Projects to Support the Management Plan

Interactive Projects Table

The interactive table below shows each LISS-funded project. More information about the project is available by clicking on the “More Details” button (see “Interactive Project Table Field Descriptions” at the bottom of this web page for a description of each provided field). The table reports on projects implementing the 2020-2024 CCMP – in other words, work conducted from 2020 and beyond to effectively capture program implementation related to the current LISS CCMP. The projects are linked to implementation actions to emphasize the relationship between program implementation and ecosystem health. It is critical for the program to not only communicate with the public the status of the Long Island Sound, but also to be transparent about existing efforts to improve ecological and human health.

Last Updated	Project Name	Activity Type	Project Type	Project Objectives/Description	Project Location	Project Lead	Project Progress	Challenges or Changes	CCMP Theme	CCMP 2020-2024 Implementation Action Number	EPA Federal Funding Amount	Project Period
07/29/2022	A Blue Marine Plan for Long Island Sound (NY, CT) (53824)	Stewardship and Resiliency	Completed	Engaged scientists, government, industry, and the public in development of maps and natural resource and human use information for the Long Island Sound watershed of Connecticut and New York. The project supported the public process to develop a marine spatial Blue Plan which looks at human activities in the marine environment to achieve ecological, economic, and social objectives with an aim of protecting and restoring the Sound.	Long Island Sound Watershed	University of Connecticut	Completed	A clear, transparent and consistent process goes a long way in engagement across sectors.	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	SM-3	32,977.25	10/1/2016-12/31/2017
04/14/2023	Bioextraction of “Gold Coast” Kelp in the Oyster Bay Complex (NY) (65633)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	Analyze growth of and the potential for bioextraction of pollution by sugar kelp in Long Island’s Gold Coast in the Oyster Bay Complex, New York.	Oyster Bay, NY	Adelphi University	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2; WW-25; SC-19	103,916.73	11/1/2019-9/1/2021
04/14/2023	Fish Passage on the Bulkley Pond Dam (CT) (70249)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	Remove a barrier to fish passage at Bulkley Pond Dam, Sasco Brook in Fairfield and Westport, Connecticut. This project will help alewives make the journey back to their natal home for the first time in 130 years by widening the depth and width of an existing breach in the dam and removing debris and rocks to ensure river herring, juvenile sea lamprey and American eel can pass and planting the shoreline of Sasco brook with native vegetation	Fairfield and Westport, CT	Aspetuck Land Trust	On-Track	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1; HW-3; HW-17	143,301.00	1/4/2021-5/28/2022
04/14/2023	Combating Invasive Plants: Restoring the Bronx River’s Native Habitat (NY) (65724)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Completed	The Bronx River Alliance will combat invasive plants and replant native plants engaging volunteers from a newly created Riparian Invasive Plant Patrol along the shoreline of the lower Bronx River, Bronx, New York.	Bronx, NY	Bronx River Alliance	On-Track	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-13; SC-7	76,726.00	10/15/2019-3/31/2022
04/14/2023	Engaging the Public in Reducing Floatable Pollution in the Bronx River and Long Island Sound (NY) - II (49136)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Collected floatable debris through eight paddle and pickup canoe trips, one on-shore trash collection at a boom site, and on-shore coastal cleanup event.	Long Island Sound Watershed	Bronx River Alliance	On-track	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	WW-20, SC-1	9,999.98	4/1/2016-11/15/2016
04/14/2023	Project Water DROP: Detecting River Outfalls and Pollutants (NY) (69987)	Monitoring	Ongoing	Monitor water quality along the entire Bronx River in the Bronx and Westchester County, New York. Activities: 1) Recruit and train 20 citizen scientists to conduct water quality monitoring of fecal pathogens, air and water temperature, pH, site observations, and wildlife at 15 sites from the source of the Bronx River in Westchester County to the mouth of the river at Soundview Park in the Bronx; 2) Conduct a pilot study of nutrients throughout the watershed; 3) Pilot a targeted outfall study of concentrations of nutrients and chemicals combined with fecal pathogen data from current and past monitoring data. This will help determine where, if any, suspected point sources of pollution may exist; 4) Share results with municipalities that can address the sources of pollution; and 5) Integrate water quality data into priority-setting process for to update the Bronx River Intermunicipal Watershed Plan.	Bronx and Westchester Counties, NY	Bronx River Alliance	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-35; SM-8; SC-11	49,233.00	10/1/2020-12/31/2021
07/29/2022	Coastal Dune Restoration at Stratford Point (CT) (53781)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Completed	Restore 1.5 acres of coastal dune habitat in Stratford Point, Connecticut.	Stratford, CT	Sacred Heart University	Completed	Restoration takes time and continued management. To simply walk away after planting native species will not lead to a successful coastal habitat restoration. Every growing season for at least 5-10 years will require management/removal of invasive plant species, prevention of deer herbivory and replanting of a few native plant species/individuals. Using a mix of plugs and seed will help keep costs down but it is important to give native plants a head start to out compete non-natives. Watering during periods of drought also help young plants get established. We mixed the sand with approximately 10% wood chips and biochar in order to have a slow release of nutrients for the young plants and to help hold moisture in the sand. Coastal habitat restoration is not only informed by the past or what used to grow historically on the site but also what the habitat will be like in the future under the new reality of climate change.	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1, HW-11, SC-19	172,797.48	12/31/2016-12/31/2018
04/14/2023	Planning to Reduce Nitrogen Pollution and Improve Water Quality in Long Island Sound (MA) (69978)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	Prepare a study to identify low cost improvements to reduce nitrogen pollution from a water pollution control facility in Chicopee, Massachusetts.	Chicopee, MA	Chicopee MA	On-Track	To confirm the projected level of treatment and total nitrogen removal of the recommended alternative, modeling was performed using GPS-X dynamic modeling. The modeling was performed on both the existing closed vessel HPO system and the proposed Liquid Treatment Train modifications under flow, loading and temperature conditions to determine the estimated nitrogen removal across the range of existing operating conditions. Process modeling of the recommended interim alternative confirmed that the modeled annual average nitrogen removal would be approximately 260 lbs per day below current system performance. Earlier steady-state spreadsheet based calculations – prior to the more in-depth analysis - found similar removals; estimating 250 lbs per day. This further validates Woodard & Curran’s desktop analysis tools for nutrient removal.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-4	14,738.00	12/1/2020-10/29/2021
07/29/2022	Coastal Youth Stewards (CT) (53797)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Engaged K-12 youth in beach cleanups and in an educational program about the marine environment and marine debris in the Southwest Coast Watershed, Connecticut.	Southwest Coast Watershed, CT	North American Marine Environment Protection Association	Completed	Due to the nature of our partner’s programs, it is much more feasible to run an education program than a stewardship project due to logistical reasons. It is also much easier for organizations such as the Boys and Girls Club to integrate us into their education and summer camp calendar without going off-site. If given funding for a similar project, we would put a greater emphasis on the number of students educated and working on gauging the knowledge and behavior changes of many different students. Also, the process of quantifying debris removed is a difficult challenge, especially when working with very young students. Some sites were not littered with large pieces of debris, and some students were too young to lift anything too heavy. This makes the idea of using pounds removed to quantify impact on marine habitats difficult.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	WW-20, SC-7, SC-19	13,379.91	3/20/2017-6/15/2018
04/14/2023	How to Increase Use of Reusable Bags to Reduce Plastic Pollution into the Sound (CT) (65231)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	Review information about use of plastic, paper and reusable bags to determine the most effective ways to promote use of reusable bags in Fairfield and New Haven County, Connecticut.	Fairfield and New Haven County, CT	Citizens Campaign Fund for the Environment	On-Track	Through this project, we learned that many retailers have individual carryout bag policies than what may be prescribed at the state or local levels. Even communities that were subject to the statewide bag fee had stores that had taken it upon themselves to eliminate single-use plastic bags. Some stores had also made the decision to eliminate plastic bags and/or charge for paper bags, even if no local policy existed. Additionally, we learned that targeting low-to-moderate-income households with information about environmental protection can be a challenging endeavor without help from respected community leaders, community groups, etc. These groups have existing ties to the community and can help facilitate conversations that may be difficult for outsiders to broach. Finally, we confirmed what we already know –that messaging can have a profound impact on consumer behavior. During the pandemic, many stores were offering members of the public misleading information about health and safety hazards associated with reusable bags. Though reusable bags were never expressly prohibited by the State and despite the lack of any credible health advisories from State and local health departments, we believe that messages coming from retailers may have created significant trepidation about consumers’ use of reusable bags. This was observed in an overnight increase in the number of disposable bags used during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	SC-7; WW-20	5,000.00	1/21/2020-12/1/2021
07/29/2022	Creating Long Island Sound Stewards (NY) (53446)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Hosted an event to engage and inform children and adults about how to play an active role in preserving the Long Island Sound through hands-on activities in Cold Spring Harbor, New York.	Cold Spring Harbor, NY	The Whaling Museum Society	Completed	Include more organizations for the next event. Suggestions were Friends of the Bay, Coastal Research and Education Society of Long Island, and Frank M. Flowers Oyster Company. Consider inviting eco-friendly vendors that have products that will help protect the sound, i.e. non-toxic household products, natural soaps, organic lawn care and fertilizer and recycled products.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-1, SC-7, SC-15	3,698.61	1/2/2017-4/23/2017
07/29/2022	Cultivating Champions for Healthy Soil and Clean Water for Long Island Sound (NY) (53541)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	Conduct five on-farm pilots of soil health practices, document the crop, economic and environmental results, and share information about the practices farmer-to-farmer in Suffolk County, New York. Project will catalyze the use of soil health practices among Suffolk County’s 140 vegetable farms and reduce nitrogen from farms in the Long Island Sound drainage.	Suffolk County, NY	American Farmland Trust	Completed	When it comes to implementing a new practice, timing and being adaptable are important. For example, the farmer that interseeded in between vegetable beds to reduce weed pressure in organic production, was initially planning to lay down a biodegradable black mulch. However, issues with purchasing and equipment availability meant that the farmer would not be able to get the mulch down in time before the weeds grew, so instead of using a mulch the farmer interseeded with a cover crop. Other conservation organizations could adapt their projects by making sure they work with the needs and within the management parameters of individual farms. No single soil health practice will work on every farm and benefits of soil health implementation can take time, especially in Long Island where soils are relatively degraded.	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	WW-2, WW-9	83,940.96	11/1/2016-1/31/2019
07/29/2022	Demonstrating Onsite Wastewater Treatment Systems for Clean Water at Robert E. Reid, Sr. Recreation Center (NY) (53799)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	Deployed a soil-based wastewater treatment system in Shoreham, New York aimed at reducing nitrogen as well as treat for other contaminants of emerging concern in Long Island Sound.	Shoreham, NY	Peconic Green Growth, Inc	Completed	Did not upgrade existing toilet fixtures to lower water consumption and to produce a more concentrated effluent. Difficulty in procurement of required services and expertise. Cost of project higher than anticipated. Project work required excavation and grading expertise as well as installation of the I/A system. Municipality required a certified PE to be on site to guide the field installation. The scope of work was larger than originally envisioned and required expansion/replacement of the existing septic tank and leaching pools. Material sources were limited for wood chips, concrete structures, excavation equipment. Ultimately services and expertise moved in-house. Recommend formal MOU between nonprofit and local government about roles and responsibilities to align requirements and scope of work.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2, WW-11	86,429.64	11/15/2016-1/15/2020
04/14/2023	Developing a Long Island Sound Student Action Plan (NY) (70117)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Deliver an educational program about challenges to restoration and protection of the health and living resources Long Island Sound at four high schools on Long Island, New York. Activities: 1) Develop and deliver presentations and materials in the schools about new and existing challenges to the health of the Sound such as plastic pollution, nitrogen pollution; 2) Mentor 50 students to conduct their own project involving Long Island Sound as an interactive activity, a research paper, poster or video project; and 3) Bring students together in the first Sound Solutions Summit for High School Students to share their projects and develop a Long Island Sound Student Action Plan to be disseminated in schools, communities and to Long Island Sound Study partners.	Long Island, NY	Citizens Campaign Fund for the Environment	On-Track	One important lesson is to work closely with the teachers. The more motivated they are, the more motivated the students will be. In addition, the CCE team reviewed each student’s project proposal via zoom and provided guidance at the beginning of the project. We were able to redirect any student who was heading in the wrong direction and really motivate others who were really innovative. We also did site visits to each school and that allowed for a great working relationship with the teachers and students. The project was very labor intensive but worth it. Every teacher said they would like to do it again.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-17; SC-19; SC-7; SC-4	65,500.00	10/1/2020-12/31/2021
04/14/2023	Viva La Sound! Cultivating Community and Environmental Stewardship on City Island in the Bronx (NY) (70223)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Host a public environmental awareness program kicking off with "Viva la Sound," a Long Island Sound appreciation festival followed by educational workshops for adults, students and teachers at City Island, Bronx, New York.	Bronx, NY	City Island Oyster Reef	On-Track	One significant lesson had to due with budgeting for the event. We learned that some critical components for the Festival had not been included in the submitted proposal. For example, initially we expected to be able to use the rest rooms in the adjacent school during the Festival, but due to COVID the school was not accessible and therefore we had to rent port-a-potties a major added expense. Also, marketing materials such as signage around City Island and signage at the festival were not a part of the submitted budget. Fortunately CIOR was able to pay for these needed additional expenditures, but we will certainly include these items in future budgets for the Festival. We learned that it was not necessary to pay for an outside vender, in this case the Norwalk Aquarium, for a touch tank Touch Tank and presentation since several of the nonprofit groups that set up a table and booth had even better touch tanks and aquariums. Other lessons had to do with improving some aspects of our logistics. For example, the communications with the nonprofits could be improved. Although we had communicated with the nonprofits to bring the tables and other supplies they needed to the event, some did not and we had to scramble around early in the day during set-up for the these extra needed supplies. Luckily we had some back up tables and chairs. Also, at our next Festival we will organize the timing of the restaurant food drop-offs to be spaced out throughout the day rather than mainly mid-day.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-1	8,361.00	12/1/2020-11/30/2021
04/14/2023	Summer Youth Marine Education Program for Long Island Sound (NY) (49546)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Delivered a summer youth marine education program about the Long Island Sound environmental resources, Glen Cove, New York.	Glen Cove, NY	City of Glen Cove	On-track	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	WW-20, SC-7, SC-19	5,522.10	7/1/2016-9/30/2016
04/14/2023	Coastal Resiliency Action Strategy and Hazard Planning (CT) (65199)	Stewardship and Resiliency	Completed	Identify tools for a strategic plan to address vulnerabilities and risks to coastal resilience in Connecticut.	CT	City of Groton	On-Track	This plan provides a comprehensive assessment of the City's vulnerabilities to climate change sea level rise, and intensified storm events. The process of developing this plan has been filled with lessons as City staff and residents further developed our understanding the impacts we're facing and potential solutions. This plan includes four concept resilience projects, serving as example projects for the City of Groton to purse. As a result of this planning effort the municipal rain garden concept project was awarded state funding to install a network of rain gardens at the City Municipal Building that will address stormwater runoff and drainage improvements. the project will also serves as an educational resource for local property owners who are interested in further exploring the use of rain gardens and bio-swells to address vulnerabilities. The Birch Plain Creek Resilience Trail concept project, has trigged discussions around neighborhood connectivity, passive recreational pace with cooling benefits and education of natural resources and how best to preserve and protect them.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-23	50,596.49	10/1/2019-6/1/2021
04/14/2023	Bright Green Hartford- Residential Rainwater Management for A Greener, Cleaner, and Healthier Hartford (CT) (61438)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Provided residents with green infrastructure tools such as downspout diverters, rain barrels and trees to reduce stormwater in Hartford, Connecticut.	Hartford, CT	City of Hartford	On-track	Adjustments were necessary in light of the changing circumstances related to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many City staff were shifted to remote operations. Volunteer opportunities were drastically cut, with partner KPSP reporting that volunteer cancellations totaling over 300. Partners OPP and YSC were also working remotely. Given the unique situation and halt of the activities, the subrecipient shifted to offering other options such as books on nature related to plastic pollution along oceans/coasts and connecting and hiking the forest to K-3 students and having online virtual activities on trees and stormwater by local staff and project partners. A partner also engaged residents, educating them on water topics while providing them the resources to connect with nature.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	WW-2, SC-7, SC-20	177,309.97	11/1/2018-10/1/2020
07/29/2022	Green Infrastructure for Beardsley Zoo (CT) (53527)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	Installed green infrastructure including enhancing existing lawn areas with bioretention gardens and tree pits; and replacing impervious pavement with pervious pavers to prevent stormwater runoff in Bridgeport, Connecticut	Bridgeport, CT	Save the Sound	Completed	Shallow bedrock in several areas limited the amount of suitable locations for installation of green infrastructure. To reach the target volumetric storage the installations were constructed deeper than originally planned.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2, SC-7	149,833.24	1/2/2017-8/15/2018
07/29/2022	Green Infrastructure in Port Chester (NY) (53846)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	Developed drainage guidance to describe options for green infrastructure projects for future implementation.	Port Chester, NY	Village of Port Chester	Completed	Learned about the benefits of using green infrastructure. Management and maintenance best practices were also reviewed. Village may pursue green infrastructure projects including: Bioretention/Rain Gardens, Green Roofs, Tree Trenches and Pits, and Permeable Pavement.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2, SC-20	47,000.00	10/1/2016-6/30/2019
07/29/2022	Green Infrastructure in the City of New Rochelle (NY) (53573)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	Prepared general green infrastructure guidance for the City of New Rochelle, New York.	New Rochelle, NY	City of New Rochelle	Completed	Learned that most Green Infrastructure projects are costly, nevertheless there are potential smaller activities that can still have a meaningful impact, without inhibiting the City budget.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2, SC-20	43,312.00	11/1/2016-1/31/2019
04/14/2023	City of New London Watershed Management Plan (CT) (70329)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	Develop a watershed management plan in for New London, Connecticut. The project will ensure that the causes and sources of pollution are identified, key stakeholders are involved in the planning, and restoration and protection strategies are identified that address local and Long Island Sound water quality problems.	New London, CT	City of New London	On-Track	Anticipate length QAPP process.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-14; SC-24	50,000.00	1/1/2021 - 5/31/2022
04/14/2023	Green Infrastructure at Webster Street Parking Lot to Improve Water Quality in Norwalk Harbor (CT) (66102)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	Install green infrastructure as part of the repaving of a 5.4 acre public parking lot in the South Norwalk business district located near the Norwalk Harbor, which drains stormwater into Long Island Sound in Connecticut.	Norwalk, CT	City of Norwalk, Connecticut	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2; SC-7;SC-20	249,999.99	11/4/2019-11/30/2021
04/14/2023	Coastal Habitat Restoration at Alley Pond (NY) (49429)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Completed	Restored tidal wetland, coastal forest, and vernal pool habitat at Alley Creek, Alley Pond Park, Queens, New York.	Queens, NY	City Parks Foundation	On-track	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1, HW-3, SC-7, SC-19	149,938.00	6/1/2016-8/1/2017
04/14/2023	Restoration and Stewardship of Coastal Forest and Dune at the Smith Hubbell Wildlife Sanctuary (CT) (70325)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	Restore coastal beach/dune and forest removing invasive plants and revegetating with native plants and provide stewardship activities and public education at the Smith Hubbell Wildlife Sanctuary, Milford Point, Connecticut. Project activities: 1) Remove invasive plant species and replant with native plants. 2) Recruit volunteer stewards to help restore the site; and 3) Educate visitors to the Coastal Center at Milford Point and people with other forms of outreach about the project. The site is one part of a 582-acre block of connected habitat including the Milford Point Unit of the Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge, and the Charles E. Wheeler Marsh Wildlife Management Area.	Milford Point, CT	Connecticut Audubon Society	On-Track	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-10; HW-13; SC-1	44,469.00	10/15/2020-4/14/2022
04/14/2023	Phillips Mill Fish Passage Project (NY) (58098)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Completed	Develop fish passage at Phillips Mill Pond Dam on the Nissequogue River, Town of Smithtown, New York.	Smithtown, NY	Connecticut Fund for the Environment	On-Track	Long Island has seen very few examples of dam removal, and projects with multiple public and private dam owners are frequently challenging. This project will require negotiations between the public and private dam owners to proceed to construction. We spent and will continue to spend time working with Parks and DEC staff so that they feel comfortable advocating for dam removal with private citizens during negotiations. Parks was able to overcome some landowner opposition in this phase, for example, by modifying the construction access to reduce the footprint of the project on private property. Furthermore, having this site identified as a regional priority by the Long Island Sound Study and Seatuck has been crucial when advocating for progress on the project with NY Parks. NYSDEC is an advocate of the project and has identified the site as a top priority in the New York Long Island Sound watershed for improving aquatic-organism passage. Prioritization of the project by NYSDEC, LISS and Seatuck has energized NY Parks leadership’s endorsement of the project and increases the potential for future state and federal funding.	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-3	99,999.25	10/1/2017-7/1/2021
04/14/2023	Hepburn Living Shoreline Project-II (CT) (70213)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Completed	Construct a .40 acre living shoreline on Long Island Sound at the former Katherine Hepburn Estate in Fenwick, Connecticut. The project will install a living shoreline composed of a series of rock sills, a dune and low marsh, a relocated creek, and an open-bottom arch culvert.	Fenwick, CT	Connecticut River Watershed Council	On-Track	There was significant community concern about the height of the dune, the vegetation planting plan, and where Crab Creek was to be relocated. These were all reasonable concerns that could have been more effectively understood earlier and addressed more easily had the local process considered these visual issues up front. CRC and the local project team spent extensive time in meetings, individual conversations, and site visits to address these concerns. This included expanding the local project team to include abutting property owners who provided helpful input to resolve the problems. It is also clear that continually communicating that this project remains a demonstration of how living shorelines in a high-energy environment will function is extremely important. We learned unfortunately that the project team needed to be very proactive with the design and engineering firm in regard to deadlines, engagement with the regulators, and vetting elements of the design. The design of the relocated culvert was especially problematic because the engineer did not conduct any geo-technical analysis, did not consider that the water lines under the road were seasonal and so needed insulation, did not consider the need for emergency access to the residences during construction as the road was the only access to two homes. And lastly following the completion of the project and demobilizing all equipment, the design engineer added roadway barriers to the project design. This introduced permitting, design, and cost considerations that were never identified over the 18 months of design review. During construction the project was subject to three storm events - two from the northeast and one from the southwest. This provided excellent data on how the rock sills were performing and lead to several good project modifications that were discussed and approved by the state and federal permitting agencies. The storms revealed that the western end of the project needed more rock placement, that the cobble draping over the sills would not remain in place unsurprisingly, and that the eastern end of the project would be best designed as entirely cobble beach with no marsh. The dune profile was also changed to have a more gradually sloping face to allow for run up wave energy to dissipate more gradually and not nick the toe of the dune slope.	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-11; HW-1	225,906.00	10/5/2020-6/30/2021
04/14/2023	Hepburn Living Shoreline Project (CT) (61314)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Completed	Construct a living shoreline along a barrier spit on Long Island Sound in Fenwick, Connecticut.	Fenwick, CT	Connecticut River Watershed Council	On-Track	There was significant community concern about the height of the dune, the vegetation planting plan, and where Crab Creek was to be relocated. These were all reasonable concerns that could have been more effectively understood earlier and addressed more easily had the local process considered these visual issues up front. CRC and the local project team spent extensive time in meetings, individual conversations, and site visits to address these concerns. This included expanding the local project team to include abutting property owners who provided helpful input to resolve the problems. It is also clear that continually describing the project purpose and that this project remains a demonstration of how living shorelines in a high-energy environment will function is extremely important. Making sure that the local community knows that the project will continue to be impacted by storms and will require monitoring and maintenance is very important. During construction the project was subject to three storm events - two from the northeast and one from the southwest. This provided excellent data on how the rock sills were performing and lead to several good project modifications that were discussed and approved by the state and federal permitting agencies. The storms revealed that the western end of the project needed more rock placement, that the cobble draping over the sills would not remain in place unsurprisingly, and that the eastern end of the project would be best design as entirely cobble beach with no marsh. The dune profile was also changed to have a more gradually sloping face to allow for wave energy run-up to dissipate more gradually and not nick the toe of the dune slope. GZA and representatives from CIRCA worked closely with the project team to evaluate adaptive changes to the project that appear to be good modifications.	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1; HW-11	250,000.00	10/1/2018-5/7/2021
04/14/2023	Restoring Riverbanks to Reduce Nitrogen (NH) (70122)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	Install bioengineered streambank stabilization and riparian restoration projects in Coos and Cheshire Counties, New Hampshire. Activities: 1) Lower banks creating active floodplain benches adjacent to the them which help re-establish floodplains to reduce erosion; 2) Install root wads, engineered log jams or large wood structures to protect the bank where erosive forces are greatest; and 3) Plant 3,000 native trees and shrubs to further stabilize the banks. The projects will be part of a solution that benefits farmers in the upper basin and Long Island Sound downstream to reduce the delivery sediment and nitrogen to coastal waters.	Coos and Cheshire Counties, NH	Connecticut River Watershed Council	On-Track	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	WW-2	280,769.00	10/1/2020-12/31/2021
04/14/2023	LIS Mentor Teacher Program: Promoting Long Island Sound as a Teaching Tool for K- 12 Formal and Informal Educators	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	To increase awareness and understanding of the importance of LIS and its watershed	Long Island Sound Watershed	Connecticut Sea Grant/UConn	On-Track	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-17	30,640.00	10/1/2017 - 3/31/2021
04/14/2023	Long Island Sound Research Program (2021-23 Projects)	Research	Ongoing	The first objective is to identify and fund high priority, high quality research needed to best achieve the vision, goals, and targets of the LIS CCMP. The second objective is to promptly share the results of the research and assessment work, providing critical, new, science-based information that can inform decision-making and actions towards reaching the vision and goals for Long Island Sound laid out in the CCMP.	Long Island Sound Watershed	Connecticut Sea Grant/UConn	On-Track	N/A	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	SM-1	1,389,112.67	10/1/2019 – 09/30/2023
04/14/2023	Long Island Sound Connecticut Public Outreach Program FY17	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	CT LISS Public Outreach Coordinator will continue to foster public involvement, support, and affinity for restoration and protection of the Sound and its watershed, and build active support for environmental stewardship among CT residents through development and implementation of a comprehensive public outreach program.	Long Island Sound Watershed	Connecticut Sea Grant/UConn	On-Track	Program truncated in 2020; reinitiated in 2021 and combined with 2021 new participants	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	HW-11, HW-20, SC-1,SC-7, SC-8, SC-9, SC-11, SC-12, SC-14, SC-15, SC-18, SC-19, SC-22, SC-27	4,500.00	10/1/2017 - 3/31/2021
04/14/2023	Long Island Sound Connecticut Public Outreach Program FY20	Public Education and Outreach	Ongoing	CT LISS Public Outreach Coordinator will continue to foster public involvement, support, and affinity for restoration and protection of the Sound and its watershed, and build active support for environmental stewardship among CT residents through development and implementation of a comprehensive public outreach program.	Long Island Sound Watershed	Connecticut Sea Grant/UConn	On-Track	Deliverables experience delays due to pending results of the communications plan	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	WW-16, WW-20, WW-35, HW-10, HW-11, HW-13, HW-14, HW-15, HW-20, SC-1, SC-2, SC-3, SC-6, SC-7, SC-8, SC-9, SC-10, SC-11, SC-12, SC-14, SC-15, SC-16, SC-19, SC-22, SC-27, SM-1, SM-13, SM-18, SM-34	59,184.00	10/1/2020 - 9/30/2025
04/14/2023	Long Island Sound Mentor Teacher Program FY20	Public Education and Outreach	Ongoing	To facilitate the continued development of the Long Island Sound Mentor Teacher program with two grade level cohort workshops, incorporating evaluation results from recent years; work with New York Sea Grant LISS Outreach Coordinator; continue updating the LIS Curricular Resource Guide; continue to distribute LIS curricular resources through LISMT workshops, meetings and conferences; and continue to gather information regarding the influence of the LISMT and summer institute programs and use of LIS resources, particularly in regard to the NGSS.	Long Island Sound Watershed	Connecticut Sea Grant/UConn	On-Track	Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, LISMT workshops were cancelled in 2020 and no LISMT workshops took place in 2021, when a LIS Habitats Story map was produced instead. In 2022, we have scheduled one LISMT workshop for 21 May in Norwalk/Sheffield Island and a two-day workshop 26-27 July in Old Lyme. We plan to hold one more workshop in September.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-17	32,257.00	10/1/2020 - 9/30/2025
04/14/2023	Long Island Sound Research Program (2019-21 projects)	Research	Completed	The first objective is to identify and fund high priority, high quality research needed to best achieve the vision, goals, and targets of the LIS CCMP. The second objective is to promptly share the results of the research and assessment work, providing critical, new, science-based information that can inform decision-making and actions towards reaching the vision and goals for Long Island Sound laid out in the CCMP.	Long Island Sound Watershed	Connecticut Sea Grant/UConn	On-Track	Covid has presented challenges to the Pis; necessitating no-cost extensions	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	SM-1	807,802.67	10/1/2018 - 9/30/2022
07/29/2022	Long Island Sound Stewards (NY) - (53484)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Conducted hands-on Long Island Sound-based conservation field programs, and a Long Island Sound Day celebration in Mystic, Connecticut.	Mystic, CT	Sea Research Foundation	Completed	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	WW-20, SC-1, SC-19	6,974.70	12/1/2016-11/30/2017
04/14/2023	Sustainable and Resilient Communities Workgroup	Stewardship and Resiliency	Ongoing	Devise a strategic work plan to advance the Resilient Communities theme of the CCMP, using the new Resilient Communities Working Group.	Long Island Sound Watershed	Connecticut Sea Grant/UConn	On-Track	COVID 19 required adjustments, with the original 2 workshops replaced by a series of 8 online team meetings, and the last workshop replaced with a socialization webinar. Remained on time despite adjustments.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-23, SC-24, SM-26	50,000.01	10/1/2020 - 9/30/2025
04/14/2023	Update and Reprint LISS Publications	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	To review, revise and reprint the Living Treasures: The Plants and Animals of Long Island Sound booklet (4th revision, 6th printing); Revise content to match updated content in revised English version, graphic design and print 5,000 copies of the Spanish version of Living Treasures: The Plants and Animals of Long Island Sound booklet (1st revision, 2nd printing).	Long Island Sound Watershed	Connecticut Sea Grant/UConn	On-Track	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-17, SC-19	22,950.00	10/1/2019 - 9/30/2021
04/14/2023	Long Island Sound Summit and Video Project (CT) (57877)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Engage urban youth in a Long Island Sound Summit that will include lessons, hands-on conservation activities, and creation of a Youth Voice Video where the students will share what they learned about Long Island Sound with the public in New Haven, Connecticut.	New Haven, CT	Solar Youth	Completed	Youth in our programs do not typically have the opportunity to venture to the beach or to the Aquarium. These trips brought to life what they had learned about the Long Island Sound. For example, the opportunity to play on the beach made them want to protect its waters even more powerful and relevant to their lives. Going to Mystic Aquarium and Quinnipiac Meadows Preserve enabled youth to see and interact with animals whose habitats are in Sound. Being able to see different birds at Quinnipiac Meadows, made it easier for them to understand why their habitats should be protected. At the aquarium, by being able to see and identify different types of sharks or fish that may be swimming in the waters, it made it more real that even the water is something’s home.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-1, SC-7, SC-19	7,009.02	11/17/2017-9/19/2018
07/29/2022	Long Island Sound Water Education for Elementary School Students (NY) (53456)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Deliver a three-session water quality education program to elementary school students in Nassau and Suffolk Counties, New York. Project will educate students about Long Island's ground water quality, the connection to Long Island Sound and how students can protect local water resources.	Nassau and Suffolk Counties, NY	North Shore Land Alliance	Completed	The field trip, described by the subrecipient as "the jewel in the crown of the program, "is labor intensive!! and, so far, places excessive demands on staff leading program stations. In future will allocate funds for field trip per diem educators and expect this will lighten the burden on all participants.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-7, SC-19	30,500.00	10/3/2016-7/12/2018
07/29/2022	My Yard, Our Sound: Planting for Clean Water and Wildlife (NY) (53601)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Engaged people in a program that delivers an exhibit, and workshops for families to transform their yards and gardens with native plants in Port Jefferson, New York.	Port Jefferson, NY	Maritime Explorium at Port Jeff Harbor	Completed	Challenges for people who completed the garden installation project included: plants to add to the garden, preparing the garden beds, time to spend on project, and obtaining plants. Ongoing technical assistance is need for material selection, soil and site specific or to establish a volunteer corps that could help prepare and install a garden. There are few garden centers/nurseries on Long Island that carry locally sourced native plants. Further, among those nurseries that do carry appropriate materials, the diversity of species is somewhat limited making plant selection more challenging. The seasonal nature of this project posed an additional challenge, plant material becomes available from approximately mid April through late November and participants need time to complete the training, prepare their garden beds, plan their gardens, purchase plants and install their garden.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-1, SC-7, SC-14	22,896.84	10/1/2016-12/31/2017
04/14/2023	Long Island Sound Connecticut Public Outreach Program 2021-2022	Public Education and Outreach	Ongoing	To continue the outreach coordinator position to foster public involvement, support, and affinity for restoration and protection of the Sound and its watershed, and build active support for environmental stewardship among CT residents through development and implementation of a comprehensive public outreach program.	Long Island Sound Watershed	Connecticut Sea Grant/UConn	None	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	WW-15; WW-16; HW-11; SC-2; SC-6; SC-7; SC-9; SC-11; SC-12; SC-14; SC-15; SC-22; SC-30; SC-31; SC-32; SM-1; SM-14; SM-15; SM-17	130,586.00	10/1/2021 - 9/30/2025
04/14/2023	Long Island Sound Mentor Teachers Program Work Plan 2021-2022	Public Education and Outreach	Ongoing	To increase awareness and understanding of the importance of the Sound and its watershed	Long Island Sound Watershed	Connecticut Sea Grant/UConn	None	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-16	30,670.00	10/1/2021 - 9/30/2025
04/14/2023	Long Island Sound Study Public Perception Survey	Public Education and Outreach	Ongoing	To develop and implement a public perception survey with the assistance of a qualified contractor; analyze the results and compare them to results from 2006 survey; recruit and hold focus groups to test the survey questions as well as messaging; and share the results broadly in written report form, digital graphics and presentations so they can be used to inform future communications and education efforts.	Long Island Sound Watershed	Connecticut Sea Grant/UConn	None	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-22; SC-6; SM-30	172,673.00	10/1/2021 - 9/30/2025
04/14/2023	Marine Meadows Eelgrass Restoration for Long Island Sound (NY) (70303)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	Restore eelgrass, educate the public and involve volunteers project activities to restore an important coastal habitat of Long Island Sound to improve coastal resilience and water quality in the waters of Suffolk County, New York. Activities: 1) Scout full-scale and test restoration sites and conduct eelgrass planting; 2) Conduct eelgrass education for volunteers and the public; 3) Engage in preparation and delivery of eelgrass restoration including engaging community volunteers; and 2) Evaluate the sites as current and future locations to increase the extent of eelgrass. The project will establish a network of future eelgrass restoration areas to provide conservation and community benefits in Long Island Sound waters.	Suffolk County, NY	Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County	On-Track	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1; SC-1; HW-22	293,122.00	3/1/2021 - 3/30/2023
04/14/2023	Long Island Sound Study (LISS) New York Public Outreach Program - LIS Mentor Teacher Program	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	To increase awareness and understanding of the importance of LIS and its watershed	Long Island Sound Watershed	Cornell University	On-Track	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-8, SC-17	19,304.00	1/1/2019 - 9/30/2022
04/14/2023	Long Island Sound Study (LISS) New York Public Outreach Program - Public Outreach Coordinator	Public Education and Outreach	Ongoing	To support the public information and education program for the Long Island Sound Study (LISS) by funding a full-time Long Island Sound outreach coordinator in New York State. A full-time public outreach coordinator, working out of the Long Island Sound Office in Stony Brook, oversees the dissemination of accurate, up-to-date, research-based information about the Sound, the Study, and implementation activities of the various LISS agencies. The Coordinator works closely with agency staff, the Long Island Sound Study Citizens Advisory Committee, and other partners to develop outreach programs and written materials, produce presentations, and assemble media information to keep the public informed, with an emphasis on activities that support, report on, or promote implementation of the LISS Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP).	Long Island Sound Watershed	Cornell University	On-Track	Process is slightly delayed, but on track to be done by end of spring. Sound Stewards field trips during this reporting period had to be cancelled due to COVID-19.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	HW-22, SC-1, SC-2, SC-4, SC-5, SC-6, SC-7, SC-8, SC-11, SC-12, SC-14, SC-15, SC-17, SC-18, SC-19, SM-13, SM-15, SM-17, SM-25, SM-37	226,404.00	1/1/2019 - 9/30/2023
04/14/2023	Acoustic Data Acquisition for Seafloor Mapping	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	To acquire acoustic data within the portion of the Sound's central basin where no current bathymetric data is available	Soundwide	CT DEEP	On-Track	N/A	Thriving Habitats and Abundant Wildlife	SM-2	286,500.00	10/1/2021 - 9/30/2023
04/14/2023	Acoustic telemetry array for monitoring tagged, migratory fish in Long Island Sound	Monitoring	Ongoing	To deploy and monitor Acoustic Receivers in areas of the Sound in order to detect migratory fishes, particularly Atlantic sturgeon, already implanted with long-term transmitters from previous CT DEEP research efforts and dozens of other researchers along the US Atlantic East Coast. Provide data to established telemetry network, Mid-Atlantic Acoustic Telemetry Observation System to share data and identify species tagged by researchers.	Soundwide	CT DEEP	On-Track	N/A	Thriving Habitats and Abundant Wildlife	HW-16; HW-17; HW-19; SC-7; SM-3; SM-20	100,950.00	10/1/2021 - 9/30/2023
04/14/2023	Connecticut State Coordination 2021	Coordination	Ongoing	Several CT DEEP positions contribute to research, data analysis, planning, report writing and peer review essential to meeting the 2020 Long Island Sound Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP) and assure CT's goals address the appropriate targets to address these and other goals toward improving the quality of the Sound.	Long Island Sound Watershed	CT DEEP	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2; WW-4; WW-5; WW-6; WW-13; WW-14; WW-24; WW-25; WW-27; WW-28; SC-19; SC-20; SM-13; SM-14; SM-15; SM-18; SM-23; SM-24; SM-29; SM-32; SM-34; SM-35; SM-36	518,354.00	10/1/2021 - 9/30/2023
04/14/2023	Connecticut Stewardship and Habitat Restoration	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	To provide technical support and leadership to the Habitat Restoration and Stewardship Work Group; and to organize these meetings and based upon work group priorities will assist the teams in securing funding, project engineering/design, securing permits and managing contracts where consulting firms are hired to develop restoration plans and designs.	Long Island Sound Watershed	CT DEEP	On-Track	N/A	Thriving Habitats and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1; HW-3; HW-9; HW-11; HW-13; HW-18; HW-20; HW-22; HW-27	209,364.00	10/1/2021 - 9/30/2023
04/14/2023	Connecticut Watershed Model - Year 3 of 3	Modeling	Ongoing	To update the CT Watershed Model with the following improvements: improved geospatial resolution, expansion of the number of calibration sites, expansion of land-use/landcover categories, expansion of parameters to be covered by the model (nutrients and suspended sediments), and improved information on nutrient sources.	CT	CT DEEP	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-1; WW-14; WW-27; WW-28	1,700,000.00	10/1/2021 - 9/30/2023
04/14/2023	Development of an Natural Resources Conservation Service Watershed Operations Plan in Connecticut	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	To provide the necessary planning for assessment of priority watershed planning and provide the opportunity for ensuring and leveraging the needed implementation/best management practices are funded and employed in the priority watersheds impacting the Long Island Sound.	CT	CT DEEP	Off-Track	Procedure/administrative procedures have this project temporarily on hold while this is being assessed.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2; HW-1; SC-5; SC-20; SC-26; SC-30; SM-24	100,000.00	10/1/2021 - 9/30/2023
04/14/2023	Embayment Data Collection for Modeling	Modeling	Ongoing	To increase the spatial and temporal water quality and hydrodynamic data collection efforts in the four (Norwalk Harbor, Mystic River, Saugatuck Harbor, and Sasco Brook (Southport Harbor)) embayments targeted for monitoring and modeling; and to analyze biological monitoring for macrophytes/benthic algae and sediment at the embayments and support a benthic processes study.	CT	CT DEEP	On-Track	In order to achieve the overall 3-year project goals within the grant period, tasks directly related to modeling (QAPP and model development) will be completed using FY21 funds. While FY20 funds will be used to support tasks related to data collection.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-14; WW-27; WW-28; WW-35	1,500,000.00	10/1/2021 - 9/30/2023
04/14/2023	Enhancement of Tidal Flow Restoration at the Barn Island Wildlife Management Area, Stonington, CT	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	To replace and install several culverts to restore tidal flushing in the impoundments, in which a new plastic pipe culverts will benefit the passage of aquatic organisms in the impoundments.	Stonington, CT	CT DEEP	On-Track	N/A	Thriving Habitats and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1	1,200,000.00	10/1/2021 - 9/30/2023
04/14/2023	Expansion of Phase II Onsite Wastewater Treatment System Study	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	To expand the improved Onsite Wastewater Treatment Site inventory approach and method for estimating nitrogen loading to the north shore of Long Island Sound.	Bronx, NY to Narragansett, RI (entire north side of Long Island Sound)	CT DEEP	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-1; WW-7; WW-12; WW-14; WW-27; WW-35	296,000.00	10/1/2021 - 9/30/2023
04/14/2023	Planning & design of Self Regulating Tide Gates at Hammock River, Clinton, CT	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	To restore high and low marsh vegetation in Hammock River east of Old Beach Road; increase nesting success of salt marsh obligate bird species; and reduce flooding of private property in Hammock River system.	Clinton, CT	CT DEEP	On-Track	N/A	Thriving Habitats and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1; HW-3; HW-6; HW-16; HW-22; HW-27	220,000.00	10/1/2021 - 9/30/2023
04/14/2023	Long Island Sound Water Quality Monitoring Program 2021-2022	Monitoring	Ongoing	To conduct ongoing monthly water quality analyses and hypoxia surveys at 17 stations located throughout the Sound.	Soundwide	CT DEEP	On-Track	COVID restrictions limiting lab processing of samples	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-24; WW-25; SM-4; SM-5; SM-6; SM-7; SM-13; SM-28	1,304,909.00	10/1/2021 - 9/30/2023
04/14/2023	Repair and modification of the RV John Dempsey	Monitoring	Ongoing	To make short-term repairs to the R/V Dempsey to improve its functionality and safety to keep the vessel operational while pursuing a long term solution for replacement of this 30 year old vessel.	Soundwide	CT DEEP	On-Track	Staff decided to not pursue the construction of the overhang due to cost estimates far exceeding original request. Project cancelled.	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	WW-39; SM-7	100,000.00	10/1/2021 - 9/30/2023
07/29/2022	On-site Wastewater Treatment Systems for Clean Water at Uplands Farm Sanctuary (NY) (53618)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	Construct and publicize installation of a nitrogen-reducing vegetated wastewater treatment system in Cold Spring Harbor, Suffolk County, New York.	Cold Spring Harbor, NY	The Nature Conservancy	Completed	The concept of a wastewater wetland is new to Long Island and this project was adapted in design and construction to address the unexpected. Critical to have background information on sites such as survey, soil samples, percolation tests and maps of existing cesspools and condition to inform preparation of bids. Contractor capacity to deliver new alternative wastewater treatment systems has to be built.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2, WW-11	100,074.30	10/3/2016-3/31/2019
07/29/2022	Partnering for Pollution Prevention: Water quality monitoring of Impaired Waterways (CT) (57971)	Monitoring	Completed	Monitor eight impaired waterways bi-weekly for water temperature, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, fecal coliform, and bacteria in Fairfield County, Connecticut.	Fairfield County, CT	Earthplace - The Nature Discovery Center	Completed	Process used to quantify bacteria is time consuming and labor intensive for the number of samples ( processing over 170 samples every two weeks!). To rectify this, w/ implementing a new process next year to allow for processing more samples.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-28	65,363.07	4/1/2018-4/30/2019
04/14/2023	Stormwater Management Education	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	To provide the critical communication and education regarding the updates the Stormwater Manuals, including updates to the technical climate information, Best Management Practice selection processes, clarifications regarding applicability and requirements, and others as defined in the final manual update process.	CT	CT DEEP	On-Track	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	WW-2; WW-18; SC-20	185,000.00	10/1/2021 - 9/30/2023
07/29/2022	Rapid Action Plans to Deliver Green Infrastructure in Coastal Connecticut Communities (CT) (58154)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	Implemented green infrastructure projects in communities in the South Central Region Basin, Connecticut.	South Central Region Basin, CT	University of Connecticut	Completed	Project was valuable for undergraduate students involved in its delivery. Students routinely checked in to see how the implementation phase was progressing, took ownership of the project and wanted to know that it was successful! Additionally, almost all of the municipal staff from the five towns involved shared how impressed they were with the professional presentations that the students gave. Students saw experience as a resume builder. One unanticipated challenge involved working with the towns. Although all five of the towns involved were interested in implementing a project, one town was not able to move forward with the actual installation of their project, even though there were funds in the grant to support it. Various regulatory/review hurdles in the town delayed the implementation to such a degree that it was not possible to install the project.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2, SC-19, SC-20	81,701.61	3/1/2018-6/30/2020
