Set to be released in late spring, the forecast will estimate dissolved oxygen concentrations and the area of hypoxia in the Sound  

Hypoxia, or low dissolved oxygen, has remained a persistent issue impacting the bottom waters of Long Island Sound and is worsened by nutrient pollution from wastewater treatment plants, stormwater runoff, atmospheric deposition, and other sources. Over the past four decades, the Long Island Sound Study and its partners have made substantial investments to reduce pollution to the Sound and reduce hypoxia. To drive public awareness and develop a scientific understanding of long-term changes in oxygen and temperature, EPA researchers with LISS are working to develop a Long Island Sound Hypoxia Forecast Model.  

Scientists have been predicting hypoxia through forecast models in the Gulf of America, Lake Erie, and Chesapeake Bay over the last decade. Inspired by these and other examples, LISS’s Science Coordinator, Jim Ammerman, PhD, pitched the idea to explore a similar effort for water quality in the Sound.   

“When compared to the actual measured hypoxic area, a hypoxic area forecast is a good tool for evaluating scientific understanding and educating people about the importance of oxygen depletion in the Sound,” said Ammerman. “People like forecasts; they like predictions, so it’s an effective way to increase an understanding around hypoxia, which is a complicated concept.”

Planning and Developing an Environmental Forecast

In 2022, EPA Region 2, in collaboration with EPA’s Office of Research and Development, formally started advancing a forecast methodology. The seasonal forecast, set to be released in late May of this year, combines efforts of researchers, outreach professionals, and science communicators and will predict the area of hypoxia for the 2025 summer season. The prediction will be accompanied by a communications toolkit, including a Story Map, model illustrations, memes, and animated videos on what has been done to address hypoxia in the Sound. 

In early stages of the project, researchers aimed to balance the technical aspects of developing a forecast while considering the utility of a prediction for communication and outreach goals. At an EPA-hosted workshop in May of 2023, federal, state, and local stakeholders discussed how a hypoxia forecast might improve the public’s awareness of low oxygen in Long Island Sound. Workshop participants included staff from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the New York State Department of Environmental Protection, New York Sea Grant, Connecticut Sea Grant, the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (CT DEEP), NEIWPCC, Save the Sound, and the Interstate Environmental Commission. The University of Connecticut and Stony Brook University participated in the workshop virtually.  

Why Do We Forecast?

Ecological forecasting is a useful way to explain environmental changes and can help decision-makers improve their management of ecosystems. The hypoxia forecast is being developed using water quality monitoring data going back to the early 1990s. CT DEEP monitors water quality year-round on behalf of LISS. During summer hypoxia surveys, 48 stations across the Sound are sampled for dissolved oxygen, temperature, pH, and salinity. With over 30 years of data, researchers can uncover long-term water quality changes and trends in Long Island Sound, with the forecast describing the trajectory of low oxygen and warming temperatures up to the present.

How Will Researchers Forecast Hypoxia

Other coastal hypoxia forecasts usually work in one of two main ways:

• The Chesapeake Bay Hypoxia Forecast uses an operational or “real-time” simulation model to predict the present-day levels of dissolved oxygen throughout the bay, while also forecasting oxygen levels two days into the future. 
• Forecasts for the northern Gulf of America aim for a late-spring prediction of the expected extent, or area, of hypoxia that will be measured during summer surveys. The forecast relies on information about observed relationships between water flow and nutrients from the Mississippi River in May and the extent of hypoxia that occurs later that summer.

This type of delayed correlation between freshwater flow and the onset of hypoxia is called a “lag” and is a phenomenon that also occurs in Chesapeake Bay. Studies of hypoxia in Long Island Sound have not found similar “lag” relationships between hypoxia and observable late spring factors like flow from major rivers. Still, forecasting remains possible. The multi-decade data record used in the Long Island Sound hypoxia forecast is constructed to reduce the number of potential outcomes likely to occur this summer.

How Is This Possible?

Models are mathematical representations of data that provide researchers with a way to describe how water quality variables, such as dissolved oxygen, change over time and in different locations. Researchers at CT DEEP provide an analysis of completed Long Island Sound water quality surveys, applying a model to map bottom water oxygen for the days surveys are conducted.

