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Title 16 — ConservationRelease 119-73not60

§459e Fire Island National Seashore

Title 16 › Chapter 1— NATIONAL PARKS, MILITARY PARKS, MONUMENTS, AND SEASHORES › Subchapter LXIII— NATIONAL SEASHORE RECREATIONAL AREAS › § 459e

Last updated Apr 5, 2026|Official source

Summary

Create the Fire Island National Seashore to protect beaches, dunes, and other mostly undeveloped natural areas in Suffolk County, New York, that are near large cities so future generations can enjoy them. The Secretary of the Interior may establish the seashore. The seashore runs from the east edge of the main part of Robert Moses State Park east to Moriches Inlet. It includes Fire Island and nearby islands and marshes such as Sexton, West, Hollins, Ridge, Pelican, Pattersquash, and Reeves Islands, plus other small adjacent islands, marshes, and wetlands. It also covers waters out to 1,000 feet in the Atlantic Ocean and up to 4,000 feet in Great South Bay and Moriches Bay, and may include mainland terminal and headquarters sites on the Patchogue River totaling no more than 12 acres. The exact boundaries are shown on map OGP–0004 (May 1978), which the Secretary must publish in the Federal Register and keep at the Department of the Interior.

Full Legal Text

Title 16, §459e

Conservation — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)For the purpose of conserving and preserving for the use of future generations certain relatively unspoiled and undeveloped beaches, dunes, and other natural features within Suffolk County, New York, which possess high values to the Nation as examples of unspoiled areas of great natural beauty in close proximity to large concentrations of urban population, the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to establish an area to be known as the “Fire Island National Seashore”.
(b)The boundaries of the national seashore shall extend from the easterly boundary of the main unit of Robert Moses State Park eastward to Moriches Inlet and shall include not only Fire Island proper, but also such islands and marshlands in the Great South Bay, Bellport Bay, and Moriches Bay adjacent to Fire Island as Sexton Island, West Island, Hollins Island, Ridge Island, Pelican Island, Pattersquash Island, and Reeves Island and such other small and adjacent islands, marshlands, and wetlands as would lend themselves to contiguity and reasonable administration within the national seashore and, in addition, the waters surrounding said area to distances of one thousand feet in the Atlantic Ocean and up to four thousand feet in Great South Bay and Moriches Bay and, in addition, mainland terminal and headquarters sites, not to exceed a total of twelve acres, on the Patchogue River within Suffolk County, New York, all as delineated on a map identified as “Fire Island National Seashore”, numbered OGP–0004, dated May 1978. The Secretary shall publish said map in the Federal Register, and it may also be examined in the offices of the Department of the Interior.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

1978—Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 95–625 inserted “the main unit of” before “Robert Moses State Park”, included in the boundaries the mainland terminal and headquarters sites, not to exceed a total of twelve acres, on the Patchogue River within Suffolk County, New York, and substituted map numbered OGP—0004, dated May 1978 for OGP—0002, dated June 1964 and requirement of publishing the map in the Federal Register for prior provision for filing the map with the Federal Register.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Short Title

of 1984 Amendment Pub. L. 98–482, § 1, Oct. 17, 1984, 98 Stat. 2255, provided: “That this Act [amending section 459e–1 and 459e–2 of this title] may be cited as the ‘Fire Island National Seashore

Amendments

Act of 1984’.”

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

16 U.S.C. § 459e

Title 16 — Conservation

Last Updated

Apr 5, 2026

Release point: 119-73not60