07/29/2022	Reducing Floatable Litter and Debris Pollution in the Bronx River and Long Island Sound (NY) - III (53333)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	Collected floatable debris through paddle and pickup canoe trips, on-shore litter collection at a trash collection boom site, and on-shore coastal cleanup event in the Bronx, New York.	Bronx. NY	Bronx River Alliance	Completed	One key lesson learned over the 3 years of hosting this project is that many people know that litter is a problem for our local environment, however, some do not understand the magnitude of the problem until they are pulling out a flat screen tv or scooter from the rivers bed. More on water opportunities are necessary for our messaging to create lasting impacts on the behaviors of people in their everyday life.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-20, SC-1, SC-7, SC-19	9,999.76	3/1/2017-11/30/2017
04/14/2023	Transport of freshwater cyanobacteria toxins to marine shellfish populations in Greenwich, CT: An emerging human health concern in Long Island Sound	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	To develop an understanding of environmental factors involved in transport of cyanotoxins from freshwater systems into the coastal marine environment; provide high-resolution environmental and toxin data for target area to inform biotoxin management in commercial and recreational growing areas; develop species-specific microcystin depuration rates for the eastern oyster and hard clam; and inform federal risk assessment framework for microcystin in shellfish and provide data towards the development of regulatory guidance for state biotoxin management plans	Greenwich, CT	CT DEEP	On-Track	Initial DA/BA Project lead left state service. Supply chain issues and changes in DAS purchasing protocols resulted in delays obtaining equipment and supplies.	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	WW-23; WW-24; WW-36; WW-37; WW-39	100,000.00	10/1/2021 - 9/30/2023
04/14/2023	Water quality monitoring enhancements to support the hypoxia management: Operation maintenance of CT River sensors at Essex and Old Lyme 2021-2022	Monitoring	Ongoing	To establish a long-term record of observations of temperature, salinity and sea level that will allow the assessment of the effect of global scale changes in climate on the ecosystem of the Sound and Connecticut River.	Essex and Old Lyme, CT	CT DEEP	On-Track	Equipment issues	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-23; WW-31; SM-11	52,000.00	10/1/2021 - 9/30/2022
04/14/2023	Connecticut State Coordination 2019	Coordination	Ongoing	The Connecticut LISS Coordinator (LISSC) and LISS Technical Coordinator (LISSTC) serve integral roles in Connecticut’s continued implementation and progress of the LISS. The Coordinator positions will report to EPA on the status and completion of technical projects and studies recommended in the CCMP. During this project year, the LISSC will dedicate time and resources toward implementation and reporting of completed 2015 LISS CCMP implementation actions.	Long Island Sound Watershed	CT DEEP	On-Track	N/A	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	SM-14; SM-35	181,843.00	10/01/2019 - 09/30/2021
07/29/2022	River Smart Community Stormwater Education in the Farmington River Watershed (CT) (53581)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Delivered River Smart CT an education and outreach program focused on personal actions to reduce polluted stormwater in the Farmington Valley, Connecticut.	Farmington Valley, CT	Farmington River Watershed Association	Completed	Library presentations: some more successful than others; we learned that time of event, season, location, and hosting organization all played a role in the numbers attending. In hindsight, the presentations would preferably take place at community colleges, adult learning programs, or conferences where the information could fit into an existing program to reach a larger audience and be more efficient in outreach and planning implementation. The presentations at youth organizations or community organizations such as Garden Clubs, proved more successful in numbers. It also proved challenging to gain feedback from the people taking the pledge, however all the target groups let us know the benefit for them.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-1, SC-7, SC-15, SC-19	24,696.21	10/17/2016-12/31/2017
04/14/2023	Connecticut State Technical Coordination 2019	Coordination	Ongoing	The Connecticut LISS Coordinator (LISSC) and LISS Technical Coordinator (LISSTC) serve integral roles in Connecticut’s continued implementation and progress of the LISS. The Coordinator positions will report to EPA on the status and completion of technical projects and studies recommended in the CCMP. During this project year, DEEP LISS Technical Coordinator position will attend and contribute to technical work group meetings, including STAC meetings and STAC subcommittees as well as the new ad-hoc Modelling Advisory Workgroup, participate in the Nitrogen Reduction Coordination Work Group headed up by NEIWPCC and implement CT DEEP's Second Generation Nitrogen Strategy and Integrated Water Resources Plan .	Long Island Sound Watershed	CT DEEP	On-Track	N/A	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	WW-7; WW-27; SM-12	121,026.00	10/01/2019 - 09/30/2021
04/14/2023	Connecticut Modelling & Project Coordination 2019	Coordination	Ongoing	Staff position to support and coordinate the states modeling projects, and coordinate the communications of the deliverables.	Long Island Sound Watershed	CT DEEP	On-Track	N/A	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	SM-13; SC-20; SM-27; SC-10; SC-7; SC-5; SC-11	110,267.00	10/1/2020-9/30/2022
07/29/2022	Sound Spirit Week (CT) (57891)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Conduct Long Island Sound awareness and stewardship events designed to foster understanding about personal roles in maintaining a healthy environment in Mystic, Connecticut.	Mystic, CT	Sea Research Foundation	Completed	This large scale initiative utilizes a variety of contact mechanisms to deliver its message to not only educate the public but also engage them in collective action that produces tangible results. The Sound Spirit Week programming significantly increases awareness of issues affecting estuaries and their inhabitants, and emphasizes the impacts that all people make on estuary health, whether they live on the coast or far from it. By pairing onsite outreach events with on-the-ground conservation activities that allow people to directly interface with the environment, the public gains a hands-on look into the factors affecting estuarine health and knowledge of the role they can play in conserving this fragile ecosystem. This successful strategy can be used as a model for other conservation organizations while encouraging other conservation organizations to join the Aquarium in these educational efforts.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-1, SC-7, SC-19	9,978.00	11/1/2017-10/31/2018
04/14/2023	Connecticut State Water Quality Monitoring for Long Island Sound 2019	Monitoring	Ongoing	Monthly water quality analyses and hypoxia surveys at 17 stations located throughout the Sound. Hydrographic profiles are taken of depth, salinity, temperature, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll a, pH and photosynthetic active radiation (PAR). Grab samples are collected at surface and bottom depths and filtered and preserved for laboratory analyses of nitrogen, phosphorus, carbon, suspended solids, and chlorophyll-a. The monitoring program includes zooplankton (6 stations, net tow, surface to bottom) and phytoplankton (10 stations, surface) sampling with researchers from the University of Connecticut at Avery Point; phyto-pigment analysis (10 stations, surface) with the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science/Horn Point; and cooperating in research on such topics as productivity, zooplankton, and lobster mortality. All of these efforts are complementary to, and some were previously supported by, the National Coastal Condition Assessment monitoring program.	Soundwide	CT DEEP	On-Track	COVID restrictions; Reporting delayed.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-8; SM-6; SM-7; SM-28	1,251,417.00	10/01/2019 - 09/30/2021
04/14/2023	Connecticut Stewardship & Habitat Restoration 2019	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	Connecticut’s habitat restoration coordinator will continue to promote coastal habitat restoration and stewardship to maximize acres and miles restored annually. Specifically, the emphasis is upon project implementation (e.g., design, permitting, and securing funding) but will include support for habitat restoration planning (e.g., database management, outreach).	Long Island Sound Watershed	CT DEEP	On-Track	CT DEEP's tidal wetlands restoration crew has been greatly reduced resulting in few projects implemented. Federal permitting requirements are getting tougher to navigate, significantly slowing down progress.	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1; HW-3; HW-11; HW-20; HW-21; HW-18; HW-10; HW-5	150,722.00	10/01/2019 - 09/30/2021
04/14/2023	Restoration (Design) of Sluice Creek Marsh 2019	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	Develop and design construction plans for the alteration and restoration of tidal flow to Sluice Creek Marsh in Guilford, CT., and obtaining all required state and federal permits and local access permissions.	Guildford, CT	CT DEEP	Off-Track	The federal regulatory process is the biggest challenge to this project.	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-10; HW-16; HW-1	120,000.00	10/01/2019 - 09/30/2021
04/14/2023	Dana Dam Removal 2019	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	Removal of Dana Dam restoring three miles of anadromous fish passage. For this project, CT DEEP will issue a sub award to Save the Sound/CFE and provide technical support to hire contractors to remove Dana Dam on the Norwalk River in Wilton, CT. This project will also include designing and installing erosion and soil measures and dewatering and sediment removal , analysis, and disposal plans. As well as design and installing alternate traffic access routes to the site (Merwin Meadows Park).	Wilton, CT	CT DEEP	On-Track	Trying to manage beneficial reuse of slightly contaminated sediments, to reduce expense from disposal; seasonal restrictions may cause delays by a few more months, but this is not out of the ordinary	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-16; HW-3	400,000.00	10/01/2019 - 09/30/2021
04/14/2023	Connecticut State Coordination 2020	Coordination	Ongoing	The Connecticut LISS Coordinator (LISSC) and LISS Technical Coordinator (LISSTC) serve integral roles in Connecticut’s continued implementation and progress of the LISS. The Coordinator positions will report to EPA on the status and completion of technical projects and studies recommended in the CCMP. During this project year, the LISSC will dedicate time and resources toward implementation and reporting of completed 2015 LISS CCMP implementation actions.	Long Island Sound Watershed	CT DEEP	On-Track	N/A	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	SM-14; SM-35; SM-15	201,160.00	10/01/2020 - 09/30/2022
04/14/2023	Connecticut State Technical Coordination 2020	Coordination	Ongoing	The Connecticut LISS Coordinator (LISSC) and LISS Technical Coordinator (LISSTC) serve integral roles in Connecticut’s continued implementation and progress of the LISS. The Coordinator positions will report to EPA on the status and completion of technical projects and studies recommended in the CCMP. During this project year, DEEP LISS Technical Coordinator position will attend and contribute to technical work group meetings, including STAC meetings and STAC subcommittees as well as the new ad-hoc Modelling Advisory Workgroup, participate in the Nitrogen Reduction Coordination Work Group headed up by NEIWPCC and implement CT DEEP's Second Generation Nitrogen Strategy and Integrated Water Resources Plan .	Long Island Sound Watershed	CT DEEP	On-Track	N/A	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	WW-7; WW-27; SM-12	178,401.00	10/01/2020 - 09/30/2022
04/14/2023	Connecticut Modelling & Project Coordination 2020	Coordination	Ongoing	Staff position to support and coordinate the states modeling projects, and coordinate the communications of the deliverables.	Long Island Sound Watershed	CT DEEP	On-Track	N/A	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	SM-13; SC-20; SM-27; SM-13; SC-10; SC-7; SC-5; SC-11	115,541.00	10/01/2020 - 09/30/2022
04/14/2023	Connecticut State Water Quality Monitoring for Long Island Sound 2020	Monitoring	Ongoing	Monthly water quality analyses and hypoxia surveys at 17 stations located throughout the Sound. Hydrographic profiles are taken of depth, salinity, temperature, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll a, pH and photosynthetic active radiation (PAR). Grab samples are collected at surface and bottom depths and filtered and preserved for laboratory analyses of nitrogen, phosphorus, carbon, suspended solids, and chlorophyll-a. The monitoring program includes zooplankton (6 stations, net tow, surface to bottom) and phytoplankton (10 stations, surface) sampling with researchers from the University of Connecticut at Avery Point; phyto-pigment analysis (10 stations, surface) with the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science/Horn Point; and cooperating in research on such topics as productivity, zooplankton, and lobster mortality. All of these efforts are complementary to, and some were previously supported by, the National Coastal Condition Assessment monitoring program.	Soundwide	CT DEEP	On-Track	COVID restrictions	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-8; SM-6; SM-7; SM-28	1,295,842.00	10/01/2020 - 09/30/2022
07/29/2022	Support for Stewardship Land Acquisitions in Stony Brook, NY	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Completed	To support for the acquisition of the Stony Brook Harbor State Tidal Wetland complex including 1) Goldstein, 2) Stells, 3) Tyree, and 4)Shoreham.	Stony Brook, NY	NYSDEC	Completed	The funds allocated for this property changed due to in increase in appraisal and property cost. The total funds allocated to this project increased to $493,000 from $450,000. Therefore, $43,000 of the funds allocated from the federal share was removed from the "Tyree" property acquisition deliverable to account for this change	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-9	2,375,000.00	10/1/2018 - 9/30/2022
04/14/2023	Connecticut Habitat Restoration and Stewardship Coordination 2020	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	Plan, track, complete, and report on habitat restoration projects including but not limited to projects that restore acres of coastal habitat, open up anadromous fish stream miles to LIS, create living shoreline habitat, creating shellfish management plans, and preserving and protecting open space habitat through land acquisition and conservation easement tools.	Long Island Sound Watershed	CT DEEP	On-Track	DEEP's tidal wetlands restoration crew has been greatly reduced resulting in few projects implemented. Federal permitting requirements are getting tougher to navigate, significantly slowing down progress.	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1; HW-3; HW-11; HW-20; HW-21; HW-18; HW-10; HW-5	192,314.83	10/01/2020 - 09/30/2022
04/14/2023	Connecticut Watershed Model - Year 2 of 3 (Statewide HSPF) 2020	Modeling	Ongoing	Update of the Connecticut Watershed Model	CT	CT DEEP	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-27; WW-28; WW-14; SM-15; SM-1	700,000.00	10/01/2020 - 09/30/2022
04/14/2023	Embayment Data Collection for Modeling –Year 2 2020	Modeling	Ongoing	Embayment model planning, monitoring, and model development for two of the priority embayments.	CT	CT DEEP	On-Track	In order to achieve the overall 3-year project goals within the grant period, tasks directly related to modeling (QAPP and model development) will be completed using FY21 funds. While FY20 funds will be used to support tasks related to data collection.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-35; WW-27; WW-28	200,000.00	10/01/2020 - 09/30/2022
04/14/2023	Restoration of Sluice Creek Marsh 2020	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	Restore healthy tidal flushing to the Sluice Creek Marsh. The overall restoration project involves diverting the lower 875 feet of Sluice Creek away from Guilford Harbor so that the primary tidal connection is through the East River.	Guildford, CT	CT DEEP	On-Track	The challenges with the federal regulatory process have been mostly overcome. Currently the biggest challenge to this project is communicating with the 2 private property owners.	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-10; HW-16; HW-1	400,000.00	10/01/2020 - 09/30/2022
07/29/2022	Village Creek Salt Marsh Restoration (CT) (53608)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Completed	General feasibility assessment for future restoration of 8 acres of degraded intertidal salt meadows in Norwalk, Connecticut.	Norwalk, CT	Norwalk Land Trust	Completed	In general to support future succession and establishment of high marsh plant communities and to increase future resiliency against to sea level rise restoration approaches must target the high end of the elevation ranges around LI Sound. Surrounding land use is characterized by legacy contaminants, industrial/commercial operations and fragmentation making it challenging site to restore.	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1	20,000.00	10/15/2016-7/30/2017
04/14/2023	Restoration of Leetes Island Tidal Marsh, Guilford, CT 2020	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	Restore healthy diurnal tidal flow to Leetes Island Marsh by removal of the existing structures and replacing them with (a) approximately 224 feet of 4’ x 6’ prefabricated reinforced concrete box culvert, which will be set at the proper elevation, and (b) a new tide gate chamber that will house a pair of adjustable stainless steel or aluminum gates. The proposed tide gates will be managed for tidal marsh habitat restoration.	Guildford, CT	CT DEEP	On-Track	permits may include seasonal restrictions, delaying the start of construction by a few months	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-16; HW-1;	1,250,000.00	10/01/2020 - 09/30/2022
07/29/2022	Water Quality Monitoring Initiative for Long Island Sound Embayments (NY) (53526)	Monitoring	Completed	Develop a pilot of common standards and methods and produce guidance to inform water quality monitoring of ecological and eutrophic conditions by citizen-science groups working in Long Island Sound embayments and harbors. Project will help citizen-based water quality monitoring groups collect data in the same way improving the understanding and regional management of water quality in local bays and harbors of Long Island Sound.	Long Island Sound Watershed	Save the Sound	Completed	Need to allocate additional time for finalization of QAPP. Now a standard practice and has yielded more favorable results with QAPPs subsequent to this project. QAPP does not accommodate of an if/then approach to the QAPP, which led to challenges with completing the final version. This knowledge guided the process on the development of the UWS Tier I QAPP. Neither plants nor animals covered the loggers at any levels of concern, but it was apparent the 7-10 day check and field readings at the continuous data logging stations is essential for project success. Elements of the Tier I and Tier II QAPP can now be combined for a comprehensive QAPP administered by Save the Sound for all participating UWS monitoring groups.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2, WW-28	87,603.96	11/1/2016-4/16/2018
04/14/2023	Dana Dam Removal and restoration of vegetated riparian corridor 2020	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	The project involves removal of a 250-foot long - 17-foot high dam structure, restoring a natural stream channel in its place, restoring 0.75 acres of riparian buffer habitat, and create bordering wetlands in the former impoundment, including constructed treatment wetlands.	Wilton, CT	CT DEEP	On-Track	Trying to manage beneficial reuse of slightly contaminated sediments, to reduce expense from disposal; seasonal restrictions may also cause delays by a few more months, but this is not out of the ordinary	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-3; HW-1; SC-6	2,200,000.00	10/01/2020 - 09/30/2022
04/14/2023	Tingue Dam Modification and Fish Passage Improvement (name change from Rainbow Dam - see changes/challenges)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	Work with a private contractor to begin the construction phase.	Windsor, CT	CT DEEP	None	Fisheries Division management no longer sees the current restoration design as the best option for Rainbow Dam, given the limitations of the current staffing level. It is recommended that we postpone this particular project and reallocate the funds to modification and restoration of the Tingue Dam Fishpass project on the Naugatuck River. Which is currently shovel ready to commence construction. CT DEEP has submitted an FY20 Work Plan revision for Task 20-13 to Tingue Dam Fish Bypass.	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-3	500,000.00	10/01/2020 - 09/30/2022
04/14/2023	Developing Methods to Use Drones for Embayment Assessments 2020	Research	Ongoing	CT DEEP proposes to develop a methodology to conduct embayment assessments of eelgrass and terrestrial plant habitats using aerial drones. Drone types and capabilities will be researched, selected and purchased. Staff will attend drone training sessions. Pilot embayment sites will be selected, data will be collected, synthesized and assessed, and a final report and methodology recommended.	CT	CT DEEP	On-Track	The drone images captured did not process into a complete ortho-mosaic. The final report will outline technology limitations and define ideal site conditions to achieve success.	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	HW-5; HW-22; HW-26	50,400.00	10/01/2020 - 09/30/2022
04/14/2023	Acoustic data acquisition for seafloor mapping in Long Island Sound 2020	Monitoring	Ongoing	The acquisition of additional acoustic data within the portion of the LIS central basin where no current bathymetric data is available will increase the extent where management decisions for LIS can be made based on the best available data and scientific analysis.	Soundwide	CT DEEP	On-Track	N/A	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	SM-1; SM-2; SM-3	701,001.00	10/01/2020 - 09/30/2022
04/14/2023	Exploring Options for Beneficial Use of Dredged Material in Connecticut 2020	Research	Ongoing	Develop a site inventory and set of screening criteria to help advance the implementation of beneficial use of dredged sediment to support habitat restoration efforts.	CT	CT DEEP	On-Track	The landscape and emphasis on beneficial use-related efforts continues to evolve in terms and priority and coordination at both state and federal levels - many of which may involve a range of considerations from small to large-scale projects and needs; to ensure this project delivers the type of output best suited to address beneficial use implementation for CT, the DEEP has deliberately slowed the initiation of this, but is now at a stage where due consideration has been given to the process and deliverables. This has had an impact on kick-off, but the extended time has allowed for confirmation that substance will be consistent with emerging needs. Additionally, a re-scope of the procurement process has delayed selecting a vendor, but it expected to open a larger pool of candidates to select from.	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	HW-8; SM-29	150,000.00	10/01/2020 - 09/30/2023
04/14/2023	Engaging Student Citizen Scientists for Long Island Sound (CT) (65527)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Engage 56 student citizen scientists in five experiential learning programs about water quality and Long Island Sound ecology using rivers, harbors, and the Sound as outdoor classrooms, and make public presentations at public events in Fairfield County, Connecticut.	Fairfield County, CT	Earthplace	On-Track	Throughout the execution of our new virtual/hybrid education programs, we learned many lessons. Thanks to feedback from our students, we were able to improve each subsequent offering of the program. Lessons learned were the following: (1) Students expressed that the discussion sessions felt like lectures, so in subsequent program offerings, we added more student participation activities in each of the weekly sessions. (2) The first “Demo Day” was hosted at Earthplace. When we focused the Spring 2021 recruitment on Bridgeport schools, we noticed that students were less likely to participate in Demo Day if it was hosted at Earthplace. We were able to move the optional in-person lesson to Kolbe Cathedral High School in Bridgeport so there was a greater ability for students to participate. (3) Zoom fatigue is real! We noticed a drop-off in participation as the weeks progressed, especially during the Fall 2021 offering of the program when in-person sports (a competing activity for our students time) resumed. To mitigate this in the future, we are looking into modifying the Virtual River Research Program weekly discussion sessions into a Lecture Series where students (and the public at large) can opt into one or all of the discussion topics over the course of a couple of months, hosting each at a different day and time to be more inclusive.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-7; SC-19	50,000.00	1/1/2020-9/1/2021
04/14/2023	Engaging Student Scientists for Long Island Sound (CT) - III (53814)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Engaged high school and undergraduate citizen scientists in four experiential learning programs about water quality and Long Island Sound ecology using rivers, harbors, and the Sound as the classroom and make public presentations about their research at public events in Fairfield County, Connecticut.	Fairfield County, CT	Earthplace - The Nature Discovery Center	On-track	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-7, SC-19	32,822.38	1/1/2017-12/31/2017
04/14/2023	Tracking Down Pollution Sources Impacting Water Quality in Four Connecticut Rivers and Long Island Sound (CT) (49483)	Monitoring	Completed	Conducted water quality monitoring and track down surveys to identify sources of water pollution, set water quality thresholds and help municipalities resolve pollution problems that affect Connecticut rivers and Long Island Sound in Fairfield County, Connecticut.	Fairfield County, CT	Earthplace - The Nature Discovery Center	On-track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2, WW-28	44,557.10	5/1/2016-2/26/2021
04/14/2023	Water Quality Monitoring to Improve Fairfield County Waterways and Long Island Sound-VI (CT) (70118)	Monitoring	Completed	Conduct water quality monitoring to help improve nine waterways affected by pollution in Fairfield County, Connecticut.	Fairfield County, CT	Earthplace - The Nature Discovery Center	On-Track	One lesson that we learned during this project was related to our pollution track-down efforts. Through this study we learned that when working with municipal partners, it is important to understand the constraints, priorities, and time frames under which those partners are operating. When we find a likely pollution problem area, as an environmental organization we want it fixed immediately and it is of the utmost priority to us that it be fixed. However, for some municipal partners, fixing that pollution source may be one of 50 competing priorities that all rely on the same team of staff. We have been tremendously fortunate that the majority of our municipal partners agree that pollution source detection is important work that must be dealt with promptly. However, because of our reliance on these partnerships for effective remediation, the work can at times proceed a little less rapidly than we would like. During this project period, there were instances when municipal partners were able to locate an illicit discharge from a private home immediately after we had alerted them to the problem area, but could not instantly remove the source because the homeowner was responsible for making the change and they are legally granted a long timeline to complete the work. We also encountered municipal partners having staff shortages due to the ongoing pandemic which resulted in their inability to follow up on the data we provided. For these reasons, fewer fixes of illicit discharges that we had identified in 2021 were completed than we had expected. However, our work on tracking down the sources identified by the data collected in this project is ongoing, and we are confident that additional sources will be located soon with the help of our partners. Through this process, we are continually improving how we share our data with our municipal partners to help them determine how to prioritize the work.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-35; SM-8; SC-11	73,893.00	10/30/2020-4/30/2022
04/14/2023	Shewville Dam Fishway Design Project (CT) (61318)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Completed	Prepare an engineered plan for a fishway on the Shewville Dam in Ledyard, Connecticut.	Ledyard, CT	Eastern Connecticut Conservation District	On-Track	Conducting this project during the pandemic was very challenging, especially in terms of accessing Ledyard's Town Hall to retrieve land records. Lesson learned - knowing that life is fragile, push all parties harder to deliver needed outcomes in a timely fashion. The pandemic also impacted the ability of partners to meet in person. Meetings were conducted virtually via ZOOM which is not the best format for exchanging information and ideas.	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1, HW-3	74,133.00	1/2/2019-10/31/2021
04/14/2023	EPA Nitrogen Contract	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	To refine and completing the technical approach to recommend nitrogen endpoints and load reductions necessary to protect water quality in embayments and tributaries of the Long Island Sound; collaborate and communicating with other nitrogen reduction efforts such as those from the Long Island Sound Nitrogen Action Plan (LINAP), Suffolk County, Nassau County, and the CT DEEP; conduct data and trends analyses; and use suggested reduction levels to develop nitrogen allocations for priority embayments based on the technical approach.	Long Island Sound Watershed	EPA	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-1; WW-2	153,050.00	10/1/2021 - 9/30/2022
04/14/2023	Continuation of Probabilistic Sampling of Long Island Sound Embayments using National Coastal Condition Assessment Protocols	Monitoring	Ongoing	To deliver quality assured physico-chemical, dissolved nutrient, sediment, and benthic macroinvertebrate community assemblage data; data collected will supplement the ongoing benthic macroinvertebrate multimetric index development project and be used by both NY and CT for improved assessments to support Clean Water Act 305b reporting; data generated will be used to address management questions related to the ecological health of near shore aquatic resources.	Soundwide	EPA LISO	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-24, WW-31, SM-4, SM-7	300,000.00	10/1/2021 - 9/30/2023
04/14/2023	Planning for Cover Cropping to Reduce Nitrogen (VT) (69863)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	Develop a cover cropping species mix and planting strategy and methods for monitoring reductions in nitrogen from farm runoff in Essex County, Vermont. The project will work with a one dairy operation to develop a cover crop for its fields that works for the farmer in terms of limited risk the bottom line and serves as a future demonstration site. Project activities: 1) Determine sample points, select cover crop species, develop a planting strategy, and source planting equipment and seed; and 2) Develop a nitrogen sampling methodology that documents the effect of cover crops in terms of pounds of nitrogen prevented; and 3) Document the changes in the cost of fertilizer application, crop yield, and soil health.	Essex County, CT	Essex County Natural Resources Conservation District	On-Track	The sample results from the 2021 crop season, show that the proper and timely management of cover crops is essential to soil health and limiting nitrogen losses in corn silage fields, especially those fields in low lying areas that are prone to leaching.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2	24,520.00	10/31/2020-2/28/2022
04/14/2023	Engaging Communities in “RiverSmart” Stormwater Management in the Pequabuck River Watershed (CT) (66106)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Conduct the RiverSmart education program connecting the story of local storm drains to the problem of stormwater pollution into local waterways that feed Long Island Sound and install green infrastructure in Bristol Connecticut.	Bristol, CT	Farmington River Watershed Association	On-Track	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	WW-2; SC-7; SC-1	34,560.00	10/1/2019-5/31/2021
04/14/2023	Installation of Nitrogen Removing Biolfilter at Frank Melville Memorial Park (NY) (70295)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	Replace an aging residential septic system with an innovative Nitrogen Removing Biofilter (NRB) at the Frank Melville Memorial Park, Setauket, New York. The NRB installation is projected to reduce nitrogen pollution by 80-90 percent from each system. This project is part of a larger effort to achieve the necessary number installations to advance the NRB design from ‘Experimental’ to ‘Pilot’ approval by Suffolk County for wider use around the county in homes to benefit water quality. Project activities: 1) Replace a cesspool with a sand- and woodchip-based Nitrogen Removing Biofilter which utilizes coupled nitrification and denitrification; 2) Monitor NRB performance in terms of reducing nitrogen annually; 3) Produce a robust, scientific analysis on performance and function of the NRB to advance approval in Suffolk County and the state, and to expand wider use of the technology.	Setauket, NY	Frank Melville Memorial Foundation	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-12; WW-2	29,988.00	11/2/2020-4/1/2022
04/14/2023	A “Sound” Long Island Sound Education and Field Studies Program for Urban Communities (CT) (65684)	Public Education and Outreach	Ongoing	Deliver a ten event experiential education series to immerse 385 students, teachers, families, and the public primarily from urban New Haven about environmental challenges faced by Long Island Sound in the footprint of a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Wildlife Refuge island unit offshore of Branford, Connecticut.	Branford, CT	Friends of Outer Island	On-Track	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-1; SC-7; SC-19	5,001.00	3/1/2020-10/1/2022
04/14/2023	All for Wildlife: Discovering Art in Coastal Cleanups around Long Island Sound (NY) (49414)	Stewardship and Resiliency	Completed	Organized volunteer coastal cleanups and delivered the collected debris to local artisans to be repurposed into wildlife sculptures displayed in public spaces and events to generate community awareness in the eastern Long Island Sound, New York.	Long Island Sound Watershed	Group for the East End	On-track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-20, SC-1	10,000.00	9/1/2015-10/31/2016
04/14/2023	Stakeholder Engagement and Planning for Eelgrass Protection on Fishers Island (NY) (69895)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Deliver an education and engagement program to stakeholder communities presenting scenarios for eelgrass protection at Fishers Island, New York.	Fishers Island, NY	Henry L Ferguson Museum	On-Track	The importance of taking time to check in with people individually. It was mentioned in a few of our one-on-one meetings that the dynamics of our Zoom meetings made it difficult for some people to speak up or express their thoughts. People felt that it was much easier to have a constructive dialogue when meeting in-person. In a virtual space, discussions or disagreements could turn confrontational too quickly. Therefore, many people’s legitimate concerns were not brought up during meetings. The Coalition spent a lot of time learning and using SeaSketch, however many members were not happy or comfortable with the work that resulted from using this technology. Again, this has roots in communication with FISMC members outside of meetings to ensure everyone is comfortable with the project direction. We learned that just because you have access to a piece of technology does not mean you should feel an obligation to use it to its full extent. SeaSketch was great for data visualization, however we spent a lot of time developing management areas in SeaSketch and analytics to report on each area. Before doing this, we should have spent more time making sure this was the route the FISMC wanted to go. When we first started creating SMAs, we split up the island into distinct areas based on geography and the presence of eelgrass. The intention was to make the SMA creation process more manageable. We also split the Coalition up into small working groups and each group was assigned two or three unique areas to develop SMAs for. This included the boundaries, recommended allowed uses and recommended disallowed uses. We later learned that this strategy led to problems further down the line. Because each group did not have representation from all the stakeholder voices, some decisions were made without the relevant representatives. For example, the stakeholders representing fishing interests should have had a say in the initial creation of each area, since fishing, both commercially and recreationally, is so common in all the coastal waters of the island. Moving forward, we have been particularly aware of how we do group work during FISMC activities. For large scale decisions, we need to have discussions as an entire group.	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-25; HW-22	89,600.00	10/5/2020-10/29/2021
04/14/2023	Fish-Friendly and Flood Resilient Road-Stream Crossings in the Naugatuck Valley (CT) (66036)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	Create road-stream crossing management plans for three towns with historic runs of diadromous fish in the Naugatuck Valley, Connecticut.	Naugatuck Valley, CT	Housatonic Valley Association	On-Track	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-3	70,897.00	10/1/2019-11/30/2021
04/14/2023	Collaborative Watershed Planning for the Ten Mile River (CT, NY) (58046)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	Develop a watershed management plan for the Ten Mile River in eastern Dutchess County New York and western Litchfield County, Connecticut.	Litchfield County, NY	Housatonic Valley Association	On-Track	Learned that there is a diverse constituency of stakeholders and residents in the TMR watershed that care about watershed health and want to see more comprehensive, collaborative management for water quality, recreation, climate resilience, biodiversity conservation and support for the agricultural community. While there are a wide variety of perspectives on how watershed communities should approach conservation and development, we've been able to have constructive conversations and identify quite a bit of common ground. Climate resilience seems to be the richest territory for locating that common ground, particularly flood damage prevention through better stormwater management, stream corridor restoration, and upsizing inadequate culverts. We have heard there is reluctance to support regional watershed management efforts due to experience with additional regulations covering the East-of-Hudson New York City drinking water supply watershed, which covers roughly half of these communities. These regulations have led to impacts being shifted into the TMR watershed, including development proposals and proposed new connections to the WWTP from development outside of the watershed. Redoubling our efforts to engage these communities in TMR watershed management is an internal priority for HVA and the TMRC. The watershed planning process has identified a number of projects that will lead to meaningful and measurable decreases in pollutant loading to the TMR watershed. While these aren’t “lessons” per se, this information is essential for guiding our work in the watershed going forward.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2	64,357.56	2/1/2018-5/31/2021
04/14/2023	IEC 2020-2021 Water Quality Monitoring Program in Far Western Long Island Sound	Monitoring	Completed	The objective of the IEC water quality monitoring program is to address the LIS updated CCMP 2020 goal of reducing the area of hypoxia by identifying the most problematic areas in western Long Island Sound that are most in need of improved management actions.	Western Long Island Sound	IEC	On-track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-35, WW-38, SM-6	81,285.00	10/1/2020 - 9/30/2022
04/14/2023	Water Quality Monitoring Program in Far Western Long Island Sound 2021-2022	Monitoring	Ongoing	To conduct an ongoing water quality monitoring program to address the updated 2020 Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan goal of reducing the area of hypoxia by identifying the most problematic areas in the western Sound that are most in need of improved management actions.	Western Long Island Sound	IEC	On-Track	The December 2021 survey was cancelled due to COVID-related absences of both the boat captain and back-up boat captain.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-1; WW-28; SM-6	315,068.00	10/1/2021 - 9/30/2023
04/14/2023	Pathogen monitoring program to mitigate shellfish harvesting water closures adjacent to Wading River and Baiting Hollow Creek, NY	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	To assess the source and impact of pathogens that are impacting shellfish harvesting waters in Long Island Sound.	Wading River and Baiting Hollow Creek, NY	IEC	On-Track	QAPP development and monitoring have not yet commenced, pending compilation and review of historical water quality data related to pathogens in the local area and review of pathogen trackdown sampling design and analytical methodologies to best utilize available resources. Significant progress is anticipated next reporting period, with monitoring anticipated to begin by 10/22.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-23; WW-35; HW-1	300,000.00	10/1/2021 - 9/30/2023
04/14/2023	Hempstead Harbor 2015 Water Quality Monitoring Program (NY) - IX (49143)	Monitoring	Completed	Conducted water quality monitoring of physical, chemical and biological indicators of pollution in outer and inner Hempstead Harbor, New York.	Hempstead Harbor, NY	Incorporated Village of Sea Cliff, New York	On-track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2, WW-28	20,259.22	5/7/2015-8/7/2016
04/14/2023	Hempstead Harbor 2021 Water Quality Monitoring Program-XIII (NY) (70142)	Monitoring	Completed	Conduct water quality monitoring in Hempstead Harbor, Nassau County, New York.	Hempstead Harbor, NY	Incorporated Village of Sea Cliff, New York	On-Track	With the “core” summer monitoring program (generally April or May to October or November) having completed its 30th year, the procedures we used were pretty much “down to a science” and so there were no real lessons learned in terms of methods or monitoring. The same was generally true for our winter monitoring which completed its 9th year. The benefit of long-term monitoring became increasingly evident when viewing bacteria levels in our most problematic site (the Powerhouse Drain in Glenwood Landing).	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-35; SM-8; SC-11	75,000.00	10/26/2020-9/24/2022
04/14/2023	Delivery of the Long Island Sound Community Stewardship Fund Program-III (CT, NY) (70883)	Implementation Assistance	Ongoing	Deliver the Long Island Sound Stewardship Fund of the Long Island Sound Funders Collaborative in the Long Island Sound Study boundaries of Connecticut and New York. Support projects that foster projects with the promise to accelerate local water quality implementation, natural resource restoration, and community outreach and engagement, and to build the organizational and technical capacity of nongovernmental entities working in the Long Island Sound watershed. Support building implementation capacity based on specific local needs and capacity gaps. Support for communities and organization in advancing environmental justice and diversity, equity and inclusion in projects. The LISSF will also seek to advance regional networks along the coordination-collaboration-integration continuum; and build the pipeline of new regional partnerships as well as support the maturation and expanded impact of existing partners. A source of nonfederal, private and federal funds to address CCMP.	Long Island Sound Watershed	Long Island Community Foundation	On-Track	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SM-8; SM-24; SC-4	100,002.00	10/1/2020 - 12/1/2023
04/14/2023	Delivery of the Long Island Sound Community Stewardship Fund Program (CT, NY) (66613)	Implementation Assistance	Ongoing	Deliver the Long Island Sound Stewardship Fund of the Long Island Sound Funders Collaborative in the Long Island Sound Study boundaries of Connecticut and New York.	NY & CT	Long Island Community Foundation	On-Track	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SM-8; SM-24	100,000.00	1/15/2020-12/30/2022
04/14/2002	Development and Delivery of the Long Island Sound Community Stewardship Fund (NY, CT) (64338)	Implementation Assistance	Completed	Develop and deliver the Long Island Sound Stewardship Fund, a pooled competitive grant program of the Long Island Sound Funders Collaborative managed by the Long Island Community Foundation in the Long Island Sound Study boundaries of New York and Connecticut.	NY & CT	Long Island Community Foundation	On-Track	The demand for basic capacity building support was very strong. This would include support for activities like upgrading computer systems and specialized software as well as support for hybrid administrative and programmatic staffing.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SM-24; SM-8	100,000.00	1/15/2019-12/30/2021
04/14/2023	Planting for Clean Water Program (NY) (49584)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Delivered an educational program for residents, visitors and municipalities about development and installation of raingardens in Nassau County, New York.	Nassau County, NY	Nassau County Soil and Water Conservation District	On-track	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	WW-2, WW-20, SC-7, SC-20	34,513.52	3/1/2016-8/1/2017
04/14/2023	Planting for Clean Water Communities (NY) (58010)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	Develop Green Infrastructure sites, and conduct educational workshops for residents about the value of GI to improve water quality in Long Island Sound in the Village of Bayville, New York.	Bayville, NY	Nassau County Soil and Water Conservation District	On-Track	The importance of engaging with potential contractors from the earliest stage possible in order to ensure that the original project budget and scope can be respected throughout the lifetime of the project. While Covid-19 was responsible for many of the hardships we faced during this project, perhaps our biggest obstacle was engaging with new contractors in the middle of the project's lifetime. Many contractors were simply unable to respect our budget limitations due to increased cost and decreased availability of construction materials. However, others expressed difficulty in respecting both the prevailing wage requirements of this funding stream and our budget limitations. Earlier discussions with contractors would have enabled us to generate a more realistic project budget, and to better manage stakeholder expectations.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2; SC-7	81,227.19	10/2/2017-5/31/2021
04/14/2023	Creating a Network of Schoolyard Habitats to Engage Students in Conservation of Long Island Sound (CT) - IV (49627)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Created and enhanced a network of schoolyard native wildlife habitats in New Haven and Stamford, Connecticut.	New Haven and Stamford, CT	National Audubon Society	On-track	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	HW-1, HW-13, SC-7, SC-19	34,993.56	10/1/2015-12/31/2016
04/14/2023	Gardeners of the Sound (NY) (49470)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Completed	Installed a native habitat garden at Sagamore Hill with information about the Long Island Sound, Oyster Bay, New York.	Oyster Bay, NY	National Audubon Society	On-track	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	SC-7. SC-14, SC-19	9,999.09	11/2/2015-9/30/2016
04/14/2023	Implementing Ecological Restoration and Resiliency at Connecticut's Largest Remaining Unditched Marsh	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	To restore and improve resilience of salt marsh degraded by historic filling, non-native invasive plants that outcompete native species, failing infrastructure that is causing inundation and marsh degradation, and climate-induced sea level rise	Stratford, CT	National Audubon Society	On-track	LEI demobilized all of their equipment and materials in the first week of May. They surveyed the entire site and provided Audubon with an as-built construction survey that shows all the new elevations, hummocks, and tidal channels. Planting of salt marsh plugs commenced in April and continued into June with over 150,000 plugs being planted by various volunteers, the Salt Marsh Stewards and contractors. Audubon began planning for the Marsh Pink (Stellaris sabatia) restoration effort by collecting elevation data throughout the project to find suitable areas to plant the Marsh Pink. Essex Horticulture finished the shrub planting and began watering the shrubs due to drought conditions. They also hydro-seeded the Terrapin and Marsh Pink areas of the project with a native seed mix selected by project partners. The mix incorporating native species found naturally in Great Meadows Marsh. Many of the plants that were planted in April and May have shown great success and have developed and started to disperse seed, despite the hot and dry drought conditions that persisted throughout the summer at Great Meadows Marsh. Unfortunately, these conditions led to the unsuccessful transplanting of the Marsh Pink in July. The Marsh Pink seedlings were very small when they arrived because of a difficult germination process and could not survive the extreme heat. Audubon plans to contract with the Native Plant Trust to propagate more Marsh Pink seedlings to plant in 2023. Phragmites sprouts also started to reestablish throughout the project site. Audubon contracted with All Habitat Services to manage the resprouts; they have made four visits to the site thus far to apply herbicide to the phragmites (pesticide application permits with USFWS are in place). The Salt Marsh Stewards came out for a day to pull phragmites resprouts as well. In late summer two marsh-viewing platforms were installed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and 10 photo point monitoring stations were established by Audubon Connecticut. Finally, on August 30 a ribbon-cutting event was held at Great Meadows Marsh to mark the completion of the first phases of the project. Restoration work in the upland portion of Great Meadows will begin this winter. Audubon has solicitated qualified vendors and is currently setting up a contract.	Thriving Habitats and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1; HW-3; HW-9; HW-16; HW-17; HW-22	2,000,000.00	7/1/2021 - 12/31/2023
04/14/2023	Be a Good Egg: Share the Shore with Shorebirds-IV (NY) (70326)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Address human bird conflicts on popular beaches by combining on-the-beach outreach, community education through public and school programming, and volunteer engagement. Project activities: 1) Target interactions with visitors to enhance outreach to audiences such as dog-walkers; 2) Host BGE programs at local beaches to engage beachgoers with share the shore messaging and to encourage them to sign the “Be a Good Egg” pledge to give birds space; 3) Train volunteers who will deliver beach stewardship and outreach; 4) Engage children in a shorebird lesson and sign design project with signs designed by the students installed at beach nesting sites; 5) Conduct conservation stewardship days engaging volunteers in a bird conservation project; and 6) Reach people with share the shore messages through electronic and social media.	NY	National Audubon Society	On-Track	1. This season we were striving for more in-depth engagement through longer interactions and multiple engagement opportunities. We accomplished this through hosting multiple outreach events at the same sites, so we can have follow up conversations with beachgoers. They remembered us and even came over to talk more about the shorebirds and their own experiences. We also invited beachgoers from previous years that have signed the pledge to return for bird walks to view priority species and learn about habitats. At the outreach days, we invited visitors to return to the tent and take a bird walk with us later in the day. We didn't get a great turnout for these walks offering them at noon, so next year we will offer these walks earlier in the day when it isn't so hot or conflict with lunch time. We also shared volunteer brochures if they were interested in getting more involved and participating in future outreach and engagement events. We had 51 beachgoers sign up on our volunteer email list for future volunteer events. 2. Through our Teen Conservation Ambassadors group, we engaged the youth in beach clean-ups at their local beaches so they could connect threatened and endangered species with their own community. These teens learned that it is not someone else’s responsibility to take care of the environment and that conservation starts at home in their own community. This year we also piloted a beach clean-up event in partnership with Friends of the Bay for International Coastal Clean Up day. We engaged almost 100 volunteers at two shorebird sites in Oyster Bay. Through this partnership, we reinforced the priority work protecting LIS through healthy habitats protecting not only shorebirds and coastal habitat, but also water quality and the protection of the Bay. We learned that these audiences overlap and it was impactful to reach the audiences together. 3. Through our ongoing outreach at multiple sites this season, we learned a very important lesson on inclusion and equity. At all of our outreach sites, especially Sunken Meadow State Park, communication with beachgoers was sometimes difficult. Many visitors did not speak English as their first language, so presenting our Share the Shore messaging and trying to get beachgoers to sign the pledge to protect shorebirds proved challenging at times. We already have our educational handouts translated to Spanish for the public, and we have reference materials with key vocabulary and phrases translated for staff and volunteers. This, however, is not enough to start conversations with many of the visitors. Next year, we will create our banners and pledge signage in Spanish so that the public can understand our messaging before we approach them with materials and the pledge. We will also try to have some of our kids signs created in Spanish by the students and hang those at these sites. I think this will result in a much greater reach. We will also strive to have at least one staff member or volunteer at each event that is fluent in Spanish. The community members that use the beach should not struggle to understand our messaging, we need to update the program to serve the needs of the community.	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-10; SC-7; SC-19	47,574.00	1/11/2021-1/10/2022
04/14/2023	Restoring Great Meadows Marsh on Long Island Sound (CT) (70310)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	Restore 40 acres of salt marsh and other coastal habitats at Great Meadows Marsh, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge, Stratford, Connecticut. Project activities: 1) Remove old dredge and grade to establish natural marsh elevation; 2) Clear invasive vegetation and plant native coastal plants with 55 volunteers including local underserved urban youth; 3) Build-up subsiding marsh and construct intertidal and marsh channels to restore natural tides; 4) Create hummocks and plantings for rare birds like the salt marsh sparrow; 5) Improve freshwater pond buffers; and 6) Construct platforms for visitor access.	Stratford, CT	National Audubon Society	On-Track	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-22; HW-1; SC-4	501,000.00	10/1/20202 - 9/30/2022
