Fish and Wildlife

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) origins will be found in the Commission of Fish and Fisheries that was established in 1871 and in the Division of Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy created in 1885. Its role was protecting what are today called cultural resources. The bureau’s role in protecting fish, wildlife and wetlands is well known. It’s contributions to preserving our cultural heritage have been less visible. In terms of historic preservation responsibilities, the FWS resembles other federal agencies in each year reviewing thousands of projects to avoid or minimize damage to significant historic sites in compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. A variety of other laws and regulations provide direction in such areas including the maintenance of hundreds of historic buildings and structures. To date the FWS has identified over 11,000 archeological and historic sites on its lands. Information on the bureau’s cultural resource work prior to the 1970’s is sketchy. It hired its first cultural resource professional in 1977. Currently FWS employs about twenty cultural resource professionals from a variety of academic disciplines, including archeology, history, anthropology, and museum studies. Most are located in the seven Regional Offices. The bureau’s preservation office is located in the Washington Office’s Division of Refuges.

What about the future? Two recent laws provide new direction for FWS managed cultural resources. The 1997 National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act directs the FWS to address the management of archeological and cultural sites. In 1998 the National Wildlife Refuge System Volunteer and Community Partnership Act of 1998 (emphasis supplied) requires a new education initiative promoting the conservation of fish, wildlife, habitat, and cultural resources in refuges.*

With this background, it would seem appropriate for FWS to now establish a “volunteer and community partnership” with the residents of Long Island, Suffolk County, and Islip to preserve, rehabilitate, and re-use the historic buildings in the Peters/Webster FWS preserve on St. Marks Lane in that town. Of great concern are the Charles D. Webster estate and the nearby cow barn. Both have been identified as individually eligible for the National and State Registers of Historic Places as N.Y. State OPRHP unique sites no. 10305-000206 and no. 10305-000881B. *

(Excerpted from CRM, Volume 22, No. 4, 1999, published by the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Cultural Resources.)