Where Will Fire Island Go From Here?

NPS Photo View from Fire Island Lighthouse, looking east toward Kismet. You Can Help Shape a New General Management Plan In preparation for the park’s new General Management Planning (GMP) process, the park staff is undertaking a series of dialogues on critical park and community issues. Fire Island National Seashore launched this process this past summer with public scoping meetings at the Ocean Beach Community House and Davis Park on July 29, 2006. Additional public meetings were held at Sailors Haven, Watch Hill, Cherry Grove, Fire Island Pines, Saltaire, and near the Fire Island Lighthouse on August 11-13, 2006. In September, additional meetings were held at Mastic Beach, Patchogue, and Stony Brook. A meeting in New York City was conducted on November 14, 2006. We want to hear from you—the public—in order to capture all the issues regarding this complex National Park Service treasure. During scoping, a variety of stakeholders shared their ideas of important park values and issues of concern, including the overall management of the Seashore. During the public meetings, we were also able to let people know what to expect during the extensive and rather complicated planning process, which is expected to take up to four years to complete. While a new DRAFT General Management Plan is still two or more years away, the scoping meetings of 2006 have created a solid foundation upon which to build the new GMP. You may see the current GMP, which was completed in 1977, through the link below. Your participation is vital at each step of the process to ensure that we consider all stakeholders' issues and concerns, and to be sure that we capture all issues regarding the comprehensive preservation and management of park resources—both for today and for future generations. Help us shape Fire Island National Seashore’s future. For More Information Contact Us or send your comments to: fire_island_gmp@nps.gov

Watch for the Emergence of Ticks During Warm Weather. Explore Safely!

When the weather warms, you should be alert for the presence of ticks in densely vegetated areas of Long Island and on parts of Fire Island.

Unseasonably warm weather this spring has brought out a significant number of Lone Star Ticks in some areas.

Always dress appropriately to avoid encounters with ticks and mosquitoes.

Your Safety
	your safety includes: Boardwalks Ticks Mosquitoes Poison Ivy Sun Water Wildlife Fire

Be Aware of Potential Hazards and Heed a Few Safety Precautions To Help Ensure a Safe and More Pleasant Visit to Fire Island National Seashore Always Stay on Boardwalks Protect Yourself From the Sun Watch Out For Poison Ivy Use Caution In and Around the Water Avoid Ticks and Mosquitoes Be Careful with Fire Never Feed or Touch Wildlife Keep Dogs Leashed Keep an Eye on the Weather Respect All Park Rules and Regulations

Fire Island - Sun, Sand, Surf – The Good Life at Davis Park

Davis Park/Leja Beach. Home of the infamous Casino – a great restaurant and one of the most populated drinking hot-spots on the barrier beach, Fire Island. A place some call a second home.

A first impression of Davis Park may be less than thrilling, simply because there isn’t much except a small general store, volleyball net, a children’s playground and a long boardwalk leading from the ferry dock to the bar, with the next step taking you down to the beach. Standing high above the beach, on the Casino deck, the view to east and west brings only homes. But the view of the south of the pounding relentless Atlantic Ocean is possibly the most spectacular found anywhere.

A Brookhaven Town beach, boasting a new bath house a police station and over 200 dock slips Davis Park has the biggest, transient population of any town marina. The Davis Park Ferry Company operated by the Sherman family, estimates that nearly 10,000 sun and sea worshippers ride to Leja Beach during the summer season. It has long been considered and described as a mecca for the single, energetic slice of life.

But that is not the only type of living style found within the dunes of Davis Park. Though the parting and reveling is the most flamboyant signal to the senses, beyond the noise of the music, there are Davis Park residents who enjoy their community for its peacefulness-the natural state of being. Despite the popularity growth over the years, Davis Park has not suffered from the building boom which left little breathing space in neighboring communities.

It all began back in 1945 when Davis Park became official with the town establishing the marina and a public park. The land for both was donated by the Davis Brothers of Patchogue. A large building was barged over from the South Shore and with some work was soon operating as the bar, the Leja Beach Casino. Houses stated sprouting on the western edge, in the early 1960’s and then spread east. The latter formation of homes would garner their own identify in time, calling itself Ocean Ridge.

Upon a first taste, Davis Park seems unregulated, hedonistic. But that is not true. Town lifeguards watch over the crowds with a sharp eye. Police patrols and visitors themselves often thwart the problems that come with drinking. The population age is not limited to teenagers and older single, children are heard laughing, screeching as they swim, dig their sandcastles, play Frisbee.

Davis Park simply put, is down-to-earth. There is no jet-set scene, no best-dressed list to follow. It welcomes all who enjoy soaking their skin, swimming in the rough and cooling sea. Friendly Davis Park affords its virtues to all. Hopefully, it will never change.

Area residents are flocking to Davis Park on Fire Island

By Judy Hogan