Fire Island News

Fire Island: Site of an Ecological Wonder
By Sue Chehrenegar
No Date

Fire Island: Site of an Ecological Wonder When you hear the word “New York City,” you probably think of skyscrapers. Yet a short ferry ride can take a New York visitor to a plant grouping so rare, that it exists in few other places on the face of the globe. That ecological wonder is the Sunken Forest on Fire Island. The dune line all along the shores of Fire Island provides the Island flora with a certain amount of protection from the wind and salt spray. However, in the area of the Island called “Sailor’s Haven,” some added protection has developed. There the shore dunes are paired with a second row of dunes. The Sunken Forest grows along the back side of a secondary dune. The Sunken Forest does not really sink below the level of the sea. It only seems to lie below sea level, because of its position on that secondary dune. At that single spot, the normally harsh environment of a barrier island has become amazingly less harsh. As a result, visitors to Fire Island, have an opportunity to stroll through a rare collection of plants. Some Island visitors only retreat to the shade of the Sunken Forest after they feel as though they have “baked” long enough on the sunny and sandy beach. Other visitors set aside time for taking a walk along the Sunken Forest Nature Trail—a trail that passes through four different ecosystems. Not every part of the 40 acres within the Sunken Forest has the flora and fauna that are associated with a forest. Some sections exhibit the ecological features of a salt marsh; other sections display the characteristics of a swale zone. A fourth ecological niche can be found in the Great South Bay.
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