Long Island National Wildlife Refuge Complex released its Final Comprehensive Conservation Plan (CCP) in September, 2006, marking a major milestone for the complex. The CCP is the culmination of a planning effort involving a variety of partners and communities. The CCP establishes 15 year management goals and objectives for wildlife and habitat, public use, and partnerships for the complex. The complex includes Amagansett, Conscience Point, Elizabeth A. Morton, Oyster Bay, Seatuck, Target Rock and Wertheim National Wildlife Refuges. Staff from the refuge complex headquarters office at Wertheim National Wildlife Refuge in Suffolk County, New York will implement this plan for further protection and management of endangered, threatened, and other plant and animal species of concern, including migratory wildlife. The plan is designed to expand and improve opportunities for wildlife-dependent recreation, and allow the complex to benefit from its proximity to New York City and other urban communities.

The complex will increase existing programs to protect habitats and manage for the threatened piping plover, sandplain gerardia (a rare plant), American eel, mud and box turtles, wintering waterfowl, and neotropical migratory songbirds. Efforts would intensify to control non-native invasive species such as phragmites, and the complex will evaluate and implement new management practices to decrease insecticide use in marsh communities. Other highlights of the CCP include 1) constructing a new headquarters and visitor center at Wertheim National Wildlife Refuge that will also serve as an office for the region's Long Island Field Office, part of the Division of Ecological Services; 2) strengthening interpretive and environmental education programs throughout the refuges; 3) expanding outreach efforts, such as public relations and volunteer programs; and 4) initiating a regulated early-season (September) hunt and other population control measures to manage over-abundant populations of resident Canada geese at Wertheim National Wildlife Refuge. The Service will actively pursue land acquisition opportunities within the refuges' approved boundaries, as well as other land protection opportunities. However, this CCP does not propose Service acquisition of additional lands at this time.