US Fish and Wildlife to Waste $1,400,000 in Assets to Preserve 1 Acre.

​The US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) plan to demolish Plum Islands' beloved Pink House (PH) effectively means losing $1,400,000 to preserve 1 residential acre of land on a turnpike while forever making themselves mistrusted by the community they rely on for support and should be serving. Despite their claims in a flawed Environmental Assessment (EA), this is not in the best interest of USFWS’s mission to “work with others to protect and enhance fish, wildlife, plants, and their habitats.
 
The most recent Yellow Book appraisal assessed the value of the Pink House and the one-acre lot it sits on at $425,000. FWS’s EA, a study upon which they based their justification to remove TPH, neglected to factor in that the Pink House is a grandfathered house on a non-buildable lot. This means the lot will soon become non-buildable if the house is removed, causing the lot’s value to plummet by approximately $400,000. In addition, an anonymous donor has come forward offering to donate $1,000,000 to restore the house in place for FWS or a nonprofit’s use and serve as housing for visiting scientists, academics, and others focused on protecting the Great Marsh and better understanding the impacts climate change, invasive species, and various types of pollution are having on this ecologically critical resource.
 
FWS could also enable universities, nonprofits, and organizations like the Audubon to utilize the Pink House as headquarters for environmental education initiatives. Finally, once restored the Pink House and its 1 acre would become a $1,400,000+ asset FWS could use to exchange for more ecologically important land if and when the opportunity emerges. 
FWS’s only justification for demolishing The Pink House is that they conducted an Environmental Assessment in order to do so, and they are following its conclusions. Yet the EA has many flaws to the uneducated eye. One glaring point is that it does not recognize the Pink House as sitting on a non-buildable lot and completely disregards the new development of a $1,000,000 donation to restore the house. 
 
This does not include approximately $200K for theEnvironmental Assessment, the failed PH auction, the Remediation and demolition contracts, misc like no trespassing signs, and staff time (more of which was spent to work toward house removal that it would be to have done a land swap).
 
The USFW’s Environmental Assessment also vastly underestimates the lasting loss of community trust and support demolishing their beloved Pink House will effect for USFWS.

This loss will be greatly magnified by the community’s realization that demolishing the house means destroying $400,000 in government assets and the loss of a $1,000,000 donation to rebuild the house. 78% of those who responded to the EA want the Pink House saved, as do thousands of those who have signed Support The Pink House petitions as well as our over 8,000 social media friends. Supporters also include Massachusetts Governor Maura Healy, Senator Bruce Tarr, Representative Kristin Kassner, and virtually every prominent North Shore leader and organization - from the North Shore Tourist Bureau and Essex National Heritage and the Newburyport Preservation Trust, to Newburyport’s Mayor Reardon and Chamber of Commerce, to the governing bodies of Salisbury, Newburyport, Amesbury, and Newbury, many others. 
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The USFWS should reconsider its decision to Rebuilding the Pink House at no cost to the taxpayers to preserve $400,000 in government assets and increase the value of the lot by $1,000,000. This will also restore trust and support for the USFWS and avoid a public relations catastrophe.
 
Rather it will forever restore the community’s trust and support for the USFWS as well as the admiration of tourists, photographers, painters, and the other craftspeople who are inspired by The Pink House and have created a cottage industry focused on it.

By Jeff Ackley