A Push to Preserve Plum Island

The idea that the federally owned Plum Island should be preserved and protected, not sold to the highest bidder and developed, found widespread support on Monday during a public hearing on the island’s future.

The hearing, held at Brookhaven Town Hall and convened by New York State Assemblyman Steve Englebright, the chairman of the Assembly’s environmental conservation committee, attracted testimony from elected officials, environmental experts, and advocates from all over the East End and Connecticut. Their hope is to reverse a federal order, passed in 2009 and amended in 2012, that has mandated the sale of the 843-acre Plum Island to partially recoup the costs of decommissioning the existing Plum Island Animal Disease Center and building a new research facility in Kansas.

“To order it sold, as if it’s a piece of meat, is something I was very disappointed to learn about,” Mr. Englebright said.

Plum Island is considered a gem by many on the South Fork for the natural resources on and around it — such as migratory bird habitats that have drawn more than 200 species and the abundant fishing off its coast — as well as its historical significance and scientific and economic importance.

“We have support for protection from the local to the county to the state to the federal level,” Bob DeLuca, president of the Group for the East End, which is a co-founder of the Preserve Plum Island Coalition, said on Tuesday. “We seem to have a lot of leadership from both sides of the Long Island Sound. I think that bodes well for us. . . . The overall message was a good one. The broader you make the coalition, the greater the chance it will succeed.”

During his testimony on Monday, Mr. DeLuca said the nearly $100 million in federal tax money invested over the years in the facilities and infrastructure of the Plum Island Animal Disease Center would essentially be thrown away if the structures were razed by a private developer. He said the Group for the East End supports an academic repurposing of the research center, for instance as a facility to study clean energy or marine science.

“For those of us who have been closely involved in evaluating both the resources and operations at Plum Island for more than a decade, the idea that the developed portion of the island is somehow a crumbling and obsolete researchacility with little or no potential for adaptive reuse is a narrative that, while convenient for those looking to sell the island, simply does not fit the reality of what Plum Island offers as a potential center for research and innovation,” Mr. DeLuca said.

Scott Russell, the supervisor of Southold Town, of which Plum Island is part, said about 400 jobs — half of which are filled by employees from Long Island, the other half from Connecticut — are at risk if Plum Island is sold and the research functions cease. Southold Town has already zoned the island for research and preservation purposes in such a way that residential and other developed uses of the land are specifically prohibited. He said the town “will do everything we can to keep it the way it is,” for example by replacing the existing animal disease research center with, as Mr. DeLuca suggested, a renewable energy research center, or some type of technology incubator.

The rest of the island, Mr. Russell said, “is a de facto preserve now, and we’d like to see it stay that way, with limited, responsible public access.”

Suffolk County Legislator Al Krupski, whose district includes the North Fork and Plum Island, said he is asking his colleagues in the Legislature to sign a letter supporting the preservation of the island, rather than its sale.

Kevin Dowling, a legislative assistant to Representative Lee Zeldin, said Mr. Zeldin has picked up on the work of his predecessor, former Representative Tim Bishop, to push for its preservation. Mr. Dowling pointed to the work done by the state on Governors Island in New York City as a potential template for the preservation of Plum Island. Governors Island was sold to the state by the Coast Guard for $1, negotiated by then-President Bill Clinton, who used his executive power of monument-making to do so near the end of his tenure in office. The island was then placed into a private, not-for-profit trust that manages the land. New York City currently operates a ferry service to Governors Island for visitors.

“We want to prevent the sale of Plum Island, but if it was for sale to the state or a nonprofit, that would also be good,” Mr. Dowling said.

Adrienne Esposito, executive director of the Citizens Campaign for the Environment, said “the will of the public” favors preservation of Plum Island. As her evidence, she pointed to the community preservation fund legislation that has successfully been used to preserve open space, which she said has amounted to more than 116,500 acres in Suffolk County so far.

“The public has said time and time again, ‘Let’s invest in preserving natural resources, let’s invest in preserving land, let’s invest in saving the Long Island Sound,’ ” Ms. Esposito said. “This is exactly the type of land we’ve been buying for the last 25 years. . . . The public wants this type of preservation.”