To create the forecast, researchers use a method called Generalized Additive Models or “GAMs.” GAMs can represent complex seasonal, spatial, and other patterns in data that occur in water bodies like Long Island Sound. GAMs can be used to build models that describe how oxygen in bottom water changes from day to day or year to year at a single location. Modeling a sequence of stations allows researchers to analyze and understand changes over time and spanning across the Sound. Modeling oxygen levels from the surface to the bottom at a series of stations can provide a detailed view of spatial and temporal patterns. Ultimately, a combination of these models can provide researchers with a more complete understanding of hypoxia in the Sound and how it varies over time. 

Over the past 30 years, the maximum extent of hypoxia in Long Island Sound has spanned a wide range, defining a series of potential outcomes for the upcoming year. Data show that the area of hypoxia has decreased substantially, mirroring early decreases in nitrogen loading from wastewater plants in Connecticut and subsequent decreases in loads from New York. These changes have been accompanied by a decrease in the length of time that hypoxia persists (i.e., “duration of hypoxia”) and an increase in the minimum oxygen concentrations that occur within the hypoxic zone.

Read the 2025 Winter/Spring issue of Sound Matters, the Long Island Sound Study newsletter. This newsletter highlights transition and change within the LISS program. You can view a PDF here.

On November 1, 2024, I announced that after 38 years with EPA, 35 of which were dedicated to Long Island Sound, I would be retiring in spring 2025. What still seemed distant and abstract then, now seems imminent and real. In my farewell communication in an official capacity, I feel duty bound to provide my subjective perspective on the past four decades in the form of four observations that I hope have some utility for those starting or continuing their commitment to a healthier, more abundant Long Island Sound.

1. Shifting baselines syndrome cuts both ways.  

In the absence of past information or experience with historical conditions, members of each new generation accept the situation in which they were raised as being normal. In the environmental field this is usually associated with people’s accepted thresholds for environmental conditions continually being lowered. But in the case of Long Island Sound public perceptions now are much better than they were four decades ago. Cartoons like the one published by the New Haven Register in 1987 depicting Long Island Sound as…well see for yourself in the figure, are unthinkable. This is a good thing, evidence that the concerted public-private partnership to restore Long Island Sound has been successful. But it can also lead us to forget how bad things got and to take for granted the work, the policy, and the investments that effectuated the positive change in Long Island Sound.

2. People perceive the pain of losing something to be greater than the pleasure of gaining something of equal value.

Called loss aversion, this tendency was first described by Nobel Prize winning behavioral economist Daniel Kahneman. Applied to Long Island Sound, this means that if the improvements in Long Island Sound reverse, the public will feel that loss even more than the satisfaction gained in its restoration. Any backsliding will be painful and punished. Instead, the Long Island Sound effort must continue commonsense steps to further Long Island Sound’s return to abundance.

3. There is no new thing under the sun.

While innovation and experimentation is to be applauded and practised, there is much to be learned from past efforts. Every few years a new term arises to describe a formula of systematic approaches to identifying problems and collaborating on solutions. This is a good thing if built upon a foundation of past public policy and management efforts. Published nearly fifty years ago, The Urban Sea: Long Island Sound (Koppelman et al. 1976) and Long Island Sound: An Atlas of National Resources (CTDEP 1977) provided cross disciplinary perspectives that laid a foundation for Long Island Sound management programs. Contemporaneous to these efforts was the development of comprehensive, interdisciplinary regional management plans, either centered around Sound (New England River Basin Commission 1975), or directed at portions of the watershed (e.g. Nassau-Suffolk Regional Planning Board 1978).  Those planning efforts were ambitious in scope and remarkable for the breadth of federal, state, local, and public involvement in their development.  Even today they are instructive reading, particularly for those in early or mid-career

4. Stick to the facts.

There is room for both optimists and pessimists in this world, but each needs to relax and only base strong opinions on facts. This perspective was championed by Hans Rosling, a public health physician and author of Factfulness (2018). There is much evidence, accumulated facts, that the quality of human life on the planet is better today than 40 years ago. Yes, there are problems, big ones, that need to be addressed. But who better than you, with your intelligence and drive, your passion and compassion, to make Long Island Sound and, yes, the world, even better tomorrow than today is better than forty years ago.  It’s hard but deeply satisfying, important work.

