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The Nature Conservancy in Connecticut Connecticut Home Places We Protect Contact News Room Ways of Giving Volunteer Government Relations Corporate Council CLCC Invasive Species |
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The waters of Long Island Sound are home to a surprisingly diverse array of plants, animals and habitats—from sea turtles to salmon and from sea-grass meadows to oyster beds. Despite pollution, coastal development, overfishing and habitat loss that have devastated species such as lobsters and scallops, we still have a chance to restore the Sound’s abundance, if we act now.
Conserving the Sound’s natural resources is a challenge that The Nature Conservancy is facing head on, along with local, state, federal and private partners. Together, we will make the Sound a better place for nature and for people. The Conservancy has begun to implement a comprehensive plan to put our unique skills to work protecting and restoring the Sound from shore to shore.
Science for the Sound
The Conservancy is working with collaborators at Connecticut’s universities, state agencies and other conservation groups to establish a scientific foundation for strategic conservation action in the Sound. For example, we are developing models to predict how sea level rise due to climate change will affect coastal habitats and the fish and wildlife that depend on them. This will allow us to protect coastal marshes that will be resilient to climate change, as well as to identify and protect undeveloped areas where new marshes may form as sea level rises.
Conservancy scientists are also studying the distribution of plants and animals in the Sound in order to identify locations that support a representative array of plants and animals. This will help us to focus our efforts on restoration and protection in the areas that are most ecologically important to the Sound. To that end, we are collaborating with Conservancy chapters in Long Island and Rhode Island to coordinate our work in the Sound and pool our resources to reach common goals.
From Forests to the Sound
More than three quarters of all major commercial and recreational fisheries depend on estuaries, places like Long Island Sound where freshwater meets the sea. That fresh water flows into the Sound from the Connecticut River, Housatonic River and Thames River, as well as from hundreds of short-stem rivers that line the coast. The Sound’s watershed extends over 16,246 square miles, an area inhabited by 14.6 million people.
The Conservancy’s land protection work throughout the state is protecting forests that feed clean water into the Sound. Our work protecting rivers like the Lower Connecticut, Eightmile, Salmon, Saugatuck and Pawcatuck Rivers is restoring the connections between the Sound and New England's forested rivers by improving access for migratory fish that depend on both fresh and saltwater for survival.
Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Jerry and Marcy Monkman/ecophotography.com (Long Island Sound); Photo © Jerry and Marcy Monkman/ecophotography.com (horseshoe crab).
