2006 Large Grants Projects

New York

Native Successional Forest Restoration

Grantee: Edith G. Read Natural Park and Wildlife Sanctuary
Long Island Sound Futures Funds: $35,000
Matching Contributions: $16,761
Total Project Costs: $51,761
Project Area: Rye, New York

The Edith G. Read Natural Park and Wildlife Sanctuary will restore a .9-acre parcel and 25-foot buffer zone currently overgrown with invasive species of plants by removing the invasive plants and restoring the site to establish a native meadow and successional forest for resident and migratory birds. The Edith G. Read Natural Park and Wildlife Sanctuary is part of the pilot site of the Long Island Sound Stewardship Initiative and an Important Bird Area designated by the National Audubon Society.

Oyster Bay/Cold Spring Harbor Watershed Fish Passage Assessment Project

Grantee: Trout Unlimited, Long Island Chapter
Long Island Sound Futures Funds: $32,000
Matching Contributions: $17,000
Total Project Costs: $49,000
Project Area: Oyster Bay/Cold Spring Harbor, New York

The Long Island Chapter of Trout Unlimited will conduct a fish passage assessment of the Oyster Bay/Cold Spring Harbor Watershed and its subwatersheds. This project will develop a habitat and engineering assessment to address the impact of barriers on diadromous fisheries including the only spawning population of sea-run brook trout in Nassau County and on alewife, American eel and rainbow smelt. The findings of the assessment will be presented at two public meetings. The grantee will also pursue 1-3 individual fish passage projects to open three miles to fish passage. The Oyster Bay – Cold Spring Harbor Estuary is recognized by New York State as a Significant Coastal Fish and Wildlife Habitat and as an Outstanding Natural Coastal Area. The US Fish and Wildlife Service recognizes the area as habitat or regional significance for restoration of anadromous fish passage. The watershed hosts the Oyster Bay National Wildlife Refuge and the Shu Swamp Nature Preserve. The project also contributes towards attaining the Long Island Sound Study’s Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan goal to reestablish migratory finfish passage. Project partners include Environmental Defense and the Friends of the [Oyster] Bay.

Long Island Sound Eelgrass Restoration: Phase II

Grantee: Cornell University Cooperative Extension, Marine Program
Long Island Sound Futures Funds: $50,000
Matching Contributions*: $20,784
Total Project Costs: $70,784
Project Area: St. Thomas Point, Southold, Old Field Point, Village of Old Field and Lloyd’s Neck, Caumsett State Park, Huntington, New York

Cornell University Cooperative Extension will expand an eelgrass restoration project. Phase I of the project involved establishing a two-acre eelgrass meadow and plantings at two sites to test site selection standards and new planting methods. Phase II will expand the existing sites by three-fourths of an acre. Restoration of submerged aquatic vegetation such as eelgrass has been identified as a priority in the Long Island Sound Study Habitat Restoration Initiative. Project partners include Town of Southold, New York State Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation and the Village of Old Field.

Bronx River Restoration and Stormwater Retrofit

Grantee: Bronx River Alliance
Long Island Sound Futures Funds: $73,000
Matching Contributions*: $21,100
Total Project Costs: $94,100
Project Area: Bronx River Corridor, Bronx River Forest and Muskrat Cove, Bronx, New York

The Bronx River Alliance will remove invasive plants and debris while restoring three acres of riverine Bronx River Forest habitat. This project will create a stormwater capture project using native plants. The effectiveness of the stormwater control projects of this type will be demonstrated to 50 community leaders at various interpretive sessions. The Bronx River, a tributary of the Long Island Sound, is a New York State Section 303 priority watershed identified for total maximum daily load development. The Bronx River Ecological and Management Plan (2006) identifies projects that replace impervious surfaces, a majority of the surface area in this urban watershed, and stormwater capture projects as key to reduce threats to the ecological health of the river. Project partners include New York City Parks, Gaia Institute, Neighborhood Initiatives Development Corporation, Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice and Mosholu Preservation Corporation.

Marine Mammals, Sea Turtles and Citizen Scientists

Grantee: The Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation
Long Island Sound Futures Funds: $28,000
Matching Contributions: $42,720
Total Project Costs: $70,720
Project Area: Plum, Fisher’s, Great and Little Gull Islands, Town of Smithtown, Town of Huntington, Town of Oyster Bay and Town of Southold, New York

The Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation will train citizen scientists in five communities to conduct a survey of whales, dolphins, porpoises, sea turtles, sea lions and seals to confirm the value and use of the Long Island Sound to those species in order to guide conservation management. The Riverhead Foundation and the citizen scientists will present information and lectures to communities around the Sound and to the 800,000 visitors to the Atlantis Marine World Aquarium annually where the organization is located. Four species of seals, four of the seven sea turtle species of the world, and 17 different cetacean species including common and Risso’s dolphins, harbor porpoises and pilot and humpback whales are found in the Long Island Sound. Cooperating partners include the Friends of Flax Pond, Suffolk County Marine Environmental Learning Center and the Theodore Roosevelt Nature Center.