04/14/2023	Planning to Enhance Coastal Resiliency with Tidal Marsh Restoration at Sunken Meadow Park (NY) (70267)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Completed	Conduct a site assessment and develop a preliminary design to restore salt marsh at Sunken Meadow State Park, New York. Activities: 1) Conduct a detailed assessment of tidal marsh and bird habitat; 2) Train volunteers to assess saltmarsh sparrow and other bird species use of the marsh; 3) Develop ~50 percent engineered design based on the assessments including detailed cost estimates to inform future site restoration; and 4) Engage the regional Salt Marsh Working Group to transfer lessons learned about tidal marsh conservation and resiliency.	Kings Park, NY	National Audubon Society	On-Track	1) Be as inclusive as possible when forming the project team. Have one on one calls with potential members, rather than relying on emails or others, to engage them in the project. This helps bring them up to speed on the project and the ways in which they can add value to the project. 2) Remain open to what is most needed and feasible when designing a restoration project – balance the goals of the land manager, logistics, and funding. 3) Regular meetings are necessary to keep the project team engaged. 4) QAPPs take a significant amount of time to complete (i.e., months), which needs to be adequately incorporated into the project timeline and budget. 5) Any individual involved in collecting data or managing data collection needs to be involved in the development of the QAPP, not just the project manager. Those individuals have the expertise and familiarity with protocols, data storage, etc. that are required for the QAPP. Lessons relating more specifically to the design process: 1) Detailed, baseline data are essential to development of a restoration design, particularly on marsh platform elevation, vegetative transects and species, hydraulics, and marsh to channel areas and open water pools. Recurring, consistent monitoring events are key for evaluating sites with regularly changing conditions such as Sunken Meadow. 2) A well-developed circulation model is extremely useful for evaluating existing inundation and drainage patterns of the marsh as well as to study proposed restoration options and SLR scenarios. 3) Upland freshwater drainage location and magnitude can be important influencers on the overall restoration, project cost, and timeline. However, they also provide unique restoration options depending on site-specific conditions. 4) Long-term monitoring and adaptive management details will be a key component of the regulatory review and approval process.	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-16; HW-22	175,408.00	1/1/2021 - 12/31/2021
04/14/2023	Share the Shore with Shorebirds: A Coastal Stewardship Program (CT) (70210)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Address human bird conflicts on popular beaches. Activities: 1) Engage volunteers to steward and monitor 905 acres of beach and birds. Hands-on stewardship activities will include cleanups and installing signs and fencing to protect nesting areas; 2) Employ local young people as wildlife guards working alongside bird biologists. The students will receive hands-on training in bird monitoring, coastal ecology, public outreach, and general job skills. They reach out to visitors encouraging them to sign the “Be a Good Egg,” pledge to give birds space and to keep the beach clean; 3) Conduct electronic media outreach to the public about beach-nesting birds; and 4) Launch the “Share the Shore Awards” campaign to celebrate one community in Connecticut and one in New York demonstrating a commitment to managing their coast to benefit these birds.	CT	National Audubon Society	On-Track	1.Volunteer Stewardship – Covid continued to impact our ability to utilize volunteers but to a lesser degree than in 2020. The only activity that we did not have volunteers help with was set-up and take down of string fencing. 2.Wildlife Guards Program – It was wonderful to run the WildLife Guards program again in 2021 after skipping 2020 as a result of the global pandemic. We did have to make some modifications to the program though to ensure the safety of the students and the people they interact with at the beach and at the zoo. We felt that it was safe to run the program as long as the students were outdoors. On days with inclement weather, they participated in lessons and/or tuned in for talks on Zoom. It was very important to Audubon that the Guards and their crew leaders were paid for every hour that they work, even if it was via Zoom from home. 3. Field Staff - Similar to the WildLife Guards program, we also had brand new field staff in 2021 (in all past years, at least one technician returning for a second or third season). We are thrilled to report that our field technician from 2018-2020, Shelby Casas, now has a full time position as Audubon New York’s Coastal Program Associate on Long Island. But not having a field tech with prior experience meant that full time staff needed in invest substantially more time training our three new field techs.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	HW-22; HW-10; SC-19; SC-4	78,288.00	10/1/2020-10/31/2021
04/14/2023	Creating Thriving Habitats for the Shorebirds of Long Island Sound (CT) (65077)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Provide education and deliver targeted stewardship of American oystercatcher and other migratory shorebirds and habitat along the Long Island Sound coastline of Connecticut.	CT	National Audubon Society	On-Track	One lesson learned during the grant period is that very little can dissuade our volunteers from supporting the Audubon Alliance and our work monitoring shorebirds. When Audubon CT could not hire the planned second seasonal field tech due to COVID-19, volunteers coordinated by project partner RTPI stepped up and stepped in. These volunteer stewards, despite the challenges posed by COVID, worked throughout the season to safely monitor shorebirds and engage in other project activities. We learned that distance learning (via Zoom or another virtual meeting platform) could be an effective substitute for or complement to in-person volunteer engagement and training. To train volunteers safely during the COVID-19 pandemic, project staff recorded a new volunteer training webinar on March 14, 2020 (and recorded the 2021 training webinar in March 2021). The disruptions caused by COVID-19 highlighted the importance of the timing of shorebird monitoring. When we were prevented from installing enclosures early in the season at some sites due to social distancing/stay at home orders, birds at those sites experienced higher rates of disturbance and lower rates of nesting success. Likewise, changes in visitation at nesting sites during the pandemic—some sites experienced abnormally high numbers of daily visitors earlier in the season than usual while some sites saw a decline—also had an impact on shorebird activity. These experiences—copious trash, unruly dogs, and large crowds infringing on nesting areas—highlights the need to better engage state environmental law enforcement in the stewardship of coastal habitats. As effective as the Audubon Alliance is at stewarding key sites and reducing disturbance and threats to nesting birds, additional strategies are clearly needed. This project shows that there are threats to birds and their habitats that our staff and volunteers are not equipped to resolve, such as when people and/or off-leash dogs in closed or string fencing areas are not responsive to requests from staff or volunteers to cease the activity. Many people commonly view infractions of wildlife laws as less serious than other infractions, a perception often reinforced when local police are nonresponsive and courts routinely dismiss the charges that are brought. Increased and coordinated enforcement by State Environmental Conservation Officers is needed during the nesting season but staff shortages mean this is not always possible or timely. This can result in unchecked human disturbance and reduced nesting and breeding success. It also leaves Audubon Alliance stewards in a situation in which they have responsibility to protect state- and federally-listed resources, but no authority to enforce any of the regulations meant to protect them. We believe better coordination and assigning a designated liaison(s) between Audubon staff and volunteers and state environmental law enforcement could significantly improve stewardship at busy sites, reduce disturbance both in the immediate and long term (as beachgoers gradually learn that wildlife laws will be enforced against them), and make Connecticut’s beaches a place both birds and people can enjoy.	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-22; HW-10; SC-7	75,000.00	12/2/2019-3/30/2021
04/14/2023	Restoring Great Meadows Marsh on Long Island Sound (CT) (70310)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	Restore 40 acres of salt marsh and other coastal habitats at Great Meadows Marsh, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge, Stratford, Connecticut.	Stratford, CT	National Audubon Society	On-Track	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1	240,000.00	10/1/2020-9/30/2022
04/14/2023	Community Conservation Stewardship in New Haven (CT) (70277)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Conduct environmental education and community stewardship projects in Newhallville, New Haven, Connecticut. Project activities: 1) Conduct park and community cleanups; 2) Remove invasive plants at the park; 2) Host student projects to learn more about water quality at the park; 3) Conduct a fishing derby to teach young people about the environment; 4) Distribute information to raise awareness of local greenspaces and way to reduce chemicals on landscaping; and 5) Maintain community rain gardens and demonstrate proper techniques for raingarden maintenance.	New Haven, CT	Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven	On-Track	Biggest lesson was not to underestimate the impact of COVID. One of our most effective methods for conducting outreach prepandemic was to go door-to-door in Newhallville and its surrounding communities to directly raise awareness for our projects, meet residents, encourage community involvement, and provide free cleanup tools. Unfortunately, the uncertainty surrounding the dangers of the virus in the early days of the pandemic halted us from conducting this form of in-person outreach. In general, messaging about environmental and neighborhood concerns became difficult and overshadowed when so much focus was placed on masking, vaccines, safety, and social distancing. It became hard to bring other topics into the fold when there were more pressing issues, hence why we struggled to conduct outreach regarding chemical outflow reduction. NHS believes that we, in addition to other conservation organizations, need to better recognize the challenges of marketing and invent more robust methods of incentivizing people to both listen to our messaging and participate in our programs. To replace door-to-door interaction, we have found that the next best form of outreach is to organize 1 on 1 meetings with specific neighborhood residents. In the last year, we have been successful in planning individual meetings with key community leaders who then help to spread awareness about our issue areas. For example, after meeting with resident Addie Kimbrough individually and installing a rain garden at her home, her engagement with Newhallville’s CMT led directly to the installation of a community garden across the street. We have found that pre-planned meetings with specific people have worked better for us than cold calls and cold visits during COVID. We’ve also realized the importance of recognizing and cooperating with individuals and organizations that already perform similar environmental projects in Newhallville. Partnerships with organizations like Friends of Beaver Pond and Save the Sound have been indescribably valuable to us. Another lesson we’ve learned is that there are many misconceptions among community residents regarding garbage runoff. Most residents are not aware of where street trash goes after heavy rainstorms. They know of the litter problem in the streets, but not how it contributes to the litter problem in waterways. We believe we can do a better job communicating this connection with the right promotional material. The real challenge is being able to create videos and infographics that hold people’s attention and stay engaging for prolonged periods of time. Further professionalizing our marketing is a vital next step. NHS also has learned that it needs to be more proactive in understanding trends and robust in its use of social media outlets to promote social change and environmental conservation. For example, very recently NHS staff members have been posting to the subreddit called #DeTrashed on the popular social platform Reddit, a community where members post before and after cleanup photographs of nature areas plagued by high density trash pileup. The motto of this forum is “Its not my trash, but it’s my home,” a beautiful mindset that we hope to share across New Haven.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	WW-20; HW-13; SC-1; SC-4	31,178.00	11/1/2020-4/30/2022
04/14/2023	Disconnecting Downspouts and Connecting Partners in the West River Watershed (CT) (61479)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	Install green infrastructure improvements at residential sites in New Haven, Connecticut.	New Haven, CT	Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven	On-Track	We learned that it is essential to prepare for the unexpected during installation projects. When COVID-19 cases began to rise in early 2020, we were unable to complete installations at occupied residential sites on time due to restrictions. In the future, we plan on conceiving contingency plans related to disruptions such as these, that would allow us to continue with the projects seamlessly despite a public health crisis.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2; SC-7	84,035.00	10/1/2018-12/31/2020
04/14/2023	Stormwater Management Programs to Improve Water Quality in New Haven and Long Island Sound (CT) (61432)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	Develop classroom-based programs and community-based, volunteer-driven environmental events in New Haven, Connecticut.	New Haven, CT	Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven	On-Track	We learned from this project that it would be most effective to have a backup plan for educational activities. In our case, this refers to having classes that can be easily transitioned into an online format. We are now well versed in online event registration, hosting, and sharing. This knowledge of useful platforms and practices will ensure that whether it is due to a major disruption such as COVID-19 or a weather-related issue, we will not encounter this roadblock. The forced transition also taught us the benefit of online classes which includes expanding the geographic scope of who is able to attend. We will implement these practices into the two series of gardening workshops we will be offering yearly.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	SC-1; SC-19	14,399.00	10/1/2018-3/30/2021
04/14/2023	NEIWPCC LISS Program Implementation Support: Task 1 - Outreach & Education FY18	Public Education and Outreach	Ongoing	The Communications Coordinator will assist with the development, coordination, and implementation of bi-state public involvement, education, outreach, and communication activities for LIS, including coordinating the following outreach and education sub-tasks: LISS Communications Team; LIS Status and Trends Indicators/Ecosystem Target Workgroup; CCMP Reporting; LISS Website; Sound Matters and social media content; and outreach materials.	Long Island Sound Watershed	NEIWPCC	On-Track	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-7, SC-9, SC-10, SC-12, SC-15, SC-16, SC-18, SC-22, SM-15, SM-30, SM-32, SM-34, SM-36	707,250.00	10/1/2018 - 9/30/2023
04/14/2023	NEIWPCC LISS Program Implementation Support: Task 1 - Outreach & Education FY20	Public Education and Outreach	Ongoing	The Communications Coordinator will assist with the development, coordination, and implementation of bi-state public involvement, education, outreach, and communication activities for LIS, including coordinating the following outreach and education sub-tasks: LISS Communications Team; LIS Status and Trends Indicators/Ecosystem Target Workgroup; CCMP Reporting; LISS Website; Sound Matters and social media content; and outreach materials.	Long Island Sound Watershed	NEIWPCC	On-Track	Project delays from initial timeline due to other priorities.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-6, SC-7, SC-9, SC-10, SC-12, SC-16, SC-22, SM-15, SM-30, SM-32, SM-34, SM-36	487,469.00	10/1/2020 - 9/30/2022
04/14/2023	NEIWPCC LISS Program Implementation Support: Task 2 - Program Management and Travel Support FY18	Coordination	Ongoing	NEIWPCC will supervise staff located at the LIS and New York State Offices; coordinate logistics (meeting facilities, catering, speakers, etc.) for the LISS Management Committee and Citizen Advisory Committee (CAC) meetings; provide travel support to members of the LISS CAC, state, and other LISS partners to attend LISS meetings, National Estuary Program meetings and other relevant events; and provide overall program management for NEIWPCC’s partnership with the LISS.	Long Island Sound Watershed	NEIWPCC	On-track	The NEIWPCC HQ project manager who oversaw LIS staff vacated the position on 3/24/21; Most travel has been suspended due to COVID-19. Participant support funds are being expended slower than expected.	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	SM-13, SM-32, SM-35	164,370.00	10/1/2018 - 9/30/2023
04/14/2023	NEIWPCC LISS Program Implementation Support: Task 2 - Program Management and Travel Support FY20	Coordination	Ongoing	NEIWPCC will supervise staff located at the LIS and New York State Offices; coordinate logistics (meeting facilities, catering, speakers, etc.) for the LISS Management Committee and Citizen Advisory Committee (CAC) meetings; provide travel support to members of the LISS CAC, state, and other LISS partners to attend LISS meetings, National Estuary Program meetings and other relevant events; and provide overall program management for NEIWPCC’s partnership with the LISS.	Long Island Sound Watershed	NEIWPCC	On-track	N/A	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	SM-13, SM-14	111,801.00	10/1/2020 - 9/30/2022
04/14/2023	NEIWPCC LISS Program Implementation Support: Task 3 - Habitat Restoration and Stewardship Coordination FY18	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	The HRS Coordinator will organize and co-chair the HRS Workgroup; prepare and evaluate project applications for habitat restoration, assessment, or monitoring; collate and report habitat restoration effort data; assist with habitat stewardship-related outreach and volunteer programs	Long Island Sound Watershed	NEIWPCC	On-Track	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1, HW-3, HW-5, HW-6, HW-7, HW-9, HW-11, HW-13, HW-22, HW-23, HW-27, SC-12,	512,588.00	10/1/2018 - 9/30/2023
04/14/2023	Groundwater Budgets and Estimated travel times of Groundwater to the Connecticut Coast of LIS 2018	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	To develop estimates of groundwater discharge and travel times to Long Island Sound (LIS), using a large-scale groundwater flow model of the coastal areas of Connecticut.	CT	CT DEEP	Completed	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-28; SM-12	250,000.00	10/1/2018-9/30/2021
07/29/2022	Benthic Macroinvertebrate Sampling Methodology for Embayments, Phase 1 2018	Monitoring	Completed	Project will evaluate existing multi-metric biological indices (Benthic- Index of Biological Integrity) commonly found in the waters and sediments of local embayments around the Sound; and develop an LIS specific, multi-metric index and Sampling Plan.	Soundwide	CT DEEP	Completed	First contractor selected and backed out. Eventually hired Tetra Tech Center for Ecological Sciences.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	HW-26; SM-6	100,002.00	10/01/2018 - 09/30/2021
07/29/2022	Hypoxic Volume Calculator 2018	Research	Completed	Examine trends in the hypoxic area, and volumes and whether or not any changes or shifts have occurred. Produce final report and recommendations. Post on the DEEP/LISS web sites.	Soundwide	CT DEEP	Completed	COVID delayed progress.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	SM-10; SM-34	100,000.00	10/01/2018 - 09/30/2021
07/29/2022	Connecticut Stewardship Acquisitions and Land Management 2018	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Completed	Acquire land within the EPA LIS coastal boundary that achieves a conservation goal in Connecticut’s CELCP Plan and 2015 LIS CCMP ecosystem target goals of restoring and/or protecting habitat connectivity, conserving an additional 4,000 acres of Connecticut land within the LIS coastal boundary by 2035	Branford, CT	CT DEEP	Completed	After many delayed deadlines and health issues with the seller, a final sales agreement was signed and Conservation Easement was executed.	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-9	530,000.00	10/01/2018 - 09/30/2021
04/14/2023	NEIWPCC LISS Program Implementation Support: Task 3 - Habitat Restoration and Stewardship Coordination FY20	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	The HRS Coordinator will organize and co-chair the HRS Workgroup; prepare and evaluate project applications for habitat restoration, assessment, or monitoring; collate and report habitat restoration effort data; assist with habitat stewardship-related outreach and volunteer programs	Long Island Sound Watershed	NEIWPCC	On-Track	Field trips and volunteer event opportunities continue to be limited due to Covid-19 restrictions.	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1, HW-5, HW-6, HW-13, HW-25	360,328.00	10/1/2020 - 9/30/2022
04/14/2023	NEIWPCC LISS Program Implementation Support: Task 4 - New York State DOW Coordinator FY20	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	The LIS Regional Coordinator (LISRC) position will ensure active NYSDEC DOW participation and involvement in the LISS and will assist in the planning and execution of any activities or projects NYSDEC DOW participates in through the LISS CCMP. The LISRC will act in a coordinator capacity in the area of water quality and community sustainability/resiliency and will ensure NYSDEC DOW is fully engaged in the many facets of the LISS program. The LISRC will participate in workgroups and meetings, provide grant oversight/management, and facilitate technical support for NY municipalities.	Long Island Sound Watershed	NEIWPCC	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-7, WW-14, SC-30, SM-14	339,797.00	10/1/2020 - 9/30/2022
04/14/2023	NEIWPCC LISS Program Implementation Support: Task 5 - Science Coordination FY18	Research	Ongoing	NEIWPCC will lead the science coordination for LIS by developing and maintaining professional scientific and technical contacts; assemble relevant scientific references; assist with organizing and conducting conferences/discussions on topics of relevance or concern to the science of the LIS ecosystem, including coordination of the STAC and WQM Workgroup; and provide technical input and coordination to other LIS partners	Long Island Sound Watershed	NEIWPCC	On-Track	N/A	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	WW-8, WW-28, WW-39, SC-8, SM-1, SM-11, SM-12, SM-34	411,594.00	10/1/2018 - 9/30/2023
04/14/2023	NEIWPCC LISS Program Implementation Support: Task 5 - Science Coordination FY20	Research	Ongoing	NEIWPCC will lead the science coordination for LIS by developing and maintaining professional scientific and technical contacts; assemble relevant scientific references; assist with organizing and conducting conferences/discussions on topics of relevance or concern to the science of the LIS ecosystem, including coordination of the STAC and WQM Workgroup; and provide technical input and coordination to other LIS partners	Long Island Sound Watershed	NEIWPCC	On-Track	N/A	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	WW-8, WW-28, WW-39, SC-8, SM-1, SM-11, SM-12, SM-34	242,495.00	10/1/2020 - 9/30/2022
04/14/2023	NEIWPCC LISS Program Implementation Support: Task 6 - Sentinel Monitoring Workshop	Stewardship and Resiliency	Ongoing	The Climate Change and Sentinel Monitoring Work Group (CCSMWG), via NEIWPCC, will host a 2-day Sentinel Monitoring workshop to engage LIS stakeholders to help identify monitoring data sources, centralize available monitoring data, and develop a LISS sentinel monitoring network.	Long Island Sound Watershed	NEIWPCC	Completed	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	WW-38, WW-40	44,446.00	10/1/2020 - 9/30/2022
07/29/2022	Connecticut State Water Quality Monitoring for Long Island Sound 2018	Monitoring	Completed	Monthly water quality analyses and hypoxia surveys at 17 stations located throughout the Sound. Hydrographic profiles are taken of depth, salinity, temperature, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll a, pH and photosynthetic active radiation (PAR). Grab samples are collected at surface and bottom depths and filtered and preserved for laboratory analyses of nitrogen, phosphorus, carbon, suspended solids, and chlorophyll-a. The monitoring program includes zooplankton (6 stations, net tow, surface to bottom) and phytoplankton (10 stations, surface) sampling with researchers from the University of Connecticut at Avery Point; phyto-pigment analysis (10 stations, surface) with the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science/Horn Point; and cooperating in research on such topics as productivity, zooplankton, and lobster mortality. All of these efforts are complementary to, and some were previously supported by, the National Coastal Condition Assessment monitoring program.	Soundwide	CT DEEP	Completed	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-8; SM-6; SM-7; SM-28	1,147,088.00	10/01/2018 - 09/30/2021
07/29/2022	Water Quality monitoring enhancements to support the hypoxia management in Long Island Sound, Operation & Maintenance of CT River sensors at Essex and Old Lyme 2019	Monitoring	Completed	Operation and maintenance of 2 continuous monitors with field visits for calibration and retrieval of physical and chemical data. Data processing at USGS office.	Old Lyme and Essex, CT	CT DEEP	Completed	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-28; WW-32; SM-27	45,000.00	10/01/2019 - 09/30/2021
07/29/2022	Development of a Watershed and Nonpoint Source Decision Support Framework and Tool at a Local Scale, and with a Conservation Approach 2019	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	This project uses new, high resolution land cover data to create CT statewide watershed information or land cover metrics to support conservation and restoration-based approaches to nonpoint source pollution .	CT	CT DEEP	Completed	A 1-year extension was granted for the completion of this project. This was requested as the onset of COVID-19 caused delays to team meetings and effort, and to accommodate for the 6-month delay in receiving the 1-m resolution product from NOAA.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-1; HW-6; SC-14; WW-15; WW-35; WW-15	217,999.98	10/01/2019 - 09/30/2021
07/29/2022	Water Quality monitoring enhancements to support the hypoxia management in Long Island Sound, Operation & Maintenance of CT River sensors at Essex and Old Lyme 2018	Monitoring	Completed	Operation and maintenance of 2 continuous monitors with field visits for calibration and retrieval of physical and chemical data. Data processing at USGS office.	Old Lyme and Essex, CT	CT DEEP	Completed	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-28; WW-32; SM-27	175,000.00	10/01/2018 - 09/30/2021
07/29/2022	Assessment of research vessel condition to ensure safe operation and plan for vessel repair or overhaul 2019	Monitoring	Completed	Conduct an assessment of research and monitoring vessel condition and needs. A survey of the research vessel John Dempsey (Dempsey) is needed to assess the current conditions of the vessel. The survey will assess the condition of the hull and on board systems including electrical, sanitary, freshwater system, hydraulics, propulsion, stability and safety systems. A final report on the conditions and sea worthiness of the Dempsey with recommendations for repairs, upgrades or replacements will be provided.	Soundwide	CT DEEP	Completed	Need to dredge the a dock and access channel to the DEEP Marine HeadQuarters.	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	WW-39	40,000.00	10/01/2019 - 09/30/2021
07/29/2022	Technical Integration of Nutrient Modeling - Phase II (Statewide HSPF) 2019	Modeling	Completed	This second phase of the recalibration of the Statewide model is intended to cover the enhanced monitoring plan, the planning for the build out of the model application and a regional workshop.	CT	CT DEEP	Completed	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-27; WW-28; WW-14; SM-15; SM-1	1,065,000.00	10/01/2019 - 09/30/2021
07/29/2022	Embayment and Watershed Data Collection for Modeling Input 2019	Modeling	Completed	Embayment model planning, monitoring, and model development for two of the priority embayments.	CT	CT DEEP	Completed	In order to achieve the overall 3-year project goals within the grant period, tasks directly related to modeling (QAPP and model development) will be completed using FY21 funds. While FY19 funds will be used to support tasks related to data collection.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-7; WW-14; WW-27; WW-28; WW-35; WW-1	505,000.00	10/01/2019 - 09/30/2021
07/29/2022	NEIWPCC LISS Program Implementation Support: Task 6 -Nonpoint Source and Stormwater Tracking Tool for the LIS Watershed	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	Development of a Nonpoint Source and Stormwater Tracking Tool for the LIS Watershed – Phase 2: Develop and distribute an RFP for proposal solicitation & select contractor; Establish tracking system baselines; Adopt a set of nitrogen removal efficiency calculation methods for control measures; Select a pilot sub-basin (Connecticut) and obtain required data; Adapt the selected tracking and accounting system and apply to the pilot watershed; Quantitative assessment of nitrogen load reductions associated with NPS and SW BMPs for the selected sub-basin; and Completed tracking NPS and SW tracking tool	Long Island Sound Watershed	NEIWPCC	On-Track	Had trouble securing data from communities due to COVID	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-10	150,000.00	10/1/2018 - 9/30/2023
07/29/2022	Restoration (Design) for Leetes Island Marsh 2019	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Completed	Planning and design for restoration of healthy tidal flow to Leetes Island Marsh in Guilford, CT. A private contractor will be hired to conduct hydrology studies, provide engineering designs, and obtain all appropriate state and federal permits. Preliminary plans call for replacement of failing tidegates and pipes under Shell Beach Road and installing a new prefabricated reinforced concrete box culvert, and a new tide gate chamber.	Guildford, CT	CT DEEP	Completed	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1; HW-16	140,000.00	10/01/2019 - 09/30/2021
04/14/2023	NEIWPCC LISS Program Implementation Support: Task 7 - LIS Nitrogen Reduction Coordination	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	NEIWPCC will organize and support the LIS Nitrogen Reduction Coordination efforts to involve the tributary states in Management Conference activities. Interested organizations will convene in person or by conference call two to three times each year. NEIWPCC will organize conference calls, including developing and distributing agendas, facilitating calls, and preparing and distributing call summaries.	Long Island Sound Watershed	NEIWPCC	On-track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-7, SM-19	109,126.67	10/1/2018 - 9/30/2023
04/14/2023	NEIWPCC LISS Program Implementation Support: Task 7- Nutrient Trading Study	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	Interstate Nutrient Trading Program: Options and Obstacles Evaluation This project will explore the opportunities and obstacles to an interstate nitrogen water quality trading program for the entire LISS watershed (to include CT, NH, NY, RI, and VT), building on the lessons of the CT Nitrogen Credit Exchange (NCE) and projects proposed around the country. Will identify key challenges to a WQT program and propose relevant solutions for the LIS watershed.	Long Island Sound Watershed	NEIWPCC	On-track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-3	56,230.00	10/1/2018 - 9/30/2023
04/14/2023	NEIWPCC LISS Program Implementation Support: Task 8 - Nutrient Bioextraction FY18	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	The Bioextraction Coordinator will lead the Bioextraction Initiative, to include: Assessing the efficacy of and potential challenges involved in advancing seaweed and shellfish aquaculture to remove excess nitrogen loads from NY and CT surface waters; reviewing and reporting on literature and policies; providing recommendations to improve the regulatory process; working with industry professionals to develop markets for and assess cultivation costs of potential bioextraction species and evaluate overall economic viability of seaweed and shellfish bioextraction operations.	Long Island Sound Watershed	NEIWPCC	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-25, WW-26	382,513.00	10/1/2018 - 9/30/2023
04/14/2023	NEIWPCC LISS Program Implementation Support: Task 8 - Nutrient Bioextraction FY20	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	The Bioextraction Coordinator will plan and develop pilot studies using 1) sugar kelp and 2) ribbed mussels in NY's LIS coastal waters for bioextractive investigation purposes with participation by researchers/local partners	Long Island Sound Watershed	NEIWPCC	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-25	381,051.00	10/1/2020 - 9/30/2022
04/14/2023	Economic Feasibility Market Study for Nutrient Bioextraction Activities in the Long Island Sound	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	To conduct a third-party study that will build on the recommendations of a previously funded, high level economic feasibility/market analysis, and which may emphasize scalability	Soundwide	NEIWPCC	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-25	100,000.00	10/1/2021 - 9/30/2022
04/14/2023	Program Implementation Support: Outreach and Education Coordination 2021-2022	Public Education and Outreach	Ongoing	The Communications Coordinator will assist with the development, coordination, and implementation of bi-state public involvement, education, outreach, and communication activities for LIS, including coordinating the following outreach and education sub-tasks: LISS Communications Team; LIS Status and Trends Indicators/Ecosystem Target Workgroup; CCMP Reporting; LISS Website; Sound Matters and social media content; and outreach materials.	Long Island Sound Watershed	NEIWPCC	On-Track	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-7; SC-9; SC-10; SC-16; SC-32; SM-30; SM-34; SM-35	222,089.00	10/1/2020 - 9/30/2025
07/29/2022	Water Quality monitoring enhancements to support the hypoxia management in Long Island Sound, Operation & Maintenance of CT River sensors at Essex and Old Lyme 2020	Monitoring	Completed	Operation and maintenance of 2 continuous monitors with field visits for calibration and retrieval of physical and chemical data. Data processing at USGS office.	Old Lyme and Essex, CT	CT DEEP	Completed	The SUNA Nitrate sensor at Old Lyme was not functioning properly. It was removed on July 27, 2021, serviced, and reinstalled on September 13, 2021. The conductivity/WT sensor in Essex failed on August 11,2021. It was removed and a new sensor was installed on September 16, 2021..	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-28; WW-32; SM-27	45,000.00	10/01/2020 - 09/30/2022
07/29/2022	Simulation of Groundwater Nitrogen Loading to Rivers and Embayments on the Connecticut Coastal of Long Island Sound 2020	Modeling	Completed	Model to provide estimation of the groundwater nitrogen to the rivers and embayments on N shore of LIS.	CT	CT DEEP	Completed	USGS requested and received a 1-year extension to be able to utilize the base flow sampling results from a FY21 initiated project (directly contracted by EPA with USGS).	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-14; SM-12; WW-27; WW-35	260,000.00	10/01/2020 - 09/30/2022
07/29/2022	Updating Connecticut Manual for Stormwater Management and Erosion and Sedimentation Controls with New Climate Information and Best Management Practices 2020	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	Updating the Stormwater Quality Manual and the Soil Erosion and Sediment Control Guidelines to address the evolving landscape, BMPs and climate change.	CT	CT DEEP	Completed	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2; WW-13; WW-12; SC-13; SC-14; SC-30	130,000.00	10/01/2020 - 09/30/2022
04/14/2023	Program Implementation Support: Program Management and Travel Support 2021-2022	Coordination	Ongoing	NEIWPCC will supervise staff located at the LIS and New York State Offices; coordinate logistics (meeting facilities, catering, speakers, etc.) for the LISS Management Committee and Citizen Advisory Committee (CAC) meetings; provide travel support to members of the LISS CAC, state, and other LISS partners to attend LISS meetings, National Estuary Program meetings and other relevant events; and provide overall program management for NEIWPCC’s partnership with the LISS.	Long Island Sound Watershed	NEIWPCC	On-Track	N/A	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	SM-13; SM-14; SM-35	123,194.00	10/1/2020 - 9/30/2025
04/14/2023	Program Implementation Support: Habitat Restoration and Stewardship Coordination 2021-2022	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	The HRS Coordinator will organize and co-chair the HRS Workgroup; prepare and evaluate project applications for habitat restoration, assessment, or monitoring; collate and report habitat restoration effort data; assist with habitat stewardship-related outreach and volunteer programs	Long Island Sound Watershed	NEIWPCC	On-Track	N/A	Thriving Habitats and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1; HW-4; HW-5; HW-6; HW-9; HW-10; HW-13; HW-22; HW-23; HW-24; HW-27; HW-30; SC-12; SM-13; SM-14; SM-35	315,369.00	10/1/2020 - 9/30/2025
04/14/2023	Program Implementation Support: Science Coordination 2021-2022	Research	Ongoing	NEIWPCC will lead the science coordination for LIS by developing and maintaining professional scientific and technical contacts; assemble relevant scientific references; assist with organizing and conducting conferences/discussions on topics of relevance or concern to the science of the LIS ecosystem, including coordination of the STAC and WQM Workgroup; and provide technical input and coordination to other LIS partners	Long Island Sound Watershed	NEIWPCC	On-Track	N/A	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	WW-8; WW-28; WW-39; SM-1; SM-5; SM-11; SM-26; SM-30; SM-34; SM-35	175,314.00	10/1/2020 - 9/30/2025
04/14/2023	Program Implementation Support: LIS Nitrogen Reduction Coordination 2021-2022	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	NEIWPCC will organize and support the LIS Nitrogen Reduction Coordination efforts to involve the tributary states in Management Conference activities. Interested organizations will convene in person or by conference call two to three times each year. NEIWPCC will organize conference calls, including developing and distributing agendas, facilitating calls, and preparing and distributing call summaries.	Long Island Sound Watershed	NEIWPCC	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-7; WW-10; SM-19; SM-35	291,935.00	10/1/2020 - 9/30/2025
04/14/2023	Nutrient Bioextraction Product Application: Field Testing of Locally-Sourced Sugar Kelp (Saccharina latissima) Fertilizer Amendments in Long Island, NY	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	To continue to evaluate the efficacy of locally-sourced kelp meal and extract as a fertilizer amendment on vegetables and/or ornamentals.	Soundwide	NEIWPCC	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-25	100,000.00	10/1/2021 - 9/30/2022
04/14/2023	Nutrient Bioextraction: Refinement of Atlantic Ribbed Mussel (Geukensia demissa) Aquaculture Methods	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	To continue to investigate culturing methods to address bottlenecks and refine the process to allow for future development of large scale Ribbed Mussel bioextraction projects.	Soundwide	NEIWPCC	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-25	100,000.00	10/1/2021 - 9/30/2022
04/14/2023	Developing a Management Plan for a Subwatershed of Long Island Sound in Westchester County (NY) (65940)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	Update the Pine, Stephenson and Burling brooks and Larchmont Harbor sub-watershed management plan in Westchester County, New York.	Westchester County, NY	New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2; WW-14	100,000.00	10/1/2019-9/30/2023
04/14/2023	City-wide Green Infrastructure Installation and Training (CT) (49598)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	Install and maintain green infrastructure bioswales to reduce stormwater in New Haven, Connecticut.	New Haven, CT	New Haven Urban Resources Initiative	On-track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2, SC-7, SC-20	55,468.38	1/5/2015-5/15/2017
04/14/2023	Implementation of the Sustainable and Resilient Communities Work Plan	Stewardship and Resiliency	Ongoing	To implement the first year of the work plan developed by the Sustainable and Resilient Communities Working Group to advance the Sustainable and Resilient Communities theme of the Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan.	CT and NY	New York and Connecticut Sea Grant	On-track	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-20; SC-23; SM-24; SM-26	911,880.00	10/1/2021 - 9/30/2024
04/14/2023	NY and CT Sea Grant Research Program	Research	Ongoing	To identify and fund high priority, high quality research needed to best achieve the vision, goals, and targets of the Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan; and to promptly share the results of the research and assessment work, providing critical, new, science-based information that can inform decision-making and actions towards reaching the vision and goals for Long Island Sound.	Long Island Sound Watershed	New York and Connecticut Sea Grant	On-track	N/A	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	SM-1	3,000,000.00	10/1/2021 - 9/30/2025
04/14/2023	Long Island Sound Eutrophication Modeling	Modeling	Ongoing	To develop an integrated model for Long Island Sound to assist stakeholders in integrated water management planning and assessment activities. The model will consist of calibrated and validated hydrodynamic, water quality, watershed terrestrial models and ecosystem models, as well as a Graphical User Interface (GUI) to assist in model usability and transparency.	Long Island Sound Watershed	New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYCDEP)	On-Track	Some delays due to waiting for selection of hydrodynamic and water quality models to be used. The timeline will likely have to be pushed back beyond 2023.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	SM-11	6,033,174.37	07/15/17-12/31/22
04/14/2023	Alley Creek Shoreline and Coastal Forest Restoration (NY) (53625)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Completed	Constructed living shoreline to enhance re-establishment of up to one acre of salt marsh, and enhance coastal forest and upland habitat in Alley Pond Park, Douglaston, New York.	Douglaston, NY	New York City Department of Parks and Recreation	On-track	Covid related delays required project extension.	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1, HW-11	150,000.00	4/1/2017-6/15/2021
04/14/2023	Long Island Sound Research Program (2021-23 Projects)	Research	Ongoing	The first objective is to identify and fund high priority, high quality research needed to best achieve the vision, goals, and targets of the LIS CCMP. The second objective is to promptly share the results of the research and assessment work, providing critical, new, science-based information that can inform decision-making and actions towards reaching the vision and goals for Long Island Sound laid out in the CCMP.	Long Island Sound Watershed	New York Sea Grant	On-Track	N/A	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	SM-1	249,667.00	10/1/2019 – 9/30/2024
04/14/2023	Environmental Justice Needs Assessment in the Long Island Sound Watershed	Stewardship and Resiliency	Ongoing	To determine and investigate the following: main environmental challenges faced; interests, needs, and concerns related to their environment; resources needed to provide relief and improve implementation of local environmental justice initiatives; barriers to addressing such environmental concerns identified in the Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan; role of the Sound in their lives; and preferred channels of communication and delivery methods.	CT and NY	New York Sea Grant	On-Track	Delay in obtaining in RFP annoucenment	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-4; SC-5; SM-17	228,085.00	10/1/2021 - 7/1/2023
04/14/2023	New York City/Western Basin Public Outreach Program	Public Education and Outreach	Ongoing	To hire a coordinator to develop programs to educate NYC and other western basin residents about Long Island Sound and encourage environmental stewardship focusing on environmental justice communities.	New York City, NY	New York Sea Grant	On-Track	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	HW-13; HW-21; HW-22; SC-1; SC-2; SC-3; SC-4; SC-5; SC-6; SC-7; SC-8; SC-11; SC-12; SC-13; SC-15; SC-19; SM-15; SM-17; SM-25; SM-37	250,000.00	10/1/2021 - 9/30/2022
04/14/2023	New York Public Outreach Program - Public Outreach Coordinator 2021-2022	Public Education and Outreach	Ongoing	To continue to develop programs to educate NY residents about the Sound and encourage environmental stewardship; to fill requests for information from the public and extent publications.	Long Island Sound Watershed	New York Sea Grant	On-Track	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	HW-22; SC-1; SC-2; SC-4; SC-5; SC-6; SC-7; SC-8; SC-11; SC-12; SC-13; SC-14; SC-15; SC-17; SC-18; SC-19; SM-15; SM-17; SM-25; SM-37	227,400.00	10/1/2021 - 9/30/2023
04/14/2023	Long Island Sound Research Coordination Program 2018	Research	Completed	This project involves NYSG and Connecticut Sea Grant (CTSG) jointly administering a competitive research program to address the needs of the Long Island Sound Study (LISS). These needs are derived from the LISS Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP) and any revisions and Policy Agreements updating and prioritizing the CCMP. These needs are summarized in the LISS document Research, Monitoring, and Assessment Needs to Attain LISS Goals and Targets (Needs Assessment), which is updated on a regular basis with input from the LISS Science & Technical Advisory Committee (STAC). The Needs Assessment is the foundation for the research and assessment program, with further input from the STAC on identifying the highest priorities. The first objective is to identify and fund high priority, high quality research needed to best achieve the vision, goals and targets of the LIS CCMP, and subsequent revisions and policy agreements. The second objective is to promptly share the results of the research and assessment work, providing critical, new, science-based information that can inform decision-making and actions towards reaching the vision and goals for Long Island Sound.	Long Island Sound Watershed	New York Sea Grant	On-Track	N/A	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	SM-1	426,663.00	10/1/2018-9/30/2022
04/14/2023	Refined Integration of Remote Sensing with Biological Parameters for Improved Management of Long Island Sound Water Quality	Research	Completed	Across the globe, coastal ecosystems and human populations have been intertwined for centuries. Humans strongly influence the ecological status of coastal ecosystems, while degraded coastal systems impact coastal communities and economies. Like many similar highly populated estuaries in the world, the Long Island Sound (LIS) suffers from water quality problems, including high loadings of nutrients, hypoxia, and recurrent harmful algal blooms. Satellite observations offer the environmental monitoring and water resource management communities a unique capability to observe changes in water conditions across spatial scales not feasible with field-based monitoring alone. Yet, determining water composition and resolving different bloom-forming phytoplankton species in LIS from space has been a challenge. This study directly addresses this challenge and proposes to develop and apply new remote sensing products to improve our knowledge of LIS ecosystem parameters critical for management.	Soundwide	New York Sea Grant/City College of New York	On-Track	N/A	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	WW-8	575,940.00	3/1/2019-8/31/2022
04/14/2023	Eliciting and Modeling Residential Lawn and Landscape Practices: Systematic Information to Assess Knowledge, Explicate Behavior and Inform Management across the Long Island Sound Watershed	Research	Completed	There is significant concern about the environmental impact of residential lawns, especially the extent to which they export nutrients and how this export is related to human behavior such as lawn fertilizer use. Despite previous research, there remains no clear understanding of the most effective means to influence lawn care practices across the Long Island Sound (LIS) watershed. While past research has focused on general attitudes and socio-economic factors associated with residential land management, it has not produced a satisfactory explanation for the variation in practices that influence nitrogen export and stormwater runoff, nor has it evaluated the extent to which specific programs or policies can influence these practices moving forward. With colleagues at City University of New York and Florida Atlantic University, this interdisciplinary research--in coordination with LIS stakeholders--will apply an integrated set of spatially-explicit models of household lawn care decision making and the associated biophysical responses to forecast management outcomes and test hypotheses related to changes in lawn care behavior, including the effect of program and policy changes on specified lawn care behaviors in different areas of the LIS watershed, among different resident groups.	Long Island Sound Watershed	New York Sea Grant/Clark University	On-Track	N/A	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	SC-14	360,292.00	3/1/2019-8/31/2022
04/14/2023	Long Island Sound Futures Fund 2015	Implementation Assistance	Completed	The underlying purposes of this EPA Cooperative Assistance Agreement were three-fold to: 1) provide support for management of the Long Island Sound Futures Fund (LISFF) grant program NFWF, the direct recipient of the EPA Co-op funds; 2) provide individual grants to subrecipients with EPA Co-op monies towards projects that contribute to the protection and restoration of the health and living resources of Long Island Sound (Sound); and 3) make investments in on-the-ground actions in communities to improve water quality, protect habitat and living resources, educate and involve the public, improve the long-term understanding of how to manage the Sound, monitor progress, and redirect management efforts as described in the 1994 Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan for Long Island Sound (CCMP).	Long Island Sound Watershed	NFWF	Completed	N/A	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	SM-13	1,269,695.00	10/1/2015-2/26/2021
04/14/2023	Long Island Sound Futures Fund 2016	Implementation Assistance	Completed	The underlying purposes of this EPA Cooperative Assistance Agreement were three-fold to: 1) provide support for management of the Long Island Sound Futures Fund (LISFF) grant program NFWF, the direct recipient of the EPA Co-op funds; 2) provide individual grants to subrecipients with EPA Co-op monies towards projects that contribute to the protection and restoration of the health and living resources of Long Island Sound (Sound); and 3) make investments in on-the-ground actions in communities to improve water quality, protect habitat and living resources, educate and involve the public, improve the long-term understanding of how to manage the Sound, monitor progress, and redirect management efforts as described in the 1994 Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan for Long Island Sound (CCMP).	Long Island Sound Watershed	NFWF	Completed	N/A	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	SM-13	126,972.00	10/1/2016-12/30/2021
04/14/2023	Long Island Sound Futures Fund 2021	Implementation Assistance	Ongoing	The underlying purposes of this EPA Cooperative Assistance Agreement were three-fold to: 1) provide support for management of the Long Island Sound Futures Fund (LISFF) grant program NFWF, the direct recipient of the EPA Co-op funds; 2) provide individual grants to subrecipients with EPA Co-op monies towards projects that contribute to the protection and restoration of the health and living resources of Long Island Sound (Sound); and 3) make investments in on-the-ground actions in communities to improve water quality, protect habitat and living resources, educate and involve the public, improve the long-term understanding of how to manage the Sound, monitor progress, and redirect management efforts as described in the 1994 Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan for Long Island Sound (CCMP).	Long Island Sound Watershed	NFWF	On-Track	N/A	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	SM-13	6,880,000.00	10/1/2021 - 9/20/2026
04/14/2023	Long Island Sound Futures Fund 2020	Implementation Assistance	Ongoing	The underlying purposes of this EPA Cooperative Assistance Agreement were three-fold to: 1) provide support for management of the Long Island Sound Futures Fund (LISFF) grant program NFWF, the direct recipient of the EPA Co-op funds; 2) provide individual grants to subrecipients with EPA Co-op monies towards projects that contribute to the protection and restoration of the health and living resources of Long Island Sound (Sound); and 3) make investments in on-the-ground actions in communities to improve water quality, protect habitat and living resources, educate and involve the public, improve the long-term understanding of how to manage the Sound, monitor progress, and redirect management efforts as described in the 1994 Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan for Long Island Sound (CCMP).	Long Island Sound Watershed	NFWF	On-Track	The requirements associated with management of federal funds are complex and can be a barrier to application. Development of Quality Assurance Project Plans continue to be difficult for subrecipients. Changes to federal guidance related to subrecipient management of federal funds had a learning curve.	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	SM-13	304,499.00	10/1/2020-9/30/2025
04/14/2023	Long Island Sound Futures Fund 2019	Implementation Assistance	Ongoing	The underlying purposes of this EPA Cooperative Assistance Agreement were three-fold to: 1) provide support for management of the Long Island Sound Futures Fund (LISFF) grant program NFWF, the direct recipient of the EPA Co-op funds; 2) provide individual grants to subrecipients with EPA Co-op monies towards projects that contribute to the protection and restoration of the health and living resources of Long Island Sound (Sound); and 3) make investments in on-the-ground actions in communities to improve water quality, protect habitat and living resources, educate and involve the public, improve the long-term understanding of how to manage the Sound, monitor progress, and redirect management efforts as described in the 1994 Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan for Long Island Sound (CCMP).	Long Island Sound Watershed	NFWF	On-Track	The requirements associated with management of federal funds are complex and can be a barrier to application. Development of Quality Assurance Project Plans continue to be difficult for subrecipients. Changes to federal guidance related to subrecipient management of federal funds had a learning curve.	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	SM-13	304,499.00	10/1/2019-9/30/2024
