The Nature Conservancy. Protecting nature. Preserving life.™

The Nature Conservancy has identified three practical solutions for restoring Long Island Sound for a safe, secure and prosperous future:

1. PREPARING OUR COAST FOR UNCERTAINTY
   The Nature Conservancy’s free, web-based Coastal Resilience Tool provides information about likely impacts from future storms and sea-level rise that can be used to protect coastal Connecticut and Long Island towns and the natural areas that help keep them safe.
   
   Equipped with this powerful new tool, our scientists are working side-by-side with local leaders to help them make smart decisions, and we are sharing what we learn across the globe with communities in places like Puerto Rico, Indonesia and China.
    
2. RESCUING LOST COASTAL HABITATS
   Bringing back shellfish, seagrass and river passage throughout the Sound will provide more local seafood, help control flooding, provide nursery habitat for young fish and filter millions of gallons of water.
   
   With its global expertise in reviving rivers and coastal habitats, The Nature Conservancy is studying the reasons for eelgrass decline, removing the most harmful barriers to migrating fish and acting on unique opportunities to restore shellfish and support others in sustainable harvesting.
    
3. BALANCING COMMERCE AND NATURE
   Through the first-ever comprehensive ecological assessment of the Sound, The Nature Conservancy is compiling and sharing the science needed to accommodate fishing, shipping, energy and recreation while also protecting nature.
   
   Equipped with this new information about the Sound’s most important places, we will work with communities, organizations, universities and industry to create an “Ocean Plan” that accommodates economic growth while protecting the Sound’s valuable natural resources.

We Need Your Help to Continue the Comeback

• COMPLETING AN OCEAN PLAN
  With your support, we can collaborate with communities, agencies, organizations and policy leaders across the Sound to guide commercial and recreational uses to the places where those uses are most compatible.
   
• PLANNING FOR SEA-LEVEL RISE
  The Conservancy is working with towns like Old Saybrook, and Guilford, Connecticut, and Southold, New York to prepare for a changing coast. With your help, we will expand that work to more coastal towns.
   
• IMPROVING WATER QUALITY
  Your support will help us protect lands that keep rivers like the Eightmile and Salmon clean, and to work with scientists to solve water quality problems in Long Island Sound.
   
• REBUILDING SHELLFISH AND EELGRASS BEDS
  In places like Connecticut’s Thimble Islands and New York’s Peconic Estuary and Great South Bay, you can help us restore hundreds of acres of shellfish and eelgrass beds and work with shellfishermen on sustainable harvesting.
   
• REMOVING BARRIERS TO FISH
  In the Connecticut, the Saugatuck and other watersheds that feed the Sound, you can help us remove outdated and unnecessary barriers to eel, shad, herring and other fish that sustain important fisheries at sea.

We need to act now. To get involved, please contact: Chantal Collier, Long Island Sound Program Director: (203) 568-6295