Hempstead Harbor Cove Wetland Restoration, Phase III & IV

Grantee: Town of North Hempstead
Long Island Sound Futures Funds: $27,000
Matching Contributions*: $13,500
Total Project Costs: $40,500
Project Area: Port Washington, New York

The Town of North Hempstead will reconfigure a stormwater outfall to reduce discharge into a four-acre restored intertidal, emergent marsh and associated upland; and implement a two-year maintenance and monitoring program to ensure success of the prior restoration project supported by the Futures Fund. The prior restoration project supported by the Futures Fund involved four acres of wetland within Hempstead Harbor Cove. The project stabilized shoreline, removed debris, fill, and invasive plants, and planted natives. The project is located near a former industrial area and enhances the biological value and visual appeal of the site near a shoreline nature trail. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and New York Department of Environmental Conservation will continue to provide technical assistance to the Town of Hempstead on the project.

Conservation of Beach Nesting Birds of Eastern Long Island

Grantee: Audubon New York
Long Island Sound Futures Funds: $35,000
Matching Contributions: $55,500
Total Project Costs: $90,500
Project Area: Towns Eastern Suffolk County, New York

Audubon New York, Eastern Long Island Audubon Center and North Fork Audubon will engage in stewardship and outreach associated with beach nesting birds. Stewardship activities will involve monitoring and protecting piping plover nesting sites and development of a predator control committee. Outreach will use the Beach Habitat Awareness Campaign Planning Packet to provide information about how birds and humans can live in harmony. The project will build on current stewardship efforts to expand early season monitoring and will complement the stewardship and education efforts of The Nature Conservancy, the New York State Office of Parks Recreation and Historic Preservation, New York Department of Environmental Protection, the North Fork Audubon Society and local municipalities.

Long Island Sound Stewardship Initiative Nissequogue River Watershed Project

Grantee: Regional Plan Association
Long Island Sound Futures Funds: $50,000
Matching Contributions: $70,500
Total Project Costs: $120,500
Project Area: Nissequogue River Watershed (Townships of Smithtown, Islip, Villages of Head of Harbor, Nissequogue, The Branch), New York

The Regional Plan Association will implement the second year of a program to develop a Stewardship Action Plan to ensure the long term management and protection of important ecological and recreational resources in the Nissequogue River Watershed. The project is a pilot to develop the Long Island Sound Study, Stewardship Initiative. This initiative is a partnership formed by the Long Island Sound Study to identify places with significant ecological or recreational value throughout the Sound and develop a strategy to protect and enhance these special places. Guidelines developed in the second year of the program will be distributed to stakeholders in the 33 stewardship areas defined by the LISS. Cooperating project partners include 37 representatives from the municipalities, state and federal government, conservation and community groups and educational institutions.

Oyster Bay Harbor/Cold Spring Harbor Water Quality Monitoring Program Upgrade and Expansion

Grantee: Friends of the Bay
Long Island Sound Futures Funds: $36,000
Matching Contributions: $45,400
Total Project Costs: $81,400
Project Area: Oyster Bay and Cold Spring Harbors and Mill Neck Creek, New York

The Friends of the Bay will upgrade and expand its Baywatch water quality monitoring program from open water body monitoring to include stream and stormwater outfall monitoring within the major subwatersheds of the Oyster Bay/Cold Spring Harbors. Materials focusing on water quality issues will be developed for 300 residents to make them aware of water quality problems in their communities. The estuary complex hosts a National Wildlife Refuge; two New York State Significant Coastal Fish and Wildlife Habitats; and is highlighted by the Long Island Sound Study Stewardship Initiative. Its waters are classified among the highest quality areas for shellfishing. While the Oyster Bay/Cold Spring Harbor Complex is the cleanest estuary in the western Long Island Sound there are areas within the estuary complex with poor water quality such as Mill Neck Creek where shellfish harvesting, swimming, fish consumption, habitat/hydrology, aquatic life and recreation are impaired. A goal of the Baywatch program is to identify and restore those waters. Information from the project will contribute to the development of the Oyster Bay/Cold Spring Harbor Complex Harbor Management Plan. Project partners include the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the Nassau County Health Department.