The Long Island Sound Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan is the blueprint for federal, state, and local governments, research universities, community organizations, and environmental groups to follow in developing projects to restore and protect the Sound. The Long Island Sound Study developed its first CCMP in 1994, and replaced it with a slimmed down, but still comprehensive plan in 2015. This year the Study’s partners are working on a major revision that is intended to carry the program’s actions through 2035.

As one of EPA’s 28 National Estuary Programs, the Long Island Sound Study is responsible for developing the CCMP with specific restoration actions to guide program activities, research, and funding. For the revision, LISS formed writing teams at the beginning of 2024 to develop the actions and objectives under each of the plan’s four overarching goals – Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds, Thriving Habitats and Abundant Wildlife, Sustainable and Resilient Communities, and Informed and Engaged Public. The Informed and Engaged Public goal replaces the Sound Science and Inclusive Management theme from the 2015 CCMP and will prioritize program dollars for education, engagement, communication, and public access initiatives. In the early CCMP planning stages in 2023, LISS also established core values to guide the operation and activities of the program. The 2025 CCMP values include actionable science, respect and trust, and adaptive management. 

The actions describe activities to be taken in the next five years (2025–2029) to help achieve the objectives. Compared to the 2015 CCMP, the plan is streamlined from 136 implementation actions to 47 actions. While the actions are fewer, the objectives include many new measures of success. These include:

• Replace or upgrade 11,500 septic systems and cesspools (and other home and business wastewater treatment systems) with advanced systems that reduce nutrient pollution entering the Sound.
• Achieve and maintain permanent protection of 35 percent of the Long Island Sound watershed by 2030.
• Restore 1,000 acres of coastal Long Island Sound habitat, including 40 percent of it in areas lacking in natural habitat, by 2035.
• Work with municipalities to add 200 resilience projects to address flooding and other environmental challenges in New York and Connecticut communities.
• Create 40 new public access and improve 60 existing sites by 2035, around Long Island Sound’s shoreline and its connecting waterbodies in Connecticut and New York.
• By 2030, engage 1.3 million members of the public, including youth, educators, and adults, in Long Island Sound educational programming and outreach. 

As part of the yearlong writing process, LISS held five public engagement sessions to involve interested stakeholders in the CCMP process in addition to informal outreach opportunities and a standing invitation to provide comments via email and website form. Once the draft CCMP was completed, the plan was posted online and LISS held a formal 60-day public comment period to gather feedback from late September to November 2024. We received 244 public comments from over 30 individuals and organizations on the draft plan.

The finalized plan is set to be published in the summer of 2025 and will guide restoration efforts in Long Island Sound and its watershed over the next decade. To learn more, visit LISStudy.net/PLAN.

Posters filled with graphs, charts and images interspersed with text told stories of locally significant marine science topics: impacts of non-point source pollution on local rivers, lobster shell disease, invasive species and microplastics in Long Island Sound and beach cleanups that employ trash apps to quantify and categorize litter.

That’s just a small sample of the kinds of topics addressed in the many posters displayed and presented by their creators at The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk on March 14. For that day, much of the popular institution resembled a marine-themed academic conference, with one exception.

None of the poster presenters as yet had a doctorate, master’s or bachelor’s degree in the natural sciences or any other discipline.

Instead, they were elementary, middle and high school students from eight schools in Connecticut and New York who are part of the Long Island Sound Schools Network, started in 2023 by Connecticut Sea Grant and Mercy University with funding from the Long Island Sound Study. About 350 students gathered at the aquarium for the network’s first student symposium, where participants took turns sharing their own projects and listening about others’ work before taking part in hands-on marine science activities and guided aquarium tours.

