NPS Trying to Buy Private Lands on Virgin Islands
Owners of a 400-acre estate may sell land to developers.
ST. JOHN, V.I.— The National Park Service (NPS) is scrambling to buy more than 400 acres that are under imminent threat of large-scale development inside Virgin Islands National Park. The property has been appraised by the Park Service to be worth between $8 million and $12 million.
The property, Maho Bay Estate, was inherited several years ago by 11 members of the Marsh Family and is relatively untouched. Three family members have already sold their shares to the Park Service, but the remaining land is split among eight others.
Currently, buying the property outright is unlikely. The federal government has given the Park Service only $1.5 million to buy the land, and a private donor has offered $4 million for the purchase, according to Deputy Superintendent Judy Shafer. NPS is working with the Trust for Public Land to seek alternatives, which might include land swaps of 12 NPS-owned parcels on the south side of the island or tax relief for the owners.
Assessments by the park resource management team report that development directly in the middle of the park will increase soil erosion, degrade water quality, and destroy habitat for migratory birds.
St. John includes important nesting sites for the threatened green turtle and endangered hawksbill turtle. Artificial light from development disorients baby sea turtles after they hatch; mistaking the lights for stars, they head inland instead of out to sea. Additionally, the estate's steep hillsides and valleys drain into Maho Bay, where sedimentation could damage coral reefs and seagrasses that provide food and habitat for many marine creatures.
Beyond the degradation of the ecosystem and the loss of spectacular island scenery, there are also concerns about the potential damage to the area's cultural and archaeological resources.
The island has a rich history dating back to 710 B.C., when Indians migrating from South America first established residency. Around 300 A.D., the island supported a small community of Arawak Indians, and later, in 1694, Danish settlers arrived on the island, attracted by the opportunity to cultivate sugar cane.
Virgin Islands National Park protects several 18th-century sugar and cotton plantation ruins, and those on the Maho Bay Estate are vitally important to preserving the island's history, said Doug Armstrong, a Syracuse University anthropology professor who has been working with the Park Service for several years. Though deteriorating and covered in vegetation, remains of several small, neighboring plantations are visible on the estate and "provide a textbook setting to look at plantation systems," Armstrong said.
"In getting continuous estates, you don't have to piecemeal history. You have a congruent landscape of what the area historically looked like."
The loss of this property could have far-reaching effects, Shafer said.
"When you lose a huge chunk like this to development, right through the middle of the park, I wonder if we will still even qualify for national park status?" Shafer asked.
"It's as if you took 400 acres right out of the middle of Rocky Mountain National Park—it would have an enormous impact."
Learn more about Virgin Islands National Park.
