The Otis Pike Fire Island High Dune Wilderness encompasses 1,363 acres of the Fire Island National Seashore, located immediately west of Smith Point County Park and east of Watch Hill. The wilderness area was named in honor of Otis G. Pike who represented New York's 1st District in the U. S. House of Representatives from 1960 to 1978.

1983 Wilderness Management Plan

Under guidelines established by the 1964 Wilderness Act, the park's Otis Pike Fire Island High Dune Wilderness was designated on December 23, 1980 (PL 96-585).

Three years later a formal Wilderness Management Plan for this area was approved.

"A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain."

           - The Wilderness Act of 1964

Wilderness Management Plan
Fire Island National Seashore
(November 1983)
25 pages, 186 KB PDF file

Learn More

All National Park Service lands are evaluated to determine their eligibility for inclusion within the national wilderness preservation system. Those lands that are determined to possess wilderness character—like the Otis Pike Fire Island High Dune Wilderness—are managed according to the criteria found in the 2006 Management Policies, Chapter 6.

Director's Order # 41: Wilderness Preservation and Management and NPS Reference Manual 41 provide further guidance for the management of these special places. 

To learn more about the national wilderness preservation system, visit the following sites: 

•   National Park Service Wilderness
  
•   Wilderness.net