“We learned about and visited all types of dams, and we’ve learned how water is treated,” said Adriana Rocca, an 8^th grader from Thomaston High School, as she explained the poster she and fellow students created, “Thomaston’s Impact on Long Island Sound.” “Now we want to educate other people about Thomaston’s impact on the environment.”

Diana Payne, associate professor and education coordinator at CT Sea Grant, said the symposium was developed to give students a chance to showcase their projects to one another and practice skills they might one day use in their future academic careers.

“The symposium provides an opportunity for students to share their action projects and to learn from each other,” she said. “The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk, with its focus on Long Island Sound, is a great venue for networking across the schools involved in the Long Island Sound Schools Network.”

Sofia Roberts, a senior from The Sound School in New Haven, beamed as she described the coastal cleanups and outreach to elementary schools she has been involved in through the Long Island Sound Schools Network, which provides $5,000 to participating schools plus stipends for lead teachers. Ten Connecticut and New York schools have been chosen for each of the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 cohorts.

“We work with middle and elementary school students to teach them to do water chemistry,” said Roberts, standing beside her group’s poster, titled: “Sound School Urban Waters: Clearing a Cleaner Path Forward.” “We demonstrated an EnviroScape (educational watershed model) for them. We’re trying to show future generations as well as current ones about their impact on Long Island Sound.”

Teacher Manjit Khosla of HALS Academy in New Britain, said her 7^th grade students were getting good practice at the symposium for explaining their poster, titled “Human Impacts on Long Island Sound,” to an important audience.

“Our students will be presenting this at the Board of Education office,” she said.

Mercy University Professor Meghan Marrero said the symposium demonstrated both the breadth and depth of projects explored by the Long Island Sound Schools Network. Marrero is professor of secondary science education and co-director of the Center for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Education at the Dobbs Ferry, NY, institution.

“It is wonderful to see students learning from one another, and considering solutions to local environmental issues,” she said.

More Snapshots from the Symposium

In January, the Sustainable and Resilient Communities Team welcomed its sixth extension professional, Benjamin Goldberg, who will assist communities in the Bronx and Queens. Originally from the Washington, D.C., area, Goldberg holds a bachelor’s degree in literary studies from Middlebury College in Vermont and a master’s degree in city and regional planning from Rutgers University.

Goldberg’s interest in the intersection of natural resource management and community resilience stems from his experience in sustainable agriculture. He worked for more than six years on organic farms, advocacy groups, and small businesses in New York, California, and Washington, D.C., promoting sustainable food systems. After earning a certificate in ecological horticulture from the University of California, Santa Cruz, Goldberg was inspired to pursue graduate study in urban planning to advance urban sustainability. In graduate school, Goldberg’s interests narrowed to climate adaptation and resilience planning, applying ecological solutions and conservation practices to foster increased community resilience. He gained experience in state planning as a research assistant at the New Jersey Climate Change Resource Center, where he supported the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection in food waste planning and developing floodplain buyouts policy.

Upon completing his graduate degree, Goldberg became a mitigation and resiliency specialist at New York City Emergency Management where he assisted with the coordination and management of federal grants to support implementation of local resilience projects. In this role, he gained exposure to the city’s coordinated response to growing climate hazards such as coastal storms, flooding, and extreme heat, and supported partners like the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYC DEP) and NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development to implement infrastructure projects.

With the Long Island Sound Study, Goldberg hopes to apply his experience in sustainable agriculture, urban planning, and resilience to foster long-term partnerships between local government and community-based organizations that promote the conservation and restoration of Long Island Sound. Goldberg lives in Brooklyn and works out of NYC DEP’s headquarters in Queens.

“As a part of LISS, I look forward to becoming more involved with the tremendous work of NYC’s environmental stewards, and to working with Bronx and Queens communities to establish community-driven planning processes and navigate funding opportunities.”

In the shallow waters of eastern Long Island Sound, you’ll find meadows of eelgrass—long, bright green ribbon-like strands that sway beneath the surface. Though often mistaken for seaweed, eelgrass is a flowering rooted underwater plant that grows completely submerged and provides vital habitat for marine life.

