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The Sound’s coastal habitats – which range from tidal wetlands to eelgrass beds and oak forests – support diverse species of plants and wildlife, ranging from microscopic plankton that drift with the currents to economically important finfish and rare birds that nest along the shore. They also play a critical role in filtering nutrients and pollution from our water and buffering the shoreline from damaging storms.
Unfortunately, these critical habitats are facing many threats:
- Invasive species like the common reed grass (Phragmites australis) are outcompeting and replacing native wetland plants.
- Development along the shore is destroying habitat, damaging wetlands and changing the saltwater flows.
- Pollution and urban runoff are changing the chemistry of the water in the Sound, harming plants and animals.
Different Problems, Different Approaches
Protecting and restoring such diverse coastal habitat requires an equally diverse range of strategies. As such, the Conservancy is employing a number of approaches.
Where possible, we will acquire ecologically-valuable coastal property in order to limit further development that threatens these areas.
In places that are already protected, we are restoring habitats in hopes of returning them to their natural state. This includes removing culverts and dams to return saltwater flow into marshes and finding ways to reduce the impact of nutrients and toxins that run off adjacent land and into marshes and coastal waters.
We will also work to remove invasive species and prevent their re-colonization of coastal habitats.
Following the Model
Sometimes it’s not necessary to reinvent the wheel. In 1994, The Nature Conservancy became actively involved in the Peconic Estuary Program (PEP). Since then, we have led a comprehensive land preservation strategy for that ecosystem.
This effort identified and prioritized the lands targeted for protection from future development around the Peconic’s bays. Several criteria, including size, contiguity to lands already protected, and the presence of rare or threatened plants or animals helped determine which parcels were of greatest value to the future health of the estuary. Using modern mapping technology, we created a detailed map of all these critical lands and are working to acquire or protect them.
We hope a similar approach will prove just as effective for the Long Island Sound. The Conservancy has already begun to inventory and catalogue parcels in the Sound watershed. Next, we will draft a Critical Lands Preservation Plan, which will lead to comprehensive, effective and successful land protection efforts along the Sound for the benefit of both people and nature.
Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Sandy Richard/Creative Commons (coastal marsh); Photo © Sandy Richard/Creative Commons (crab); © Conservation Law Foundation/Creative Commons (eelgrass).
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