04/14/2023	Long Island Sound Futures Fund 2018	Implementation Assistance	Ongoing	The underlying purposes of this EPA Cooperative Assistance Agreement were three-fold to: 1) provide support for management of the Long Island Sound Futures Fund (LISFF) grant program NFWF, the direct recipient of the EPA Co-op funds; 2) provide individual grants to subrecipients with EPA Co-op monies towards projects that contribute to the protection and restoration of the health and living resources of Long Island Sound (Sound); and 3) make investments in on-the-ground actions in communities to improve water quality, protect habitat and living resources, educate and involve the public, improve the long-term understanding of how to manage the Sound, monitor progress, and redirect management efforts as described in the 1994 Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan for Long Island Sound (CCMP).	Long Island Sound Watershed	NFWF	On-Track	The requirements associated with management of federal funds are complex and can be a barrier to application.Development of Quality Assurance Project Plans continue to be difficult for subrecipients. Changes to federal guidance related to subrecipient management of federal funds had a learning curve.	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	SM-13	234,049.00	10/1/2018-9/30/2023
04/14/2023	Hydrodynamic Modification Feasibility Study	Modeling	Ongoing	To better understand where and how hydrodynamic modifications can be used when land side reductions of nitrogen will not be enough. This project will look at the water quality, environmental, economic, and social aspects of common types of embayments with flushing restraints in the Long Island Sound area. The final product will be a report that characterizes hydrodynamic modifications for water quality improvements at a high-level that can be used by municipalities to screen potential projects.	Long Island, NY	NYSDEC	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2, WW-8, SC-21	500,000.00	10/01/2019 - 09/30/2026
04/14/2023	Nassau County Subwatershed Planning	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	To develop and run the Nitrogen Loading Model (NLM) and hydrodynamic models, as well as working with Nassau County to develop a plan to reduce the nitrogen entering these waterbodies. The project will advance the knowledge of nitrogen pollution into the groundwater and embayments, while also setting up the reduction goals needed and an implementation plan to achieve those goals. The final deliverable of this will be a completed Nine Element Watershed Plan, focusing on nitrogen, for Nassau County.	Nassau County, NY	NYSDEC	On-Track	The final plan and associated stakeholder meetings were pushed back due to conflicts, as well as a change in staffing at the County level. However, work on the plan has continued and is now slated to be completed in May	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-1, WW-2, WW-14	250,000.00	10/01/2019 - 09/30/2026
04/14/2023	Nitrogen Smart Communities	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	To implement a new program aimed at encouraging municipalities to take charge of nitrogen pollution at a local level. This project is creating the Nitrogen Smart Communities program from the ground up, developing outreach and education materials, and piloting the program with municipalities on Long Island.	Long Island, NY	NYSDEC	On-Track	Timeline was updated due to a loss in staffing for this project that had not been filled until March 2022. Now that staff are on board, project is expected to move forward.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2, WW-14, SC-7, SC-21, SC-30	200,000.00	10/01/2019 - 09/30/2026
04/14/2023	Solute Transport Model	Modeling	Ongoing	The objectives of this project are to develop data sets needed to represent current and historic land uses relevant to nitrogen loading in coastal watersheds; incorporate these data sets as nitrogen source terms in numerical models capable of simulating groundwater-transport processes to estimate current loading rates and nutrient concentrations in the aquifer; use these current-condition solute-transport models to simulate changes in nitrogen-loading rates in response to proposed wastewater-management actions; and prepare reports and data releases that document nitrogen sources, numerical models, and their application to nitrogen-load estimates.	Nassau County, NY	NYSDEC	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-14, WW-27	600,000.00	10/01/2019 - 09/30/2026
04/14/2023	Support for Stewardship Land Acquisition and Habitat Restoration in NY State	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	To support for the acquisition of the Shoreham Power Plant property and Habitat Restoration at Flax Pond in Old Field, NY. The Shoreham property is an 800-acre parcel of pristine habitat located on Long Island Sound in Wading River, NY. This acquisition will provide water quality, tidal wetland, and coastal habitat protection.	Wading River, NY	NYSDEC	On-Track	This is a large complex acquisition and map negotiations took longer than expected but were completed in fall of 2020 and NYSDEC is now in the appraisal process. Additionally, financial difficulties, due in large part to covid and securing match, have caused NYSDEC to reassess and reconsider a phased acquisition. Grant was amended and extended to 9/30/23.	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1, HW-9	1,950,000.00	10/1/2020 - 9/30/2023
04/14/2023	New York State Asset Management Pilot Program Phase II	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	To build engineering capacity and technical expertise so that NYS's municipalities can access high quality asset management programs in a cost effective manner.	Long Island Sound Watershed	NYSDEC	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-5; WW-13	1,000,000.00	10/1/2021 - 9/30/2026
04/14/2023	Solute Transport Model 2021	Modeling	Ongoing	To develop data sets needed to represent current and historic land uses relevant to nitrogen loading in coastal watersheds; incorporate these datasets as nitrogen source terms in numerical models capable of simulating groundwater-transport processes to estimate current loading rates and nutrient concentrations in the aquifer; use these current-condition solute-transport models to simulate changes in nitrogen-loading rates in response to proposed wastewater-management actions; and prepare reports and data releases that document nitrogen sources, numerical models, and their application to nitrogen-load estimates.	Nassau County, NY	NYSDEC	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-14; WW-27	300,000.00	10/1/2021 - 9/30/2026
04/14/2023	Support for Stewardship Land Acquisition	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	To provide additional support for the acquisition of the Shoreham Power Plant property.	East Shoreham, NY	NYSDEC	On-Track	Purchasing of this property has been delayed due to covid and budgetary constraints associated with match. NYSDEC was approved for a no cost time extension by the EPA in July 2022; the new grant period is from October 1 2018 to September 30 2024. NYSDEC is in the process of finalizing an agreement with Suffolk County to secure match.	Thriving Habitats and Abundant Wildlife	HW-3; HW-9	2,000,000.00	10/1/2021 - 9/30/2024
04/14/2023	Student Scientist Monitoring of American Eel and River Herring on the Bronx River (NY) - II (49432)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Engaged students in monitoring river herring and American eel, which indicate the biological health of Long Island Sound in Bronx, New York.	Bronx. NY	Rocking the Boat	On-track	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-7, SC-19	35,000.00	11/1/2015-1/31/2017
04/14/2023	Stratford Point Living Shoreline: Restoring Coastal Habitats to Maintain Resiliency and Function (CT) (49228)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Completed	Restore woodland, meadow, and vernal pool at Stratford Point, Stratford, Connecticut.	Stratford, CT	Sacred Heart University	On-track	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1, HW-3, HW-11, SC-19	148,756.00	10/1/2015-7/31/2017
04/14/2023	A “Nature Based” Living Shoreline at the Mouth of the Housatonic River (CT) (70096)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	Prepare a living shoreline at the mouth of the Housatonic River in Stratford, Connecticut. The planning will ultimately deploy a line of ReefMakers, Oyster Castles, coir log/shell rolls, cultch (i.e., recycled oyster shell/slipper shells), and marsh plantings to form a cohesive natural shoreline. ReefMakers placed at the low tide line as a wave break are heavy enough to withstand hurricanes and have surfaces that enhance their use by marine life. Oyster Castles placed in the intertidal zone create shellfish reefs that abates wave energy. Coir logs created by wrapping fabric around shell clutch are placed to stabilize eroding shorelines. Planting salt marsh cordgrass alleviates erosion and retains sediment, which builds up marsh elevation further protect shorelines. St	Stratford, CT	Sacred Heart University	On-Track	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-11; HW-1; SC-19	65,082.00	11/30/2020-1/31/2022
04/14/2023	Long Island Sound’s Fresh Pond Festival (NY) (66007)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Conduct a festival and shoreline cleanup in Fort Salonga, New York.	Fort Salonga, NY	Salonga Wetland Advocates Network	On-Track	We learned that hosting a successful one-day festival requires more volunteer time than we thought. Fortunately, our volunteers were up to the task!	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	WW-20; SC-7; SC-1	5,700.00	1/1/2020-3/27/2021
04/14/2023	Restoring Fish Passage on the Noroton River (CT) (49620)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Completed	Modified bridge culverts to restore fish passage along a riverine migratory corridor on the Noroton River between the Town of Darien and City of Stamford, Connecticut.	Stamford, CT	Save the Sound	On-track	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1, HW-3	103,801.10	10/1/2015-11/1/2018
04/14/2023	Unified Water Study: Nitrogen Impacts on Long Island Sound	Monitoring	Completed	To coordinate and implement the Unified Water Study (UWS), which establishes a comparable bay-to-bay dataset describing the eutrophic conditions and environmental health of bays and harbors around the Sound. Project activities include training and support of 23 water quality monitoring groups; coordination of an equipment loan program; coordination of Tier 1 monitoring in 40 Sound bays and harbors and of Tier 2 monitoring in 13 of those locations, with a focus on priority bays identified by CT DEEP and NYSDEC; and communication of the findings.	Long Island Sound Watershed	Save the Sound	On-Track	New groups present a unique challenge in ensuring they are getting a good start on their inaugural season. 2022 welcomes two new groups to the UWS and Save the Sound staff have been giving them the extra attention needed to facilitate this first step into the project.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-1, WW-14, WW-27, WW-28, WW-35, HW-22, HW-24, SC-7, SC-11, SM-1, SM-7, SM-8, SM-25, SM-30	1,517,958.00	7/1/18-12/13/21
04/14/2023	Design for a Living Shoreline Resiliency Project at Chittenden Park	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	To design a living shoreline project at Chittenden Park in Guildford, CT to provide stabilization through elements that mimic natural features and processes.	Guildford, CT	Save the Sound	On-Track	N/A	Thriving Habitats and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1; HW-3; HW-11; HW-16; HW-17; HW-22; SM-29; SM-34	515,000.00	10/1/2021 - 9/30/2023
04/14/2023	Unified Waters Study: Long Island Sound Embayment Research 2021-2022	Monitoring	Ongoing	To continue to monitor and assess the ambient conditions of water quality nearshore harbors and embayments, and therefore identify and control local pollution sources through community-based watershed monitoring (including citizen science) and protection programs.	Soundwide	Save the Sound	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-1; WW-14; WW-27; WW-28; WW-35; HW-22; HW-24; SC-7; SC-11; SM-1; SM-7; SM-8; SM-25; SM-30	765,000.00	10/1/2021 - 9/30/2023
04/14/2023	A Nature-Like Fishway for Long Pond Dam (CT) (70202)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	Plan to install fish passage on Long Pond Dam, Whitford Brook, Ledyard, Connecticut.	Ledyard, CT	Save the Sound	On-Track	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1; HW-3; HW-17	172,002.00	1/1/2021-3/30/2022
04/14/2023	A Watershed Plan for the Hutchinson River-Westchester County-I (NY) (70190)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	Develop a watershed plan for the Hutchinson River watershed, Westchester County, New York. Prepare a watershed plan for the 5,430 acre portion of the Hutchinson River watershed in Westchester County, New York. Activities: 1) Identify the causes of water quality problems and the risks of flooding; 2) Identify goals for reducing these problems, and criteria/monitoring to be used to assess improvements; 3) Describe restoration projects and timeframes implement them; 4) Identify financial and technical requirements to implement projects; and 4) Engage and describe the role of stakeholders in in plan development and implementation.	Westchester, NY	Save the Sound	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-14; WW-35	200,000.00	10/1/2020-3/31/2022
04/14/2023	Planning for Two Fish Passage Projects in Southeastern Connecticut (CT) (61149)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Completed	Design for fishways at Whitford Pond Dam in Stonington and at Alewife Cove Dam in Waterford, Connecticut.	Waterford, CT	Save the Sound	On-Track	Several lessons from this project, including the importance of: 1) Engaging students in restoration. Working with New England Science & Sailing (NESS) students, Save the Sound was able to share hands on, outdoor education with students in a safe, socially distanced environment during a global pandemic. The relationship between Save the Sound and NESS staff has been professionally rewarding, beneficial to the project, and bears fruit on future collaborative opportunities. 2) Taking a watershed-wide approach to restoration. Layering of restoration projects within one geographic area is extremely beneficial. Work on the Hyde Pond Dam site led to Whitford Pond, which in turn led to Long Pond, where there is the potential to restore access for restoration of 250,000 alewives. 3) Cultivating opportunities to be an active presence in the watershed. Through ongoing investment in this watershed, we have learned the important of working and coordinating with abutters in many different ways. Even when there seems to be a difference of opinion, leave room for future collaboration. Initially the Whitford Pond dam owner was not happy about the unexpected breach of the dam, but based on continued outreach and collaboration, is now pursuing design alternatives that maintain and re-enforce the current fish passage that is present at the site.	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1	99,987.00	3/1/2019-3/1/2021
04/14/2023	Bringing the Alewife Back to Alewife Cove (CT) (65691)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Completed	Remove a barrier to fish passage and educate and engage the community and students in project implementation and monitoring at Alewife Cove, New London, Connecticut.	New London, CT	Save the Sound	On-Track	A lesson learned from this project is that the social and cultural landscape is at least as important to the success as the physical and biological landscape. Due to the small dam structure, easy equipment access, and simple channel reconstruction proposed, the implementation of the project would have been relatively easy. It was expected to be quick (under one week) and cost less than initially estimated – both being rare and enviable circumstances in any restoration project, especially one with landscape-scale benefits like watershed reconnection and restoration of a historic migratory fish run. Quite unfortunately, key details preventing the project from advancing were not revealed until late into the planning process.	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-3	187,282.00	10/1/2019-10/31/2021
04/14/2023	Fish Passage at Dana Dam (CT) (65689)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Completed	Develop a plan to remove one barrier to fish passage on the Norwalk River, Wilton, Connecticut.	Wilton, CT	Save the Sound	On-Track	The increased funding that has been awarded to the Long Island Sound Study as part of the National Estuary Program has been a game changer. Projects of this scale and complexity would have been out of reach only a few years ago. Increasing the Futures Fund project size limit has also supported these large, impactful projects. One element that contributes to that complexity is sediment management. In Connecticut and on Long Island, sediment management is handled on a case-by-case basis, which can be time consuming and costly. Projects like this one help cultivate a collaborative relationship with regulators and serve as an opportunity to develop a common-sense approach to sediment management that is both protective of the ecosystem and logical for the industrial setting of our coastal streams and rivers.	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-3	75,000.00	10/1/2019-4/1/2021
04/14/2023	Phillips Mill Fish Passage Project (NY) (58098)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Completed	Develop fish passage information at Phillips Mill Pond Dam on the Nissequogue River, Town of Smithtown, New York.	Smithtown, NY	Save the Sound	On-Track	Long Island has seen very few examples of dam removal, and projects with multiple public and private dam owners are frequently challenging. This project will require negotiations between the public and private dam owners to proceed to construction. We spent and will continue to spend time working with Parks and DEC staff so that they feel comfortable advocating for dam removal with private citizens during negotiations. Parks was able to overcome some landowner opposition in this phase, for example, by modifying the construction access to reduce the footprint of the project on private property. Furthermore, having this site identified as a regional priority by the Long Island Sound Study and Seatuck has been crucial when advocating for progress on the project with NY Parks. NYSDEC is an advocate of the project and has identified the site as a top priority in the New York Long Island Sound watershed for improving aquatic-organism passage. Prioritization of the project by NYSDEC, LISS and Seatuck has energized NY Parks leadership’s endorsement of the project and increases the potential for future state and federal funding.	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-3	99,999.32	10/1/2017-7/1/2021
04/14/2023	Green Infrastructure at the Leeds Pond Preserve and Science Museum to Improve Water Quality in Long Island Sound (NY) (70129)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	Install a green infrastructure demonstration at the 36-acre Leeds Pond Preserve, home of the Science Museum of Long Island, that borders both Manhasset Bay and Leeds Pond in Plandome Manor, New York. activities: 1) install 10,340 square ft. of green infrastructure as public “exhibits” including rain barrels, rain gardens, bio-retention swales etc. positioned strategically around the Museum’s buildings to capture runoff and prevent 2,641,936 gallons of polluted stormwater annually; 2) Engage volunteers from north shore bay protection committees to install the green infrastructure; and 3) Use the exhibits to create design/installation training videos, workshops and informational brochures to demonstrate the beauty and functionality of green infrastructure for homeowners and landscapers.	Plandome Manor, NY	Science Museum of Long Island	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2; SC-7; SC-14; SC-20	46,020.00	11/5/2020-9/30/2022
04/14/2023	A Plastic Free Long Island Sound Program (CT) (70246)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Conduct a Long Island Sound-based educational program about the impact of plastic pollution at the Mystic Aquarium, Connecticut. Project activities: 1) Provide Long Island Sound-based educational programs to 200 students about the impact of plastic on marine species like turtles; 2) Prepare the Plastic-Free Seas exhibit. Students will apply lessons learned in the classroom as they interact with the exhibit which shows how plastic moves through the marine environment; 3) Engage 100 teens in a Teen Marine Debris Summit to learn about marine debris and single-use plastics and launch a plastic-free challenge social media campaign; and 4) Provide Long Island Sound Day conservation events for the 3,800 people teaching them about the Sound and engaging 160 volunteers in shoreline cleanups.	Mystic, CT	Sea Research Foundation	On-Track	Conducting this project during the Covid-19 pandemic presented challenges to modify the activities to better integrate conservation messaging into digital assets, in addition to in-person programming. The modified programs were designed to be evergreen beyond the project period. Utilizing these assets in subsequent years to be integrated in future in-person and virtual programs will help to better reach a broader audience. Additionally, supplies chain interruptions because of the ongoing pandemic, resulted in challenges to the Plastic Free Seas exhibit upgrades. Although all modifications, as outlined in the project narrative were completed by the end of the project period, the timeline was modified. Using the lessons learned from this project, we will continue to evaluate how to grow these programs and reach diverse audiences throughout LIS and its watershed.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	WW-20; SC-1; SC-19	48,042.99	12/1/2020-12/31/2021
04/14/2023	Long Island Sound – Stewards in Training (CT) (65015)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Provide 16 educational programs for middle and high school students and their teachers to expose them to Long Island Sound and STEM career resources, engaging them in hands-on scientific activities and mentorship from working professionals at Mystic Aquarium, Connecticut.	Mystic, CT	Sea Research Foundation	On-Track	Conducting this project during the Covid-19 pandemic presented challenges to modify the activities to better integrate marine sciences and STEM-resources, career pathway information, and conservation messaging into digital assets. The modified programs were designed to be evergreen beyond the project period. Utilizing these assets in subsequent years to be integrated in future in-person and virtual programs will help to better reach a broader audience. Since the conclusion of the project period, Mystic Aquarium has resumed in-person educational initiatives but will continue to offer the full suite of virtual programming and SIT program packages. Using the lessons learned from this project, we will continue to evaluate how to grow these programs and reach diverse audiences throughout LIS and its watershed.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-7; SC-19	4,827.50	11/1/2019-5/31/2021
04/14/2023	Sound Actions: Celebrate Long Island Sound through Community Stewardship (CT) (49570)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Hosted an event to educate visitors about how to be a steward of Long Island Sound and conducted a community cleanup, Mystic Aquarium, Connecticut.	Mystic, CT	Sea Research Foundation	On-track	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	WW-20, SC-7, SC-15, SC-19	9,979.79	10/1/2015-9/30/2016
04/14/2023	Stonington Harbors Water Quality Monitoring and Education Initiative (CT) (53584)	Monitoring	Completed	Monitored and identified local pollution sources in near-shore areas and conduct a public education program along the coastline of Stonington, Connecticut.	Stonington, CT	Sea Research Foundation	On-track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2, WW-28	24,671.86	12/1/2016-11/30/2017
07/29/2022	Enhancing Community Education and Stewardship in Flushing Bay (NY) (66088)	Stewardship and Resiliency	Completed	Construct a living dock and develop the Flushing Waterways Stewardship Kit in Flushing Bay and Creek, Queens, New York. Project will engage environmental stewardship of Flushing Bay, an urban tidal embayment of Long Island Sound	Queens, NY	Guardians of Flushing Bay	Completed	Lessons Learned: Many of the key lessons learned during the project related to how to adapt project goals and deliverables during a global pandemic. For example, outreach to local schools proved difficult when many teachers had shifted to fully remote learning and could not organize in-person field trips or did not have the capacity for new programs. In response, project found that a virtual lesson, which combined a tour of the site of google maps and a prerecorded video, allowed students and teachers the opportunity to safely visit the site even during the pandemic. Project also developed a College Point ‘beach walk’ that could run consecutively with the oyster monitoring. By taking this approach, we were able to safely split up the students, allow for social distancing and engage students in the ecology growing along the nearby undeveloped shoreline.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	HW-2; SC-7	15,636.60	3/2/2020-3/1/2021
07/29/2022	Healthy Lawns, Healthy Rivers for a Healthy Long Island Sound (CT) (66048)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Conduct a social marketing program for residents aiming to reduce or eliminate the use of fertilizer on lawns in the Niantic River watershed of Long Island Sound in East Lyme and Waterford, Connecticut.	East Lyme and Waterford, CT	Niantic River Watershed Committee	Completed	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-7; SC-14; SC-15	15,636.60	1/1/2020-12/31/2021
04/14/2023	Deploying a Skimmer in Stamford Harbor for a Trash Free Long Island Sound (CT) (65777)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	Install a marine trash skimmer in Stamford Harbor, Stamford, Connecticut.	Stamford, CT	SoundWaters	On-Track	Anticipated that the MTS would be a good tool to promote an understanding about the need for clean and healthy waters in the Sound. However, the MTS has surpassed our expectations and has proved to be an ideal component for high school research and experiments, along with environmental stewardship activities. During the summer over four weeks, our SRI (SoundWaters Research Intensive) students reported that this was one of the most interesting hands-on activities in which they engaged. The hands-on feature of the MTS along with its accessibility makes it an exceptional teaching instrument. Having the MTS in a prominent location in Stamford Harbor with clear informational signage has captured the attention of numerous individuals interested in adding a MTS to their community waterfront. Even during the pandemic, we had two groups come to see the skimmer in action and discuss with us what is involved in its operation. This bodes well for the addition of more skimmers in the future.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	SC-7; WW-20	21,284.00	5/1/2020-12/31/2020
04/14/2023	A Student Urban Field-study of Water Quality and Species Diversity along the Long Island Sound Coast (CT (49475)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Supported a student-driven study and presentations comparing water quality and species diversity between two coastal sites--Cove Island Park and Boccuzzi Park, Stamford, Connecticut.	Stamford, CT	SoundWaters	On-track	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-7, SC-19	33,934.66	10/1/2015-9/30/2016
04/14/2023	Reducing Nitrogen into Long Island Sound at the Springfield Regional Wastewater Treatment Facility (MA) (70183)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	Install instruments to enhance nitrogen removal at the Springfield Regional Wastewater Treatment Facility in Springfield, Massachusetts.	Springfield, MA	Springfield Water and Sewer Commission	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-4; WW-2	290,385.00	10/1/2020-1/31/2022
04/14/2023	Enhancing Nitrogen Removal at the Springfield Regional Wastewater Treatment Facility (MA) (61257)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	Install nitrogen sensors and use information from those sensors to improve operations during the biological treatment process at the Springfield Regional Wastewater Treatment Facility in Springfield, Massachusetts.	Springfield, MA	Springfield Water and Sewer Commission	On-Track	Most notably, this project led the operator to adjust DO setpoints in the aeration basins to enhance nitrogen removal. Analyzing the sensor monitoring data allowed the operator to experiment with these setpoints until they reached values that provided adequate nitrogen removal, balanced with appropriate energy usage. This project demonstrates that the use of real-time monitoring can be a powerful tool to enhance treatment plant performance In addition to the process-specific lessons learned here, SWSC also learned how to effectively maintain the probes and analyzers, and about their potential shortcomings and limitations. It took time and trial and error by plant operators and the instrument technician to develop an instrumentation check and cleaning schedule to properly operate the equipment and obtain consistent, accurate data. The built-in cleaning mechanisms on the primary effluent ammonia probe, called the air blast, took several attempts at adjusting the air blast direction to effectively clean the analyzer. In addition, the operator and instrument technician pulled out the primary effluent ammonia probe approximately every two weeks to manually clean the probe sensors to ensure consistently reliable measurements. Increased effort by plant staff to maintain the new equipment amounts to approximately 10 hours per month. In addition, the instrumentation manufacturer is currently under contract to calibrate the equipment once every six months; however, the equipment realistically needs calibration more frequently. One lesson learned here is that SWSC may need to equip and train its personnel to perform the calibrations themselves between scheduled vendor calibrations. This will be a large effort, but it will be critical to maintaining functional monitoring equipment.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-4	48,896.22	10/1/2018-1/31/2020
04/14/2023	Green Infrastructure to Improve Water Quality and Coastal Resilience in Bridgeport (CT) (65678)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	Install green infrastructure in the Seaside Park neighborhood of Bridgeport, Connecticut.	Bridgeport, CT	State of Connecticut, Department of Housing	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2	250,000.00	4/15/2020-12/15/2021
04/14/2023	Boogie Down to the Sound – A Celebration of Long Island Sound-II (NY) (70311)	Public Education and Outreach	Ongoing	Host the Boogie Down to the Sound, a two-day hands-on on-the-water event at SUNY-Maritime College, Throggs Neck, New York. Project will build awareness and connect up to 1,000 students and community residents to Long Island Sound.	Throggs Neck, NY	SUNY-Maritime College	On-Track	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-1	9,025.00	11/2/2020 - 9/30/2021
04/14/2023	Fish Passage at Papermill Pond Dam (CT) (65432)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Completed	Advance installation of a fishway on the Papermill Pond dam, Sprague, Connecticut.	Sprague, CT	Thames Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited	On-Track	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1	53,504.00	11/4/2019-4/30/2021
04/14/2023	Fish Passage at the Highland Pond Dam (CT) (65752)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Completed	Design to remove one barrier to fish passage on the Sawmill Brook in Middletown, Connecticut.	Middletown, CT	The Middlesex Land Trust	On-Track	March 2020, was the beginning of a global pandemic. Every normal practice and procedure were turned on its ear. This was true for small land trusts, grant-making institutions, public agencies and small contractors. During Covid permit-review was taking longer than usual and this State Pier Project required some public hearings. The project team held Zoom calls to get to know one another and discuss the changing approach to the project. We developed additional strategies that could be employed to disseminate information in lieu of public meetings. We have learned that establishing clear communications about what the project’s scope of work is and isn’t, is important in helping the public understand why there is interest in a dam’s removal, what it is we hope to achieve and how this site connects with the bigger picture – here, the Connecticut River and Long Island Sound.	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-3	51,390.00	12/1/2019-12/31/2021
04/14/2023	Delivery of the Septic Improvement Program in Long Island Sound Watershed Communities (CT, NY) (65887)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Support delivery of the Septic Improvement Program by engaging and assisting homeowners with all elements of the program to foster installation of modern on-site septic systems in Suffolk County, and share lessons learned with Nassau and Westchester Counties in New York and with one local government in Connecticut.	NY & CT	The Nature Conservancy	On-Track	Although we met our metrics, we were optimistic about the nutrient reduction targets. Implementation is hard. There were many factors leading to our success, and if it were not for the confluence of events that led to our collaboration helping with the launch of Nassau’s SEPTIC, we could have failed to meet our primary goal of nutrient reduction. The key lesson we learned is that it takes teamwork, collaboration, and a wide coalition, and the government’s willingness to act to successfully implement nutrient reduction projects. The work is inherently risky and although we worked very hard, we still feel lucky to have succeeded.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2; WW-11; SC-7	175,002.00	1/1/2020-6/30/2021
04/14/2023	Restoring Fish Passage at Beaver Lake and Beaver Brook (NY) (49312)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Completed	Installed an engineered steeppass fishway at Beaver Lake on Beaver Brook in Mill Neck, New York.	Mill Neck, NY	The Nature Conservancy - Connecticut	On-track	Due to poor water quality, it was difficult to see species of fish were passing through the fishway. However, visual reports of an increase in the number of eagles, herons and osprey fishing at the lake indicate a high presence of forage fish and possibly, natural returns of alewife and newly hatched juveniles that may have escaped.	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1, HW-3, SC-7, SC-19	150,000.00	3/1/2016-6/29/2018
04/14/2023	Restoring Fish Passage on the Falls River (CT) (53646)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Completed	Designed fish passage at two dams on the Falls River a tributary to the lower Connecticut River in Centerbrook, Connecticut.	Centerbrook, CT	The Nature Conservancy - Connecticut	On-track	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1, HW-3	59,982.12	11/1/2016-4/30/2018
04/14/2023	Deploying a Nitrogen Reclamation Project in the Long Island Sound Watershed-III (VT (70296)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	Deploy nitrogen reclamation technology in Windham County, Vermont, Franklin County, Massachusetts and Cheshire County, New Hampshire. Increase use of nitrogen reclamation technology by enhancing capacity at its depots and delivering mobile eco-sanitation services in Vermont, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. Activities: 1) Deploy a new nutrient collection depot to enhance the capacity of current nutrient recycling; 2) Educate job sites and public events about the availability and value of eco-sanitation units reaching 10,000 people and to recruiting new nutrient recycling volunteer donors; 2) Upgrade the eco-sanitation units with educational signs and ADA-accessible units; and 3) Install a new pasteurizer in the current nutrient collection depot to provide for on-site treatment and direct transport of fertilizer for application on fields.	NH	The Rich Earth Institute	On-Track	Developed a greater awareness of the overall public interest in adopting nutrient recycling practices. As a result of our New York Times feature article, Rich Earth received hundreds of emails, phone calls, and social media engagements from people around the world. These communications were to praise our accomplishments, purchase urine diversion equipment, share resources, initiate more press coverage, and seek support with the rollout of nutrient recycling projects. We responded to this uptick in communications by offering more frequent educational webinars, sharing open source documents developed by our team, hosting reporters from additional media outlets, launching our own webstore, and building new partnerships. Rich Earth’s work is now serving larger national and global audiences in addition to operating our regional nutrient recycling project. We learned from the experience of planning and constructing our new depot in the Town of Westminster, Vermont. Rich Earth had to adapt the floor plan and layout of our new depot in order to fit within the parameters of a smaller space. Our project originally planned to use a prefabricated structure for the depot, but ultimately ended up selecting a space adjoining the main structure at the Rockingham/Westminster Recycling Center. This site required a permanent structure sturdy enough to withstand snowfall off the main building roof. To avoid overruns in construction cost, the new depot space we built had to be smaller than the light-weight prefabricated structure we had originally sought to use. Working within this smaller footprint, Rich Earth changed the design of the depot’s storage tank to be tall instead of wide. We have also learned how to better manage both the staffing and technology needed to operate our portable toilet service. After hiring a new part-time position and retrofitting all of the portable toilet units, we found a bottleneck in workflow stemming from the process of transporting and servicing the units. With only one truck to use across our organization, Rich Earth had to ensure that serving a higher volume of portable toilet events did not interfere with other activities that required our truck. These other activities included hauling materials for building projects, applications of our fertilizer on farmland, and pumping out both our depots and installations across Windham County. To address this logistical challenge, Rich Earth applied for grant funding to obtain a second truck, and in the interim we periodically borrowed the vehicle of our Research Director. As of the beginning of September 2022, Rich Earth has received a total of $80,000 through grant awards from the USDA Community Facilities Program and the Canaday Family Charitable Trust. This funding will be used to purchase a fue lefficient hybrid truck with a trailer and to retain our part-time position during the 2023 portable toilet busy season. As Rich Earth expanded educational programming, we have learned some best practices for reaching wider audiences and building new partnerships. We have seen how a considerable number of attendees indicate on follow-up surveys that they learned about events from Facebook or Instagram. This learning has prompted our team to put more consistent energy into maintaining visibility on social media.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-4; SC-1	96,734.00	10/1/2020-3/31/2022
04/14/2023	Advancing Deployment of the Nutrient Reclamation Project in the Long Island Sound Watershed-II (VT) (65655)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	Identify new sites to install innovative nutrient reclamation and recycling technology in Windham County, Vermont. Project will expand the number of sites committing to install a technology designed to reduce nitrogen entering the Connecticut River and ultimately Long Island Sound.	Windham County, VT	The Rich Earth Institute	On-Track	One key lesson learned during the grant period has informed Rich Earth’s work as we engage regulators and facility owners to navigate permitting processes. The work we have done to pioneer new regulatory pathways has also clarified and narrowed what types of sites and installations are allowed by our Innovative/Alternative permit. Rich Earth is now tailoring our recommendations to focus on the installations that are specifically cited in the permit. We are also now working with a licensed designer who has a VT soil certificate and can certify that the existing system is in compliance with current wastewater regulations. This certification is most relevant to facilities with septic systems. All of these adaptations to our site visit and planning process will serve to inform the future work of Rich Earth and any other agency working with groups to install urine diversion systems. A second key lesson learned from this project is an increased awareness of Rich Earth’s reputation as an international hub of information and innovation among a growing audience of people who seek out our work. Our network has grown to include a wide variety of individuals and groups who are making their own contributions to the emerging fields of urine diversion, resource recovery, and productive sanitation. Throughout 2020, our team has also witnessed a significant increase in the volume of inquiries about the work. From hosting our 2020 Summit online, we reached our largest ever group of people who stayed engaged throughout three days of digital programming and discussions. This past year, our launch of the Gold Ribbon Commission also connected our work with a larger national network of people interested in advancing new regulatory policy in the sanitation sector.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-12 ; SC-7	43,890.00	10/1/2019-3/30/2021
04/14/2023	Deploying a Nutrient Reclamation Project in the Long Island Sound Watershed-II (VT) (65644)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	Install nutrient reclamation technology in Windham County and adjacent counties in Vermont.	Windham County, VT	The Rich Earth Institute	On-Track	Our biggest lesson learned throughout the grant period stems directly from our experiences working with different regulatory agencies to advance urine diversion and nutrient recycling practices. As we continue to move these practices to scale, our team has incorporated new infrastructure into sanitation systems. We have designed installations that utilize technology developed by our team, as well as technology developed by our international counterparts, including toilets from Wostman and Laufen who are also focused on new sanitation infrastructure. In doing so, Rich Earth has seen how piloting innovative systems to transform the existing sanitation paradigm has catalyzed a range of responses from different regulatory bodies. We have found that some regulators are supportive and encouraging of our work, while other regulators are less receptive to approaches that diverge from the existing paradigm of conventional wastewater management. During the grant period, Rich Earth has been confronted with new regulatory requirements that were not previously cited as relevant to our work. Responding to these requirements has spurred a substantial investment of our team’s time and energy. We had to prepare troves of documentation about the systems we had designed, which required that our team create new relationships with builders and specialists. We have also encountered conflicting notions presented by different members of the same regulatory body, which has created confusion. We know that every member of the regulatory body needs to be in favor of a project if it is to receive approval. Accordingly, our team has done our best to make sure that regulators who are less receptive to innovative systems receive all the documentation they need to approve the installation of Rich Earth’s urine diversion systems. Rich Earth submitted documentation to the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC)’s Drinking Water and Groundwater Protection Division, as well as the Vermont State Plumbers Examining Board. It has taken considerable time for regulatory agencies to respond to our communications once we have submitted all of the required documents to address the new regulatory considerations. Additionally, it has taken several rounds of communication with some of these agencies for Rich Earth to be able to receive decisions about the legality of the permits or fixtures we have planned to pilot. Through this process, we have learned that we cannot accurately predict the timeframe or outcome of this ongoing work with different regulatory agencies, even when we have been given indications about what to expect. As our team looks towards the next steps for navigating the regulatory environment in Vermont and beyond, we are exploring the possibility of hiring a part-time staff member as a permitting specialist and point person moving forward. We have learned how much time and energy it takes to get the appropriate regulatory approvals and permits for innovative systems that do not fit into conventional approaches. Having a point person to focus specifically on the regulatory components of our work would be a tremendous benefit to our team’s workflow. We see the outcomes of working with a regulatory specialist as supporting a more streamlined process for developing and implementing new sanitation infrastructure, and helping us build relationships with different regulatory agencies. Aside from the regulatory work, we have learned several lessons about public engagement as we operated throughout the Covid-19 Pandemic. Our team witnessed an increased demand for our portable toilet service as a growing number of public events and gatherings were convened outdoors. Event coordinators have cited how they value the opportunity to align their work with ecologically beneficial practices as they continue to contract with our portable toilet service for different events throughout the season. From this feedback, we have learned how our portable toilet service is perceived by different stakeholders in our community, and we have come to understand just how important this service is for our public engagement efforts. Rich Earth launched new online programming during the pandemic, which created learning opportunities about best practices for engaging audiences outside our regional service area for our community-based nutrient recycling program. Our online events this past year have been offered free of charge or by donation including our urine donor appreciation party, annual Summit, educational webinar series, and presentations to different groups. Coordinating and delivering these online events has shown our team the extent to which people outside of our tri-state area are aware of Rich Earth and interested in what we do. The connections we have made through these events have helped Rich Earth facilitate nutrient recycling practices in other areas along the Connecticut River Watershed, and new regions around the world.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-12 ; WW-2; SC-7	79,998.00	10/1/2019-6/30/2021
04/14/2023	A Green Schoolyard at PS 107X: Providing Community Green Space and Improving Water Quality (NY) (70139)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	Construct green infrastructure on a playground at Public School 107X in the Bronx, New York. The area is part of an U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Justice Community affected by socioeconomic and environmental threats. Activities: 1) Construct green infrastructure which may include permeable pavers, trees and tree pits, raingardens, a green roof gazebo, planters, and a turf area; and 2) Teach students about green infrastructure and its impact on the Sound and install an interpretive sign about it. The revitalized playground will be open to the public after school and on weekends, serving the entire community, advancing equity, and promoting a healthy Bronx River and Sound.	Bronx, NY	The Trust for Public Land	On-Track	The most significant lesson learned through the development of a green schoolyard at PS 296Q centered around the COVID-19 pandemic and associated project delays. Even with The Trust for Public Land’s years of experience developing green schoolyards in New York City alongside public entities, unexpected and uncontrollable outside issues can impact our timelines and pipelines. Along with the rest of the country, we were not expecting a global pandemic to lead to a city shutdown and then make in-person work exceedingly difficult. Though we cannot prevent unprecedented emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic in the future, we will keep in mind that the unprecedented can happen and know that our plans may be disrupted. Even once New York City reopened and construction was technically allowed to resume, there was a period through which we were unable to get the City to allow work at PS 107X to start again, due to caution and competing needs as the pandemic continued. This highlights the importance of continuously demonstrating the value of our programming to our city partners as a top priority among many city needs. Luckily, recent City commitments, such as post-Hurricane Ida flood mitigation plans, show that this is understood. Beyond the impact of the pandemic, building a green schoolyard at PS 107X providing an example of a new way to expand program impact. Our first-time partnership with the community organization YouthBuild yielded the lesson that with the right thinking and by working with grassroots groups, we can – in addition to address environmental needs, lack of green space access, education, and health – promote skills and workforce development. We hope to build on the success of this pilot partnership at additional TPL community schoolyard projects.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	SC-7; SC-19; WW-2; SC-4	242,372.00	12/1/2020-6/30/2021
04/14/2023	A Green New York City Playground for Public School 296Q and the Elmhurst Community (NY) (65829)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	Deploy green infrastructure on a school playground at Public School 296Q in Elmhurst, Queens, New York.	Queens, NY	The Trust for Public Land	On-Track	The most significant lesson learned through the development of a green schoolyard at PS 296Q centered around the COVID-19 pandemic and associated project delays. Even with The Trust for Public Land’s years of experience developing green schoolyards in New York City alongside public entities, unexpected and uncontrollable outside issues can impact our timelines and pipelines. Along with the rest of the country, we were not expecting a global pandemic to lead to a city shutdown and then make in-person work exceedingly difficult. Though we cannot prevent unprecedented emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic in the future, we will keep in mind that the unprecedented can happen and know that our plans may be disrupted. Even once New York City reopened and construction was technically allowed to resume, there was a period through which we were unable to get the City to allow work at PS 107X to start again, due to caution and competing needs as the pandemic continued. This highlights the importance of continuously demonstrating the value of our programming to our city partners as a top priority among many city needs. Luckily, recent City commitments, such as post-Hurricane Ida flood mitigation plans, show that this is understood. Beyond the impact of the pandemic, building a green schoolyard at providing an example of a new way to expand program impact. Our first-time partnership with the community organization YouthBuild yielded the lesson that with the right thinking and by working with grassroots groups, we can – in addition to address environmental needs, lack of green space access, education, and health – promote skills and workforce development. We hope to build on the success of this pilot partnership at additional TPL community schoolyard projects.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	SC-19; WW-2	30,016.00	10/1/2019-11/1/2021
07/29/2022	Green Infrastructure and Coastal Resilience Planning in Long Island Sound Coastal Communities (NY) (65638)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	Implemented a community-based land-use leadership program to encourage 100 municipal government leaders in six Long Island Sound communities to consider integrating green infrastructure and coastal resilience strategies into planning in Westchester County, New York.	Westchester County, NY	Pace University	Completed	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	SC-24	34,627.00	1/6/2020- 1/4/2021
04/14/2023	Sound Effects: A Public Conservation Education Program – III (NY) (70293)	Public Education and Outreach	Ongoing	Deliver a public education series with hands-on learning and conservation-based activities to inform people about the effects of pollution on Long Island Sound.	Cold Spring Harbor, NY	The Whaling Museum Society	On-Track	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-1	9,941.00	12/1/2020 - 12/31/2021
04/14/2023	SOUNDoff Event! Creating Long Island Sound Stewards (NY) (53446)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Hosted an event to engage and inform children and adults about how to play an active role in preserving the Long Island Sound through hands-on activities in Cold Spring Harbor, New York.	Cold Spring Harbor, NY	The Whaling Museum Society	On-track	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-1, SC-7, SC-19	3,698.61	1/2/2017-4/23/2017
07/29/2022	Sound Effects: A Public Conservation Education Program –II (NY) (65534)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Design and host a public education series for 300 adults, families and elementary school students with hands-on learning and conservation activities in Cold Spring Harbor, New York.	Cold Spring Harbor, NY	The Whaling Museum Society	Completed	2020 was a challenging year. While our planned in-person programs had to be redesigned for a virtual audience, we just didn't see the same level of engagement as we normally would. Family programs like Ocean Science Sundays didn't do as well virtually as adult-focused lectures, and even then, attendance was inconsistent at best. Moving forward, we are marketing these programs to specific Facebook groups, to target the audiences most likely to engage. We also found that having pre-made, take-home kits made for a better turnout, so moving forward with programs like Ocean Science Sunday we will try to offer Science Experiment kits to take home. We also shifted to more online promotion of events, after our local paper cut back publishing amidst covid-related delays.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-1	9,864.94	12/1/2019-11/15.2020
04/14/2023	SOUNDoff Event! Creating Long Island Sound Stewards (NY) (49648)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Hosted a one-day event to engage and inform children and adults about how to play active roles in preserving the Long Island Sound through hands-on activities, Cold Spring Harbor, New York.	Cold Spring Harbor, NY	The Whaling Museum Society	On-track	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-7, SC-19	6,902.34	1/4/2016-4/18/2016
04/14/2023	Still River Watershed Plan Implementation: Brookfield Public Works Stormwater Retrofit (CT) (70041)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	Develop design plans and secure permits for a green infrastructure retrofit at the public works facility in Brookfield, Connecticut. The design will involve subterranean filtering and hydrodynamic separation structures to remove and/or filter large debris, fine sediments, hydrocarbons, nutrients, and heavy metals; biofiltration swales to intercept and filter water; removing invasive plants and creating a buffer of native plants to capture and filter runoff; and a level spreader at the end of each storm drain to reduce the speed of water before it enters the river. Project activities: 1) Create permit-ready design plans for stormwater retrofit; and 2) Procure all permits for construction.	Brookfield, CT	Town of Brookfield	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2; SC-20	24,300.00	11/2/2020-5/2/2022