Eelgrass produces sexually and asexually. Plants flower in the late spring when Long Island Sound’s waters warm. Then, flowers are fertilized by drifting pollen, and reproductive shoots called spathes eventually break off of the main stem and float to the surface releasing seeds. For asexual reproduction, a plant stem will send out new shoots from its nodes, sometimes creating entire eelgrass beds consisting solely of clones from the original plant.

Why is Eelgrass Important

Eelgrass provides important ecosystem services. Here are examples:

• Serves as important nursery habitat, refuge from predators, and food source for key recreational and commercial fish species.
• Prevents shoreline erosion by stabilizing sediment and reducing the intensity of wave impacts.
• Captures and stores carbon (i.e., carbon sequestration or known as blue carbon)
• Removes excess nitrogen from the water column (i.e., denitrification)

The Long Island Sound Eelgrass Management and Restoration Strategy provides guidance for short and long-term actions that should be taken to manage and restore eelgrass meadows in Long Island Sound and act as a resource for other estuaries in the region facing similar issues.

The Long Island Sound Study will host a series of public meetings to discuss and finalize the Stewardship Strategy. The Strategy aims to provide a framework in support of the 33 Stewardship Areas of the Initiative. The draft of the Strategy will be shared for public comment March 10 – May 9. View the Draft Strategy here. Comments can be submitted to Cayla Sullivan at Sullivan.Cayla@epa.gov.

Please use the registration links below to attend the meetings:

Meeting 1: March 18, 2025 from 11:00AM –1:00PM

• Introduce Strategy and Discussion
• Presentation 1 – Restoration Strategy at Bluff Point State Park by Larissa Graham and Jason Krumholz of the Connecticut National Estuarine Research Reserve
• Presentation 2 – Partnership at Sunken Meadow State Park by Vicky O’Neill of National Audubon Society
• Next Steps and Close Out

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Meeting 2: April 24, 2025 from 11:00AM –1:00PM

• Briefly Recap/Discuss Strategy Comments
• Presentation 1 – Revitilization of Veterans Park in Norwalk by Sarah Crosby of the Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk
• Presentation 2 – River Restoration Network at the Stewardship Areas by Anthony Allen of Save the Sound
• Next Steps and Close Out

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Meeting 3: June 4, 2025 from 11:00AM –1:00PM

• Summarize input and ideas for advancing the Stewardship Strategy
• Next Steps and Close Out

This story map, created by UConn CLEAR in partnership with the Long Island Sound Study, explores the land and people in the Long Island Sound Watershed. From Canada down to the northern coast of Long Island, the watershed is a vastly diverse area in both land and people, populated by nearly 9 million people and characterized by farms, forests, urban centers, beaches, marshes and more.

The Sound is an integral part of the lives of those who live, work, and visit the region every day. Let this story be your start…

UConn CLEAR and LISS co-hosted a webinar overviewing and demoing the map. You can watch the webinar recording here.

Nutrient Management Practices are Spreading Across Connecticut Improving Water Quality in Long Island Sound

Tucked away in the foothills of the Connecticut Berkshires is a 300-head dairy farm managed and co-owned by the Freund Family and Canaan View Dairy. On the outside, the farm looks like many others throughout the state – which has over 5,000 farms contributing $4 billion yearly to the local economy¹. But a tour of the property tells a deeper story of sustainable generational farming and the significant conservation impact that can be achieved through collaborative partnership.

THE FREUND FAMILY FARM

Since the farm was established by Eugene and Esther Freund in 1949, the Freund Family has become a national leader — and pioneer — in sustainable farming practices. In the 1990s, Freund’s farm was one of the first in the state to test their soil for nutrients.

Plus, they’re home to Connecticut’s first cow-milking robots and have upgraded their cattle barn with an automatic manure sled that cleans the cow beds, capturing livestock waste and pushing it to a manure collection pit. The Freunds also own CowPots, biodegradable planting pots made from composted manure.

“And we were doing cover crops way before they were popular,” said Ben Freund, who owns the farmland with his brother Matthew.

The family has also formed a farmers’ collaborative for agricultural professionals to get together and discuss what they do, work through challenges, and share advice with those in their industry. That includes demonstrations hosted on the family’s farmland.