West Shore Road Stormwater Demonstration Project

Grantee: Nassau County Soil and Water Control District
Long Island Sound Futures Funds: $15,000
Matching Contributions*: $9,400
Total Project Costs: $24,400
Project Area: Village of Mill Neck, Town of Oyster Bay, New York

The Nassau County Soil and Water Conservation District will design and install a catchbasin and catchbasin filtration insert to control stormwater before it enters into a Beekman Creek that flows into Oyster Bay and which hosts spawning brook trout. While the Oyster Bay/Cold Spring Harbor Complex is the cleanest estuary in the western Long Island Sound there are areas within the estuary complex with poor water quality such as Mill Neck Creek where shellfish harvesting, swimming, fish consumption, habitat/hydrology, aquatic life and recreation are impaired. Project partners include the Friends of the [Oyster] Bay.

Rocking the Boat n Water Education Program

Grantee: Rocking the Boat
Long Island Sound Futures Funds: $35,000
Matching Contributions: $181,000
Total Project Costs: $216,000
Project Area: Bronx, New York

Rocking the Boat on the Water Education Program is an environmental education program involving 850 young people in 15 stewardship, monitoring or restoration projects. Program activities include as helping to restore diadromous fish populations, testing the water quality on the Bronx River and community outreach through public events. This afterschool and summer program allows students to receive academic credits for on water projects in math, science technology and community service from their high schools. The program is linked directly to community concerns including consumption of fish and shellfish at the mouth of the Bronx River and stormwater recapture.

Connecticut

Glastonbury Riverfront Park – Drainage Channel Restoration

Grantee: Town of Glastonbury
Long Island Sound Futures Funds: $50,000
Matching Contributions: $4,033,681
Total Project Costs: $4,083,681
Project Area: Glastonbury, Connecticut

The Town of Glastonbury will restore a 750 foot degraded stream channel in a wooded wetland complex by linking it to the original floodplain, creating a natural stream pattern, planting native vegetation, establishing pool and riffle habitat, and reducing sediment discharge into the Connecticut River. This project is one component of the larger-scale Glastonbury Park Project which involves the development of 25-acres of a trail system river walk, wildlife observation areas and other amenities.

Sherwood Mill Pond Restoration

Grantee: Town of Westport
Long Island Sound Futures Funds: $19,000
Matching Contributions*: $29,600
Total Project Costs: $48,600
Project Area: Westport, Connecticut

The Town of Westport will assess four polluted freshwater feeder streams that discharge into 80-acre estuarine embayment Mill Pond and use this information as a basis for reducing pollution sources and for educational mailing to 3,000 community members to increase awareness about the ecological significance of Mill Pond and actions that can be taken to protect it.

Moulson Pond Fishway Improvements Diversion Device

Grantee: Lyme Land Conservation Trust
Long Island Sound Futures Funds: $75,000
Matching Contributions*: $35,300
Total Project Costs: $110,300
Project Area: Lyme, Connecticut

The Lyme Land Conservation Trust will design, construct and install a device to direct 800 -1,000 anadromous fish to a high quality spawning and nursery habitat. Atlantic salmon, American shad, alewife, blueback herring, sea lamprey and sea-run brown trout are among the species that are trapped annually out of a millrace that is the first barrier to migratory fish from the Long Island Sound into the Eightmile River Watershed. The completed project will be an important component in the restoration of migratory fish to the Eightmile River Watershed. Project partners include the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, Connecticut River Watershed Council and the Coastal Conservation Association.

Calf Island Invasives Control

Grantee: Calf Island Conservancy
Long Island Sound Futures Funds: $10,000
Matching Contributions*: $7,040
Total Project Costs: $17,040
Project Area: Greenwich, Connecticut

The Calf Island Conservancy will inventory nonnatives, develop a plan to remove them and then monitor removal by volunteers to allow for restoration of native woody shrub and trees for wildlife. This project will also inform the public about restoration on Calf Island part of the Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge.

Long Island Sound Biodiversity Project

Grantee: The Maritime Aquarium
Long Island Sound Futures Funds: $38,000
Matching Contributions: $140,000
Total Project Costs: $178,000
Project Area: Various sites throughout Connecticut and New York including Black Rock Harbor, Quinnipiac River, New Haven Harbor, Sandy Point, Norwalk River and Norwalk Harbor, Stamford Harbor, Oyster Bay, Calf Pasture Beach, Sherwood Island, Edith G. Read Marshlands and Pelham Bay

The Maritime Aquarium’s Long Island Sound Biodiversity Project involves data collection about five water quality parameters and for 125 species of marine organisms, training 50 people from four community based organizations in data collection and creating an interactive database concerning near shore habitat to understand trends in the Sound. The project was developed, in part, as a result of the national Ocean Commission Report which noted despite growing threats to coastal waters, no monitoring network exists to assess status, track changes, to help identify causes and impacts and to determine success of management. The Ocean Commission called for user communities to participate fully in developing the network and to make data available to managers and stakeholders.

