Philosophy and Orientation of the Fire Island Film:
From the time of the visitation of the first Native Americans until the late nineteenth century, uncertainty and transience dominated the behavior of the visitors to Great South Beach. Their visits were brief, their shelters inconsequential and their numbers small. By the close of the nineteenth century, people began to build permanent structures on the beach. Clusters of these structures evolved into the present towns that dot Great South Beach.
Today it is the same the natural processes that shape and modify the beach, amplified by threat of global warming, that threatens the survival of the man made structures clustered in communities on the beach. Over the last century, this beach “community” has evolved into a varied and complex mix of people and ideas that interact with each other and the natural beauty of the beach.
In the early 1960’s, a unified plea from the Fire Island Communities was issued to the Federal Government to establish a National Seashore on Great South Beach. With the establishment of Fire Island National Seashore in 1964, came a presence that is charged with the protection and preservation of natural processes that shape and reshape the beach. The result has been a sometimes contentious relationship between the cultural represented by the communities and nature represented by the Park Service. It is the tension between the natural and cultural communities that is the subject of this film.


Fire Island Forces

Fire Island is dynamic and moving but not always in one direction. Over long time, its net movement has been to the north but under some circumstances, it may make small incursions to the south. The island will not disappear but it may not always be in the position that we want. Fire Island expands and contracts its width depending upon the sand available and the strength of the forces moving that sand.

The forces that are shaping and have shaped Fire Island are relentless but consistently inconsistent. The ocean waves can add or subtract sand to the beach face, depending upon their energy and direction. The wind builds sand piles around obstructions. If the obstruction happens to be dune grass, and the grass continues to grow through the sand pile, dunes of greater or lesser magnitude can develop.

The sand that supplies the bayside beaches is wind transported from the ocean side. Trees, fences and structures can accumulate sand and interfere with the movement of sand across the island. A shortage of sand along the bay side is as serious a concern as a shortage of sand on the ocean side.

The supply of sand along the ocean and bay shores of Fire Island coupled with wind and wave energy, direction and duration determine if there will be a net addition or deletion to the island.

It is the charge of Fire Island National Seashore to allow Fire Island to behave as it has always done. The owners of defined property demand that Fire Island remain static. These two views of Fire Island are the subject of this film.