The property’s latest addition is a 1.3-million-gallon waste storage facility. The swimming pool-like structure, completed in early October, is estimated to prevent 19,000 pounds of nitrogen and 11,000 pounds of phosphorus from farm waste from entering local waterways, according to reporting from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. The farm is in North Canaan located adjacent to the Blackberry River, a tributary of the Housatonic River which contributes roughly 11 percent of the freshwater entering Long Island Sound. 

“Dairy projects are big in Connecticut,” said Ben Freund. “It’s hard for farmers to imagine how you build that tank, but it’s simpler than you think.”

“For a farmer to come here and spend time seeing it as it gets built – it sets the tone,” he continued. “They start to understand and come here because they know how important it is to have storage… I’m just getting people in the door.”

HOW WASTE WORKS

The waste storage project is one example of the conservation practices that the National Resource Conservation Service recommends and is an example of how federal partners can work together to connect stakeholders throughout the Long Island Sound Watershed. An interagency agreement between NRCS and EPA funds three staff positions in Connecticut, one outreach specialist and two nutrient management specialists, for the Long Island Sound Study.  

“The manure storage structures are needed to hold that manure somewhere safely covered until the farmer is ready to spread it according to the plan that NRCS nutrient management planners have developed,” said Vivian Felten, Outreach Coordinator for NRCS Connecticut, part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “They analyze the soil to determine the appropriate manure application rate so that it won’t infiltrate into the groundwater.”  

“And they develop a manure spreading plan so that manure is spread when the plants can use it. The timing of application is important to keep it in the fields for the plants and so that it does not get washed away into nearby streams,” explained Felten. 

Roughly 70-80 percent of the nitrogen and 60-85 percent of the phosphorus contained in cow feed is excreted in manure. Farmers have been utilizing manure as a natural fertilizer for approximately 8,000 years, leveraging its nutrient-rich properties to enhance soil fertility and promote the growth of pastures and crops. This age-old practice continues today, as cow manure can effectively replace traditional chemical fertilizers, providing the nutrients needed to support healthy plant growth. However, when manure is improperly managed, it can contribute excess nutrients to waterways. According to  The Nature Conservancy, the average dairy cow can produce up to 100 pounds of manure daily. But crops do not always need nutrient-rich manure as much or as often as the cows are producing it, so having a facility to hold the manure is key. 

Felten works to connect agricultural producers and landowners throughout the Connecticut portion of the Long Island Sound with USDA technical and financial assistance programs while the nutrient management specialists, or planners, help farmers achieve proper nutrient applications to decrease contaminated runoff from entering the Sound.  

“It’s the local planners that really do the technical work with the farm,” said Felten. “My role as an outreach coordinator is to let farmers know about our programs and practices and how they can help their farms and connect them with the local NRCS offices.” 

The Connecticut NRCS branch has five field offices located in Danielson, Hamden, Norwich, Torrington, and Windsor. 

Felted was onboarded as the NRCS outreach specialist for LISS in the fall of 2022. Since then, she has leveraged existing connections to farmer networks, gaining exposure through program partners, newsletters, events, on-farm demonstrations, presentations, tabling at farms and festivals, and hosting workshops. The agreement has also helped NRCS to reach new audiences. 

“This year, 51% of our contracts went to beginning farmers, limited resource producers, socially disadvantaged, and [military] veteran producers,” said Thomas Morgart, Connecticut State Conservationist with NRCS. “That means this outreach is working. It’s highly effective in getting producers in that we haven’t worked with before. We are reaching those same audiences of the Long Island Sound Study, getting them interested in on-ground conservation.”

In recent years, the Long Island Sound Futures Fund (LISFF) has seen an uptick in grant applications to complete conservation practices on farms. LISFF has funded projects to build waste storage structures, plant cover crops, create confined composted bedding areas, and develop soil health management plans. Total project funding for Freund’s new storage tank reached $725,000, $418,000 from a LISFF grant awarded to Connecticut’s Northwest Conservation District and matched by $307,900, which was awarded in 2023. 

“Having that connection with NRCS, other farmers, and the Long Island Sound Study helped us learn about all of these different grant opportunities,” said Freund.

WHY MANAGING NUTRIENTS IS IMPORTANT

Since the early days of agriculture, people have settled farms next to rivers because the water nurtured a rich soil environment for growing crops. Today, this creates a challenge—agricultural runoff like fertilizers and animal waste is the country’s largest contributor to non-point source pollution to waterways. Nutrient pollution is a costly environmental problem that has impacted streams, lakes, rivers, and coastal waters for many years.

In Long Island Sound, nutrient pollution can cause low oxygen levels by fueling the growth of harmful algae. Algal blooms can significantly reduce the amount of oxygen in the Sound, harming fish and other aquatic life. In addition to farms, nutrient pollution can come from sewage treatment plants, septic systems, atmospheric deposition, and runoff of home fertilizer and pet waste.  

Achieving clean water and healthy watersheds is one of the LISS program’s major management goals. To address nutrient pollution, EPA and the states of New York and Connecticut established a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) to limit nitrogen inputs into the Sound. The states met the TMDL goal in 2016, but nutrient pollution remains a concern for the Sound. Continued program efforts are focused on reducing nitrogen loading through upgrades to wastewater treatment plants and reduced non-point source pollution. The quality of water flowing into Long Island Sound from surrounding watershed states directly impacts water clarity, and abundance of wildlife, and affects the overall health of the estuary. 

NRCS has over 100 conservation practices to preserve and improve the management of natural resources. Freund’s manure tank is an example of a nutrient management conservation practice. The farm engages in many other conservation practices around the property, which all work together to mutually benefit the soil, water, plants, and animals. Other nutrient management conservation practices include:

Agroforestry

Agroforestry is the intentional addition of trees and shrubs into farming systems. Benefits of agroforestry include increased productivity, protected soil and water resources, conserved energy, more wildlife habitat, increased landscape diversity, and a “richer” ecosystem. The Freund Farm has followed this practice by planting nut trees around the perimeter of different structures on the farm. The trees provide shade, improve soil quality and stability, and produce a small, tasty crop.

Cover Crops

Cover crops are a type of practice where an annual plant is seeded after cash crop is harvested. Rather than leaving fields bare, or without any cover, a farmer creates a blanket for the soil made of plant material, which protects soil and water quality.

“It’s about getting cover on the ground and preventing erosion,” said Morgart. “We mostly see corn fields. When covered for the winter, you pull up the nutrients in the soil and hold them in the cover crop until next season.”

The Freund Farm double crops its long-season corn with triticale, a wheat and rye hybrid. Double cropping continues to gain acceptance as a production practice on farms and can have benefits like higher yields and better crop quality. Nearly every crop grown on the Freund Farm is used for cow feed and improved nutrient management.

“With triticale, we’re able to harvest it for feed and at a more optimal time. We shift our planting date for corn and double crop with this, it’s incredible feed and we don’t lose anything,” Freund added. “There’s less field erosion and better hold of nutrients, which all leads back to being super critical for nitrogen. Because what you want to do is tie nitrogen up in a stable form and there’s nothing more stable than a plant on a field.”

A growing interest in agricultural conservation practices across the Long Island Sound region shows the value of collaboration between federal, state, and local partners, as producers like Freund can gain support and guidance from NRCS planners funded through the Long Island Sound Study. This is important, as tackling nutrient management can be a challenging and costly venture.

At the heart of Freund’s sustainable farm is a desire to protect the earth while paving a successful path for his family business.

“The air I breath, the water I swim in…You grow up with an appreciation for the environment,” said Freund. “I also think about the long-term future of the farm.”

1. “CT DoAg Announces New Census of Agriculture Data Available”, Connecticut Department of Agriculture, accesses November 27, 2024, https://portal.ct.gov/doag/press-room/press-releases/2024/march/ct-doag-announces-new-census-of-agriculture-data-available#:~:text=Some%20key%20Connecticut%20highlights%20include,in%202022%20with%2085%25%20harvested. ↩︎