04/14/2023	Long Island Sound Environmental Education Series (NY) (70256)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Provide a Long Island Sound environmental education series in the Town of Brookhaven, New York. Project activities: 1) Conduct interactive library presentations about water quality with participants making rain chains which guide the flow of water from the roof for reuse on lawns or gardens. Collecting stormwater runoff from roofs reduces the amount of polluted water into waterways; 2) Deliver tours at Long Island Sound-based facilities including the Marine Education Stewardship Center which hosts a submarine room where touch screen computers provide an animated view of marine life in the Sound and a boardwalk with dunes and plants native to the coast; and Mt. Sinai Cedar Beach and Harbor home to the Town shellfish facility and eel grass restoration project; 3) Host three youth-friendly environmental education presentations incorporating stories, live animals, and information about the environment of the Sound; and 4) Conduct six conservation activities including native plantings and water quality testing through the Junior Environmental Stewards program.	Brookhaven, NY	Town of Brookhaven	On-Track	Making sure the online format for administering surveys is reliable and compatible. Data was lost due to restrictions and formatting of what was thought to be an easy online survey forum. We relied on the online survey because of adjustments in program structure due to covid, such as having to switch some classes to a virtual format or in person participants wanting to remain contactless and opting to complete the online survey when they returned home. Those online surveys were completed and then results were not able to be retrieved after some time had passed. Triple checking compatibility and immediately backing up any shared document results will be practiced in the future and is recommended to any other educational program coordinators.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-1; SC-18	8,800.00	12/1/2020-12/31/2021
04/14/2023	Oyster Planting to Improve Water Quality in Long Island Sound (NY) (65933)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	Plant 200,000 American oysters to assess their potential to remove nitrogen, phosphorus and carbon pollution from waters and repopulate a historic fishery in Port Jefferson Harbor, New York.	Port Jefferson, NY	Town of Brookhaven	On-Track	One key lesson from this project is the benefit of examining effects of oysters on water quality using a variety of techniques or methods including in situ water quality sondes, collecting water samples, and analyzing nutrient assimilation in oyster tissue and shells. While the water quality sondes gave a good overview of the filtration capabilities of oysters to improve water quality (e.g. by removing microalgae), the best quantitative measurement of nutrient removal resulted from analyzing nutrient (nitrogen and carbon) concentrations in oyster tissue and weight over the growing season. In contrast, analyzing nutrient concentration in water collected near and away from oysters gave inconclusive results. Some recommendations include: 1) examine nutrient assimilation in oyster tissue/shell at different times over the growing season; 2) examine phosphate assimilation in oyster tissue/shell, along with carbon and nitrogen; and 3) collect and analyze water samples from one management area only to increase replicate number to reduce background variability.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2; WW-1; HW-16	92,505.00	11/1/2019-3/1/2022
04/14/2023	Sustainability for the Town of Harrison (NY) (61524)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	Develop a drainage manual in Harrison, New York.	Harrison, NY	Town of Harrison	On-Track	The goal of the project was to identify new policies which the Town of Harrison can utilize in order to enhance its drainage capacity and increase water quality by reducing storm-water runoff and other forms of localized non-point source loading into the Long Island Sound. Produced a Drainage Manual which reviewed stormwater policies and best practices relative to green infrastructure development, as well as checklists which will be utilized in the future for the review and approval of projects. However, it did not result in identification of particular projects, due to the fact that including such work would have been cost prohibitive.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	SC-23	45,000.00	10/1/2018-6/30/2021
04/14/2023	Green Infrastructure to Reduce Stormwater Pollution at the Centerport Beach Recreation Facility (NY) (49439)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	Installed green infrastructure to prevent stormwater flowing from the Centerport Beach Recreation Facility into Northport Bay to improve water quality in the Bay and Long Island Sound in the Town of Huntington, New York.	Huntington, NY	Town of Huntington, New York	On-track	Long-term site maintenance issues with invasives, native plants and signs.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2, SC-7, SC-20	13,912.11	12/1/2015-12/15/2016
04/14/2023	Green Infrastructure at Mamaroneck Town Center to Improve Water Quality in Long Island Sound (NY) (49098)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	Installed green infrastructure in the Town of Mamaroneck, New York. to address stormwater runoff and prevent floatables flowing annually from the Mamaroneck Town Center into Mamaroneck Harbor to improve water quality in the Harbor and Long Island Sound.	Mamaroneck, NY	Town of Mamaroneck	On-track	Available footprint for GI (raingardens and pervious pavement was smaller than projected based on demand for parking, cost and long-term maintenance requirements.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2, SC-7, SC-20	4,485.00	3/2/2015-7/28/2017
04/14/2023	Green Infrastructure to Reduce Nitrogen Pollution at Montague Town Hall (MA) (69894)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	Construct green infrastructure in a paved lot near the Connecticut River in Turners Falls, Massachusetts. activities: 1) Install a detention basin and a vegetated strip of native plants to capture and filter pollution from the surrounding landscape of lot and streets; and 2) Engage the Town’s public works department and three young people from the local teen center to install the project. The project will remove 8,535 sq. ft. of paved impervious parking lot, prevent polluted stormwater, nitrogen, and sediment from entering the Connecticut River and Long Island Sound, and set the stage for series of green infrastructure projects planned for the town.	Turners Falls, MA	Town of Montague	On-Track	Managing this project taught grantee a great deal about erosion, effective drainage, and understanding the differences between real site conditions and "on-paper" conditions. During design, grantee assumed that stormwater would sheetflow off the adjacent parking lot and into the basin. However, this did not occur in real life. The Town Hall parking lot is old--it is criss-crossed with cracks, pitted with potholes, and generally full of microtopographic irregularities. This microtopography caused runoff to flow in streams through the parking lot’s low areas. Thus, runoff moved from the parking lot into the green infrastructure system not as evenly-distributed sheet flow, but in streams which cut channels into the walls of the basin. After observing this, grantee installed stone-filled drainage features to convey stream flows from the parking lot into the basin.granteeWriting sufficient budgets is another lesson that I learned while managing this project. I learned that in a good budget, one should ask for more than one thinks one needs to complete the project. My budget for this project included only materials, labor, and a few services. While admirably thrifty, it included nothing that would help the project deal with the unexpected issues, like erosion, that occurred. Managing this project taught me that a 10% “contingency” line item is an essential piece of a good budget. Lastly, grantee learned that project success hinges on effective communication between the various people and departments that are interested in the site. The last-minute redesigns that reduced the size of the project and resulted in an overtaxed budget and problems with internal communications in with the Town.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2; SC-20	10,642.00	1/14/2021-11/15/2021
04/14/2023	Watershed Planning to Reduce Water Pollution in the Pootatuck River Basin of Long Island Sound (CT) (70280)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	Prepare a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Nine Element (9E) Watershed Plan to reduce nonpoint source pollution- especially nitrogen and pathogens- into the Pootatuck River and downstream to Long Island Sound in Connecticut. Activities: 1) Organize stakeholders and volunteers to participate plan development; 2) Identify and quantify sources of pollution; 3) Conduct field assessments along parts of the Pootatuck, and in its tributaries and uplands; 4) Identify, prioritize, and develop three to four priority projects to reduce nonpoint source pollution and prepare a detailed plan for one project; 5) Describe financial and technical assistance needed to implement the plan; 6) Estimate a schedule to implement projects and achieve milestones; 7) Identify criteria to be used to assess water quality improvements and related monitoring; and 8) Engage students from Newtown High School in planning.	Pootatuck River, CT	Town of Newtown	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-14; WW-35	29,216.00	11/2/2020-5/2/2022
04/14/2023	Nitrogen Removal in South Hadley, Massachusetts to Improve Long Island’s Water Quality (MA) (61490)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	Replaced a mechanical aerator to provide extra oxygen needed to improve the nitrification process at the South Hadley Wastewater Treatment Plant, Hadley Massachusetts. The new, larger aerator will decrease a source of nitrogen discharge into to upper basin area of the Long Island Sound watershed by an estimated 14,000 pounds of nitrogen annually.	Hadley, MA	Town of South Hadley	On-track	Fire at facility made it impossible to calculate N prevention.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2, WW-4	276,900.00	10/2/2018-10/1/2020
04/14/2023	Upgrading the South Hadley Wastewater Treatment Plant Decreasing Nitrogen into Long Island Sound (MA) (65990)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	Upgrade sensors and systems at the wastewater treatment plant, Chicopee, Massachusetts.	Chicopee, MA	Town of South Hadley	On-Track	A fire at the facility completely disrupted the plant for an extended period of time, resulting in significant delays in project implementation. As a result, the facility was unable to utilize the new equipment to optimize for Nitrogen this year.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-4; WW-2	132,600.00	10/2/2019-4/1/2021
04/14/2023	Fish Passage on Beaver Brook (CT) (65848)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Completed	Develop plans to remove barriers to fish passage on Beaver Brook, Sprague, Connecticut.	Sprague, CT	Town of Sprague	On-Track	Planning projects for dam removals require careful consideration of various factors including options for reuse of impounded sediment, potential impacts to neighboring properties and infrastructure, and previous alterations to the stream and its flow related to dam construction or mill operations. Successful project teams must communicate well, must consider design alternatives, and must work together to resolve challenges as they arise. Without good communication and collaboration between team members, project plans can progress in the wrong direction resulting in a plan that is unnecessarily complicated or less feasible to implement. Each team member brings his/her own expertise, experiences and ideas to the table. Creating opportunities for collaboration results in a plan that meets the objectives of the project (fish passage), the needs of regulators (remove the dam), the dam owner (remove the liability), engineers (create a practical plan) and the community (improve the river). It's difficult to get people interested in things with which they have no familiarity. Most residents in Sprague are unfamiliar with these two town-owned dams and, just as we’ve learned in other communities, they are unfamiliar with how dams impact streams. There are three myths we work to disprove: that dams provide flood control, that removing a dam results in stream flow loss, and that post-removal the site will remain as mudflats forever after. People become more enthusiastic about dam removal when they learn these myths are untrue and when they learn how dams affect river health and how river health is related to estuary health. Often, when they learn about the extensive history of dams in Connecticut, that few streams are without them, when they learn the number of dams no longer serving a useful purpose and come to understand a dam owner’s liability concerns, they become excited about the restoration opportunities on the river. The ah-ha moment after a presentation on these topics is exciting to witness. We need to find more opportunities to talk about the connection between rivers, dams and the health of Long Island Sound. Staff changes may require project teams to bring new individuals up to speed quickly. It’s important to know whether staff who have left a position also left some key steps in the process unfinished, (i.e., followed all required steps for project approval). Working relationships needed to be reestablished and lines of communication opened to keep projects moving along and to establish an understanding about where to direct questions or from whom to request assistance.	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1	97,800.00	12/1/2019-5/31/2021
04/14/2023	Sliver by the River: Planning for Greening the Pequonnock River on the Bridgeport Waterfront (CT) (65806)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	Develop an alternatives analysis about the type of green infrastructure to add to the coastal hazard mitigation plan for a three-acre sliver of land along the Pequonnock River, Bridgeport, Connecticut.	Bridgeport, CT	Trust for Public Land	On-Track	Though the effects of the pandemic continue to influence public planning and shoreline development, we have been heartened by the success of virtual community engagement methods during the COVID-19 era. Virtual meetings of the Waterfront Advisory Board have been well attended, and we adapted our public outreach strategies effectively, as we have seen through the successful promotion of shoreline clean-up events and the new waterfront walking group. Most importantly, the green infrastructure alternatives analysis at the Sliver by the River demonstrably helped residents to understand the opportunities and constraints at the site, specifically ways that green infrastructure may support environmentally beneficial future uses. We see the analysis as a communication tool to help guide and inform the community’s decisions during the public design process later this year. Similar green infrastructure analyses would be equally well suited to other shoreline locations that have been prioritized for revitalization in waterfront planning documents. One such opportunity site is Yellow Mill Channel, located across Bridgeport Harbor from the Sliver by the River.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2; SC-7	85,112.00	10/1/2019-3/30/2021
07/29/2022	Rain Gardens at Port Jefferson Harbor: Linking Water, Wildlife and Waterways (NY) (61471)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	Install native plant rain gardens in high visibility areas and provide natural landscaping guidance to community members in Port Jefferson, New York.	Port Jefferson, NY	Maritime Explorium	Completed	Lessons learned: (1) an interactive collaborative team approach creates successful avenues to achieve project goals as obstacles arose; (2) outdoor public education venues maximize accessibility in challenging circumstances that close indoor spaces; (3) high visibility demonstration sites with explanatory, low-print density signage draw interest in restoration efforts; and (4) an appeal to the public’s sense of beauty is key in fostering engagement in learning about and participating in restoration efforts. Lesson 1: Collaborators worked “outside their lanes” in overcoming COVID-related business closings and transportation stoppages and negotiated with village, town, and county officials in finding a new garden site in order to complete the installations. The creation of a consortium of collaborators that included public and private alliances and the establishment of open communication lines among collaborators on all project goals, needs and activities contributed to the project’s successful completion. An extension from the granting agency allowed us to negotiate a new land-use agreement. The final rain garden was installed in July 2020, once NYS COVID-19 reopening plans allowed Suffolk County Soil and Water Conservation District personnel to contribute to installing the garden. Lesson 2: Outdoor public education venues maximized accessibility to project deliverables. We expect that the rain gardens will continue to provide education and inspiration for backyard restoration efforts, as well as joy to the public even when the museum building is closed. Lesson 3: High visibility “show me” sites and signage in friendly language drew interest in restoration efforts during the project period and continue to do so. The sites of all three rain gardens were specifically selected because they are on a busy roads: one, across from a hospital and near a train station, is a main access route to Eastern Long Island; one, in front of the Port Jefferson Village Hall, is on the main thoroughfare to the village that hosts 30,000 visitors per year and leads to an interstate ferry; and one is across from the Long island Explorium a children’s science and engineering museum that hosts an average of 12000 visitors per year and sponsors a Maker Faire that annually hosts 3000. All locations are highly trafficked, allowing for significant public awareness. Lesson 4: he public evidenced their appreciation of beauty. The sensory aspects of the rain garden, particularly the beauty of the plants themselves, the landscaped arrangements of different plants complementing each other, and the length and diversity of blooming times captured people’s interest during the project period and continue to do so. People saw the demonstration gardens as restoration features that they wanted where they live. They wanted to know more about native plants, appreciated how rain gardens clean water and support wildlife and pledged to do more in their own localities to restore environmental health. It became clear that changing conceptions of beauty prompted participants’ increased interest in native plant rain gardens.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	SC-20; SC-14	43,626.00	11/5/2018-11/2/2020
04/14/2023	Water Quality Sampling in the Major Tributaries to Long Island Sound	Monitoring	Completed	Discrete water quality samples collected bimonthly June-September. Continuous water quality monitoring will be carried out during the same period. Discrete and Continuous water quality methods and logistics are described in the Quality Assurance Project Plan.	CT	United States Geological Survey	On-Track	Water quality sonde location was changed from left bank to the center of the river to lessen the chance of data being biased by upstream tributary.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-28	160,000.00	10/1/2019 - 12/31/2021
04/14/2023	Streamflow and water-quality monitoring of the Nissequogue River in Suffolk County, New York	Monitoring	Completed	To provide streamflow and water-quality information from the largest river on Long Island, New York entering Long Island Sound. The collected data would provide the information needed to assess loading of contaminates.	Nissequogue River, Suffolk County, NY	United States Geological Survey	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-6, WW-24, WW-26	27,750.00	10/1/2020 - 09/30/2022
04/14/2023	Water Quality Enhancement to Support Hypoxia Management in Long Island Sound	Monitoring	Completed	To support activities to assess the accuracy of water quality monitoring data used to measure the area and extent of hypoxia, or lack of dissolved oxygen, in Long Island Sound, and enhance those data by acquisition and deployment of new equipment and the application of new or enhanced water quality monitoring and assessment methodologies and techniques, including remote sensing.	Long Island Sound Watershed	University of Connecticut	On-track	Access to labs and ships was delayed by COVID so work was delayed. Equipment repair was also delayed by similar difficulties and the service providers. But rapid progress in April allowed instrument buoy rehabilitation and deployment has been completed.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-8, WW-27, WW-32	26,000.00	10/1/2017 - 05/31/2021
07/29/2022	A Fishway for Pages Millpond Dam (CT) (61301)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Completed	Construct a fishway to open 5.35 river miles and 4.25 lake acres of fish habitat for alewife, blueback herring and American eel in North Branford, Connecticut.	North Branford, CT	Save the Sound	Completed	Lessons Learned: Save the Sound was asked by TU Hammonasset and the Suter Family to lead the construction phase of this project because our organizational capacity and significant experience were key to managing its implementation. The insurance, legal, and financial oversight requirements of a project of this scale preclude small organizations like TU Hammonasset from managing construction. Save the Sound is working to help identify similar needs and help build implementation capacity within the restoration community Sound-wide.	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1	249,947.41	10/1/2018-9/30/2020
07/29/2022	Planning and Coordination for Coastal Forest Habitat Management in Bronx Park (NY) (61208)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Completed	Develop a management plan for 170 acres of coastal maritime forest in the Bronx Park in New York.	Bronx, NY	Natural Areas Conservancy	Completed	Lessons Learned: Working together in a shared, iterative process provided an effective way to engender buy-in from all five organizations that co-manage the forest. During discussion of common issues partners were able to work toward beneficial solutions for the management of these natural forests. We also saw the benefit of using a single method to assess and inventory forests to direct management decisions as well as having a formal framework to organize collaboration and coordination of restoration efforts among partners managing these forests. For example, a particular ornamental plant that was used historically at the Botanical Garden was recognized as being invasive and is now being managed for eradication by all adjoining forest managers. One lesson that is likely to be ongoing is the turnover of key staff that took part in the project. To keep momentum, commitment, and consistent data collection and management, ongoing training and communication will need to be supported. Some of these activities can be continued as the joint missions of the organizations but heavier lifts such as technological support, equipment and quality control will continue to need additional support to be successful.	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1; HW-13	99,810.30	1/1/2019-3/31/2020
04/14/2023	Connecticut embayment tributary nitrogen removal: calibrating rates to geomorphology to improve parameterization of watershed loading models	Research	Ongoing	To measure rates of nitrate removal in stream tributaries discharging to eight embayments; characterize stream geomorphology and discharge in stream reaches where nitrate removal is measured; and establish model proxies for nitrogen removal based on channel slope, hypsometry, sinuosity, discharge, and sediment grain size.	CT	University of Connecticut	Off-Track	Timing of contracting eliminated the 2021 field season. No cost time extension approved for 9/30/2023.	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	WW-27	98,670.00	10/1/2021 - 9/30/2023
07/29/2022	Innovative Diversion Technology to Reduce Wastewater Nitrogen in the Long Island Sound Watershed (VT) (61150).	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	Install technology to divert urine from waste to be recycled into sanitized fertilizer, and applied to hay fields in Windham County, Vermont.	Windham County, VT	Rich Earth Institute	Completed	Challenges resulting from regulatory requirements included: 1) deploying new divided bowl toilets and urinals required engagement of Vermont Plumbers Examining Board to complete installations in public buildings to meet US plumbing specifications. Plumbers Examining Board limited the project to one pilot installation. This one installation at Westminster Library will pave the road for future installations; 2) worked with the Wastewater Department of the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources. Early consultations with regulators at these agencies established an approach to wastewater performance, however, the regulatory guidance changed over time; and 3) in navigating regulatory challenges, team also learned how to better prepare detailed technical specifications and how to adapt designs to address concerns and requirements of across regulatory agencies. As a result of this work, audiences in the Connecticut River Upper Basin are becoming more engaged in the practice of nutrient recycling as they understand its impacts in terms of environmental stewardship. By hosting presentations and tabling at public events, team is helping people learn about the connection between wastewater management in our region’s watershed and nutrient pollution in the Long Island Sound. The content we are communicating draws upon data from the Long Island Sound Study, illustrating the magnitude of the environmental degradation stemming from nutrient pollution.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2	115,720.00	10/1/2018 - 6/30/2020
07/29/2022	SoundWaters Bioextraction Seaweed Farm (CT) (61429)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	install a seaweed farm to bioextract pollution from Stamford Harbor and Long Island Sound; and educate students, teachers and the public about environmental, economic and community benefits of seaweed bioextraction in Stamford, Connecticut.	Stamford, CT	SoundWaters	Completed	Expertise and Technical Skills Acquired. This experience reinforced our understanding of the need for careful preparation before a project of this size is undertaken. Staff had many internal and external meetings and on-the –water sessions. New Collaborations. Prior to the Covid crisis, we anticipated working with teachers, students and volunteers. This crisis caused us to seek out new collaborators including small community farms. Each farm manager was an enthusiastic partner who helped us to bring in an abundant, wet and heavy crop from the boat to the dock and eventually for transport in trucks to the farms. Met with restaurant owners who were interested in using seaweed as a food ingredient on menus. However, discussions on hold until the current COVID-19 crisis has ended. This experience has opened up an amazing set of future community project collaborations that underscored the need to think differently in ways to connect sound environmental practices to the public, in addition to schools. Covid pandemic prevented evaluation of bioextraction by seaweed cultivated. Project also faced challenges with location and permits which resulted in reduction in scope of work of project.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2; SC-19; WW-25	38,307.00	12/1/2018 - 8/31/2020
07/29/2022	Community-driven Nitrogen Action Planning for Southeastern Connecticut Harbors and Bays (CT) (61430)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	Develop a locally driven watershed-based nitrogen action plan that prioritizes activities to reduce nitrogen pollution entering three Southeastern Connecticut coastal harbors and bays and Long Island Sound.	CT	The Nature Conservancy	Completed	Lessons Learned: Studies show Southeastern Connecticut communities value and recognize the benefits clean water provides and are highly supportive of land use practices and local investments that protect water. Community members also express great willingness to take individual actions that reduce water pollution impacts, such as changing lawn care practices and managing onsite septic systems. During the project workshops and public meetings participants expressed they were surprised by the following information: Eelgrass declined by 43% in Little Narragansett Bay between 2013-2017; Wastewater makes up 50-52% of nitrogen load in Mystic River and Pawcatuck River watersheds; 30% of Pawcatuck River watershed nitrogen load makes up 93% of nitrogen load to Little Narragansett Bay. While concerned by these statistics, participants said they were highly motivated by stories of recovery success – particularly in nearby Mumford Cove, where eelgrass rebounded 15 years after a wastewater outfall was rerouted. Our project underscores the importance of engaging local stakeholders to ensure community values and needs are understood, included and prioritized in water resource management plans. Multiple water research projects, assessments and planning approaches are underway in Southeastern Connecticut and nearby Rhode Island watersheds. While these projects highlight the geographic, cultural and economic importance of water resources in the region, stakeholders identified the potential for confusion about project similarities, differences and connections among public audiences. To address this challenge, our communication and engagement working group collaborated with program and project leaders from across the region to both clarify connections and identify opportunities for shared messages and communication helping to reduce confusion and speed up implementation of projects.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2	40,862.00	11/5/2018 - 8/1/2020
07/29/2022	Producing and Implementing a Community-supported Long Island Sound Blue Plan (CT, NY) (61436)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Engage stakeholders, scientists, and government to finalize the Long Island Sound Blue Plan and Implementation Guide in CT & NY. The plan looks at human activities in the marine environment to achieve ecological, economic, and social objectives, and to protect and restore Long Island Sound.	NY & CT	The Nature Conservancy	Completed	Numerous Lessons Learned emerged from this phase of Blue Plan development. Many of these are presented in the Blue Plan Practitioners Guide, but some of the most relevant, and others not in the Guide: The Blue Plan can be used by anyone interested in LIS, in ways much broader than imagined at the outset. This ranges from proving inspiration for community redevelopment options in Bridgeport (see Practitioners Guide pg. 9) to improved inter-agency permitting at the Federal level (see Practitioners Guide pg. 25), and many other avenues in between. The Blue Plan integrates into a larger framework of planning tools for Long Island Sound, and beyond. Many of these are supported by the Long Island Sound Study (LISS) and are becoming available at about the same time as the Blue Plan or are in development for future availability. Please see section 3.3.1 in the Practitioners Guide for more details. A broad understanding of the process of Marine Spatial Planning that formed the Blue Plan is just as important an outcome of the Plan as the tools and documents associated with it are. Planners in Suffolk County, New York have stated that they wished they had something like this to model their efforts off of 10 years ago when they began their shellfish aquaculture lease program planning, and believe they would have run into fewer obstacles if they had the understanding that participating in the Blue Plan brought to them. We are seeing this play out in real time in another part of New York: a grass-roots coalition in Fishers Island is undertaking an MSP process to designate seagrass management areas, and not only are they benefiting from information produced by the Blue Plan, but the constituency groups they are working with are familiar with collaborative planning, in part through their involvement in the Blue Plan process. Planning processes like the Blue Plan need to continue to maintain contact with all involved groups throughout development. The Connecticut Marine Trades Association (CMTA) represents thousands of maritime-trades-related workers and was initially favorable of the Blue Plan, but then turned skeptical at the urging of just a few individuals. However, through continued communications, authentic conversations, and listening-to-learn and then following up, we were able to bring many of those skeptical individuals to understand and be comfortable with the final products of the Plan. However, without continued engagement, and re-engagement, the Blue Plan would not be as widely supported as it is. There is broad interest in the LIS community to sustain the Blue Plan and ensure that the information in it is up to date. This represents another step towards true community ownership and endorsement of the Plan, but it is still very much seen as a DEEP-owned and curated product. Future outreach could strive to increase community leadership to sustain the Plan. Similarly, there is still opportunity to build awareness of the Plan. Products such as the Users and Practitioners Guides will help with communication, but that communication must be active, and will be broadest if it comes from within user communities, from one professional to another. Future outreach from the Development Team will be necessary to continue momentum in the short term, but long term momentum and ownership will need to come from a Sound-wide familiarity with the Blue Plan. Working with educators, outreach and extension agents, and local municipal planners may be a good next step. As the broader LIS community continues to practice social distancing associated with COVID-19, the webinar platform has proven to be a strong communication tool for increasing understanding and comfort with Blue Plan tools in a way that may surpass that of in-person meetings. Because many of these tools are web-dependent, being able to demonstrate them in a platform already optimized for screen-sharing and recording has increased our ability to train others in using them. We did not use social media frequently to advertise meetings, webinars, etc., but when we did we generally received a larger audience. In the future, non-profits and state agencies should increase their use of social media ads for general and targeted audiences to pull a larger interested group together at public meetings.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SM-3	14,991.99	3/15/2019 - 7/10/2020
07/29/2022	Bringing Environmental Stewardship to the 2019 Play2Learn Festival (NY) (61530)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Expand the annual Play2Learn Festival to incorporate a Long Island Sound-based Play Zone in Harrison, New York.	Harrison, NY	Town of Harrison	Completed	Lessons Learned: Learned how the Whaling Museum's exhibit served to prove that when presented in an active manner, learning and environmental appreciation can easily be developed. This was especially true when it came to youth participation, as participant children became especially engaged when they were having fund, learning how to protect the sound and its wildlife.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-1	6,750.00	10/1/2018-10/1/2019
07/29/2022	Engaging New Landscaping Professionals in Non-toxic Landscaping Practices for Long Island Sound (CT) (61489)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Host two educational courses on non-toxic property management practices that reduce non-point source pollution entering Long Island Sound. Project will provide training for about 70 local landscapers to help them transition to practices that decrease common use of fertilizers, phosphorous and pesticides to reduce overall nitrogen pollution from entering Long Island Sound.	Long Island Sound Watershed	Northeast Organic Farming Association	Completed	Lessons Learned The major lesson learned throughout this program is the challenges with Spanish recruitment and live translations. While we held one of the trainings concurrently in English and Spanish, and translated our course material to Spanish, we found it difficult to decipher who needed Spanish translations and who did not. During the course, some folks would use the translation services one day and not the other. We didn't want to single out anyone for their lack of English speaking skills so we did not have attendees sign up for Spanish speaking services - rather, we provided those services to be used anonymously. One point that one of the translators made was that, often, Spanish speakers who live in the US won't self-identify as not to be singled out among English speakers. In the future, if and when we hold these sort of trainings again, we want to work out a way to encourage more Spanish-speaker participation without having anyone feel uncomfortable. One way we thought to achieve that is by having a class primarily in Spanish, rather than having Spanish translations from an English speaking instructor. Another lesson learned in this grant was with pollution reduction. This grant was really written as an education grant so pollution reduction, in the literal sense, was a secondary aspect. In the future, we would like to engrain pollution reduction as a focal point of theses projects with participants carefully measuring their inputs throughout the life of the project.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-14; SC-7	43,378.00	11/1/2018-12/31/2019
07/29/2022	Urban Oases: Community-based Education, Conservation, and Outreach to Enhance Habitats around Long Island Sound (CT) (61470)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Engage teachers, students and community members to enhance urban green spaces to increase the availability of habitat in urban parks and schoolyards for migrating birds and other wildlife in New Haven and Hamden, Connecticut.	New Haven and Hamden, CT	National Audubon Society	Completed	Lessons Learned Our outreach suggests there are many under-served residents in the greater New Haven area for whom this program could be an effective tool for them utilize and adapt to meet their community's needs. We need to continue to work with local advocacy organizations that serve these communities to build awareness of, and engagement in, the Urban Oases program. Another ongoing challenge is building local institutional capacity to sustain program progress over the long term. The Advisory Council and Habitat Exchanges serve to reinforce the value of the project and linkages among sites, while also ensuring the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all community members. Our eBird hotspots are successful engagement tools for local citizens of all ages.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-19	44,918.00	10/1/2018-12/31/2019
07/29/2022	Be a Good Egg III-Share the Shore with Shorebirds (NY) (61469)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Provide an environmental education program encouraging people to share the shore with shorebirds at shorelines on Long Island, New York.	NY	National Audubon Society	Completed	Lessons Learned: Unfortunately, conservation NGO’s and agencies often have limited resources and few staff responsible for numerous sites, making it difficult to have a constant presence on the beach. Through our Be a Good Egg outreach events, we have increased the presence of stewards on the beach, focusing on weekends when beaches are busiest. However, we identified a need for more frequent and increased presence of stewards on the beach beyond our permitted and scheduled Be a Good Egg events. While other states rely on volunteers to watch out for the birds, most beach-nesting bird stewardship and monitoring on Long Island is done by paid staff. We saw an opportunity to empower volunteers to become ambassadors for the birds and help increase the presence of stewards at key sites. So, we compiled recommendations from Audubon Florida, the Connecticut Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds, and partners on Long Island and piloted a new beach steward volunteer program in partnership with NYS Parks. After completing a training session, volunteers signed up for three or more hour long stewardship shifts at Sunken Meadow State Park, with a focus on evenings and weekends. This allowed volunteers to go out on the beach on their own, engage more beach-goers, and cover hours outside seasonal technicians’ work days. NYS Parks staff recommended that we continue to implement the Beach Steward Volunteer program in the future in addition to the more structured Be a Good Egg outreach program. We recommend that more partners on Long Island utilize trained volunteers to increase the presence of stewards on the beach. Also, partnerships continued to be a key to success. The lack of enforcement of leash laws and “no dogs” regulations is an issue at many Long Island Sound beaches. While the presence of a steward on the beach can increase compliance with dog laws, it’s important that land managers catch and follow through with violations. We recommend that conservation organizations create a training program specifically for local law enforcement officers to help them understand how they can help protect beach-nesting birds and their habitats along the Long Island Sound.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	HW-10; SC-19	36,008.00	1/15/2019-1/6/2020
07/29/2022	Celebration of Long Island Sound at SUNY Maritime College (NY) (61462)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Host “Celebration of the Long Island Sound” in Throggs Neck, New York. Project will build awareness and connect about 500 students and residents to the Sound.	Throggs Neck, NY	The Research Foundation for the State University of New York	Completed	Lessons Learned: Difficult to coordinate with visiting schools prior to student day. As a results students were not able to get wet. Schedule required flexibility for groups that were often late or needed to leave early. Staff needs are intensive for hands-on waterfront activities as a result we added some passive activities (i.e. DJ, Picnic Area, Games) but could use even more to handle large crowds. Suggest: Larger marine animal touch tank. Open Maritime’s Aquatic Center for free swim in pool. Have Athletic Department activities (i.e. basketball, etc.). Tie-in to Fleet Week and City of Water Day helped promote the event but made timing bad for some partners hosting their own events (i.e. Rock the Boat, Bronx River Alliance). Strengthen conservation connection – due in part to the larger numbers than expected we could have done more to promote Long Island Sound and stewardship activities such as the shoreline clean-up among others.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-1	7,665.00	11/1/2018-10/1/2019
07/29/2022	A Natural Resources Review for New London (CT) (61386)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	Review of the condition of the city's natural resources and watershed health.	New London, CT	City of New London, CT	Completed	Lessons Learned. Conducted stakeholder workshops which helped engage stakeholder education and interest in longer term management of water resources.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	SC-23	35,000.00	10/1/2018-6/30/2020
07/29/2022	Schooner Coastal Exploration, Stewardship, and Environmental Education about Long Island Sound (CT) (61352)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Provide hands-on educational programming for underserved youth and families through summer camp, on-the-water programs, public education and outreach events, and school-based programs focusing on protection of Long Island Sound water and land resources in New Haven, Connecticut.	New Haven, CT	New Haven Land Trust	Completed	Lessons Learned: The newest part of our programming was the school field trip programming, which was a great success. We worked hard to find schools, and create field trip opportunities that aligned with school curriculum and learning and connecting with Long Island Sound. Lessons were learned about creating programming for each grade level, as well as how to best utilize our Long Wharf Nature Preserve to engage students of many different ages. We also learned how to better navigate the New Haven School system to maximize number of schools, classrooms and get more efficient with logistics of running the field trips.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-1; SC-19; WW-20	45,000.00	10/1/2018-10/31/2019
07/29/2022	A Fishway for the Railroad Pond Dam (CT) (61337)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Completed	Install a fishway at the Railroad Pond Dam in Berlin, Connecticut. The fishway will open a 12 acre pond and additional river habitat for fish to pass including alewife, blueback herring, sea lamprey and American eel.	Berlin, CT	Town of Berlin	Completed	Lessons Learned: 1) Drawdown of impounded water behind dam structures should be gradual, monitored closely, and include downstream sediment check dams and other measures to limit potential sediment transport. 2) The success of the fishway and eel passage project was due to the close coordination between the contractor, engineer, and DEEP Fisheries staff. At key stages, where elevations were critical, DEEP Fisheries was involved on inspections of form work before concrete placement. 3) A contractor with prior experience in fishway construction is a plus.	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-3	250,000.00	11/1/2018-12/31/2019
07/29/2022	Expanding Environmental Stewardship in the Alley Creek Watershed (NY) (61325)	Stewardship and Resiliency	Completed	Expand Shorekeepers program in the Alley Creek watershed to support long-term volunteer participation in tidal wetland and coastal forest restoration.	Alley Creek, NY	New York City Department of Parks and Recreation	Completed	Lessons Learned: The key lesson we learned was related to the importance of creating sustainable partnerships. We strongly believe these partnerships, and groundwork helped foster a great setting for the work that would be done over the past year. Strong support from key community partners, and administration was essential. For example the NYC Parks Administrator for North East Queens was in strong support of this project. For this project, we sought support from multiple partners and stakeholders. Internally, within the agency at NYC Parks, we had to coordinate support across several different divisions and work groups. In terms of external partners, Partnerships for Parks was a key player in some of our community organizing efforts. This support and organization from multiple parties with clearly defined roles, was critical in advancing the goals of this project.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	HW-22; WW-20	45,000.00	10/1/2018-9/30/2019
07/29/2022	Sound Effects: A Public Conservation Education Series (NY) (61323)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Deliver a year-long public education series with hands-on learning and conservation-based activities to inform people about the effects of pollution on Long Island Sound. Project will teach 350 adult and elementary school audiences about actions they can take to improve the health of the Sound.	Cold Spring Harbor, NY	The Whaling Museum Society	Completed	Lessons Learned: Following our successful 3-year Sound-Off! one-day event, we opened up our programming to take place throughout the year, targeting various types of audiences. While we found this model successful, our greatest challenge was coordinating calendars with many of our partners. Inclement weather forced one lecture to be rescheduled, and unforeseen health issues forced another speaker to drop out entirely. However, our least favorable outcome was not being able to award more camp scholarships to such a rich environmental program. To remedy the situation, we are being proactive with marketing this year’s camp at large, free family events taking place now through spring with signage and video of previous camps so parents can see for themselves how enriching our program is. Educators will also be on hand with sign-up sheets should any parent want to register onsite.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-1	9,998.00	12/1/2018-11/15/2019
07/29/2022	Rain and Pollinator Gardens for Schools in the Connecticut River Estuary (CT) (61295)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Guide student-led planning and installation of rain and pollinator gardens at schools in the Connecticut River Estuary, including Essex, Deep River and Chester, Connecticut.	Essex and Chester, CT	Connecticut Audubon Society	Completed	Lessons Learned: 1.Worked with a local nursery to provide the native plants for the garden. There were several meetings between the nursery and CAS/RTPEC’s Education Manager to find the right native pollinator plants for each garden space, considering size, sunlight and location to pavement or roof runoff at each school. We had to consider the space as an education tool, in order to allow for continued science lessons. Detailed garden designs were sketched out with the nursey’s help in order to assure smooth installation on the day of planting; 2.Extensive preparation with potential school partners about installing the gardens at their school. For the schools to participate, we required a commitment that students and PTO’s would maintain the garden space and be willing to incorporate CAS/RTPEC designed lesson plans, using LISFF resources, relating to the rain and pollinator garden and the importance of Long Island Sound, after the end of the grant period. All three Region 4 school’s agreed. This prior preparation was crucial and significant to the success of the project; 3. Met with teachers at Essex, Deep River and Chester schools to discuss lessons to be taught before and after garden installation and the process of installing the garden ,its maintenance and care. Our Education Manager met with every grade-level at the three schools for a total of 8 hours per school in order to train teachers in pre and post garden installation lesson plans. Each pre lesson was tailored to the grade level, followed NGSS best practices and provided teachers with the tools to assist students in conducting baseline observation through a qualitative assessment of current schoolyard biodiversity, soil quality and non-point source pollution. Teachers were provided with materials to guide students with their ideas for the design of the future garden space.; 4. The ability to have ongoing communication with the 3 Region 4 schools has allowed teacher’s to have the confidence and skill to guide their students through monitoring and collecting data in the garden space as well as the health of Long Island Sound and how their actions make a difference. This is an important part of the project success. This model was communicated to another one of our Audubon Centers that was undertaking a similar project. They utilized the learning center model and found it to be successful in having large numbers of students participate.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-19	15,443.00	12/1/2018-12/31/2019
07/29/2022	Water Quality Monitoring to Improve Fairfield County Waterways and Long Island Sound (CT) (61141)	Monitoring	Completed	Conduct water quality monitoring to help improve 10 waterways affected by pollution in Fairfield County, Connecticut.	Fairfield County, CT	Earthplace - The Nature Discovery Center	Completed	In 2019, we decided to switch indicator bacteria quantification methods to improve efficiency in the lab and to help keep costs down while maintaining a high standard of data quality. While this new method has proven to be beneficial to our programs efficiency, it has provided its own set of challenges that come with learning any new technique. All laboratory technicians had to be trained on this new method with consistent checks to ensure the quality of the data being collected in our laboratory was at the highest possible standard. We were quick to address any issues that arose thanks to the great support staff at the method’s manufacturer and are very satisfied with the new method which has allowed us to process more water samples and improve water quality in the Long Island Sound watershed. Because of this new, more efficient method, we were able to collect samples at more sampling locations than we had initially anticipated because we could be out in the field longer for each sampling trip due to the shorter processing time of the laboratory samples.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-35; SM-8	73,494.00	4/1/2019-12/31/2019
07/29/2022	Going Strawless for Sea Turtles: Educating to Protect Marine Life and Eliminate Single-use Plastics (NY) (61066)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Conduct comprehensive public education and social marketing to reduce the use of plastic polluting Long Island Sound beaches, bays and harbors in Nassau and Suffolk counties, New York.	NY	Citizens Campaign Fund for the Environment	Completed	Lessons Learned: The success in the program was developing partners and collaborators to implement the goals of the program. Our partnership with the NYS Parks Department helped to leverage the effectiveness of the Sea Turtle Sculpture. The team at parks was terrific to work with and helped to coordinate details for the launch event and worked with the artist to ensure the Sculpture could be properly mounted on the site. The partnership also led to an additional project where CCFE and AMSEAS commissioned and installed a 24 feet whale sculpture and signage at Jones Beach to raise awareness on plastic pollution in our waters. CCFE also worked closely with the E Team in Northport High School. The students were very active in raising awareness of plastic pollution and its impact on the Long Island Sound. They helped to collect pledges, participated in beach clean-ups, and participated in Shelly the Sea Turtle Launch Event. CCFE also provided education about the perils of plastic to public officials from Nassau and Suffolk County.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	SC-7; WW-20	45,000.00	1/1/2019-12/31/2019
04/14/2023	Water quality monitoring observations to support the hypoxia management in Long Island Sound 2021-2022	Monitoring	Ongoing	To sustain the distribution and analyses of the ship survey data that determines the area of hypoxia; continue of the monitoring of the duration of hypoxia, and other water-quality and environmental parameters required to understand the variability in dissolved oxygen; repair the suite of instruments on the buoys that are designed to observe of the link between water column nutrients and the evolution of the concentration of dissolved oxygen concentration; and evaluate the effectiveness of the use of an autonomous glider to map the location of the dissolved oxygen concentration.	Soundwide	University of Connecticut	On-Track	Occasional instrument malfunction and/or failure causing disruption in the data acquisition of individual parameters monitored.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-8; WW-27; WW-32	498,013.00	10/1/2021 - 9/30/2023
04/14/2023	Rapid Action Plans to Deliver Green Infrastructure in Coastal Connecticut Communities-II (CT) (70097)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	Implement five green infrastructure projects in communities of the South Central Basin of Connecticut. Activities: 1) Identify green infrastructure projects; 2) Provide information municipalities about the type of green infrastructure and locations for deployment; 3) Work with 30 town staff providing professional guidance to inform project installation; 4) Install 5,000 sq. ft. of green infrastructure, remove 20,000 sq. ft of impervious surface, and prevent 500,000 gal. of stormwater and five lbs. of nitrogen from entering local rivers and downstream to the Sound; and 5) Address local barriers to “scaling up” implementation of green infrastructure.	CT	University of Connecticut	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2; SC-20; SC-18	272,376.00	10/29/2020-8/31/2022
04/14/2023	Ensuring a Resilient Coastal Forest to Address Changing Climate in Southeastern Connecticut (CT) (69508)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	Deliver a comprehensive strategy of coastal forest management at the Hoffman Evergreen Preserve in Stonington, Connecticut. activities: 1) Develop a forest management plan; 2) Control invasive plants in advance of restoration; 3) Restore 60.2 acres of coastal forest planting native tree and shrubs along with supplemental seeding; 3) Engage 98 volunteers in site preparation and planting; 4) Monitor the success of the restoration work; 5) Conduct a lecture series, workshop and other outreach to 100 municipal officials, land trusts, and natural resource managers providing guiding principles for forest resilience	Stonington, CT	University of Connecticut	On-Track	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1; HW-22; SC-10	57,144.00	12/1/2020-11/30/2021