Saugatuck River Watershed Partnership

Grantee: The Nature Conservancy
Long Island Sound Futures Funds: $46,000
Matching Contributions*: $42,974
Total Project Costs: $88,974
Project Area: Eleven towns around Weston, Connecticut

The Nature Conservancy will implement the second year of a project to create a watershed partnership and Watershed Action Plan to foster protection and enhancement of biodiversity within the Saugatuck River Watershed. The partnership will hold two workshops for municipal officials to engage a minimum of three towns in joint stormwater management projects. Issues considered as part of the assessment include stream flows to protect stream habitat, runoff, dams and land and water use.

Mattabesset River Regional Basin Analysis

Grantee: The Connecticut River Coastal Conservation District
Long Island Sound Futures Funds: $13,000
Matching Contributions: $17,500
Total Project Costs: $30,500
Project Area: Berlin, Cromwell, Durham, Guilford, Meriden, Middlefield, Middletown, New Britain, Newington, Plainville, Rocky Hill and Stonington, Connecticut

The Connecticut River Coastal Conservation District will conduct a Comparative Subwatershed Analysis of the Mattabesset River Regional Basin in 12 municipalities as the first step in a program to develop small watershed restoration plans to address known water quality impairments. The Mattabesset is a 108-square mile watershed contributing to the Connecticut River and the Long Island Sound. Unique features of the watershed include Cromwell Meadows, a large freshwater tidal wetland at the Mattabesset’s confluence with the Connecticut River which provides habitat for several state listed plant species and wetland birds. Several anadromous fish species including American shad, blueback herring and alewives spawn in the watershed’s streams and rivers. The Mattabesset and its tributaries have impaired water quality. The project will support state and local efforts to implement the Mattabesset Total Maximum Daily Load for indicator bacteria.

The Ground-Truthing Project: Community Based Land Protection in the Lower Connecticut River Region

Grantee: Tidewater Institute, Connecticut River Estuary Regional Planning Agency
Long Island Sound Futures Funds: $36,000
Matching Contributions*: $879
Total Project Costs: $36,879
Project Area: Towns of Haddam, East Haddam, Lyme, Old Lyme, Old Saybrook, Essex, Deep River and Chester, Connecticut

The Tidewater Institute, Connecticut River Estuary Regional Planning Agency will engage citizens in the Lower Connecticut Watershed to protect open space across town boundaries through creation of greenways by involving them in a assessment and planning process.

Solar Youth Summer 2006

Grantee: Solar Youth
Long Island Sound Futures Funds: $35,000
Matching Contributions: $38,200
Total Project Costs: $73,200
Project Area: New Haven, Connecticut

Solar Youth Summer is a project involving 90 plus youth to learn about their local watershed, the Long Island Sound, and their place in protection through lessons and four community service action projects focused on conservation. This is the sixth year of the Citywide Steward Program – a 5-week environmental education and youth development summer program that provides positive, educational opportunities to children who live in the low-income communities of New Haven. At least three high school students will be trained and hired as interns and at least 200 additional people will be indirectly reached through the youth-led community service action and public education projects related to the local and Long Island watersheds. Project partners include the New Haven Department of Parks and Recreation, Schooner, Inc., Peabody Museum and Southern Connecticut State University.

Outdoor Classroom at Hole-in-the-Wall

Grantee: Town of East Lyme
Long Island Sound Futures Funds: $35,000
Matching Contributions: $589,703
Total Project Costs: $624,703
Project Area: Niantic, Connecticut

The Town of East Lyme will construct a 99-space pervious parking lot, grass filter strips, catch basins, a rain garden and dry well to reduce and treat stormwater runoff and conduct real-time monitoring of pollutants currently flowing from 22-acres into the Long Island Sound. The lot will be used as a classroom to demonstrate methods to treat runoff. Project partners include the East Lyme/Salem School system and Three Rivers Community College.

Land Use Leadership Alliance for Connecticut Land Use Decision Makers

Grantee: Eastern Connecticut Resource Conservation and Development District
Long Island Sound Futures Funds: $35,000
Matching Contributions*: $44,500
Total Project Costs: $79,500
Project Area: Guilford, Madison, Killlingworth, Clinton, Chester, Deep River, Essex, Westbrook, Old Saybrook, Old Lyme, East Lyme, Waterford, New London, Groton, Montville, Ledyard, Stonington and North Stonington, Connecticut

The Eastern Connecticut Resource Conservation & Development Area will implement community-based land use leadership workshops in 19 municipalities to train public officials about land use law and natural resources protection in Eastern Connecticut Coastal Long Island Sound Watershed towns. The goal of this project is to encourage an informed and educated constituency to be involved in community decisions affecting the ecological health of the Long Island Sound and its living marine resources and build partnerships at multiple levels. Project partners include Connecticut Environmental Review Team, Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, The Wildlife Conservation Society, Tidewater Institute, Pace University Land Use Law Center and the USDA- Natural Resources Conservation Service.

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