National Parks Traveler

Editor's note: Across the National Park System there are a number of threats that strike at a park's integrity. At Fire Island National Seashore in New York, the dual threats of climate change and growing popularity put the seashore's future at risk and landed it on National Parks Traveler's 3rd Annual Threatened and Endangered Parks list.

Visitors ferry to Fire National Seashore to swim, enjoy the beaches, walk in the maritime forest, tour historic buildings, and spend time with family and friends. But 50 years from now, climate change might submerge a good portion of the park.

Whenever there’s a new moon, full moon, or storm brewing over the Atlantic Ocean, Fire Island Ferries accommodates sea-level rise by adding steps to its ferries bound for the national seashore, a 26-mile-long park situated on an approximately half-mile-wide barrier island that keeps ocean waves from pummeling Long Island’s south shore.

“We’re using steps to get up off the dock and onto the boat on a more frequent basis,” said Timothy Mooney, president, and owner of Fire Island Ferries, Inc. His company has raised its docks and bulkheads up to a foot to accommodate the sea-level rise.

“This year we had more flooding on the island, and on the mainland, parking lots, and terminal areas,” said Mooney.

An Escape From Metropolis

Located within 60 miles of nearly 21 million people in the New York metropolitan area, the park faces the dual challenge of sea-level rise and popularity. It’s possible to drive or take the train from New York City to one of three ferry terminals on Long Island, spend the day on the national seashore’s pristine beaches, and return in time to make a Broadway play the same night. At the same time, the changing climate is altering the seashore's natural setting as the Atlantic Ocean pounds the barrier island throughout the year.

“The biggest challenge is climate change and sea-level rise,” said Fire Island Superintendent Alexcy Romero.

Almost 2.5 million people come to Fire Island annually, including about 250-300 year-round residents living in and visiting the 17 towns established before the park was created in 1964. Two hamlets –- Cherry Grove and Fire Island Pines -- were among the first places in the country to welcome the LGBTQ community. Aside from homes, there are restaurants, hotels, and an elementary school within the park’s boundaries.

Fire Island's lighthouse is the tallest in New York/NPS file

The park includes the only federally designated wilderness area in New York State – the seven-mile-long, nearly 1,400-acre Otis Pike Fire Island High Dune Wilderness Area – and the centuries-old Sunken Forest that features American holly, sassafras, and shadbush trees sunken behind sand dunes.

Visitors can climb Fire Island Lighthouse –- the tallest in New York State-- and see the New York City skyline on a clear day. It’s also possible to tour the William Floyd Estate, estimated to be worth $155 million, where you'll find the Old Mastic House and furnished rooms once used by the first delegate from New York to sign the Declaration of Independence.

“If there’s anything we learned during the pandemic, it’s that parks are a safe haven, a popular and desirable place where visitors could enjoy the great outdoors and connect with family and friends safely. We have seen a small explosion of visitation,” said Romero.

A Public Resource At Risk

There are no entrance fees at Fire Island and few signs indicating the NPS’s presence. “People don’t realize this is a resource for them that is part of the federal government. It’s important that people understand that at the end of the day, it’s their tax dollars that help support this,” said Mooney.

But that resource is in danger. A 2020 report, Integrated Coastal Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment, prepared by the National Park Service and the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography, warned that “[A]s a low-lying coastal site with most resources on a dynamic barrier island, Fire Island National Seashore faces serious issues now and will likely increase in the coming decades due to climate change.”

By 2050, the park’s headquarters and the ferry terminal in Patchogue, the Fire Island Light Station built in 1858 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and marina infrastructure are expected to be highly vulnerable, and the Sunken Forest could disappear. The only roadway running the length of the park, Burma Road, is used for emergencies and utilities only; it’s likely to breach by 2050.

