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.
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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.
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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.)
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“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.
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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.
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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!??"

The proposed Comprehensive Management Plan (CMP) for Long Island’s south shore estuary is disappointing to those who hoped it would provide a blueprint for improved management practices. Instead, the plan simply identifies areas of concern that were already known to localities well before the South Shore Estuary Reserve (SSER) Advisory Council began its work. By seeming to promise assistance to localities that it was not prepared to deliver, the Council may have actually impeded some local work from going forward.
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General

The following comments reflect the views of the Fire Island Association and relate, except where noted, to the Fire Island National Seashore, within whose boundaries there are some 3,850 properties and businesses. FIA, with over 1,600 paid members, represents the interests of these owners. As the comments note, it is the declared intention of some government agencies and environment groups to remove existing homes from communities that were protected by the Fire Island National Seashore Act, and this was a frequent subject of discussion during the workshop­. The Fire Island Association believes this is unnecessary, as well as violative of the statute, since well-established methods of beach nourishment can protect existing structures, while newly applicable state law provides adequate assurance that the approved density levels will not be exceeded. Accordingly, FIA intends to use all measures at its disposal to resist any effort to gain control of Fire Island property other than from a willing conveyor.
Opening Remarks by Col. William H. Pearce, NY District Engineer, USACE
read more from "February 2001 “Non-Structural Solutions” Are Neither"

…With Facts About the Shore

By Gerard Stoddard

The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) recently published on the internet (see nwf.org) a list of 25 Civil Works projects that NWF feels symbolizes the inherently anti-environment nature of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Project No. 10 on NWF’s list of “Top Twenty-five Environmentally Harmful and Financially Wasteful Corps Projects” is the Fire Island Interim Project. Called FIIP for short, this is a project with which the present writer is familiar enough to be able to point out unfair or inaccurate statements in the NWF analysis. People involved with the other Corps projects listed could probably provide similar comment.

 
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DON’T TREAD ON ME ! One oceanfront owner’s long-view of the struggle ahead to survive the onslaught of nature and government’s basic “acquisitive nature.” This is a personal commentary and does not necessarily represent the opinion of the Fire Island Association. I present strong evidence of an unfair intent to thwart your “sand civil rights” and your property rights. We must fight it!

By Bob Spencer

 
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