On Tuesday, President Biden designated two new national monuments in the Southwest — Avi Kwa Ame in Nevada and Castner Range in West Texas. The designation will preserve more than 500,000 acres of land from new development.

President Biden should take the same step to ensure the permanent protection of Plum Island, which sits between Long Island’s Orient Point and Fishers Island.

Avi Kwa Ame, its Mojave name, is also known as Spirit Mountain. Rock Carvings and other archaeological relics show its connection to indigenous people going back thousands of years. Castner Range, known for its natural beauty, including waves of orange and yellow poppies in the spring, was a military training site until the mid-1960s.

Plum Island, far more modest in size at 840 acres, is nonetheless deserving of the national monument designation. Such a decree would conclude an effort that began 15 years ago to save the unique island from being sold to the highest bidder.

Since the mid-1950s the federally owned island has been the site of the Plum Island Animal Disease Center, providing for the study of animal diseases, including foot-and-mouth disease and African swine fever, which could threaten domestic livestock. Aside from the research center, the only indications of human ties to the island are its dilapidated, long-abandoned military structures.

The Plum Island research facility is set to close in the next couple years, replaced by the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility that is under construction in Manhattan, Kansas.

The island, with its marshes and dunes, is both a critical stopping point for many migratory birds and a permanent home for a wide variety of birds. Along with the two tiny, undeveloped adjacent islands — Great and Little Gull — it accommodates among the world’s largest concentrations of Common and Roseate Terns.

Large numbers of harbor and gray seals winter on the rocky shores of Plum and the two smaller islands.

With planning in place to eventually close the animal research facility, the administration of President George W. Bush had explored the sale of Plum Island. Thankfully, those plans faced substantial and persistent pushback from conservation groups and elected leaders in Connecticut and New York. This editorial board is proud to count itself among the opponents of selling off the island to serve as another playground for the rich.

Language inserted into the federal budget, approved by Congress near the close of 2022, mandates the “permanent conservation of Plum Island for the protection in perpetuity of its natural and cultural resources.”

That welcomed action provides added certainty that the idea of selling the island will not resurface. Still to be determined is how best to preserve the island, including allowing public access without jeopardizing bird habitats. Making Plum a preserve will come at a cost. Legislative language directs the General Services Administration, the Department of the Interior, and Homeland Security to provide

options for the preservation of the island. In 2002, following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Homeland Security took lead control if the island facilities because of safety concerns tied to the research there.

Full certainty of the island’s permanent preservation would come by way of a presidential national monument designation. Perhaps to provide the Biden administration with added incentive in that regard, Congressman Nicholas LaLota, a New York Democrat, has introduced legislation that aims to protect Plum Island permanently by declaring it a national monument. As LaLota’s office noted, under the 1906 Antiquities Act status can be conferred by Congress or by the president. However, a presidential designation is the more likely and politically practical approach to achieve the desired end.

We urge President Biden to make that designation. In the meantime, the public, conservation groups, and the Northeast region’s elected leaders should continue to lobby the president to do so.

The Day editorial board meets with political, business and community leaders to formulate editorial viewpoints. It is composed of President and Publisher Timothy Dwyer, Executive Editor Izaskun E. Larraneta, Owen Poole, copy editor, and Lisa McGinley, retired deputy managing editor. The board operates independently from The Day newsroom.