Sea-level rise could inundate the Watch Hill Marina despite work in 2017 to address substructure vulnerabilities and ensure the marina is resilient to future storms. "The Watch Hill Marina project was engineered to ensure the marina is safe and can withstand storms for years to come,” seashore officials said at the time./NPS file

Also at risk are a series of coastal ponds at the William Floyd Estate that are contaminated with a variety of chemicals, including DDT. The report on the seashore's vulnerability to climate change said "[T]here is an urgent need to study the remediation of the coastal ponds" because sea-level rise is expected to inundate four out of the five contaminated ponds by 2050. If that happens, scientists fear the sediment within them could contaminate the surrounding areas and the Great South Bay – the lagoon between Long Island and Fire Island used by boaters, swimmers, and commercial fishermen.

Back on the barrier island, there is growing concern over the future.

Fire Island “is going to be underwater within 50 or 60 years. The question is what do we do now?” asked Susie Goldhirsch, president of the Fire Island Association.

From 2015-2018, Suffolk County acquired through purchase or eminent domain dozens of homes -- some worth more than $1 million -- located near sand dunes in Fire Island communities, including Ocean Bay Park, Fire Island Pines, and Davis Park, said Gil Anderson, former commissioner of the Suffolk County Department of Public Works. Other homes were relocated to safer locations on the homeowner’s property, while a few property owners continue to challenge the eminent domain proceedings.

The homes were acquired as part of the Fire Island Inlet to Moriches Inlet Stabilization Project, a $223 million effort designed and funded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to protect Fire Island from coastal erosion and tidal inundation. Using an estimated 2.3 million cubic yards of sand, the project funded the construction of a 10-mile-long beach berm and dune on Fire Island, stretching from Robert Moses State Park on the western end of the national seashore to Smith County Park on the east side.

Completed in 2020, the project does not stop sea-level rise from impacting Fire Island. Rather, it supports a mitigation program that some say is only delaying the inevitable. Sand taken from the ocean floor is now added to Fire Island beaches every five years, and replenishment may have to happen more frequently, said Cheryl Hapke, Ph.D., a senior consultant with Integral Consulting. She previously worked for the U.S. Geological Survey as a research geologist studying coastal processes and vulnerability at Fire Island.

Hurricane Sandy in 2012 opened a breach in the Otis Pike wilderness that remains today/Great South Bay Project

Often mined in deep water and transported great distances, the sand used in beach nourishment projects can cost tens of millions of dollars or more. Beach nourishment draws complaints from those who believe the effort wastes taxpayers’ dollars because the next hurricane is likely to wipe away the artificial nourishment; rebuilding dunes becomes an endless task.

During Hurricane Sandy in 2012, Fire Island experienced a breach where the water cut through the Otis Pike wilderness. Rather than close the breach -- fluctuating between 300 and 600 square meters within the wilderness area -- the park opted to monitor the area as part of the naturally evolving barrier island system.

“The bay is cleaner now than it has been in a long time. Water quality has improved. The fishermen love it,” said Hapke.

Confronting The Future

To keep up with sea-level rise, a barrier island moves landward.

“It’s ideal to let the barrier island behave the way it wants,” said Hapke. She supports a long-term adaptive management plan that allows the barrier island to migrate, but realizes this is unlikely to happen due to politics and human emotions.

If allowed to happen, more private homes will likely have to be bought out or relocated until beach nourishment is no longer necessary.

Aside from sea-level rise, the park faces staff shortages. Despite the thousands of daily visitors during the summer months, there are no full-time lifeguards at the popular Talisman-Barrett Beach. There also is little law enforcement presence on the water; this hampers the park’s ability to enforce boating safety laws, regulate commercial fishing, and address intoxication.

Law enforcement officers on Fire Island are “kind of like a small-town cop,” said Jay Lippert, the seashore's retired chief ranger.  A National Park Service employee for 35 years, his responsibilities included supervising law enforcement, lifeguards, and emergency medical services at the seashore. In his view, the park could use more funding for law enforcement as well as maintenance and interpretation.

Fire Island is “too big to be a small park and too small to be a large park,” he said – his way to say Fire Island is underfunded.