04/14/2023	Addressing the Problem of Microplastics in Long Island Sound Harbors (CT) (61482)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	Investigate microplastics and the impact of this type of pollution in harbors of the western Long Island Sound in Connecticut.	CT	University of Connecticut	On-Track	There were several challenges encountered with this project. A major challenge related to study site access. The Connecticut coastline is either heavily commercial/industrial or heavily residential. We were able to obtain access to suitable study areas in West Haven, Stamford, and Greenwich, but access to coastal areas with suitable features for this project was extremely problematic in Darien. Darien is heavily residential and access to the coastline to obtain samples was extremely limited. Most coastal areas were private property and did not allow access. We were able to get some access through Weeds Beach and the Darien WMCA, but we were only able to obtain ribbed mussel samples from this location due to the limitations in access. An additional challenge related to obtaining microplastics (MPs) from shellfish samples and it effect on the adhering organic matter. Our method to obtain MPs involved the digestion of the tissue, followed by filtration to collect the MPs in the filter matrix. Unfortunately, the digestion process removed any organic matter adhering to the MPs, which also removed any adhered contaminants. As a result, we analyzed a composite sample of the shellfish tissue for each collection, as a surrogate for exposure of the shellfish to MPs and their adhered contaminants. This makes it difficult to determine direct relationships between the shellfish’s ingestion of MPs and their resulting concentrations of chemicals in the tissue. The last major lesson learned is that the amount of sample collected (mass or volume) needs to be significantly increased to maximize the sensitivity of the chemical analysis. In this study , we did detect concentrations of most of the heavy metals measured; however, there were almost no detectible concentration of any organic contaminants (i.e., pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)). This was most likely related to the small mass of MPs collected and the resulting small mass of organic matter that could be digested from the sample. By increasing the mass and volume of the samples collected, this would result in the obtaining of more MPs, and therefore more mass of organic material removed from the MPs. Based on the results from this study, at least 10x the mass and/or volume would need to be collected, but this would substantially increase the processing and sorting time, potentially making this untenable. The use of more automated techniques, as technology evolves, would assist in overcoming the manual processing limitations that will occur with substantial increases in sample mass and volume.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-20; WW-1	100,000.00	10/1/2018-12/31/2021
07/29/2022	Resilience Management Planning and Restoration at Dodge Paddock/Beal Preserve (CT) (57915)	Stewardship and Resiliency	Completed	Develop a resilience management plan and restore coastal grassland and upland at the Dodge Paddock/Beal Preserve (Preserve) in Stonington, Connecticut.	Stonington, NY	University of Connecticut	Completed	Lessons Learned:1. Invasive/nuisance plants are never gone. While you can do a great deal in terms of control and management, it is next to impossible over the course of one or two years to completely eradicate all invasive/nuisance plants from a site. Between the seed bank, new seed sources (e.g. birds dropping seeds), and missed fragments of rhizomes, invasive/nuisance plants will always be an issue; 2. Maintenance of a grassland/meadow is ongoing. While we made great strides in management of the meadow area and control of shrubs, this will be an ongoing maintenance issue to control shrub and tree growth over the long term; 3. Don't be afraid to try something new. The idea of converting a huge cultivated garden to a marsh migration buffer was daunting at the onset. Worked with garden clubs and groups that were willing to come in and remove plants that they could use. Volunteers from Avalonia then came in and worked with us to remove what was left, rake the area, and then cover it with black plastic for the summer. And then they came back to help us plant dozens of native plants. Everyone had good ideas and experience to contribute from what kinds of stakes to use to hold the plastic down, to ideas for what to plant where; 4. Be open to all ideas and listen, listen, listen. There is always something to learn or a different way of doing things.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	HW-13; HW-1; HW-22	55,416.00	2/1/2018-5/31/2020
07/29/2022	Rapid Action Plans to Deliver Green Infrastructure in Coastal Connecticut Communities (CT) (58154)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	Promote Green Infrastructure (GI) by helping towns commence implementation in high priority areas in the South Central Basin towns of CT.	CT	University of Connecticut	Completed	Lessons Learned Although we knew that this project would be beneficial for the undergraduate students involved, we did not anticipate how valuable the experience would be. We have stayed in contact with most of the students who worked on the project, and they have told me how much they enjoyed working on the project, and how they felt it was beneficial for them to have it on their resume. They also would routinely check in to see how the implementation phase was progressing; they really took ownership of the project and wanted to know that it was successful! Additionally, almost all of the municipal staff from the five towns involved told us how impressed they were with the professional presentations that the students gave. One unanticipated challenge involved working with the towns. Although all five of the towns involved were able to select a project for implementation, one town was not able to move forward with the actual installation of their project, even though there were funds in the grant to support this. Various regulatory/review hurdles in the town delayed the implementation to such a degree that it was not possible to install the project.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	SC-20; SC-7; SC-19	234,060.00	3/1/20218-6/30/2020
07/29/2022	Coastal Wetland and Forest Restoration Planning Project (NY) (62168)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Completed	Produce restoration plans for up to 10 acres of tidal wetland and coastal forest using a community-driven model to inform the habitat restoration of local parkland in the Bronx, New York.	Bronx, NY	Natural Areas Conservancy	Completed	Lessons Learned: For all project sites, we learned from our interactions with the community. The level of interest and investment in the project sites differed between neighborhoods for each site, as did the residents’ focus on ecological value and neighborhood flood protection. Many of the remaining restoration opportunities within urban wetlands are in areas that are very close to residential neighborhoods; in fact, many of the wetland sites that remain to be restored are actively used by the adjacent communities. Planning and design of these sites considered and accommodated the existing uses of the area, rather than just the restoration of the ecological function of the site.The adjacent communities are in low lying coastal areas vulnerable to flooding; therefore, flood protection does and will inevitably continue to enter the conversation when we are in discussions about the project scope and design. This presents a challenge given the typical goals to prioritize ecological restoration in these areas. Staff learned the importance of clarifying goals and managing expectations in the community meetings, to ensure residents did not expect a flood control project. However it also presents an opportunity to educate the public on local flood information for the area and that, while existing and restored wetlands do not prevent flooding, they do provide some valuable absorption and wave attenuation benefits. It also was an opportunity to collaborate and build upon work done previously by planning agencies on designing projects that support resiliency in low lying neighborhoods, while thinking beyond ecological restoration and finding creative ways to both restore valuable wetland habitat while also serving the public needs for fishing, recreation and waterfront access.	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-14; SC-7; HW-13	99,978.00	2/1/2018 - 5/31/2020
07/29/2022	A Watershed Monitoring Strategy to Support the Long Island Sound Nitrogen Strategy (MA, NH,VT) (57817)	Monitoring	Completed	The Connecticut River Watershed Council will create a watershed-scale monitoring strategy to add nutrient and other water quality data in the Connecticut and Housatonic River watersheds of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont.	MA, NH, & VT	Connecticut River Watershed Council	Completed	Lessons Learned: If we were to start this project over again, we would frame it differently than a “monitoring strategy” because there is set guidance laid out by the EPA on what is included in a monitoring strategy and it requires complete control over selecting monitoring locations, time frames, and parameters, usually set within a specific time frame. The Connecticut River watershed is simply too large and crosses too many political boundaries for that to be a practical approach since no one agency would be able to (nor should they) sample the entire region. Each state is also starting from a different point with regards to how much nutrient monitoring is already occurring and how good the past data sets are. While it may seem like semantics, we believe that the proper approach would have been a strategic plan. Using a strategic planning framework instead of an outline of a monitoring strategy may have led to more successful meetings with the working group. We remain firmly convinced that there needs to be strong coordination across all four watershed states to better harmonize monitoring efforts to determine attainment of both state-level and regional water quality objectives. That coordination does not yet exist and remains an important objective given the transition to biologically based water quality goals in Long Island Sound and the development of consistent standards across state boundaries within the watershed. We will continue to advance the objectives of the monitoring strategy in close coordination with the partners. One on-going example is the fourth year of “Samplepalooza” (synoptic monitoring) where we coordinated the monitoring over 70 locations for nutrients on one day with state and non-profit partners.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2	39,360.52	10/6/2017-10/4/2019
07/29/2022	Sound Gardening: Why Your Grass Choice Matters (NY) (57825)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Citizens Campaign for the Environment will launch an educational campaign aimed at homeowners to provide guidance about the types and correct grass seed to use on lawns in Nassau and Suffolk Counties, New York.	NY	Citizens Campaign Fund for the Environment	Completed	Lessons Learned This program built off the prior work on “Sound Gardening”, making our gardens and yards more sustainable. The program focused on how members of the public can reduce their pesticides and fertilizers by better understanding what type of grass seed they are purchasing. CCFE had a high interest in this program with garden clubs across Long Island. Recognizing this we reached out to active garden clubs in the target region and provided step by step literature on how to make more informed grass seed decisions. These individuals were already actively engaged in doing their own gardening and yard work and were very engaged on how they could improve their yards and reduce their use of pesticides and fertilizers. Our 2 presentations, targeted to gardeners were very well attended with approximately 75 individuals per group. When we provided a presentation at the Long Island Estuary Day, a more general audience, we only had a group of 10 individuals. Lesson learned: It is important to understand who you want in your audience to make your campaign successful.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-14	9,995.63	12/1/2017-12/1/2018
07/29/2022	Project WASTE (Waterway and Street Trash Elimination) (NY) (57862)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Bronx River Alliance will observe sources of floatable trash to educate and engage students in development and delivery of outreach projects to local businesses to help reduce trash in the Bronx and Westchester County, New York.	Bronx and Westchester Counties, NY	Bronx River Alliance	Completed	Lessons Learned This was a very rainy year, which caused the river to flood often and caused the boom to drop its contents frequently and the garbage accumulation at the Concrete Plant Park boom was large making it difficult to track the extent of trash. The accumulation was a health concern for the wildlife, the humans who subsistence fish from the bulkhead next to the boom, and all the parkgoers and community members in the area. We have partnered with the NYC Soil & Water Conservation District and the NYC DEP on a feasibility study for a trash wheel to be installed in the current location of the boom, which has been identified as the most favorable site citywide. Negotiations are continuing to determine how capital construction and maintenance and operation costs will be funded and by whom. The Alliance would participate as a partner conducting the scientific study, education, outreach, and social media. One major new understanding we have is that because Westchester County lacks grates, screens, and appropriate catchment basin technology, much of the trash from upstream sources could be prevented. We are committed to working with our upstream neighbors to prevent future inputs.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-20; SC-18; SC-7	34,713.00	1/1/2018-3/29/2019
07/29/2022	H. Smith Richardson Wildlife Preserve Restoration Project (CT) (57876)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Completed	Restore 33 acres of the H. Smith Richardson Wildlife Preserve to a coastal forest habitat in Westport, Connecticut.	Westport, CT	Connecticut Audubon Society	Completed	Lessons Learned The importance and magnitude of providing water for over 1,500 newly planted trees and shrubs was underestimated. Clearly our 200 gallon water tank was insufficient for our purpose. Two things really solved this problem. First was the donation of a generous neighbor to attach a 1,000 foot irrigation pipe to her water line at no cost. The second was a very favorable weather pattern which provided ample rain during the important growing season. The impacts of browsing and rubbing by deer was expected but also underestimated. This required us to move much faster than we anticipated with deer fencing and tree protection. We expected about a 10% loss from deer damage, and with quick action managed to contain the loss within our expectation. We also learned (and are learning) the importance of utilizing plant material from local sources which provide plants adapted to local soil and weather conditions. Providing hundreds of volunteers with the tools needed for planting and invasive plant removal was also a learning experience, however solved by donations, lending and sharing.	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1; HW-13	145,780.00	10/2/2017-2/28/2019
07/29/2022	Hempstead Harbor 2018 Water Quality Monitoring Program (NY) - X (57887)	Monitoring	Completed	Conduct water quality monitoring of physical, chemical and biological indicators of pollution in outer and inner Hempstead Harbor and Glen Cove Creek, Nassau County, New York.	Hempstead Harbor, NY	Incorporated Village of Sea Cliff, New York	Completed	Lessons Learned: With the “core” monitoring program (generally May to October) in its 27th year, the procedures we used were pretty much “down to a science” and so there were no real lessons learned in terms of methods or monitoring. Our winter monitoring is still fairly new for us – this was our sixth year. We expected that the colder weather would reduce bacteria levels but this was not the case. We also expected a general correlation between fecal coliform levels and enterococci bacteria levels, but this was also not always the case. The results showed us how important continued monitoring is. Without data, we do not know where our problems are or how extensive they are, or what the trends are (if any). The more data that we have, the more accurate our assessments will be, and the better that we will be able to design more effective and cost-efficient remedial programs. Another lesson learned is that there can be wide variations between the two indicator organisms used to test bacteria levels. The following are some of the key findings from the monitoring conducted during the grant period: Bacteria - With water-quality monitoring, there are so many variables that we never can really anticipate what the results will be for any particular year. That said, the winter bacteria monitoring of the outfalls at the Scudder’s Pond subwatershed (both fecal coliform and enterococci) did not show a decline in bacteria levels during cold weather as we expected. And while exceedances in bacterial levels generally remained high throughout both winter and summer seasons at the Powerhouse subwatershed outfall (where no improvements have been undertaken), the data indicate that there was a considerable decline in the exceedances from the summer 2018 to winter 2018 2019 (from 65% to 17%). The data also indicate significant improvement in conditions at the Scudder’s Pond outfall as a result of the restoration, especially in the most recent sampling year. With respect to the bacteria problems that have closed Crescent Beach in Glen Cove, an extensive investigation of nearby homes found no direct or indirect discharge between nearby homes and bacteria levels in the stream that has led to the closure of the beach. DNA analysis pointed to wildlife as the source. Dissolved Oxygen – it was a good year in terms of dissolved oxygen levels. The percentage of dissolved oxygen measurements with hypoxic conditions in 2018 was substantially lower than the previous four years’ percentages for both bottom dissolved oxygen and surface dissolved oxygen. The 2018 percentages are also among the lowest recorded in the span since 2004. There were also no findings of anoxic conditions (levels 1 ppm). Water and Air Temperatures – it was a warm year. Water temperatures were 1.5% warmer than the long-term average and air temperatures were 4.7% warmer than the long-term average. pH – overall, after decreasing (i.e. becoming more acidic) for the past three seasons, the average pH turned slightly more basic during 2018. At the same time, two of our stations had the opposite effect – after showing consistent increases for the past 5 to 6 seasons, they showed a sharp decrease in 2018. Turbidity / Water Clarity – while 2018 secchi-disk readings showed improved water clarity over typical harbor conditions, average turbidity readings in 2018 were 17.9% higher than the long-term average.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-1	89,900.00	5/2/2018-10/31/2019
07/29/2022	Connections to Long Island Sound (CT) (57890)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Use interactive exhibits, portable estuarine-based tools and curricula and interactive resources to engage and educate visitors and students about issues affecting Long Island Sound at the Mystic Aquarium, Connecticut.	Mystic, CT	Sea Research Foundation	Completed	Lessons Learned: The program increased audiences’ interest in and knowledge about the importance of environmental stewardship of LIS and its watersheds, and in motivating the public to help conserve these vital community resources. The tools used to measure success included primarily 661 anonymous post evaluations collected from the general public, camp participants, and school students. The survey example below was the post evaluation tool used for most surveys, specifically the 475 generated anonymously from the general public using the touch screen tablets in the exhibit. The others had verbiage adapted slightly based on age groups for better understanding by 87 students in fifth grade and 99 campers ranging in age from six to 15. All evaluation tools utilized the 5-option Likert scale with two positive outcomes, one middle/neutral value, and two negative outcomes. Respondents were asked to read the following statements and indicate their response as Strongly Agree, Agree, Neither Agree Nor Disagree, Disagree, or Strongly Disagree: 1. My interest in LIS and its watersheds has increased as a result of this exhibit. 2. My understanding of LIS and its watersheds has increased as a result of this exhibit. 3. My understanding of human impacts on LIS its watersheds has increased as a result of this exhibit. 4. My commitment to take action to help protect LIS and its watersheds has increased as a result of this exhibit. Results of all 661 people post-surveyed and all 2,606 questions asked were overall favorable at 75% positive with a value of Strongly Agree or Agree, 18% overall neutral, and 7% not favorable with a value of Disagree or Strongly disagree. The chart below shows the details of all post-surveys. Some highlights include: 75% Strongly Agreed or Agreed that their interest in LIS and watersheds had increased, 68% Strongly Agreed or Agreed that their knowledge of LIS and watersheds had increased, 73% Strongly Agreed or Agreed that their understanding of human impacts on LIS and watersheds had increased, and 83% Strongly Agreed or Agreed that their interest in conservation action had increased. Some highlights of gains include: 55% overall gain in knowledge of LIS and watersheds from pre-to-post use of the exhibit. 79% overall gain in understanding of human impacts on LIS and watersheds from pre-to-post use of the exhibit. 33% overall gain in interest to take action to help protect LIS and its watersheds from pre-to-post use of the exhibit.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-1; SC-7; SC-19	43,782.00	11/1/2017-6/30/2019
07/29/2022	SOUNDoff Event! Creating Long Island Sound Stewards–III (NY) (57949)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Host a one-day public event, SOUNDoff! to educate inform and build awareness in local communities about conservation of Long Island Sound in a hands-on accessible way.	NY	The Whaling Museum Society	Completed	Lessons Learned: 2018 SOUNDoff! was a resounding success, not only in attendance but in visitor interest and feedback. The average guest stay was estimated to be 45 minutes, with some guests staying two hours! Visitors were asked for comments and recommendations at exit interviews and there was overall satisfaction with no suggestions on how to improve the event. The feedback on social media was equally positive, with 7 new followers to the museum’s Facebook page and 5 new members joined the museum. This year’s event seemed to benefit much more from online media than print media in relation to previous events. Staff recommendations at a post-event meeting generated some suggestions and new ideas for more expanded programming for next year. All felt the level of curiosity and interest validated the need for an increased programmatic schedule for next year. Introduce a 4-part lecture series called Conversation in Conservation using guest speakers from many of the groups who have supported SOUNDoff!; Host family weekend Ocean Science Sundays to highlight the many facets of biological life on the sound, possibly including The Cold Spring Harbor Fish Hatchery in some of the programs; and Create a Summer Youth Marine Education Camp to take advantage of our proximity to the Sound with hands-on learning including water-monitoring, debris clean-up and documentation of the wildlife, habitat and ecological structure of our local shoreline.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-1	7,407.80	1/2/2018-4/22/2018
07/29/2022	Promoting Green Infrastructure with Bioswales (CT) (57951)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	Conduct a communications and evaluation program for the city, residents, the business community and the public about the value of the GI to their neighborhoods in New Haven, Connecticut.	New Haven, NY	New Haven Urban Resources Initiative	Completed	Lessons Learned: Bioswales were effective in reducing stormflows and preventing pollution. Bioswale maintenance seems to be critically important. Especially in the fall, when both leaves and trash flow to the bioswales, periodic removal to prevent clogging is likely to be essential. Projects to directly evaluate this important variable should be undertaken.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	SC-20; SC-7	42,958.00	10/1/2017-10/31/2019
07/29/2022	Unified Water Study: Long Island Sound Embayment Monitoring (CT, NY) (57963)	Monitoring	Completed	Implement the Unified Water Study (UWS) a water quality monitoring program in two embayments; and engage five water quality monitoring groups in nine embayments providing them with technical support as participants in the UWS in Connecticut and New York.	Soundwide	Save the Sound	Completed	Lessons Learned: All monitoring groups must carry comprehensive general liability insurance with at least $1 million coverage that includes CFE/Save the Sound as named as additional insured with waiver of subrogation. This was a challenge for several groups to manage, so we helped with the paperwork and finer details —and we raised funds from the Long Island Sound Funders Collaborative to pay the premiums for six groups that would otherwise not have been able to participate. This was a learning experience for us, and we have established an insurance confirmation process as part of the memorandum of agreement with each group. We also included insurance funds for the groups that need them in our EPA grant for the 2019 Unified Water Study. Request all groups upload their respective data templates and scanned field datasheets monthly which will assist Save the Sound staff in screening for any data that requires followup. This follow-up will occur closer to the sampling event which will assist in group recollection of any issues that are flagged. This action will streamline the end of season release of data and keep track of groups entering data as the monitoring season progresses. Save the Sound will put more emphasis on the importance of a thorough quality check before groups submit data at the 2019 training. While overall, groups did a very good job reviewing their own data before submission there were more instances of typos and incorrect entries than expected. The data template will have a summary tab in 2019 that automatically creates figures from sampling event data. This tab will help groups identify data outliers that are often a result of typos, so they can be identified and corrected before submission.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	SM-8	99,990.80	11/1/2017-3/30/2019
07/29/2022	Identifying Ecologically Significant Areas for the Blue Plan (CT, NY) - II (58022)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Engage scientists, technical experts and the interested public to identify Ecologically Significant Areas (ESAs) for the Long Island Sound Blue Plan in Connecticut and New York.	NY & CT	The Nature Conservancy	Completed	Lessons Learned: 1. Despite challenges encountered elsewhere (e.g. at the regional scale), it is possible to produce scientific, credible, understandable and governmentally recognized results for finding ecologically significant places in the marine environment including the maps that depict these results; 2. The ecological characterization and ESA processes were not a series of distinct, linear steps. Although thinking through the process ahead of time and laying it out in a generally linear process was very helpful to identifying distinct and important components, it was critical to apply “adaptive management” and make room for the interrelation of the steps and the variable timeframes needed for these steps to be completed; 3. Review by scientists, ecological experts and the interested public who were not directly involved in the process proved very helpful. New and helpful sources for filling information gaps were identified and opportunities for participatory mapping discovered and realized; 4. A combination of project leadership and project teamwork with considerable guidance and work output from our expert consultant along with guidance and credibility from a committed group of ecological experts proved to be a winning combination. It delivered the key ingredients of technical/scientific expertise with work production and project follow-through; 5. An openness by Blue Plan leadership and ecological experts to using different methods, each credible, for finding the needed information proved key. This included 1) direct transfer or use of explicit data, 2) deciding on suitable thresholds for continuous variables, 3) use of participatory mapping, 4) use of predictive models; 6. Using written criteria for defining the ESA accomplished 2 major outcomes otherwise difficult to realize: One, by defining in written form what defines the ESA (i.e. the criteria), the variability in data completeness becomes less of a problem because the criteria are consistent and control how the ESA are connected to policy and policy implementation. The maps are the best spatial representation of what is known about the criteria while allowing for the inevitable gaps in representing the full picture. The full picture is covered, theoretically at least, by the criteria. Two, the criteria provide for a consistent definition of ESA over time while allowing for new data and/or the evolution of nature to happen – and the accompanying maps to change.	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	SM-20	44,999.52	12/1/2017-2/1/2019
07/29/2022	Rain Gardens and Rain Barrels for Eastern Connecticut (CT) (58029)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	Install an estimated 7,000 sq. ft. (7’ x 10’ of rain gardens), and 100 rain barrels rain gardens in Eastern Connecticut.	CT	Eastern Connecticut Conservation District	Completed	Lessons Learned This project required more staff travel than anticipated. Many municipalities were willing to provide heavy equipment and town staff to assist in excavating larger rain gardens. This was very important since excavation costs not part of proposal. Able to reach a lot of people to educate them about nonpoint source pollution and some easy practices residents can take to address it. The involvement of schools, churches, scouts, municipalities, neighborhood associations and other civic groups was phenomenal. Educating young people and engaging the public in addressing nonpoint source pollution may be the most important actions agencies can take to resolve or mitigate pollution originating from municipal, private and residential lands. The engagement of the public exceeded all of our expectations. It also brought great satisfaction and joy to ECCD staff to work with the public on this project. The sense of accomplishment that volunteers and ECCD staff felt following the installation of a rain garden was palpable. To have a rain garden installed by volunteers at a public site will result in a return in investment for many years to come as students, teachers, scouts and scout leaders can point to a rain garden and inform their parents and classmates that they helped plant it.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	SC-1; SC-7; WW-2	84,996.00	1/2/2018-10/2/2019
07/29/2022	Planning for Fish Passage at the Starr Mill Pond Dam (CT) (58058)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Completed	Plan for fish passage at the Starr Mill dam and for restoration of the river corridor and upstream impoundment in Middleton, Connecticut.	Middletown, CT	The Nature Conservancy	Completed	Lessons Learned: For most dam owners, the outcomes achieved with the removal of a dam are often very hard to appreciate and the landscape without the dam impossible to imagine. What they see at the dam may be the only way they’ve ever seen the river. (Most dams are over 80 years old.) Many see a pond with geese and lily pads and they believe the habitat is healthy. They fail to see that the impoundment has flooded a stream bed and some believe if the dam is removed there will be no more water. They think the former impoundment will persist as a stinky mud flat. They do not recognize that their dam is weakening as it ages. If there are multiple owners of a dam (or an owner’s family makes the decisions together) and they are not in full agreement that the dam should be removed, project partners need to not only present a good case for why the dam should be removed, but they also must gain the trust of the owners. Part of our job is painting a picture of what could be and why this change should be embraced. Most people are very uncomfortable with uncertainty and may defer making a decision about their dam until they are forced to do so, perhaps because of the imminent failure of the dam or costly repairs required. In the case of the Starr Mill dam project, the most challenging aspect of the project related to communication between the owners. Typically, once all parties have agreed to work together, defined the scope of the project and funding has been secured, the work progresses. In this case, there was initial support from each of the 3 dam owners and then one of the owners did not support the project. In the future, when dealing with dams owned by multiple owners who have some differences in their level of project support, the organization will create a letter of agreement/permission to be signed by each owner that references the scope of work and grants permission for the contractor to access the area to complete the agreed upon work.	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-3	64,289.23	12/1/2017-2/28/2019
07/29/2022	Storm Water Management Education for Residents (CT) (58072)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Provide education about Green Infrastructure waste-water management systems in low-income neighborhoods highly-impacted by water pollution in New Haven, Connecticut.	New Haven, CT	Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven	Completed	Lessons Learned: Strong interest on the part of local schools and colleges, and as a result struggled to include all the groups that wanted to work with us. These institutions may have been located in the West River Watershed, but that did not mean that all the individual students or teachers resided in our target area. (They were still generally residents from CT watershed areas impacting Long Island Sound, so the lessons were not lost on them.) This interest on the part of institutions meant we held more events and reached far more people than we originally anticipated, but it also required flexibility in our approach. In the future, we intend to harness that institutional energy to focus on working together with more residents with properties suitable for adding rain gardens and working on invasives removal projects in parklands and greenspaces. Much groundwork was laid for such future partnerships, especially during the last two months of the grant period when we developed an intensive working relationship with Southern Ct State University which is going to continue into the future. Another other lesson we learned once we began to receive inquiries from residents beyond our target area, is that people all over the state care about the quality of the Sound, want to do what they can to make an impact, and look to us as a trusted leader around best residential practices. As our organization undertakes a strategic planning process in the first part of 2019, we need to consider what that means in terms of our future geographic focus areas.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-7	10,000.00	10/1/2017-9/30/2018
07/29/2022	Audubon WildLife Guards: A Coastal Youth Conservation Program (CT) (58075)	Stewardship and Resiliency	Completed	Employ high school students working with local partners to steward, monitor and restore habitat, and increase knowledge about protecting habitat and wildlife among visitors to Sandy Point Beach and Bird Sanctuary in West Haven, Connecticut.	West Haven, CT	National Audubon Society	Completed	Lessons Learned: Both Crew Leaders and Wildlife Guards will be receiving in depth inclusivity training at the beginning of the season. Normally crews do not meet each other until their first field trip two weeks into the program, but next season we plan to have them meet each other during their very first training week at Stratford Point. We will dedicate the entire day to cooperation and synergy between the two crews. Plan on placing a greater emphasis on the timely and correct submission of the Wildlife Guards’ paper work. Many guards proposed the idea that field trips be used to also conduct outreach. Field trips have solely been an educational experience for the two crews where they could meet various conservation professionals and receive additional training hours. In this new situation, the two crews could mix together and then split up where half conduct outreach and others visit the site, then switching halfway through. Many of Wildlife Guards specifically enjoyed the outreach portion of the job and interacting with the public but felt that there were not enough opportunities to conduct outreach. With this new proposal, Guards could receive additional outreach experience while also enjoying the site that they are visiting. This would also be an opportunity to advertise the program to communities outside of West Haven and Bridgeport with the purpose of making the “Audubon Wildlife Guards” name more recognizable across the state.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-19; HW-10	27,180.00	11/1/2017-10/31/2018
07/29/2022	Healthy Connecticut Towns for a Healthy Long Island Sound (CT) (58094)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Host training programs about organic land care practices and principles to 100 landscapers in Connecticut.	CT	Northeast Organic Farming Association of Connecticut, Incorporated	Completed	Lessons Learned: Biggest obstacles were getting enough attendees to 1) sign up for the course and 2) commit to transitioning land to an organic program. In the end we were able to train 92 landscapers; however, it was a difficult process and we ended up training more private-sector landscapers and homeowners than municipal groundskeepers. Attendees stated logistical difficulties with purchasing new materials, along with customer hesitance, as a reason for the push-back for transitioning properties from a conventional to an organic program. Attendees who work for municipalities, estates, and public institutions had restrictions through institutional policies that may affect their ability to transition land to an organic program. While we provided comprehensive training over the course of 4 days at both courses, organic land management, for those who were not familiar with the practice, was a theoretical concept. Hands-on learning will have to be incorporated more in future projects to show the 'nuts and bolts' of organic land care maintenance. For future projects, it would help if we gave attendees more clear and measurable deliverables for reducing pollution in Long Island Sound. For example, instead of general landscape maintenance using an organic program and recording how many acres of land is transitioning to an organic program, it might have been more fruitful to ask attendees to measure nitrogen inputs on a parcel of land and have them reduce those inputs - which is inherent with an organic program. The timing of the courses that we held also presented difficulties. Summertime is a busy season for landscapers - as is the Fall with leaf and garden clean-up. We held courses in August and November - both months presenting difficulties with attendance. Should we run this project again, holding the training during the winter seasons, when landscapers are less busy, might yield more participants.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-14	32,362.86	1/2/2018-12/3/2018
04/14/2023	Hypoxia Management in Long Island Sound 2020	Monitoring	Completed	As directed by Sections 119(d) and 320 of the Clean Water Act, this project implements recommendations of the Long Island Sound Study (LISS) Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP). The grant agreement supports activities to assess the accuracy of water quality monitoring data used to measure the area and extent of hypoxia, or lack of dissolved oxygen, in Long Island Sound, and enhance those data by acquisition and deployment of new equipment and the application of new or enhanced water quality monitoring and assessment methodologies and techniques, including remote sensing.	Soundwide	University of Connecticut	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-8; WW-27	22,235.00	10/1/2020-3/30/2022
07/29/2022	From the Schoolyard to the Sound: Engaging Communities through Schoolyard Habitats (CT) - V (58132)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Create a network of schoolyard habitats at 25 schools in Fairfield and New Haven Counties, Connecticut.	New Haven, CT	National Audubon Society	Completed	Lessons Learned: Demand for program on the part of schools throughout Connecticut is larger than our capacity to enroll many more sites. This reality has driven the necessity to evaluate our program models so that we can continue to offer support to teachers and students while making meaningful and needed contributions to nature place-based education. Our varied professional development offerings continue to prove an effective model to reach more educators every year while empowering them with the skills and content to create lasting change in their school communities. To make this program more sustainable, we are building institutional capacity of schools by coupling leadership training workshops with robust online resources. We are institutionalizing our Schoolyard Habitat work in additional school districts by implementing district-wide teacher training, scaling up the program to reach more teachers and students, and ensuring that it is an integrated component of the district’s curriculum. The value of the Schoolyard Habitat Leadership Teams will further aid in the long-term sustainability of this program, providing participating schools and communities with ongoing support, interaction, and active learning, and facilitating the further development of the program outside the grant period. It also ensures the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all community members. Our outreach suggests there are many under-served communities in New Haven and Fairfield Counties that still do not know about this program. Therefore, we need to continue to work with local advocacy organizations that serve these communities to build awareness of, and engagement in, the Schoolyard Habitat program. We continue to see consistency in challenges facing teachers, often lack of administrative understanding or support, and/or institutional processes that make it difficult for teachers to be able to fully participate in the program and for students to benefit from the connections and access to nature. We will continue to find ways and resources to aid schools in navigating these challenges so that all can participate. Other conservation organizations can implement school-based habitat projects of their own. Audubon specifically designed the Schoolyard Habitat program to be highly replicable and to serve as a model for other Audubon centers, chapters, and state offices throughout the country. We have shared best practices with other Audubon Education programs and partners in Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Baltimore. Resources and information used by participating schools to create their habitats, including USFWS’s guide to habitat creation, are highly adaptable and publicly available. Audubon’s Schoolyard Habitat Curriculum Guide can be adapted by school districts to meet their specific curricula needs and goals.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-1; SC-19	45,000.00	10/16/2017-12/31/2018
07/29/2022	Be a Good Egg - II (NY) (58142)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Deliver a multifaceted education program which includes public and school programming, direct on- the-beach public outreach, delivering stewardship projects on the coast for birds, and securing pledges from people committing to share the shore with shorebirds on the North Shore of Long Island, New York.	Long Island, NY	National Audubon Society	Completed	Lessons Learned: 1) Partnerships continued to be a key to success. By partnering with NYS Parks, local towns ,and the American Museum of Natural History, we were able to conduct public outreach and host conservation volunteer events at priority sites on the Sound. Our new partnership with the SCA NYS Excelsior Conservation Corps allowed us to host additional outreach events with the help of well-trained SCA environmental education interns. Our network of Audubon chapter leaders and members helped us educate and engage local communities. Funding from this grant allowed us to continue our partnership with Virginia Tech University and implement phase two of our program evaluation; 2) It is important to consider the target audience’s spoken languages in developing signage. We found that non-English speaking beach-goers could not understand the messaging that was portrayed in both the official “do not enter” as well as our “share the shore” children’s’ signs at Sunken Meadow State Park. We advised NYS Parks to create Spanish versions of the “do not enter” signs, which they did create and install after our program evaluation survey was completed. We will ask students to design “share the shore” signs in other languages, especially Spanish, in the future; 3) When posted alongside official “do not enter” signs, “share the shore” signs designed by local students are an effective way to engage beach-goers. Children’s’ signs capture beach-goers’ attention; more beach-goers looked at the “share the shore” sign versus the “do not enter” signs and beach-goers whom looked at the “share the shore” signs were more like to look within the symbolic fencing; 4) Messaging included in signage should be consistent, concise, and clear to facilitate viewers’ ability to recall information. Beach-goers were better able to recall the names of beach-nesting bird species from the official “do not enter” signs than the children’s signs. In the future, we will encourage students to write out the names of each beach-nesting bird species and use specific messages in their sign designs; 5) Messaging included in signage that ask people to take action or follow rules should use social norms to encourage people to comply. Messages using second person language, such as “we need you to share the shore with birds” suggest that the desired action is a societal expectation and may make people feel responsible for protecting the Long Island Sound, coastal habitats, and wildlife; 6) In addition to signage placed along the perimeter of bird nesting areas protected by symbolic fencing, additional signage should be placed in high traffic areas where the signs would be clearly visible. This likely would increase the percentage of beach-goers that see beach-nesting bird signs. Also, it could further reduce the level of human disturbance to nesting birds because beach-goers could observe the signs without having to approach bird nesting areas. In the future, we will post “share the shore” signs at beach entrances and/or along walkways in addition to posting signs around protected nesting areas; 7) Future program evaluation, both on the beach and in the classroom, should be offered in multiple languages.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-7; HW-10; SC-19	36,036.00	1/17/2018-1/14/2019
07/29/2022	The Unified Water Study Equipment Loan Program: Collaboration in Embayment Monitoring (NY, CT) (58147)	Monitoring	Completed	Manage an equipment, supplies and technical resources loan program for up to 20 embayment groups and 200 citizen science volunteers to support the Unified Water Study for Long Island Sound embayments in Connecticut and New York.	NY & CT	Earthplace - The Nature Discovery Center	Completed	Lessons Learned: The Unified Water Study included participating groups with a range of technical skills. Some had extensive scientific expertise from long-established environmental monitoring groups, while other groups were newly established by citizen scientists and students with less extensive scientific expertise. At times, managing the different needs and flexibility of the participating individuals could be challenging. Though trainings were held for all participating groups before the start of the season, as the season went on some unanticipated issues with study logistics and equipment arose. Anticipating these issues in the future and further explanation and clarification on some aspects of the projects logistics would be helpful in the future. In particular, providing training on the use of the equipment that better fits the experience of the groups is critical. Furthermore, communication with the groups needs to be done using language that is accessible to everyone (i.e., avoiding jargon). Having the ELP Coordinator was critical, as many of the groups needed more one-on-one support on the use of the equipment than was anticipated. Overall, we learned that it is important to be mindful of the fact that with citizen science programs a more nuanced approach to methodology and training that is catered to the individual groups’ needs is critical.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	SM-8	99,971.30	1/1/2018-12/31/2018
07/29/2022	Septic Change-Out Education Program (NY) (58159)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Deliver an education project to educate homeowners about the importance of upgrading their onsite septic system and to provide tools and information to allow them to more easily apply for assistance grants to fund these upgrades in the Towns of Huntington, Smithtown, and Riverhead, New York.	Huntington, Smithtown, and Riverhead, NY	Citizens Campaign Fund for the Environment	Completed	Lessons Learned: We conducted most of our community forums from 7-8:30pm. There was one forum that we scheduled at 4:30pm-6:00pm. Despite using paid media, social media, and email alerts, this forum was not well attended. We had hoped to capture the interest of some senior citizens by holding the forum in the late afternoon, however, the time for the forum did not work as we had hoped. We did not hold any other forums at this time. We also sent numerous letters to civic organizations asking if they would like us to speak at one of their meetings. We also followed up with phone calls. This was not a productive endeavor. Organizing community forums is labor intensive, however, they are critically effective in educating the public, answering their questions, halting the myths and gaining community trust for the grants program. People needed to be re-assured that they would really get a grant for $10-20,000. We found these forums well worth the effort.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-12	45,000.41	12/1/2017-2/28/2019
07/29/2022	Hempstead Harbor 2019 Water Quality Monitoring Program XI (NY) (61105)	Monitoring	Completed	Conduct water quality monitoring in Hempstead Harbor, New York.	Hempstead Harbor, NY	Village of Sea Cliff	Completed	Lessons Learned: With the “core” monitoring program (generally April or May to October or November) having completed its 28th year, the procedures we used were pretty much “down to a science” and so there were no real lessons learned in terms of methods or monitoring. The same was generally true for our winter monitoring which completed its seventh year. With the unexpected reductions of bacteria levels observed at our most problematic site (the Powerhouse Drain in Glenwood Landing) occurring during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic shutdown and also following the installation of 37 bacteria and nitrogen-reducing storm drain filters, the value of continued monitoring became even more evident. In 2019, total inorganic nitrogen was highest at outfall locations (in Glen Cove Creek and those associated with Scudder’s Pond and the Powerhouse Drain) as compared with in-harbor stations. This was the case in 2018 as well. · The highest levels of total inorganic nitrogen were found at the Powerhouse Drain outfall for both 2019 and 2018. · In 2019 and 2018, nitrate was the largest component of total inorganic nitrogen samples. Bacteria · Bacteria levels continued to decline generally at Scudder’s Pond outfalls for both summer and winter testing, · The outfall for the Powerhouse Drain continued to have consistently high levels of bacteria for samples taken directly from the discharge. · Some of the highest bacteria levels were recorded at stations near outfalls in Glen Cove Creek. However, the number of exceedances in bacteria levels (using swimming standards) were still higher in 2019 at the Powerhouse Drain than at areas in Glen Cove Creek. · Bacteria levels for samples collected in cold weather are not always lower than for samples collected during the summer season. Hypoxia: · Healthy DO levels (greater than 5.0 ppm) were observed in 59.1% of all surface and bottom measurements taken. · Hypoxic conditions were observed at the bottom of the harbor in 20.2% of all measurements taken; every station exhibited hypoxia at one or more times. · There were considerably more bottom hypoxic events in 2019 than there were in 2018 (when only 5.8% of samples were hypoxic). · Over the long-term, 2019 had the third highest percentage of bottom hypoxia, with 21.4% in 2012 and 21.0% in 2005. · Looking at DO levels at the surface, hypoxic conditions were found in 2.5% of samples. This compares with 0.5% of samples in 2018. · Hypoxic conditions in 2019 occurred from mid-July through August. This was about 2 weeks earlier than in 2018. · In 2019, there were 6 anoxic readings (less than 1.0 ppm), occurring over two non-consecutive monitoring events; there were none in 2018.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-35; SM-8	750,000.00	4/3/2019-7/28/2020
07/29/2022	Water Quality Monitoring to Improve Fairfield County Waterways and Long Island Sound (CT) (61141)	Monitoring	Completed	Conduct water quality monitoring to help improve 10 waterways affected by pollution in Fairfield County, Connecticut.	Fairfield County, CT	Earthplace - The Nature Discovery Center	Completed	In 2019, we decided to switch indicator bacteria quantification methods to improve efficiency in the lab and to help keep costs down while maintaining a high standard of data quality. While this new method has proven to be beneficial to our programs efficiency, it has provided its own set of challenges that come with learning any new technique. All laboratory technicians had to be trained on this new method with consistent checks to ensure the quality of the data being collected in our laboratory was at the highest possible standard. We were quick to address any issues that arose thanks to the great support staff at the method’s manufacturer and are very satisfied with the new method which has allowed us to process more water samples and improve water quality in the Long Island Sound watershed. Because of this new, more efficient method, we were able to collect samples at more sampling locations than we had initially anticipated because we could be out in the field longer for each sampling trip due to the shorter processing time of the laboratory samples.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-35; SM-8	37,246.00	4/1/2019-12/31/2019
04/14/2023	Evaluating Tidal Marsh Metrics and Vulnerability to Inform Prioritization of Projects	Research	Ongoing	To assess the marsh health and resiliency for the entire Long Island Sound Study area by generating deliverables to include data layers mapped and available online as web-mapping services and GIS tools, including the UVVR (the ratio of unvegetated surface to vegetated surface within marsh units), elevation and elevation distributions, tidal range, Sediment-bound Contaminant Resiliency and Response Index, and wave attack.	Long Island Sound Watershed	United States Geological Survey	On-Track	N/A	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	HW-5	212,859.00	10/1/2020 - 12/31/2023
04/14/2023	Assessment of compound flood risk from the combined effects of sea level rise on storm surge, tidal and groundwater flooding, and stormwater	Modeling	Completed	To develop a better understanding of the risks of compound flooding from the combined efforts of sea level rise (SLR) on storm surge, tidal flooding, groundwater, and stormwater over multiple timescales ranging from short-term storm events to decadal-scale SLR; effectively communicate with and educate municipalities and their residents about the compound-flood risks associated with SLR; and establish strategies for mitigating and adapting to effects of compound flooding	Soundwide	United States Geological Survey	On-Track	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-20; SC-23; SC-24; SM-26; SM-27	500,000.00	10/1/2021 - 9/30/2024
