The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering enhancing the way they present the Long Island National Wildlife Refuge to the public. It is part of a plan for the future management of the refuges they oversee. Local residents are invited to a meeting on Tuesday, June 27 at the Doubleday Babcock Senior Center, 45 E. Main Street, Oyster Bay to hear about their plans. The meeting is scheduled from 7 to 9 p.m., preceded by an informational open house from 6 to 7 p.m. They are proposing a comprehensive conservation plan for managing wildlife, habitats, and public use programs at the Long Island National Wildlife Refuge Complex for a period of 15 years.

Refuge Manager Deborah Long said the plan is the result of the Refuge Improvement Act of 1997 which said the Fish and Wildlife Service needs to have a plan ready by 2012 and that there is a need to involve the public in the decision making process.

The service has proposed three alternative management approaches, according to Ms. Long. The first is to continue under the current management plan. The second is their preferred alternative which would both increase protection and management of endangered, threatened, and other plant and animal species of concern, including migratory wildlife. It would also increase and improve opportunities for wildlife-dependent recreation on the refuges. The third plan would focus on biological programs and would reduce visitor services.

The second plan - their preferred alternative includes a new headquarters and visitor center to replace the current one at the Wertheim Refuge, situated in the midpoint of the Long Island refuge system, on the east side of Carman's River, said Ms. Long. That proposal also includes exploring the possibility of creating a staffed office in cooperation with NYSDEC and the Town of Oyster Bay in Oyster Bay. The DEC already has a presence on the Western Waterfront where their (brick) building hosts the WaterFront Center, and their satellites, the Christeen and the Oyster Bay Sailing School.

Ms. Long said, "What we will explore is a satellite office at Oyster Bay that would be a partnership office with perhaps the DEC and the Town of Oyster Bay to be good environmental stewards of the bay. We want to do the best we can in terms of wildlife conservation and to provide increased awareness of the importance of the refuge with kiosks and outreach points to provide greater communication with the local community so that they can see what it is that is being protected and so that we can be more responsive to the communities needs."

She said there are a lot of opportunities for partnerships and said they are already working with Friends of the Bay on water quality assessment in the bay. "We have everything from national to local entities to neighbor with including Sagamore Hill National Historic Site. We want a joint office to step up and protect what is there for the public and visitors and to find that balance between wildlife conservation and recreation at the same time," said Ms. Long.

Emphasis would be placed on six activities, including hunting, fishing, wildlife observation, photography, environmental education and interpretation. She added, "There aren't at this time any plans for hunting in the Oyster Bay Wildlife Refuge."

The Oyster Bay National Wildlife Refuge was donated to the service by the Town of Oyster Bay in 1968 as a habitat for migratory birds, particularly wintering waterfowl, under the authority of the Migratory Bird Conservation Act. The refuge, totaling 3,204 acres from the bay bottom up to mean high water, is located on the north shore of Long Island. The waters and marshes of Oyster Bay refuge surround Sagamore National Historic Site, home of Theodore Roosevelt, the founder of the first national wildlife refuge in 1903.

Oyster Bay refuge is unique in the system, serving as a marine refuge rather than the more traditional terrestrial refuge; it comprises the waters and marshes of Oyster Bay and Cold Spring harbors. Those marine habitats support a variety of aquatic-dependent wildlife, especially migratory waterfowl of special focus.

Ms. Long said, "Being a marine sanctuary to mean high tide and below is challenging. It is an incredibly rich resource with important ecological benefit to Long Island."

The Service invites comments on the proposed plan through July 19, 2006. Public meetings will be held at the following three locations on Long Island. The meetings are scheduled on Monday, June 26 at Dowling College, Brookhaven Campus, Room A209, 1300 William Floyd Parkway, Shirley; on June 27 at the Doubleday Babcock Senior Center, 45 E. Main Street, Oyster Bay; and on Wednesday, June 28 at the Morton National Wildlife Refuge, 784 Noyak Road, Sag Harbor.

The service usually presents a slideshow presentation about the refuge, a brief review of the system, and their planning process and a question and answer session. At the meetings they try to gather information and ideas from local residents, adjacent landowners, and various organizations and agencies.

One of the issues of concern is controlling invasive species which are a threat because they displace native plant and animal species, degrade wetlands and other natural communities and reduce natural diversity and wildlife habitat values by out-competing native species for light, water and nutrients.

That has happened in the area where the Mill Pond enters Oyster Bay Harbor through the Mill Pond Creek. Phragmites or common reed have eliminated the cattails that used to line the borders of the stream. Ms. Long said, "In Oyster Bay and all our refuges controlling invasive species is a priority. We can use tidal flow to get rid of some of them, but it takes a lot of tools to get rid of Phragmites. We use a combination of mechanical methods and Intergrated Pest Management - chemical treatment to get rid of them."

The draft plan added that, "Controlling affected areas will require extensive partnerships with adjacent landowners and state and local government agencies."

The report said they are interested in establishing hunting opportunities at the complex for managing overabundant wildlife populations including resident Canada geese at the Wertheim Refuge. Ms. Long said there is a window of opportunity to hunt the resident Canada geese, in September, before the migratory birds come into the refuge.

The report explains that, "Resident Canada goose populations are high enough to have negatively impacted plantings the wetland restoration sits on, and adjacent to the refuge lands. They are also an important game animal, and can provide recreational opportunities for New York hunters." The report added, "Those opposed to hunting cited concerns over public safety, disturbance and harm to other wildlife species, and the impact on visitors engaged in other public uses. The latter concern arises from the likelihood that significant portions of the refuges, due to their small sizes and configurations, would be closed to other activities during hunting. Some expressed the opinion that the refuges should function as a sanctuary for all native species, and that hunting is inconsistent with that function."

Ms. Long said the service prefers addling the eggs as a way to cut down the geese population - something the Town of Oyster Bay is currently involved in through its GeesePeace program.

Developing a refuge complex headquarters and visitor center for the Wertheim refuge is needed, she said. The report said, "Many of the respondents in the scoping phase of planning felt strongly that more refuge staff should be present during peak visitation to increase resource protection and improve visitor services. Respondents also felt existing visitor facilities including kiosks and interpretive signs on trails should be improved. Other recommendations to increase visibility include more visitor contact stations, increasing wildlife interpretation and environmental educational opportunities, a better location for a headquarters office, developing a visitor center for the complex, increasing support for a volunteer program, and increasing community involvement."

Copies of the proposed comprehensive conservation plan can be downloaded from http://www.fws.gov/northeast/longislandrefuges/,

Paper copies and CDs are available at the Long Island National Wildlife Refuge Complex headquarters. They can be reached by phone at 631/286 0485 or e-mail at longislandrefuges@fws.gov

The Long Island National Wildlife Refuge Complex protects significant habitat for migratory birds, threatened and endangered species, and other native wildlife on more than 6,200 (almost 6,500) acres in Suffolk and Nassau counties in New York. The complex includes Amagansett, Conscience Point, Elizabeth A. Morton, Oyster Bay, Seatuck, Target Rock, and Wertheim national wildlife refuges and also the Lido Beach Wildlife Management Area and the Sayville Unit.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The service manages the 95 million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System, which encompasses 545 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 69 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resources offices and 81 ecological services field stations. The agency enforces federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign and Native American tribal governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Assistance program, which distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies.