occasionally some sunrises. I had connected with something meaningful.
read more from "Love For a Barrier Island by the Sea"

ON SPENCER’S POINT

The Seal Island Legend

By Bob Spencer

Four years ago, this reporter wrote here of a discovery on Fire Island, which is the current name for Seal Island — its Algonquin name. In this report it was revealed that a large collection of 40 wooden cases of wampum, along with some gold doubloons, silver pieces of eight, along with English coins and pieces of parchment were uncovered under an early 19^th century site of one of the life saving station “rescue huts” built by volunteers along Fire Island in 1805. Four years ago it was estimated that this might be worth ten million dollars.
read more from "The Seal Island Legend"

ON SPENCER’S POINT

“Whale — Off!”

By Bob Spencer

One of the earliest references to Fire Island I’ve ever found is for 1653 when Isaac Stratford set up whaling huts at Whalehouse Point on the Great South Beach, opposite Bellport, on what is now Fire Island. It is still called this today, and even has a private community ferry that chugs out there for recreational “beaching,” within the “Wilderness Area” of the Seashore. (It’s about halfway between Smith Point and Watch Hill.)
read more from "Whale — Off!"

“The Beach Zone: Using Local LandUse Authority to Preserve Barrier Islands”
by Tiffany Eisberg and Jessica VanTine
A Critique by the Fire Island Association

The article whose title and authors appear above, appeared in
successive issues of Environmental Law in New York, Vol. 13, Nos. 10 and
11, October and November, 2002. It puts forward a misguided and
uninformed theory aimed at removing residential property from the Fire
Island National Seashore. The authors seem unaware of existing law on
the subject and are not informed as to the scientific or technical
background of the issues the article discusses.
read more from "December 2002 “The Beach Zone”"

Note: When reporters write about shore protection projects for the first time, or the article seems biased, FIA sometrimes sends comments to public officials as well as to the reporter. The following is an example:

To: Interested Public Officials

The following comments expand on points made in the article, “A Creeping Sensation For Fire Island Owners” NY Times, Long Island Section, Sunday, October 14, 2001.

1.               “Holes along Fire Island” Holes were in the sand bar offshore, not in the island itself. “Holes in the bar” allow wave energy to be focused, unblunted, on particular sections of the shoreline. If there are no holes (i.e., discontinuities) in the bar, it serves to remove most of the energy from waves by causing them to break well offshore.
read more from "October 2001 A Times article gets it wrong"

The NPCA press release concerning the Fire Island National Seashore being one of the ten most endangered parks has several serious errors:

1. The Corps of Engineers is not “proposing” anything. At a cost of several million dollars and several years of study, the Corps responded to a request by Members of Congress and the State of New York to survey the south shore of Long Island and recommend methods of reducing storm damage. The Corps’ EIS was the subject of a public hearing in January 2000 where it was broadly supported by residents in the project area and in areas of the Long Island mainland that would be benefited by a stronger barrier island. In November 1999, the State indicated it expected to support the project if no new information arose either at the hearing or in the 30-day comment period. Nothing new arose, but the state has yet even to comment officially.
read more from "FINS Named Among America’s Ten Most Endangered Parks!??"