07/29/2022	Be a Good Egg III-Share the Shore with Shorebirds (NY) (61469)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Provide an environmental education program encouraging people to share the shore with shorebirds at shorelines on Long Island, New York.	Long Island, NY	National Audubon Society	Completed	Lessons Learned: Unfortunately, conservation NGO’s and agencies often have limited resources and few staff responsible for numerous sites, making it difficult to have a constant presence on the beach. Through our Be a Good Egg outreach events, we have increased the presence of stewards on the beach, focusing on weekends when beaches are busiest. However, we identified a need for more frequent and increased presence of stewards on the beach beyond our permitted and scheduled Be a Good Egg events. While other states rely on volunteers to watch out for the birds, most beach-nesting bird stewardship and monitoring on Long Island is done by paid staff. We saw an opportunity to empower volunteers to become ambassadors for the birds and help increase the presence of stewards at key sites. So, we compiled recommendations from Audubon Florida, the Connecticut Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds, and partners on Long Island and piloted a new beach steward volunteer program in partnership with NYS Parks. After completing a training session, volunteers signed up for three or more hour long stewardship shifts at Sunken Meadow State Park, with a focus on evenings and weekends. This allowed volunteers to go out on the beach on their own, engage more beach-goers, and cover hours outside seasonal technicians’ work days. NYS Parks staff recommended that we continue to implement the Beach Steward Volunteer program in the future in addition to the more structured Be a Good Egg outreach program. We recommend that more partners on Long Island utilize trained volunteers to increase the presence of stewards on the beach. Also, partnerships continued to be a key to success. The lack of enforcement of leash laws and “no dogs” regulations is an issue at many Long Island Sound beaches. While the presence of a steward on the beach can increase compliance with dog laws, it’s important that land managers catch and follow through with violations. We recommend that conservation organizations create a training program specifically for local law enforcement officers to help them understand how they can help protect beach-nesting birds and their habitats along the Long Island Sound.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	HW-10; SC-19	41,008.00	1/15/2019-1/6/2020
04/14/2023	Base-flow sampling to enhance understanding of the groundwater discharge component of nitrogen loading in coastal basins	Research	Ongoing	To determine groundwater budgets and estimated nitrogen loads from groundwater streams and embayments.	Westchester, NY to Narragansett, RI (north side of Long Island Sound)	United States Geological Survey	On-Track	N/A	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	WW-7; WW-27; WW-28	250,000.00	10/1/2021 - 9/30/2022
04/14/2023	Major Long Island Sound Tributary Sampling 2021	Monitoring	Ongoing	To develop a water-quality monitoring network in the estuarine reaches of the Thames, Connecticut, and Housatonic Rivers	CT	United States Geological Survey	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-28; SM-12	240,000.00	10/1/2021 - 9/30/2022
04/14/2023	Trends in nitrogen loading from forested areas - A preliminary assessment for Long Island Sound	Research	Ongoing	To investigate trends in nitrogen loads from forested areas and their implications for inputs to Long Island Sound	Long Island Sound Watershed	United States Geological Survey	On-Track	N/A	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	WW-7; WW-27; WW-28	127,000.00	10/1/2021 - 9/30/2022
04/14/2023	Planning for Pocket Wetland Restoration to Prevent Nitrogen Pollution from Farms (VT) (70243)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	Develop watershed plans to identify and prioritize high-priority subbasins for future pocket wetland (.35 to 1.8 acre) restoration projects in agricultural areas of the Connecticut River Basin. Activities: 1) Develop 14 watershed plans assessing wetlands restoration projects for 14 sub-basins based on desktop review of sub-watersheds; 2) Identify and prioritize potential project sites; 3) Field site verification; and 4) Preliminary outreach to landowners. The project is a collaboration with four of Vermont’s Natural Resources Conservation Districts.	VT	Vermont Association of Conservation Districts	On-Track	Delay in preparation QAPP draft.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-35; WW-27; WW-28	49,926.00	11/1/2020-10/31/2021
04/14/2023	Incentivizing Ecological Restoration and Best Management Practices on Vermont Farmland (VT) (70245)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	Produce ecological assessments and riparian/wetland restoration plans for 12 farmland conservation projects and an associated plan for a market-based financing model in the Connecticut River Watershed, Vermont. Activities: 1) Prepare ecological assessments and plans to restore riparian buffers and wetlands on farms; and 2) Model and measure the environmental benefits of different BMPs. 3) Identify potential beneficiaries such as downstream municipalities suffering from impaired water quality, state entities seeking solutions to meet regulatory requirements, and corporations seeking water quality improvements to meet sustainability goals. These beneficiaries will help assess demand and pricing. 4) A monitoring and verification process will be designed to gauge potential revenue.	VT	Vermont Land Trust	On-Track	Delay in preparation QAPP draft.	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	WW-35	199,478.00	12/1/2020-4/29/2022
04/14/2023	Sound In! Community Estuary Days on the Bronx Shores of Long Island Sound (NY) (70136)	Public Education and Outreach	Completed	Deliver educational programs and festivals about Long Island Sound in the Bronx, New York.	Bronx, NY	Waterfront Alliance	On-Track	We learned lessons relating to the nature of teaching coastal resilience programming around areas such as New York City. Many young people living near Long Island Sound in the Bronx never physically touch the water in the Sound or engage in recreational/learning opportunities at the waterfront. Students enrolled in the five workshops showed great interest in many of the activities we provided. We learned that participants found our ecological engineering activity, which allows a small-scale visualization of the benefits of natural shorelines, and our permeability mapping activity to be particularly interesting. While monitoring results with pictures and social media posts proved successful, survey distribution to young people (ages 5 to 11) needs to be reevaluated. For future projects, we will incorporate a collective group survey or quiz to monitor knowledge acquisition levels more effectively among younger students. Our results at the summer camp and community festivals showed that small scale models and maps are an effective way to convey lessons. Our permeability map gave campers a bird’s eye view of their community and showed them interdisciplinary approaches to learning by using artistic skills in drawing and coloring, while also applying percentages to the amount of greenspace around them. Our education toolkit is free to download on Waterfront Alliance’s website and encourages other organizations to use and adapt it to their needs. Our models and maps can be adapted to other environmental goals outside of Long Island Sound and the New York metro area.	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-1	30,000.00	1/1/2021-12/31/2021
04/14/2023	New Strategies to Prevent Litter for a Trash Free Long Island Sound (CT) (65618)	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Completed	Install three types of litter traps and analyze the type and amount of litter in the traps in New Haven, Connecticut.	New Haven, CT	Yale University	On-Track	We have accumulated a great deal of detailed information on the amounts and kinds of litter flowing out from storm drains in New Haven. These results have been invaluable in designing a better bottle bill for the state of Connecticut, a regulation that now requires a 5 cent surcharge on nip bottles. In 2021, this yielded $80,000 to the City of New Haven for litter control efforts, and will continue annually. We have also learned much about litter trap design from the standpoints of effectiveness, appearance, and ease of maintenance. Especially seasonally (fall), a great deal of natural organic matter (like leaves) gets caught by all litter trap designs. This fact needs to be taken into account in litter trap management programs.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2; WW-1; WW-20	59,925.00	10/1/2019-11/30/2021
07/29/2022	IEC Water Quality Monitoring Program in Far Western Long Island Sound	Monitoring	Completed	To conduct an ongoing water quality monitoring program to address the Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan goal of reducing the area of hypoxia by identifying the most problematic areas in the western Sound that are most in need of improved management actions.	Long Island Sound	IEC	Completed	Six of 24 planned monthly surveys were not completed (11/2018, 1/2019, 2/2019 and 12/2019 due to boat and weather related issues and April and May 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic). One of 48 planned weekly surveys (in September 2019) was not completed due to weather issues.	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-35; SM-6	575,940.00	10/1/2017-12/31/2021
04/14/2023	Long Island Sound Futures Fund 2017	Implementation Assistance	Completed	The underlying purposes of this EPA Cooperative Assistance Agreement were three-fold to: 1) provide support for management of the Long Island Sound Futures Fund (LISFF) grant program NFWF, the direct recipient of the EPA Co-op funds; 2) provide individual grants to subrecipients with EPA Co-op monies towards projects that contribute to the protection and restoration of the health and living resources of Long Island Sound (Sound); and 3) make investments in on-the-ground actions in communities to improve water quality, protect habitat and living resources, educate and involve the public, improve the long-term understanding of how to manage the Sound, monitor progress, and redirect management efforts as described in the 1994 Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan for Long Island Sound (CCMP).	Long Island Sound Watershed	NFWF	On-Track	The requirements associated with management of federal funds are complex and can be a barrier to application. Development of Quality Assurance Project Plans continue to be difficult for subrecipients. Changes to federal guidance related to subrecipient management of federal funds had a learning curve.	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	SM-13	189,800.00	10/1/2017-9/30/2022
08/25/2022	Long Island Sound Connecticut Public Outreach Program 2022-2023	Public Education and Outreach	Ongoing	Continue the CT LISS Public Outreach Program to collaborate with other LISS partners in CT and NY in disseminating research-based information about the Sound and highlighting CCMP implementation activities of partners. The Coordinator will facilitate public involvement and instill a sense of environmental stewardship and support for restoration and protection of the Sound.	Long Island Sound Watershed	Connecticut Sea Grant	None	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-6; SC-7; SC-9; WW-15; WW-16; SM-14; SM-15; SM-17; SC-12; SC-14; SC-30; HW-11; SC-15; SC-22; SC-31; SC-32; SC-2; SC-11; SM-1	154,490.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2023
08/25/2022	Long Island Sound Mentor Teachers Program Work Plan 2022-2023	Public Education and Outreach	Ongoing	Continue the Long Island Sound Mentor Teacher program in CT to recruit high quality, creative and respected teachers to assist their peers in incorporating LIS content into curricula within the scope of the newly adopted Next Generation Science Standards.	Long Island Sound Watershed	Connecticut Sea Grant	None	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-16	32,876.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2023
08/25/2022	Connecticut State Coordination 2022-2023	Coordination	Ongoing	Provide support for CT DEEP's LISS Coordinator, Technical Coordinator, and Modeling Coordinator to plan, implement, coordinate, manage, and progress projects that support the CCMP.	Long Island Sound Watershed	CT DEEP	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	SM-14; SM-35; SM-13; SM-18; SM-29; SM-15; SM-36; SM-32; SM-33; SM-34; SM-23; SM-24; SC-19; SC-20; WW-2; WW-4; WW-5; WW-6; WW-13; WW-25; WW-14; WW-27; WW-28	671,137.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2024
08/25/2022	Connecticut Stewardship and Habitat Restoration 2022-2023	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	Connecticut’s habitat restoration coordinator will continue to promote coastal habitat restoration and stewardship to maximize acres and miles restored annually. Specifically, the emphasis is upon project implementation (e.g., design, permitting, and securing funding) but will include support for habitat restoration planning (e.g., database management, outreach).	Long Island Sound Watershed	CT DEEP	None	N/A	Thriving Habitats and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1; HW-3; HW-20; HW-22; HW-18; HW-11; HW-9; HW-13; HW-27	223,530.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2024
08/25/2022	Embayment Data Collection for Modeling 2022	Modeling	Continuing	Funding is requested to continue the initial embayment monitoring and modeling effort started with FY19 funds and further supported with FY20 and FY21 funds. As described in earlier proposals, this effort supports monitoring and modeling of priority embayments in accordance with Connecticut’s Second Generation Nitrogen Strategy. In 2017, CT DEEP prioritized the following eight embayment complexes (complexes include multiple waterbodies): Pawcatuck River, Mystic River, Niantic River, Farm River, Sasco Brook, Saugatuck River, and Norwalk Harbor.	CT	CT DEEP	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-27; WW-28; WW-35; WW-14; SM-8	630,000.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2024
08/25/2022	Long Island Sound Water Quality Monitoring Program 2022-2023	Monitoring	Ongoing	At these stations, hydrographic profiles are taken of depth, salinity, temperature, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll a, pH and turbidity. Grab samples are collected at surface and bottom depths and filtered and preserved for laboratory analyses of nitrogen, phosphorus, carbon, suspended solids, and chlorophyll-a. The monitoring program includes zooplankton (6 stations, net tow, surface to bottom) and phytoplankton (10 stations, surface) sampling with researchers from the University of Connecticut at Avery Point; phyto-pigment analysis (10 stations, surface and bottom) with the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science/Horn Point; and cooperating in research on such topics as phytoplankton productivity, and zooplankton.	Soundwide	CT DEEP	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-24; WW-25; SM-4; SM-5; SM-6; SM-7; SM-28; SM-13	1,263,117.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2024
08/25/2022	Onsite Wastewater Treatment System Study Support	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Continuing	Phase II of project was funded in FY2021 in which expanded on a previously funded project that was a quality controlled approach to improve the accuracy of the OWTS inventory, in which this funding will expand the improved inventory approach and method for estimating nitrogen loading to the north shore of LIS. Additional funding requested to support CT DEEP and DPH staff to evaluate the assumptions using available data and literature, and prepare a report to document this effort.	Bronx, NY to Narragansett, RI (entire north side of Long Island Sound)	CT DEEP	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-7; WW-27; WW-12; WW-14; WW-35	100,000.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2024
08/25/2022	IEC 2022-2023 Water Quality Monitoring Program in Far Western LIS	Monitoring	Ongoing	The IEC’s 2022-2023 monitoring surveys of western Long Island Sound will consist of eight monthly “winter” surveys throughout the WLIS and the upper East River from October 2022 through May 2023 and 12 weekly “summer” surveys (June 2023 through September 2023). During surveys, IEC monitors the following in situ parameters at 22 stations: water temperature, salinity, pH, Secchi Disk depth, and dissolved oxygen. In addition to in situ monitoring, chlorophyll a and Total Suspended Solids (TSS) are collected at all 22 stations and nutrients and Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) are collected at 11 stations.	Western Long Island Sound	IEC	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-28; WW-32; SM-6	393,145.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2024
08/25/2022	NEIWPCC LISS Program Implementation Support: Task 1 - Outreach & Education Coordination 2022-2023	Public Education and Outreach	Ongoing	NEIWPCC will assist with the development, coordination, and implementation of bi-state public involvement, education, outreach, and communication activities for LIS.	Long Island Sound Watershed	NEIWPCC	None	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-6; SC-7; SC-9; SM-30; SM-34; SC-9; SC-10; SM-32; SM-34; SC-16; SM-35; HW-23	386,502.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2025
08/25/2022	NEIWPCC LISS Program Implementation Support: Task 2 - Program Management & Travel Support 2022-2023	Coordination	Ongoing	NEIWPCC will complete the following sub-tasks: Meeting Support, ANEP Support, Participant Support, Program Management	Long Island Sound Watershed	NEIWPCC	None	N/A	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	SM-13; SM-35; SM-5; SM-9; SM-4; SM-8; WW-28; HW-3; HW-16; HW-23; SM-10; WW-34; WW-40; WW-32	145,189.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2025
08/25/2022	NEIWPCC LISS Program Implementation Support: Task 3 - Habitat Restoration and Stewardship Coordination 2022-2023	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	NEIWPCC’s NYS Habitat Restoration and Stewardship Coordinator will facilitate and conduct activities associated with the LISS Habitat Restoration Initiative including: Preparing, assisting, and evaluating project applications for habitat restoration, assessment, monitoring, and research funding; Developing partnerships to restore LIS habitats and promote stewardship (public access, land acquisition, land management); Working with regional staff to help partners prepare project workplans that are compatible with state regulations; and Assisting NYSDEC with activities associated with the LISS Habitat Restoration & Stewardship Workgroup.	Long Island Sound Watershed	NEIWPCC	None	N/A	Thriving Habitats and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1; HW-22; HW-9; HW-10; HW-6; HW-23; HW-27; HW-13; SC-12; HW-4; HW-30; SM-35	166,963.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2025
08/25/2022	NEIWPCC LISS Program Implementation Support: Task 4 LIS Regional Coordinator 2022-2023	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	The LISS NYS DOW Regional Coordinator (LISRC) position will supplement and increase NYSDEC DOW participation and involvement in all aspects of the LISS to advance the CCMP goals & objectives	Long Island Sound Watershed	NEIWPCC	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2; SM-8; SM-17; SC-14; SM-35	155,519.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2025
08/25/2022	NEIWPCC LISS Program Implementation Support: Task 5 - Science Coordination 2022-2023	Research	Ongoing	The NEIWPCC LISS Science Coordinator will develop and maintain professional scientific and technical contacts among the LISS partners, as well as among local/regional/national/international scientific communities, as the issues or topics warrant. NEIWPCC’s Science Coordinator will manage the scientific resources of the LISS, including collecting and organizing relevant references; and organizing and conducting conferences, meetings, symposia, or other web-based discussions on topics of relevance or concern to the science of the LIS ecosystem.	Long Island Sound Watershed	NEIWPCC	None	N/A	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	WW-28; SM-35; WW-39; SM-5; SM-11; WW-8; SM-1; WW-28; SM-30; SM-34	175,375.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2025
08/25/2022	NEIWPCC LISS Program Implementation Support: Task 7 - LIS Nitrogen Reduction Coordination 2022-2023	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	The LIS Management Committee has identified the need to continue coordination efforts between all of the states within the watershed in support of CCMP 2020-24 Implementation Action SM-19. NEIWPCC, as a regional interstate agency, is well positioned to support these coordination efforts, which will include the dissemination of information to interested parties on a regular basis.	Long Island Sound Watershed	NEIWPCC	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	SM-19; WW-7; SM-35; WW-10	81,878.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2025
08/25/2022	NEIWPCC LISS Program Implementation Support: Task 8 LIS Bioextraction Coordinator 2022-2023	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	The LISS Bioextraction Coordinator position will support the Bioextraction Initiative within Long Island Sound. The Initiative aims to improve water quality in Long Island Sound by removing excess nitrogen through the cultivation and harvest of seaweed and shellfish	Long Island Sound Watershed	NEIWPCC	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-25; SM-35	173,236.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2025
08/25/2022	Implementation of the LISS Sustainable and Resilient Communities working group work plan 2022-2023	Stewardship and Resiliency	Continuing	The LISS Sustainable and Resilient Work Group developed a 5-year work plan, in which this proposal will implement year 2. The work plan has the following desired outcomes: coordinated regional response; trained decision-makers; planned infrastructure improvement; viable government services; and facilitated implementation of Long Island Sound sustainability and resilience projects.	CT and NY	New York and Connecticut Sea Grant	None	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-20; SC-23; SC-24	1,150,365.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2023
08/25/2022	Implementation of the LISS Sustainable and Resilient Communities working group work plan: Breaking down barriers to implementation	Stewardship and Resiliency	Continuing	Part of the LISS Sustainable and Resilient Work Group developed a 5-year work plan, the project includes a new task, Breaking Down Barriers to Implementation, in which each Extension Professional will work with municipalities to implement projects to enhance resiliency.	CT and NY	New York and Connecticut Sea Grant	None	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-20; SC-23; SC-24; SC-27	500,000.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2023
08/25/2022	Long Island Sound Research Grant Program 2022	Research	Ongoing	The NY and CT Sea Grant programs propose to jointly administer a competitive research program to address the needs of the LISS. These needs are derived from the LISS CCMP and prioritized for developing a request for proposals (RFP) with input from the LISS Science & Technical Advisory Committee and the Science Coordinator.	Long Island Sound Watershed	New York and Connecticut Sea Grant	None	N/A	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	SM-1	3,000,000.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2026
08/25/2022	LISS New York City/Western Basin Public Outreach Program 2022-2023	Public Education and Outreach	Ongoing	The LISS NYC-Western Basin Outreach Coordinator will be based in NYC and focus on providing outreach support and programming materials, primarily in environmental justice communities, as well as in other areas of the western Basin in NY. The goals and activities will combine community needs with LISS outcomes, objectives and measures in a manner that demonstrates the relevance of the Sound to these communities.	New York City, NY	New York Sea Grant	None	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	WW-7; WW-27; WW-28; SC-1; SC-6; SC-7; SC-13; SM-15; SM-17; HW-22; SC-4; SC-5; SM-37; SC-12; SC-11; HW-13; HW-21; SC-2; SC-8; SM-25; SC-15	255,685.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2023
08/25/2022	Long Island Sound Study (LISS) New York Public Outreach Program - Public Outreach Coordinator 2022-2023	Public Education and Outreach	Ongoing	Continue the NY Public Outreach Program through 2023, which will fund a full-time public outreach coordinator to oversee the dissemination of accurate, up-to-date, research-based information about the LIS, LISS, and implementation activities of the partnership; and some of the funds will be allocated for a administrative assistant to help carry out the program.	Long Island Sound Watershed	New York Sea Grant	None	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-17; SC-1; SC-6; SC-7; SC-13; SM-15; SM-17; HW-22; SM-15; SC-14; SC-12; SC-11; SC-19; SC-17; SC-18; SC-2; SC-8; SM-25; SC-15	260,454.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2023
08/25/2022	Long Island Sound Futures Fund 2022	Implementation	Ongoing	This project will 1) provide support for management of the Long Island Sound Futures Fund (LISFF) grant program NFWF, the direct recipient of the EPA Co-op funds; 2) provide individual grants to subrecipients with EPA Co-op monies towards projects that contribute to the protection and restoration of the health and living resources of Long Island Sound; and 3) make investments in on-the-ground actions in communities to improve water quality, protect habitat and living resources, educate and involve the public, improve the long-term understanding of how to manage the Sound, monitor progress, and redirect management efforts as described in the 2020 CCMP.	Long Island Sound Watershed	NFWF	None	N/A	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	SM-13	10,650,000.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2023
08/25/2022	Unified Waters Study: LIS Embayment Research 2022-2023	Monitoring	Ongoing	Save the Sound seeks funding to coordinate and implement the UWS, which establishes a comparable bay-to-bay dataset describing the eutrophic conditions and environmental health of bays and harbors around the Sound. Activities will include training and support of 26 water quality monitoring groups; coordination of an Equipment Loan Program; coordination of Tier 1 monitoring in 45 Sound bays and harbors and of Tier 2 monitoring in at least 12 of those locations, with a focus on priority bays identified by the CT DEEP and NYSDEC; and communication of the findings to the public, the science community, and government and agency officials.	Soundwide	Save the Sound	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	HW-22; SC-11; SM-8; WW-27; WW-28; WW-35; SC-7	990,816.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2023
08/25/2022	Water quality monitoring observations to support the hypoxia management in Long Island Sound 2022-2023	Monitoring	Ongoing	Since 2013 the LISS has supported the deployment and operation of a buoy (ARTG) as an element of the LISICOS array, a component of the NERACOOS. LISS has also been providing partial support for the data system that allows access to the observations, and those of the ship survey program of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection. In the last year, the data system was augmented to allow calculation of the hypoxic area and volume from the ship survey data archive and this will be sustained for 2022- 2023. Sampling using autonomous gliders was added to the program in 2021 to complement the ship and buoy data through a cost-sharing arrangement with MARACOOS. Finally, we propose to add Automated Respiration Chambers (ARCs) to the sustained buoy program.	Soundwide	University of Connecticut	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-8; WW-27; WW-32	600,104.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2023
08/25/2022	Assessment of compound flood risk from the combined effects of sea level rise on storm surge, tidal and groundwater flooding, and stormwater 2022	Modeling	Continuing	As part of the first year of the Implementation of the Sustainable and Resilient Communities Work Plan, this project will couple various models to accurately predict coastal flood extents and the impacts of SLR on stormwater infrastructure and management; and better understand compound flood risk on event, seasonal, and long-term scales. The resulting coupled modeling framework may be used by public and private entities seeking to identify future capital-improvement and operational management needs that address increased flooding caused by SLR and groundwater table rise. This underlying framework can help agencies develop cost and benefit data associated with financing projects under future climate scenarios, including consideration for environmental justice.	Long Island Sound	USGS	None	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SM-26; SM-27; SC-20; SC-23; SC-24	1,000,000.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2024
08/25/2022	CT River at Middle Haddam Nutrient Loading	Monitoring	Ongoing	Before 2009, the USGS calculated nitrogen loads at the Connecticut River at Thompsonville, CT because it is the only streamgage on the Connecticut River without tidal influence. In 2009, recognizing that a large portion of the urbanized land use in the watershed and many wastewater-treatment facilities are downstream from this site, the USGS established a station on the Connecticut River at Middle Haddam, CT. Unlike other stations where periodic data are collected, this station can provide continuous time-series data for nitrate, streamflow, turbidity, colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM), and specific conductance. In addition, discrete samples of nitrate, ammonia, total organic nitrogen, and total nitrogen are collected approximately 18 times per year to validate the total nitrogen concentration model that allows for the computation of instantaneous total nitrogen loads .	Middle Haddam, CT	USGS	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-7; WW-27; WW-28	75,000.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2023
08/25/2022	Major Long Island Sound Tributary Sampling 2022-2023	Monitoring	Ongoing	The project would be the fourth year of a long-term monitoring project to conduct water quality sampling in the three major tributaries to Long Island Sound (Thames, Connecticut, and Housatonic Rivers). The goal of the project is to characterize water quality in the three major tributary embayment’s and to develop a nitrogen loading station in the lower tidally effected Housatonic River estuary.	Connecticut	USGS	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-7; WW-27; WW-28	275,000.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2023
08/25/2022	Trends in nitrogen loading from forested areas - A preliminary assessment for Long Island Sound 2022-2023	Research	Continuing	The proposed work is to compile and review available data from long-term monitoring stations within the Long Island Sound watershed and in nearby areas in New England and New York in order to quantify nitrogen exports from undeveloped forested watersheds, document the pace of change in forest nitrogen exports and, to the extent possible, relate the observed changes to watershed dynamics. A first step in understanding these processes, which is proposed in this study, is to identify basins in which exports have and haven’t increased, and then to begin to investigate the ancillary changes that have occurred in and around these basins, given the available data.	Long Island Sound Watershed	USGS	None	N/A	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	WW-7; WW-27; WW-28	43,000.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2023
08/25/2022	USGS Lower Connecticut River water Quality monitoring 2022-2023	Monitoring	Ongoing	Continuation of monitoring activities in the Connecticut River to determine climate change trends influencing river flow and salt-water intrusion into river main-stems and to assist with model calculations of riverine nutrient inputs into the Long Island Sound.	Essex and Old Lyme, CT	USGS	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-7; WW-27; WW-28	81,500.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2023
08/25/2022	Environmental Justice and Underserved Community Support- Addressing Language Barriers With Coastal Anglers	Environmental Justice	New	This program is to address one of the critical data gaps regarding the tracking of one of the primary uses of the LIS, fishing. The annual angler survey is the key data collection practice for understanding the angler needs and fisheries management needs in the LIS (and other coastal areas). It is CT DEEP’s intent to provide this survey with the needed language support to eliminate the acknowledge language barrier to the equitable participation and thereby, an equitable un-biased data set for LISS programs to utilize.	Long Island Sound	CT DEEP	None	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SM-21; WW-39; SC-4; SC-3; SC-7	62,632.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2024
08/25/2022	Fish Passage Restoration on the Pequabuck River - Middle Street Pond Dam Removal	Infrastructure	New	This project will fully remove a defunct dam from Pequabuck River and mitigate contaminated sediment behind the dam. CT DEEP will oversee the removal of Middle Street Pond Dam which is located on the Pequabuck River in Bristol, CT. This will restore 8.5 stream miles to fish passage and remove 3000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment. CT DEEP will select a contractor to complete the engineering design; local permitting and memorandum of agreement process; bid process; and construction.	Connecticut	CT DEEP	None	N/A	Thriving Habitats and Abundant Wildlife	HW-3	1,600,000.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2024
08/25/2022	LiDAR and multi-spectral imaging for baseline saltmarsh monitoring	Climate Change	New	This Project will provide very accurate and precise mapping (elevation and vegetation) of all of our coastal saltmarsh habitat. This mapping will provide baseline data that is currently lacking for our entire coastal marsh systems. These data, at between one and three cm accuracy, will provide for a myriad of different uses into the future. Having baseline data will allow for the tracking of impacts due to climate change, serve to facilitate permitting of restoration activities, and allow for tracking the success or failure of various conservation actions. Further, the establishment of detailed baseline information using drones also will allow for repeatable monitoring to track change over time.	Connecticut	CT DEEP	None	N/A	Thriving Habitats and Abundant Wildlife	HW-2; HW-7; HW-23; HW-5; HW-6; HW-27	1,800,000.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2024
08/25/2022	Living Shorelines Implementation for Identified and Emergent Sites	Climate Change	New	Connecticut is actively pursuing implementations for living shorelines to increase resiliency through natural processes and reduce dependencies on traditional hardened structure for shoreline stabilization and associated restoration or sustainability of coastal resources such as beaches and dunes, coastal grasslands, and tidal wetlands. To date, several installations of varying size and design have been implemented, and there are expectations for several more across a landscape of private, municipal, and public properties. Access to funding, however, remains a barrier to implementation, as the identification of needs outpaces the capacity to properly plan, design, implement, and monitor efficacy. This project will provide a ready source of funding to be used for targeted and potential emergent living shoreline projects that present a significant opportunity for a living shoreline approach to mitigate erosion, support healthy coastal habitats, or improve access to and appreciation of Long Island Sound	Connecticut	CT DEEP	None	N/A	Thriving Habitats and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1; HW-11; HW-12	1,300,000.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2024
08/25/2022	Vessel to enhance the Long Island Sound Monitoring Program	Infrastructure	New	CT DEEP continues to oversee monitoring activities relevant to implementation of the actions within the Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP), Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds (WW) priority implementation actions. The Research Vessel John Dempsey has been supporting monitoring efforts on Long Island Sound for the past 30 years. However, the vessel is nearing its life expectancy and we are currently evaluating options for replacement to make sure we maintain the ability to monitor and assess LIS. A vessel with a faster top speed, increased maneuverability and a shallower draft would allow for expansion of the monitoring program into areas currently inaccessible to the Dempsey, such as LIS embayments. The proposed vessel will allow us to better support these additional surveys and expand the number of projects we can support.	Long Island Sound	CT DEEP	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	SM-7; WW-39	1,533,284.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2024
08/25/2022	Strong Pond Dam Removal	Infrastructure	New	CFE/Save the Sound has received a majority of the funding for the removal of Strong Pond Dam (aka Dana Dam), but additional support is needed to complete the project. Working with DEEP’s Watershed Management Staff and Habitat Restoration Coordinator, CFE/Save the Sound will manage the removal of Strong Pond Dam and restoration of the site, located within Merwin Meadows Park. CFE/Save the Sound will manage the engineering design contractor; local permitting and memorandum of agreement process; bid process; and construction contractor.	Connecticut	CT DEEP	None	N/A	Thriving Habitats and Abundant Wildlife	HW-3	250,000.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2024
08/25/2022	Long Island Sound Community Impact Program	Environmental Justice	New	This RFA to select an organization to manage the Long Island Sound Community Impact Fund (LISCIF) is key to meeting LISS’s EJ goals. EPA will provide funds to the LISCIF annually to be used for awards under this competitive opportunity. EPA expects to provide up to $5 million to cover 3 years for the development of the competitive grant program, two rounds of pass-through funds in years two and three of the award, and the technical assistance and support program for underserved communities.	Long Island Sound	EPA	None	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-4	3,000,000.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2027
08/25/2022	Nitrogen reduction upgrades to WWTPs	Infrastructure	New	The Chicopee WPCF is a wet-weather treatment facility with an average flow of 15.5 million gallons per day (MGD) and a peak hourly flow of 47 MGD, serving a population of approximately 55,000. The WPCF utilizes a high purity oxygen (HPO) secondary treatment system that discharges to the Connecticut River, and ultimately Long Island Sound. The City has been issued a final permit that includes a mass-based annual average total nitrogen limit of 647 lbs/day (5 mg/L at 15.5 MGD). In 2017, Woodard & Curran began a high-level evaluation to study the feasibility and requirements to achieve this nitrogen limit at the Chicopee WPCF. In 2021, with the permit requirements becoming clearer coupled with a better understanding of the WPCF processes, performance and land/space available for improvements, Woodard & Curran updated the 2017 report culminating in a formal recommendation and refined cost estimates for upgrades to achieve the new total nitrogen permit limit at the WPCF.	Chicopee, MA	MA DEP	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-4; WW-2	4,500,000.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2027
08/25/2022	NYS Long Island Sound Watershed Septic System Replacement	Infrastructure	New	NYS’s Septic System Replacement Fund Program provides critical funding to counties to assist homeowners with replacing cesspools, or inadequate septic systems that impair water quality. Suffolk County with 380,000 systems, and Nassau County with 100,000 systems have the highest number of septic systems, per county, in New York State. Using state funding Each county has built a local grant programs to allow homeowners to upgrade their systems with innovative/alternative on-site treatment systems (I/A OWTS) that treat nitrogen to at least 19 mg/L. The level of nitrogen in the effluent from a conventional septic system is 40 mg/L.	Long Island	NYSDEC	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-12; WW-7	2,250,000.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2024
08/25/2022	NYS Water Quality Improvement Projects (WQIP)	Infrastructure	New	The Water Quality Improvement Projects (WQIP) Program is a competitive, reimbursement grant program that funds projects that directly address documented water quality impairments or protect a drinking water source. The program is managed by NYSDEC Division of Water staff and has funded hundreds of projects over 17 rounds of funding. It has been successful at assisting eligible applicants and at completing construction/implementation projects in categories such as wastewater treatment improvement, non-agricultural nonpoint source abatement and control, aquatic connectivity restoration. The WQIP program is on avenue for the NYS DEC to implement projects that advance implementation recommendations in TMDLs or Nine Element Plans for State waters.	Long Island	NYSDEC	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2; WW-35	2,250,000.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2025
08/25/2022	Support for Stewardship Land Acquisition by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation	Climate Change	New	NYSDEC is requesting funds to provide support for the acquisition of three properties: Two acquisitions (Watson and Kozikowski) would be additions to NYSDEC’s Conscience Bay- Little Bay State Tidal Wetland Area in the Conscience Bay-Little Bay- Setauket Harbor Significant Coastal Fish and Wildlife Habitat; and the third acquisition (Bateson) lies between and is in the watershed of both Little Bay and Port Jefferson Harbor, an LISS Inaugural Stewardship Area.		NYSDEC	None	N/A	Thriving Habitats and Abundant Wildlife	HW-3; HW-9	2,909,800.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2025
08/25/2022	Characterizing Deep-water Habitats and Developing Dynamic Habitat-Based Ecological Decision Support Tools	Monitoring	New	The seafloor of Long Island Sound (LIS) is, arguably, one of the most well-mapped coastal areas in the United States. Numerous surveys have been conducted jointly by NOAA and the USGS, independent researchers and more recently the LIS Cable Fund mapping initiative. Many of these mapping efforts collected a variety of data including acoustic (bathymetry and backscatter), sediment grain size and environments, physical characteristics (bottom stress, temperature, salinity) and ecological characteristics (infaunal and epifaunal). Further, these data have been integrated into habitat maps by the teams working as part of the LIS Cable Fund Seafloor Habitat Mapping Initiative in the two phases conducted to date as spatial data products envisioned to provide science-based decisions tools to improve the management and sustainability of the Sound and its many resources.	Long Island Sound	CT DEEP	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	SM-1; SM-2; SM-3; SM-10	1,625,392.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2024
08/25/2022	Data Management and Informational Support- CT ECO Maintenance	Monitoring	New	CT DEEP has identified the UConn Center for Land Use Education and Research (CLEAR) as the critical partner to develop and maintain a repository of various necessary data streams and tools for communicating said data streams, the repository is known as the Connecticut Environmental Conditions Online (CT ECO). More specifically, CT ECO provides several essential map viewers and data for CT DEEP’s LISS program. CT ECO maintenance includes: the necessary security and server updates, maintaining the helpdesk, addressing minor routine updates and staff time to address these needed elements.	Long Island Sound	CT DEEP	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	SM-10; SM-1; HW-4	45,000.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2024
08/25/2022	Data Management and Informational Support- Land Cover Comparison	Monitoring	New	For more than 20 years, the UConn Center for Land Use Education and Research (CLEAR) has provided the critical land cover data sets specifically for LISS to utilize for the landcover-based ecosystem indicators. The project will be to develop a comparison of the CLEAR 30m land covers dataset and National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD) 30m to understand the differences, potential benefits, limitations and similarities.	Long Island Sound Watershed	CT DEEP	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	SM-1; SM-10; WW-17; HW-4	72,000.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2024
08/25/2022	Long Term Monitoring of Coastal Acidification Parameters in the Open Sound	Monitoring	New	CT DEEP continues to oversee monitoring activities relevant to implementation of the actions within the LIS CCMP, Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds (WW) priority implementation actions. Monthly nutrient water quality surveys are conducted throughout the year to document processes relevant to hypoxia and nutrient dynamics. This proposal will add coastal acidification parameters (Total Alkalinity (TA) and Dissolved Inorganic Carbon (DIC)) to the current monitoring program.	Long Island Sound	CT DEEP	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-28; WW-32	94,532.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2024
08/25/2022	EPA/ORD RBEROST Contract Support	Modeling	New	EPA’s River Basin Export Reduction Optimization Support Tool (RBEROST) was developed with an initial pilot in the Upper Connecticut River Basin to determine the most cost-effective management practices (wastewater treatment plant upgrades, agricultural conservation practices, stormwater BMPs, riparian zone restoration) to meet nitrogen and phosphorus loading targets at the mouth and intermediate points within the basin. The proposed project will not only identify cost-effective BMPs for communities in NY and CT to implement through proper tracking and accounting, but also better our understanding and implementation of new and innovative technologies, such as septic and wastewater treatment upgrades, and septic to sewer conversions.	Long Island Sound	EPA ORD	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-1; WW-2	72,636.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2025
08/25/2022	Building a regional fecal indicator bacteria monitoring network in the Long Island Sound watershed	Monitoring	New	This project will develop a pathogen monitoring network by coordinating existing pathogen monitoring programs, standardizing protocols, expanding the network to fill geographic gaps and building technical and laboratory capacity. Geographic areas where elevated pathogen levels are consistently detected will be targeted for increased sampling, and municipalities will be identified and engaged with to foster a collaborative approach to pathogen source reduction. Monitoring expansion will be targeted and incorporate localized trackdown efforts, where warranted, to yield quantifiable reduction in pathogen loads that result in shellfish closures. The	Long Island Sound Watershed	IEC	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-35; SM-8	158,305.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2023
08/25/2022	IEC Coastal Acidification Monitoring in Far Western LIS	Monitoring	New	The IEC’s 2022-2023 monitoring surveys of western Long Island Sound will consist of eight monthly “winter” surveys throughout the WLIS and the upper East River from October 2022 through May 2023 and 12 weekly “summer” surveys (June 2023 through September 2023). During surveys, IEC monitors parameters related to coastal acidification (alkalinity, DIC, omega estimates) will be performed at all or a subset of stations during weekly (summer) runs.	Western Long Island Sound	IEC	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-28; WW-32	28,485.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2024
08/25/2022	Implementing Ecological Restoration and Resiliency at Connecticut’s Largest Remaining Un-ditched Marsh: Great Meadows Marsh, CT	Habitat Restoration and Protection	New	The Ecological Restoration and Resiliency at Connecticut’s Largest Remaining Un-ditched Marsh is a shovel-ready, permitted project that is applying multiple, proven restoration techniques at a large salt marsh complex within a federally-protected site with the goal of restore 39+ acres of lost or degrading salt marsh and other coastal habitats for marsh-dependent species of conservation concern including saltmarsh sparrow, marsh pink, diamondbacked terrapin, and other wildlife in the Long Island Sound	Stratford, CT	National Audubon Society	None	N/A	Thriving Habitats and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1; HW-3; HW-20; HW-22	250,000.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2023
08/25/2022	Enhancement of Bioextraction through Assessment, Experimentation, and Research: Assessment of wild harvest of seaweeds as a tool to bioextract nutrients from coastal waters	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	New	This project will determine the locations, in both New York and Connecticut, and species of naturally occurring seaweed beds that are growing in excess or are considered nuisance species. Targeted sites will be prioritized for areas that are impaired for nitrogen. Harvested seaweeds will be assessed for their content of: nitrogen, carbon content, heavy metals and other contaminants. Site assessments in the second year of the study will investigate impacts to grow-back of the beds following year one wild harvest/removal. This 2-year study aims to determine how much seaweed can realistically be removed from each site, and use that and nitrogen content information (from laboratory analysis) to estimate how much nitrogen can be removed from the water through wild harvest.	Long Island Sound Watershed	NEIWPCC	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-25	143,979.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2023
08/25/2022	Enhancement of Bioextraction through Assessment, Experimentation, and Research: Investigating the long-term storage of viable sugar kelp spores and use of cultivated sugar kelp for seaweed turfgrass fertilizer amendment study	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	New	Previous year’s (FY 20 and FY21) sugar kelp bioextraction work has demonstrated the need for a consistent supply of kelp spores at a consistent time of the year for bioextraction to be as efficient and successful as possible. This study will investigate whether kelp can be cultivated from these stored spores during the first year of this study. The component to be completed in the second year of the project will utilize the harvested kelp in a variation of previous Bioextraction Initiative fertilizer amendment studies, to determine its efficacy on turfgrass.	Long Island Sound Watershed	NEIWPCC	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-25	229,528.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2024
08/25/2022	Enhancement of Bioextraction through Assessment, Experimentation, and Research: Long-term Quantification of nitrogen bioextraction and carbon capture by seaweed and bivalve aquaculture in long Island Sound	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	New	This study will seek to quantify the removal of nitrogen and carbon by seaweeds and bivalves across nearshore and open water regions of Long Island Sound over a three-year period. This study will seek to assess the cumulative impact, actual and modeled, of sustained aquaculture on nitrogen concentrations (total N, nitrate, ammonium) and total chlorophyll a as related to ecosystem resilience and multiple climate signals including pH, pCO2, and calcium carbonate saturation.	Long Island Sound Watershed	NEIWPCC	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-25	350,000.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2027
08/25/2022	Critical assessment of baseline disease dynamics of natural oyster beds in Long Island Sound – establishing foundational knowledge to inform oyster restoration and aquaculture disease management	Habitat Restoration and Protection	New	This project will establish baseline measurements of disease prevalence and reproductive fitness of natural and cultivated oyster populations near prospective restoration sites in LIS. Measures of water quality, oyster-bed structure, and recruitment will be recorded alongside health and disease data to identify key environmental and biological characteristics associated with disease burdens in the studied populations. Tissue samples will also be collected and preserved for future projects characterizing population genetic structure to identify genotypes associated with disease tolerance. By partnering with LIS stakeholders we will synthesize the new data with existing baseline disease state surveillance data on aquacultured oyster populations and water quality measures captured through existing LISS projects	Long Island Sound	NOAA	None	N/A	Thriving Habitats and Abundant Wildlife	HW-18	1,269,540.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2023
08/25/2022	Nutrient Management Outreach and Planning for Animal Operations in Connecticut	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	New	NRCS serves as the lead USDA agency that addresses natural resource issues on private lands. Nutrient Management Specialist positions on the Connecticut NRCS staff and funded by the Long Island Sound Study will allow NRCS to drive LISS progress toward attaining their Clean Waters/Health Watersheds goals to measurably reduce the area of hypoxia in Long Island Sound. The planning done by the Nutrient Management Specialists will assist farmers with proper nutrient applications which will decrease contaminated runoff from entering Long Island Sound.	Long Island Sound Watershed	NRCS	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2; WW-9; WW-35	191,572.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2023
08/25/2022	Outreach and Planning for Agricultural Operations in Connecticut	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	New	NRCS serves as the lead USDA agency that addresses natural resource issues on private lands. Outreach is an integral part of the overall delivery of programs and services and is defined as reaching out to people who are not traditional customers. Emphasis of this Outreach Specialist will be placed on reaching specific groups that have been historically underserved and connecting them with NRCS programs and technical assistance that directly align with LISS objectives. Effective outreach requires flexible approaches – listening first, then matching the message to the listener; communicating in new ways to new audiences to get the message to not only traditional customers, but also culturally and racially diverse customers.	Long Island Sound Watershed	NRCS	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	SC-2; SC-7; SC-14; SC-21; SC-4; SC-11; SC-28	126,739.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2024
08/25/2022	Sound Coastal Gardening Program and Certificate	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	New	This project will inform area residents about best gardening practices and their environmental impact on water resources. The project will involve the creation of an online course, educational brochure, experiential field trips and a structure for interactive volunteer community outreach. Subsequent annual offerings of the online course, as well as an informed, growing volunteer cohort, will extend the program’s educational reach beyond the course offering.	Long Island	NYSDEC	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	SC-14	34,187.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2024
08/25/2022	Support for Sustained Acidification Monitoring in Central Long Island Sound	Monitoring	New	University of Connecticut will purchase a pair of sensors to measure pH and pCO2 at 15-minute intervals at mid-depth (~20m) in central LIS by mounting them on the mooring cable of the CLIS buoy to support the expansion of ongoing water sampling programs to include pH and total alkalinity.	Long Island Sound	University of Connecticut	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-28; WW-32	34,069.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2023
08/25/2022	Tidal Marsh Restoration Implementation at Priority Sites Through Increased Capacity and Funding	Habitat Restoration and Protection	New	This project will provide support through both capacity building within USFWS, hiring staff focused on working in the LISS boundary and leveraging additional Service technical expertise.	Long Island Sound	USFWS	None	N/A	Thriving Habitats and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1; HW-3; HW-11; HW-14; HW-17; HW-2; HW-16; HW-2	303,608.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2026
08/25/2022	Coastal resiliency assessment: near-term coastal change along the shorelines of Long Island Sound	Habitat Restoration and Protection	New	This project is designed to build out data and interpretative capabilities in three years where year-end product deliverables have independent value and can stand-alone. The project will first quantify rates of shoreline change, then use the rates to update a coastal landscape change assessment that incorporates multiple hazards datasets with geomorphic and ecologic characteristics via machine learning (ML) outcomes, to identify areas with the highest propensity for experiencing change. Combining the updated shoreline change rates into the coastal landscape change assessment can be used to identify coastal vulnerability hot spots, determine areas with more potential for resiliency, and can be used to help detect optimal areas for investing in protective measures, such as living shorelines. More broadly, these products can be used to inform decision makers about the increased likelihood of near-term (10 years) coastal change hazards in the coastal zone including impacts to landforms such as tidal wetlands, dunes, and human infrastructure.	Long Island Sound	USGS	None	N/A	Thriving Habitats and Abundant Wildlife	SC-21; SM-1; SM-26;SC-31	295,605.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2025
08/25/2022	Development of a mapper-based Long Island Sound data and research portal (Clearinghouse)	Monitoring	New	The USGS proposes creating a mapper-based clearinghouse that will provide information on sources of data available throughout the LIS watershed and allow for real-time metadata output and integration into visualization and modeling tools developed through a graphical interface. This project will not create new databases, but will leverage existing databases, and promote data storage and public access of data collected by Federal, State, and local agencies and organizations. The clearinghouse will provide links to access the data, reports, and other products available for researchers, decision-makers, and the public.	Long Island Sound	USGS	None	N/A	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	SM-5; SM-4; SM-9	586,000.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2024
08/25/2022	In-Stream Nitrogen Monitoring in the Upper Connecticut River Watershed	Monitoring	New	In order to optimize efforts to reduce loading of nitrogen to Long Island Sound, managers need a better understanding of relative magnitude and timing of nitrogen transported to LIS from tributaries to the Connecticut River in the northern portion of the Connecticut River watershed. The primary goal of the proposed study is to develop and implement a water quality monitoring strategy for nitrogen (N) in the upper basin states of Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire. The secondary goal of the proposed study is to apply the data collected to analyze loads of nutrients, including N and Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC), understand their drivers which will promote positive management outcomes, make comparisons to earlier time periods, and prepare a publication that quantifies stream loading of N and DOC from the upper watershed, and identifies their sources and drivers.	Connecticut	USGS	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-7; WW-27; WW-28	510,000.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2026
08/25/2022	Nitrogen concentrations and loads and seasonal nitrogen loads in selected Long Island Sound tributaries, water years 1995-2021	Modeling	New	The USGS released data on nitrogen loads and concentrations, as well as flow normalized nitrogen loads and concentrations and seasonal loads for USGS fall line monitoring stations for the period of 1995-2016. The USGS has recently developed a web page to display the nitrogen loading information from the USGS data release, as well as future updates of the data set. There is a need to have information and analysis of nitrogen load and concentration information available to support public and scientific inquiry, as well as to review the efficacy of management efforts to reduce nitrogen loads to Long Island Sound.	Connecticut	USGS	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-7; WW-27; WW-28	75,000.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2023
08/25/2022	Optimizing Best Management Practices to Minimize Seasonal and Annual Delivery of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Suspended Sediment Loadings to Long Island Sound: A Collaborative Modeling Approach	Modeling	New	The USGS and EPA propose to collaboratively develop a modeling framework to allow stakeholders in the Long Island Sound basin to determine least-cost solutions to meet annual and seasonal load reductions for point and nonpoint sources of nitrogen, phosphorus, and suspended sediment, targeting management options at the National Hydrography Dataset Plus (NHDPlus) catchment scale. Management solutions to be considered include agricultural conservation practices, urban stormwater control measures, riparian restoration, septic-system upgrades and replacement by sewers, and wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) upgrades.	Long Island Sound	USGS	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-1; WW-2; WW-27	750,000.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2025
08/25/2022	USGS Coastal Acidification Monitoring	Monitoring	New	USGS will contribute to the newly proposed long-term coastal acidification monitoring and increase spatial and temporal coverage of the Long Island Sound and its embayments. The proposed study would leverage the work done as part of multiple ongoing long-term monitoring programs of USGS, the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, New York Department of Environmental Conservation and other agencies. The analysis and presentation of these data for the proposed study would enhance their value to the funding agencies and to the public.	Long Island Sound	USGS	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-28; WW-32	272,000.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2023
08/25/2022	USGS Flax Pond Water Quality Monitoring	Monitoring	New	This project would re-establish estuary elevation and water-quality data collection from the wetlands at Flax Pond in Old Field, NY. Collected data would provide information essential to understanding tidal wetland loss, sea level rise, coastal acidification, shellfish productivity, and eutrophication by understanding variations in tidal hydrology and water chemistry.	Old Field, NY	USGS	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-7; WW-27; WW-28	105,000.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2023
08/25/2022	USGS Oyster Bay Water Quality Monitoring	Monitoring	New	This project would establish continuous estuary elevation and water-quality monitoring in Oyster Bay, NY. Data collected at the Oyster Bay site will be directly comparable and complimentary to other USGS monitoring locations throughout the LIS and elsewhere on Long Island. Monitoring at this location will provide information essential to understanding tidal wetland loss, sea level rise, coastal ocean acidification, shellfish productivity, and eutrophication by understanding variations in tidal hydrology and water chemistry.	Oyster Bay, NY	USGS	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-7; WW-27; WW-28	190,000.00	10/1/2022 - 9/30/2023
02/16/2023	Be a Good Egg: Share the Shore with Shorebirds around Long Island Sound (NY) (73416)	Public Education and Outreach	Ongoing	Deliver “Be a Good Egg,” an environmental education program in the Long Island Sound watershed of New York. The project will increase support for coastal conservation and engage people in actions that help shorebirds thrive in important coastal habitats of the Sound.	New York	National Audubon Society	On-Track	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	HW-10; SC-19	62,561.78	01/11/2022 - 01/10/2023
02/16/2023	Bronx River Environmental Enrichment and Leadership for Students (EELS) (NY) (76644)	Stewardship and Resiliency	Ongoing	Connect students with learning and professional development opportunities and college credit through the Bronx River Environmental Enrichment and Leadership for Students (EELS) program, Bronx River watershed, New York. Project will introduce a more diverse community of young people to conservation education and career experience focused on the Bronx River and Long Island Sound.	Bronx, NY	Bronx River Alliance	On-Track	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-4; SC-19	77,556.31	10/01/2021 - 12/15/2022
02/16/2023	Citizen Opportunities for Accessing Science Training on the Sound (COASTS) (CT) (73438)	Public Education and Outreach	Ongoing	Deliver community environmental training and education about the marine environment of Long Island Sound in New Haven and West Haven, Connecticut. Project will equip community members with knowledge to share about their “blue backyard” of local waters and Long Island Sound.	New Haven; West Haven, CT	University of New Haven	On-Track	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-19; SC-4	74,214.95	01/01/2022 - 12/31/2023
02/16/2023	Coastal Resilience and Sustainability Plan for the Mystic Waterfront (CT) (73368)	Stewardship and Resiliency	Ongoing	Develop a resiliency and sustainability plan for Mystic, Connecticut. Project will create a strategy to address sea-level rise and climate change in this coastal community of Long Island Sound.	Mystic, CT	Town of Groton	On-Track	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-23; SC-24	90,000.00	01/01/2022 - 11/01/2023
02/16/2023	Community-driven Stormwater Green Infrastructure Design in Bridgeport (CT) (73323)	WQ Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	Develop a Green Stormwater Infrastructure Action Plan with community-driven participatory design in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Project will identify a portfolio of project designs in collaboration with Bridgeport youth and local community members to improve water quality of Long Island Sound.	Bridgeport, CT	The Nature Conservancy	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2; SC-4	174,363.20	11/15/2021 - 06/30/2023
02/16/2023	Creating Thriving Habitats for the Coastal Birds of Long Island Sound-VIII (CT) (73352)	Public Education and Outreach	Ongoing	Provide education and deliver targeted stewardship of American oystercatcher and other migratory shorebirds and habitat along the Long Island Sound coastline of Connecticut. Project will increase public awareness about the value of sharing the shore with birds among recreational users and reduce disturbance to the birds’ breeding and roosting sites on the Sound.	Connecticut	Connecticut Audubon Society	On-Track	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	HW-17; SC-18	105,808.66	01/01/2021 - 06/30/2023
02/16/2023	Designing Oyster Reef Restoration Sites on City Island and Long Island Sound (NY) (73208)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	Complete design and permitting for two oyster reefs and conduct public environmental education and stewardship activities, City Island, Bronx, New York. Project will set the stage to restore wild oysters and an important coastal habitat of Long Island Sound.	City Island, NY	City Island Oyster Reef	On-Track	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1; HW-22	263,750.02	12/01/2021 - 11/30/2023
02/16/2023	Developing a Conservation and Climate Adaptation Plan for Great Gull Island (NY) (73318)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	Develop a climate and shoreline adaptation, monitoring, and management plan for common and roseate terns at Great Gull Island, New York. Project will establish a roadmap for conservation of iconic bird species of Long Island Sound.	Great Gull Island, Southold, NY	University of Connecticut	On-Track	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-11; HW-16	399,997.32	11/01/2021 - 10/31/2023
02/16/2023	Developing a Long Island Sound Student Action Plan-II (NY) (73251)	WQ Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	Deliver hands-on environmental education and stewardship activities focused on addressing challenges to restoration and protection of the health and living resources of Long Island Sound, New York.	New York	Citizens Campaign Fund for the Environment	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	SC-1; SC-19	100,000.03	10/01/2021 - 10/31/2022
02/16/2023	Engaging Community Stewards to Manage Coastal Forest in Seton Falls Park (NY) (73297)	Public Education and Outreach	Ongoing	Train and educate local stewards to enhance 32 acres of coastal forest, Seton Falls Park, Bronx, New York. Project will enhance long-term stewardship and refine strategies for community natural resources management of this forest an important coastal habitat of Long Island Sound.	Bronx, NY	Natural Areas Conservancy	On-Track	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	HW-1; HW-22	62,276.63	10/01/2021 - 05/31/2023
02/16/2023	Engaging Local Youth Through Seaweed Farming to Improve Water Quality in the Long Island Sound (NY) (73377)	WQ Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	Install a seaweed farm engaging 120 young people in growing, harvesting, and producing nitrogen-rich fertilizer for community gardens and other organizations on the Bronx River, New York. Project will demonstrate a model to reduce nitrogen pollution by seaweed "bioextraction" and create an alternative to synthetic fertilizers to improve water quality in the Bronx River and Long Island Sound.	Bronx, NY	Rocking the Boat	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	SC-14; SC-19	72,163.10	01/01/2022 - 12/31/2023
02/16/2023	Engaging Student Citizen Scientists for Long Island Sound-V (CT) (73442)	Public Education and Outreach	Ongoing	Engage 92 student citizen scientists in six field and laboratory-based experiential learning programs about water quality and Long Island Sound ecology using rivers, harbors, and the Sound as outdoor classrooms, and make public presentations about their activities at public events in Fairfield County, Connecticut. Project will empower the next generation of environmental stewards and improve public knowledge and understanding of the Sound.	Fairfield, CT	Earthplace - The Nature Discovery Center	On-Track	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-19; SC-7	52,613.86	01/01/2022 - 12/31/2022
02/16/2023	Engaging Vermont Communities to Develop Nitrogen Prevention Projects in Long Island Sound (VT) (73354)	Public Education and Outreach	Ongoing	Conduct outreach and deliver technical assistance to private landowners in Connecticut River watershed, Vermont. Project will develop designs for projects to reduce nitrogen pollution into the Connecticut River downstream to Long Island Sound.	Vermont	Connecticut River Watershed Council	On-Track	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	WW-2; SC-7	250,000.11	01/01/2022 - 12/31/2023
02/16/2023	Expanding Oyster Spawning Sanctuaries in Oyster Bay and Cold Spring Harbor (NY) (73414)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	Expand and monitor oyster spawner sanctuaries in the Oyster Bay-Cold Spring Harbor Complex, New York. Project will contribute to the restoration of these native shellfish and their habitat in Long Island Sound.	Oyster Bay; Cold Spring Harbor, NY	Friends of the Bay	On-Track	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-16; HW-22	86,815.38	12/03/2021 - 09/15/2023
02/16/2023	From Rain Gardens to Riparian Buffers: Pollinator Pathways for a Healthy Long Island Sound (CT) (73332)	WQ Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	Install rain gardens and riparian waterway buffers along two pollinator pathways through Groton, Stonington, Ledyard and Preston, Connecticut. Project will engage 6,400 community members with educational workshops, create habitat for native pollinators, and improve the quality of waters flowing into Long Island Sound.	Groton; Stonington; Ledyard; Preston, CT	Eastern Connecticut Conservation District	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	SC-20; SC-11	136,160.00	02/01/2022 - 08/31/2023
02/16/2023	Green Infrastructure to Improve Water Quality in Northport Harbor and Long Island Sound (NY) (73479)	WQ Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	Install green infrastructure in Northport, New York. Project will install a bio-retention rain garden to capture, store, and filter contaminants and 17,040 gallons of stormwater from Northport Harbor and Long Island Sound.	Northport Harbor, Northport, NY	Citizens Campaign Fund for the Environment	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2; SC-20	60,000.58	12/01/2021 - 12/31/2022
02/16/2023	Hempstead Harbor Water Quality Monitoring Program-XIV (NY) (73340)	Monitoring	Ongoing	Conduct water quality monitoring in Hempstead Harbor, Nassau County, New York. Project will inform management of Hempstead Harbor a waterbody that feeds Long Island Sound.	Hempstead Harbor, Hempstead, NY	Incorporated Village of Sea Cliff, New York	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	SM-8; WW-28	100,000.00	04/01/2022 - 09/24/2023
02/16/2023	Improving Water Quality Through Green Infrastructure in Quanaduck Cove and Long Island Sound (CT) (73448)	WQ Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	Install green infrastructure and apply other stormwater management tools at a coastal condominium complex, Quanaduck Cove, Stonington, Connecticut. Project will prevent 43,560 gallons of stormwater pollution from entering Stonington Harbor and Long Island Sound annually.	Quanaduck Cove, Stonington, CT	Eastern Connecticut Conservation District	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2; SC-7	59,493.40	04/01/2022 - 03/31/2024
02/16/2023	Improving Water Quality with Green Infrastructure and Multilingual Community Outreach (CT) (73370)	WQ Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	Install rain gardens at five Housatonic Habitat for Humanity homes and one community facility and conduct multilingual education about green infrastructure in western Connecticut. Project will showcase attractive landscaping that improves water quality and actions individuals can take to contribute to healthier local waters and Long Island Sound.	Connecticut	Housatonic Valley Association	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2; SC-7	86,639.76	12/01/2021 - 11/30/2023
02/16/2023	Innovative Green Infrastructure and Coastal Resilience Design for Flushing Creek (NY) (73449)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	Develop a green infrastructure and living shoreline design in collaboration with the community for a project along Flushing Creek, Queens, New York. Project will integrate innovative nature-based techniques that can be applied along urban waterfronts to improve water quality, filter stormwater, enhance shoreline resilience, and connect communities to local waterways and Long Island Sound.	Flushing Creek, Queens, NY	Guardians of Flushing Bay	On-Track	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-11; HW-22	203,924.00	10/18/2021 - 01/16/2023
02/16/2023	Marshes and Mussels: New Tools to Enhance Coastal Restoration and Resilience (NY) (73513)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	Deploy new methods combining ribbed mussels and cordgrass to restore degraded shoreline marshes in Centerport Harbor, New York. Project will provide an innovative tool for natural living shoreline restoration to enhance community coastal resilience around Long Island Sound.	Centerport Harbor, Centerport, NY	Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County	On-Track	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1; HW-11	249,045.64	10/15/2021 - 10/13/2023
02/16/2023	Oyster Planting to Improve Water Quality in Long Island Sound- (NY) (73334)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	Plant 200,000 American oysters to assess their potential to remove nitrogen, phosphorus and carbon pollution from waters and repopulate a historic fishery in Port Jefferson Harbor, New York. Project will increase biofiltration by the oysters, which remove 130 lbs. of nitrogen annually from a harbor of Long Island Sound.	Port Jefferson Harbor, Port Jefferson, NY	Town of Brookhaven	On-Track	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	WW-2; HW-16	79,639.62	11/30/2021 - 10/30/2023
02/16/2023	Partnering with Communities in Urban Waters to Enhance Stewardship of Long Island Sound (CT) (73357)	Stewardship and Resiliency	Ongoing	Collaborate with five Conservation Districts in internal environmental justice training; and partner with environmental justice communities to identify five water quality projects of value locally and to Long Island Sound, Connecticut. Project will increase awareness and understanding of diversity, equity, and environmental justice issues, increase capacity for future water quality project work, and enhance stewardship of local waters.	Connecticut	Southwest Conservation District	On-Track	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-4; WW-2	90,414.66	12/01/2021 - 06/30/2024
02/16/2023	Planning for Fish-Friendly and Flood Resilient Road-Stream Crossings in the Naugatuck Valley (CT) (73419)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	Create six Road-Stream Crossing Management Plans for towns with historic runs of fish that spend portions of their life partially in fresh water and partially in salt water in the Naugatuck Valley watersheds, Connecticut. Project will be developed in concert with each town and serve as a basis for securing financing for future road-stream crossing replacement projects to benefit these communities and fisheries of the watersheds and Long Island Sound.	Connecticut	Save the Sound	On-Track	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	WW-2; SC-24	109,618.46	12/01/2021 - 11/30/2023
02/16/2023	Planning for Greening the Yellow Mill Channel to Improve Water Quality in the Long Island Sound (CT) (73400)	WQ Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	Develop an alternatives analysis about the type of green infrastructure for a site prioritized in the City of Bridgeport’s Waterfront Master Plan, Bridgeport Connecticut. Project will set the stage for improving water quality and enhancing community resilience to storms and floods in an urban coastal community of Long Island Sound.	Bridgeport, CT	The Trust for Public Land	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	SC-20; SC-4	120,508.77	11/01/2021 - 06/20/2023
02/16/2023	Planning to Reduce Water Pollution in the North Branch Park River Watershed (CT) (73424)	WQ Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	Enhance a watershed management plan by developing green infrastructure designs, in the North Branch Park River watershed, Hartford, Connecticut. Project will advance the delivery of on-the-ground projects to improve water quality upstream in the river and downstream to Long Island Sound.	Hartford, CT	North Central Conservation District	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2; SC-20	307,154.36	12/15/2021 - 05/01/2024
02/16/2023	Pocket Wetland Restoration Planning to Prevent Nitrogen Pollution in Long Island Sound (VT) (73450)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	Design wetlands restoration projects in agricultural fields in Vermont’s Connecticut River Basin. Project will result in designs to ultimately restore freshwater wetlands and reduce nitrogen pollution runoff from farms into the Connecticut River and downstream to Long Island Sound.	Vermont	Vermont Association of Conservation Districts	On-Track	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	WW-2; WW-35	203,198.94	01/03/2022 - 12/29/2023
02/16/2023	Preventing Pollution with Green Infrastructure in Wells Brook and the Long Island Sound (NY) (73491)	WQ Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	Construct green infrastructure in a paved areas at two commercial locations near Wells Brook, Town of Dover, New York. Project will prevent 17.28 pounds of nitrogen annually from entering the Wells Brook a tributary of two rivers that flow downstream to Long Island Sound.	Dover, NY	Housatonic Valley Association	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2; SC-20	51,313.03	10/01/2021 - 03/31/2023
02/16/2023	Reducing Marine Debris by Removing Derelict Lobster Gear from Long Island Sound (CT, NY) (73421)	Stewardship and Resiliency	Ongoing	Remove derelict lobster pots from 18 square miles of marine waters in Connecticut and New York. Project will collect 43.5 metric tons of marine debris from the seafloor of Long Island Sound.	Long Island Sound	Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	HW-10; WW-20	115,840.78	10/01/2021 - 12/31/2023
02/16/2023	Reducing Marine Debris in Long Island Sound Deploying Innovative Floating Litter Traps (NY) (73383)	Stewardship and Resiliency	Ongoing	Develop an alternatives analysis about the type of green infrastructure for a site prioritized in the City of Bridgeport Waterfront Master Plan, Bridgeport Connecticut. Project will set the stage for improving water quality and enhancing community resilience to storms and floods in an urban coastal community of Long Island Sound.	Bridgeport, CT	Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2; WW-20	81,341.29	01/01/2022 - 12/31/2023
02/16/2023	Renovate to Restore Fish Passage at the Jordan Millpond Dam Fishway (CT) (73344)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	Renovate a damaged fishway to restore fish passage at Jordan Millpond dam, Waterford, Connecticut. The project will reconnect 2.75 miles of river corridor benefiting alewives that migrate between rivers and Long Island Sound.	Jordan Mill Pond Dam, Waterford, CT	Town of Waterford	On-Track	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1; HW-3	60,000.00	03/01/2022 - 02/28/2023
02/16/2023	Restoring Big Rock Wetland for Marsh and Community Resilience, Phase I (NY) (73372)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	Establish a natural shoreline along Memorial Field in Udall’s Cove, Little Neck Bay, Queens, New York. Project will restore the shoreline to reduce erosion from storms and engage the local community, public schools, and university students in environmental stewardship.	Little Neck, NY	Save the Sound	On-Track	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	SC-2; HW-11	604,461.22	01/01/2022 - 12/31/2023
02/16/2023	Restoring Coastal Grassland at the William Cullen Bryant Preserve (NY) (73359)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	Restore coastal grassland and use the restored grassland to educate visitors about the environment at the William Cullen Bryant Preserve, Roslyn Harbor, New York. Project will restore an important coastal habitat of Long Island Sound.	Roslyn, NY	Nassau County Museum of Art	On-Track	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1; SC-7	80,374.25	11/01/2021 - 10/31/2023
02/16/2023	Restoring Fish Passage at the Upper Mill Pond Dam (CT) (73299)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	Develop a plan to install a fishway at the Upper Mill Pond Dam, Clinton, Connecticut. Project will set the stage to restore access to 5.2 miles of riverine corridor for river herring and American eel spawning and migration to Long Island Sound.	Clinton, CT	Town of Clinton	On-Track	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1; HW-3	58,850.00	01/15/2022 - 06/15/2023
02/16/2023	Restoring the Headwaters of Sasco Brook to Improve the Health of Downstream Long Island Sound (CT) (73514)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	Restore 14.5 acres of coastal forest and meadow at the Roy and Margot Larsen Wildlife Sanctuary in Fairfield, Connecticut. Project improve the environment of coastal forest an important habitat of Long Island Sound.	Fairfield, CT	Connecticut Audubon Society	On-Track	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1; SC-7	147,387.66	10/01/2021 - 09/30/2023
02/16/2023	Shell Recycling Planning to Restore Long Island Sound Oyster Reefs and Shorelines (CT) (73230)	Stewardship and Resiliency	Ongoing	Develop a local shell recycling program in Groton and Mystic, Connecticut. Project will engage local restaurants to generate shell for future habitat restoration projects around Long Island Sound.	Groton; Mystic, CT	University of Connecticut	On-Track	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	HW-1; HW-22	155,899.59	02/01/2022 - 01/31/2024
02/16/2023	Urban Youth Stewardship of Great Meadows Marsh on Long Island Sound (CT) (73511)	Stewardship and Resiliency	Ongoing	Employ urban youth to restore habitat at Great Meadows Marsh, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge, Stratford, Connecticut. The project will result in stewardship activities that improve marsh hydrology, increase species diversity and the diversity of future conservation professionals; and enhance public education focused on this important coastal habitat of Long Island Sound.	Great Meadows Marsh, Stratford, CT	National Audubon Society	On-Track	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-4; HW-3	59,741.70	10/01/2021 - 12/31/2022
02/16/2023	Water Quality Monitoring to Improve Fairfield County Waterways and Long Island Sound (CT) (73257)	Monitoring	Ongoing	Conduct water quality monitoring to help improve waters affected by pollution in Fairfield County, Connecticut. The water quality data collected through this project will be used to inform local government actions to reduce sewage pollution into Long Island Sound.	Fairfield, CT	Earthplace - The Nature Discovery Center	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2; WW-28	99,964.10	01/03/2022 - 04/28/2023
02/16/2023	Wetland Mapping to Prevent Nitrogen Pollution from the Connecticut River to Long Island Sound (VT) (73367)	WQ Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	Create water resource maps and provide education about the mapping tool in the Connecticut River Basin, Vermont. Project will inform development of targeted local nitrogen pollution prevention projects in wetlands at a watershed and site-scale.	Vermont	Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation	On-Track	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2; SC-11	210,456.00	10/01/2021 - 09/30/2024
10/04/2023	Long Island Sound Connecticut Outreach Program FY23	Public Education and Outreach	Ongoing	LISS Outreach Coordinator will serve as Co-PI on this task, collaborating with other Long Island Sound Study (LISS) partners in Connecticut and New York to increase appreciation, stewardship, awareness and understanding of Long Island Sound and efforts to restore and protect it.	Long Island Sound Watershed	Connecticut Sea Grant	None	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-1,SC-6,SC-7,SC-4,SM-17,SC-10,SC-8,SC-15,SC-2,SC-12,SC-19,SM-25,WW-20,WW-21,SM-15	170,486.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2024
10/04/2023	Long Island Sound Mentor Teachers Program Work Plan FY23	Public Education and Outreach	Ongoing	Continue the Long Island Sound Mentor Teacher program in CT to recruit high quality, creative and respected teachers to assist their peers in incorporating LIS content into curricula within the scope of the newly adopted Next Generative Science Standards.	Long Island Sound Watershed	Connecticut Sea Grant	None	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-17,SC-18,SC-19,SC-1	35,798.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2024
10/04/2023	A Network of Long Island Sound Schools: Protecting the Sound One School at a Time	Public Education and Outreach	New	As a result of participation in the LIS Schools network, students, teachers, and their communities a) have the awareness, knowledge, and skills to help protect LIS; and b) future generations have the skills to become leaders and stewards of LIS.	CT and NY	Connecticut Sea Grant	None	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-8,SC-17,SC-19,SC-1	249,796.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2024
10/04/2023	Land Acquisition & Public Access	Habitat Restoration and Protection	New	This proposal will focus on the acquisition of an approximately 29-acre coastal parcel in Branford at 12 Bowhay Hill Rd, which includes tidal and inland wetlands, provides opportunities for direct coastal access and connectivity to local public greenways and trail systems.	CT	CT DEEP	None	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-3,HW-9	1,500,000.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2028
10/04/2023	Acoustic telemetry array for tagged migratory fish in Long Island Sound Phase 2	Monitoring	Continuing	We are proposing to deploy and maintain an acoustic array of Innovasea receivers to detect and record all animals previously implanted with Innovasea 69 kHz tags. A minimum amount of receivers is requested to augment a variety of Acoustic Receivers currently in CT DEEP inventory. Receivers will be deployed throughout Long Island Sound to optimize collection of information on the US Federally Endangered Atlantic Sturgeon, currently being studied by the CT DEEP Marine Fisheries Division	Soundwide	CT DEEP	None	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	WW-37,HW-16,HW-17,SC-7,SM-3,HW-19,SM-20	54,489.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2025
10/04/2023	Connecticut Watershed Model- Outreach, Co-Creation, and Capacity Building	Public Education and Outreach	New	CT DEEP proposes to conduct an outreach, education, and capacity building effort to support the next phase of the Connecticut Watershed Model (CTWM). This phase will include an intensive outreach program to transfer knowledge and tools from State partners to local partners and support local capacity building. Additionally, this project creates the bridge between modeling water quality benefits to implementation of strategies that realize water quality benefits	CT	CT DEEP	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2,SC-5,SC-1,WW-1,SM-17,SM-1,WW-39,WW-40	392,600.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2025
10/04/2023	Connecticut State Coordination	Coordination	Ongoing	These positions are wholly devoted to the LISS; by bringing devoted CT DEEP resources to the table we assure that both Connecticut and the greater LISS will achieve the full benefits of the partnership.	Long Island Sound Watershed	CT DEEP	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	SM-13,SM-18,SM-29,SM-15,SM-36,SM-32,SM-33,SM-34,WW-2,WW-8,SM-19,SM-11,SM-35,WW-4,WW-7,WW-1,WW-27,WW-28,WW-3,SC-4,SM-14	746,216.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2025
10/04/2023	Connecticut Stewardship and Habitat Restoration	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	Connecticut s habitat restoration coordinator will continue to promote coastal habitat restoration and stewardship to maximize acres and miles restored annually. Specifically, the emphasis is upon project implementation (e.g., design, permitting, and securing funding) but will include support for habitat restoration planning (e.g., database management, outreach).	Long Island Sound Watershed	CT DEEP	None	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1,HW-3,HW-20,HW-22,HW-11,HW-9,HW-13,HW-27,HW-23	236,535.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2025
10/04/2023	Embayment Data Collection for Modeling	Modeling	Continuing	Funding is requested to continue the initial embayment monitoring and modeling effort started with FY19 funds and further supported with FY20, FY21 and FY22 funds. As described in earlier proposals, this effort supports monitoring and modeling of priority embayments in accordance with Connecticut s Second Generation Nitrogen Strategy. In 2017, CT DEEP prioritized the following eight embayment complexes (complexes include multiple waterbodies): Pawcatuck River, Mystic River, Niantic River, Farm River, Sasco Brook, Saugatuck River, and Norwalk Harbor	CT	CT DEEP	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-27,WW-28,WW-35,WW-14	740,000.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2025
10/04/2023	Connecticut State Water Quality Monitoring for Long Island Sound	Monitoring	Ongoing	The goals of the CT DEEP LIS Offshore Monitoring Program are: To monitor water quality parameters year round on a monthly schedule at stations throughout Long Island Sound; To monitor the temporal and spatial extent of summertime hypoxia through Sound-wide sampling every other week from late June through mid-September; To maintain a long-term database of information collected; To review data periodically, in combination with available historic data, for trends; To assess the long-term results of management actions (e.g., no-net increase nutrient (nitrogen) policy, nitrogen strategy, 2nd generation nitrogen strategy); To provide state and federal managers and policy-makers with information on existing conditions and trends that can be used in the development, implementation, and assessment of strategies to control and improve water quality in the Sound; To make data available for related efforts such as research and water quality model development and calibration; To make data available to other interested individuals/groups.	Soundwide	CT DEEP	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-24,WW-25,SM-4,SM-5,SM-6,SM-7,SM-28,WW-32,SM-26,SM-13	1,592,642.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2025
10/04/2023	Environmental Characterization of the Long Island Sound Cable Fund Priority Area III	Modeling	Ongoing	This proposal is envisioned as part of a larger series of Environmental Mapping and Characterization of Long Island Sound€ projects which provide complementary efforts leveraging LISS funding opportunities to expand upon and be consistent with the long-standing Seafloor Habitat Initiative of the LIS Cable Fund (LISCF).	Soundwide	CT DEEP	None	N/A	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	SM-2,SM-3,SM-10,SM-1	2,088,335.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2025
10/04/2023	Integrated Environmental Mapping & Characterization of Long Island Sound	Modeling	New	Three projects focusing on environmental characterizations in Long Island Sound: sensitivity/risk based analysis for potential future placement strategies of energy transmission infrastructure, complete geologic sampling and mapping work previously begun under a previous LISS award and help identify and prioritize new mapping areas, provide data applicable to the CT Blue Plan marine spatial planning effort.	Soundwide	CT DEEP	None	N/A	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	SM-1,SM-3,SM-2	1,250,000.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2025
10/04/2023	LISS Alkalinity Analyses Intercalibration - Closing the gap in total alkalinity analyses in the Long Island Sound Estuary	Monitoring	New	The LIS Estuary has launched a new interagency monitoring effort for Total Alkalinity (TA) across LIS and its tributaries. It is expected that the two methods (USGS and Dickson) will yield different values of TA and in an estuary such as the LIS this difference will result in serious offsets when trying to interpret and compare data from different sources. We propose to perform a side by side analysis of the two methods at two different locations and develop an intercalibration between the two.	Soundwide	CT DEEP	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-32,WW-39	116,000.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2025
10/04/2023	Development of Benthic Macroinvertebrate Sampling Methodology and Tools to assess Embayment Health in Long Island Sound, Phase 2	Monitoring	New	This project will utilize the data collected during the Intensification Studies and the results of the Phase I project to develop an index to determine biologic conditions specific to Long Island Sound embayments tailored around local stressors and management concerns	Soundwide	CT DEEP	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-8,WW-31,SM-30	100,000.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2025
10/04/2023	Land Cover Analysis Phase 2- Indicator Development	Monitoring	Continuing	This is the 2nd phase of this project funded under CT DEEP s base program. In this phase of the project the results of the land cover analysis (phase 1) will be utilized to generate three essential indicators for tracking the progress of the CCMP. Specifically, the update will include tracking impervious cover, forest cover and riparian buffer extent. In addition, the study will have significant detailed imagery which can aide the Habitat Connectivity development (FY22 project under NEIWPCC s programing).	Long Island Sound Watershed	CT DEEP	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-17,WW-15,WW-16,HW-10,SM-10,SM-1,HW-6,SM-4,SM-30	107,000.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2025
10/04/2023	EPA/ORD RBEROST Contract Support	Modeling	New	EPA s River Basin Export Reduction Optimization Support Tool (RBEROST) was developed with an initial pilot in the Upper Connecticut River Basin to determine the most cost-effective management practices (wastewater treatment plant upgrades, agricultural conservation practices, stormwater BMPs, riparian zone restoration) to meet nitrogen and phosphorus loading targets at the mouth and intermediate points within the basin. The proposed project will not only identify cost-effective BMPs for communities in NY and CT to implement through proper tracking and accounting, but also better our understanding and implementation of new and innovative technologies, such as septic and wastewater treatment upgrades, and septic to sewer conversions.	Long Island Sound	EPA ORD	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-1,WW-27	104,249.00	October 1, 2022-September 30, 2025
10/04/2023	IEC 2023-2024 Water Quality Monitoring Program in Far Western Long Island Sound	Monitoring	Ongoing	The IEC s 2023-2024 monitoring surveys of western Long Island Sound will consist of continuing eight monthly winter€ surveys throughout the WLIS and the upper East River from October 2023 through May 2024 and 12 weekly summer€ surveys (June 2024 through September 2024).	Western Long Island Sound	IEC	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-28,WW-32,SM-6,WW-8	593,544.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2025
10/04/2023	Pathogen Monitoring Network in Long Island and Sound Watershed	Monitoring	Continuing	This project seeks to build a coordinated, geographically strategic, scalable pathogen monitoring network for fecal indicator bacteria in the Long Island Sound watershed.	Long Island Sound Watershed	IEC	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-35,HW-22,SM-8	1,101,695.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2025
10/04/2023	NEIWPCC LISS Program Implementation Support FY23: Task 1 - Outreach & Education Support	Public Education and Outreach	Ongoing	NEIWPCC will assist with the development, coordination, and implementation of bi-state public involvement, education, outreach, and communication activities for LIS.	Long Island Sound Watershed	NEIWPCC<>	None	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-6,SC-7,SC-9,SM-30,SM-34,SC-10,SM-32,SC-16,SM-35,HW-23	213,079.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2025
10/04/2023	NEIWPCC LISS Program Implementation Support FY23: Task 2 - Program Management & Travel Support	Coordination	Ongoing	NEIWPCC will complete the following sub-tasks: Meeting Support, ANEP Support, Participant Support, Program Management	Long Island Sound Watershed	NEIWPCC<>	None	N/A	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	SM-13,SM-35	243,847.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2025
10/04/2023	NEIWPCC LISS Program Implementation Support FY23: Task 3 - Habitat Restoration and Stewardship Coordination	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	NEIWPCC s NYS Habitat Restoration and Stewardship Coordinator will facilitate and conduct activities associated with the LISS Habitat Restoration Initiative including: Preparing, assisting, and evaluating project applications for habitat restoration, assessment, monitoring, and research funding; Developing partnerships to restore LIS habitats and promote stewardship (public access, land acquisition, land management); Working with regional staff to help partners prepare project workplans that are compatible with state regulations; and Assisting NYSDEC with activities associated with the LISS Habitat Restoration & Stewardship Workgroup.	Long Island Sound Watershed	NEIWPCC	None	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1,HW-22,HW-9,HW-10,HW-6,HW-23,HW-27,HW-24,HW-5,HW-13,SC-12,SM-35	138,189.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2025
10/04/2023	NEIWPCC LISS Program Implementation Support FY23: Task 4 LIS Regional Coordinator	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	The LISS NYS DOW Regional Coordinator (LISRC) position will supplement and increase NYSDEC DOW participation and involvement in all aspects of the LISS to advance the CCMP goals & objectives	Long Island Sound Watershed	NEIWPCC	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2,SM-8,SM-17,SC-14,SM-35	155,044.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2025
10/04/2023	NEIWPCC LISS Program Implementation Support FY23: Task 5 - Science Coordination	Research	Ongoing	The NEIWPCC LISS Science Coordinator will develop and maintain professional scientific and technical contacts among the LISS partners, as well as among local/regional/national/international scientific communities, as the issues or topics warrant. NEIWPCC s Science Coordinator will manage the scientific resources of the LISS, including collecting and organizing relevant references; and organizing and conducting conferences, meetings, symposia, or other web-based discussions on topics of relevance or concern to the science of the LIS ecosystem.	Long Island Sound Watershed	NEIWPCC	None	N/A	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	WW-28,SM-25,WW-39,SM-5,SM-11,WW-8,SM-1,SM-35	181,974.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2025
10/04/2023	NEIWPCC LISS Program Implementation Support FY23: Task 7 - LIS Nitrogen Reduction Coordination	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	NEIWPCC will organize and support the LIS Nitrogen Reduction Coordination efforts, to involve the tributary states, in Management Committee activities.	Long Island Sound Watershed	NEIWPCC	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	SM-19,WW-7,SM-35,WW-10	82,914.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2025
10/04/2023	NEIWPCC LISS Program Implementation Support FY23: Task 8 LIS Bioextraction Coordinator	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	Ongoing	The LISS Bioextraction Coordinator position will support the Bioextraction Initiative within Long Island Sound. Bioextraction Coordinator that serves as the collaborative lead in projects involving partners across state, municipal, academic, non-governmental, and federal partners	Long Island Sound Watershed	NEIWPCC	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-25,SM-35	174,787.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2025
10/04/2023	NEIWPCC Long Island Sound Study Program Implementation Support	Public Education and Outreach	Ongoing	NEIWPCC is proposing to perform work in service to implement the Communications, Outreach, and Engagement Plan (COE plan). Specifically, our proposal is geared towards increasing the staff directly involved in generating communications products through 1 FTE Scientific writer, as well as a summer intern position. The staff positions will serve as direct support to the Communications and Outreach Coordinator, as well as contributing and refining the products generated by the contractor support in implementing the COE plan	Long Island Sound Watershed	NEIWPCC	None	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-6,SC-7,SC-9,SM-32,SM-34,SC-10	532,851.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2025
10/04/2023	Support for Regional Long Island Sound Real Property Coordinator by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation	Habitat Restoration and Protection	New	The coordinator hired would be advancing and closing several acquisitions that were previously funded by LISS in FFY 2018 to FFY 2022. These acquisitions include Stell, Tyree, Kozikowski, Watson, Bateson, and Shoreham. The coordinator can begin pursuing the prospect of acquiring large parcels of land in Nassau County such as Laurel Hill Farm and United Universalist Church using Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) funds.	Long Island Sound Watershed	NEIWPCC	None	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-3,HW-9	390,096.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2025
10/04/2023	Update and Enhancement of the GIS-based Long Island Sound Eelgrass Habitat Suitability Index	Habitat Restoration and Protection	New	The primary objectives of updating the Eelgrass Habitat Suitability Index Model (EHSI Model) are to expand the evaluation of sites being considered for eelgrass restoration efforts in the Long Island Sound (LIS) area and to identify areas where environmental or climate factors reduce or eliminate the potential for natural eelgrass colonization.	Soundwide	NEIWPCC	None	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-5,HW-12,SM-26,WW-27,HW-7,HW-23,HW-25	200,000.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2025
10/04/2023	Nutrient Bioextraction Coordination Supplemental Projects	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	New	As part of the Bioextraction Initiative, the following projects are new funding requests in support of the base activities: Investigating the use of alternative seeding methods for sugar kelp cultivation: direct seeding; Investigation into the potential of largescale bioextraction in the LIS: Phase One; Investigation of the impacts of heavy metals in seaweed fertilizers	Soundwide	NEIWPCC	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-25	450,000.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2025
10/04/2023	Long Island Sound Research Grant Program FY23	Research	Ongoing	The NY and CT Sea Grant programs propose to jointly administer a competitive research program to address the needs of the LISS. These needs are derived from the LISS CCMP and prioritized for developing a request for proposals (RFP) with input from the LISS Science & Technical Advisory Committee and the Science Coordinator.	Long Island Sound Watershed	New York and Connecticut Sea Grant	None	N/A	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	SM-1	3,000,000.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2026
10/04/2023	Resilient and Sustainable Communities Work Plan FY23	Stewardship and Resiliency	Continuing	The LISS Sustainable and Resilient Work Group developed a 5-year work plan, in which this proposal will implement year 3. The work plan has the following desired outcomes: coordinated regional response; trained decision-makers; planned infrastructure improvement; viable government services; and facilitated implementation of Long Island Sound sustainability and resilience projects.	CT and NY	New York and Connecticut Sea Grant	None	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-20,SC-23,SC-24,SC-27	1,057,615.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2024
10/04/2023	Implementation of the LISS Sustainable and Resilient Communities working group work plan: Breaking down barriers to implementation Phase 2	Stewardship and Resiliency	Continuing	The SRC Needs Assessment, conducted throughout 2022, guided the development of the pilot phase of the BDB program (detail below). The FY23 BDB Program (planned to be announced in Fall 2023) will continue to address the most important barriers to sustainability and resilience focused project implementation in the region. The request for program support in FY23 will enable the SRC Extension Professionals to extend support to more communities within the Long Island Sound Study coastal boundary and help communities to capitalize on available federal and state funding opportunities.	CT and NY	New York and Connecticut Sea Grant	None	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-20,SC-23,SC-24,SC-27	1,296,000.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2024
10/04/2023	DEIJ Trainings for LISS Partnership	Stewardship and Resiliency	New	Basic Trainings on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice for the Long Island Sound Study Partnership, including sessions for the Citizens Advisory Committee and the Management Committee.	Long Island Sound Watershed	New York Sea Grant	None	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SM-17	31,500.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2024
10/04/2023	LISS New York City/Western Basin Public Outreach Program FY23	Public Education and Outreach	Ongoing	The LISS NYC-Western Basin Outreach Coordinator will be based in NYC and focus on providing outreach support and programming materials, primarily in environmental justice communities, as well as in other areas of the western Basin in NY. The goals and activities will combine community needs with LISS outcomes, objectives and measures in a manner that demonstrates the relevance of the Sound to these communities.	New York City, NY	New York Sea Grant	None	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-1,SC-6,SC-7,SC-13,SM-15,SM-17,HW-22,SC-4,SC-5,SC-12,SC-11,HW-13,HW-21,SC-3,SC-19,SC-2,SC-8,SM-25,SC-15	184,123.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2024
10/04/2023	Long Island Sound Study (LISS) New York Public Outreach Program - Public Outreach Coordinator FY23	Public Education and Outreach	Ongoing	Continue the NY Public Outreach Program through 2024, which will fund a full-time public outreach coordinator to oversee the dissemination of accurate, up-to-date, research-based information about the LIS, LISS, and implementation activities of the partnership; and some of the funds will be allocated for a administrative assistant to help carry out the program.	Long Island Sound Watershed	New York Sea Grant	None	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-17,SC-1,SC-6,SC-7,SC-13,SM-15,SM-17,HW-22,SC-14,SC-4,SC-5,SM-37,SC-11,SC-19,SC-18,SC-8,SM-25,SC-15,SC-2	242,185.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2024
10/04/2023	Long Island Sound Futures Fund 2023	Implementation	Ongoing	This project will 1) provide support for management of the Long Island Sound Futures Fund (LISFF) grant program NFWF, the direct recipient of the EPA Co-op funds; 2) provide individual grants to subrecipients with EPA Co-op monies towards projects that contribute to the protection and restoration of the health and living resources of Long Island Sound; and 3) make investments in on-the-ground actions in communities to improve water quality, protect habitat and living resources, educate and involve the public, improve the long-term understanding of how to manage the Sound, monitor progress, and redirect management efforts as described in the 2020 CCMP.	Long Island Sound Watershed	NFWF	None	N/A	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	SM-13	12,650,000.00	October 1, 2022 - September 30, 2023
10/04/2023	Long Island Sound Study - Agriculture and Nutrient Management Planning and Outreach	Public Education and Outreach	Ongoing	NRCS will fund three staff positions to connect agricultural producers and landowners throughout the Connecticut-portion of the Long Island Sound with NRCS technical and financial assistance programs to further the LISS vision of a Sound with clean, clear, and safe water, and thriving habitats. This project couples outreach activities with conservation planning to maximize conservation practice delivery and implementation in an equitable and inclusive way.	CT	NRCS	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	SC-2,SC-7,SC-14,SC-21,SC-4,SC-11,SC-28	313,739.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2024
10/04/2023	Habitat Restoration for Flax Pond	Habitat Restoration and Protection	New	The NYSDEC was previously awarded and is requesting additional funds to restore the tidal flushing at Flax Pond in Old Field, NY.	Flax Pond, NY	NYSDEC	None	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1	1,300,000.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2025
10/04/2023	Support for Regional Long Island Sound Real Property Coordinator and Stewardship of Titus Mill Pond by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation	Habitat Restoration and Protection	New	The NYSDEC is requesting funds to survey Titus Mill Pond, located in New Rochelle, to allow for stewardship and habitat restoration of the area.	New Rochelle, NY	NYSDEC	None	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-9,WW-20,HW-1,HW-21,SC-4,SC-19	125,000.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2025
10/04/2023	Residential Fertilizer Community Based Social Marketing Project	Public Education and Outreach	New	This project seeks to develop a community based social marketing (CBSM) project aimed at homeowners that apply fertilizer themselves. The project is a continuation of a Long Island Nitrogen Action Plan (LINAP) initiative to better understand the barriers to proper fertilizer use of Long Island residents through a survey on fertilizer behaviors that is being deployed in the spring of 2023. The CBSM project will aim to address the undesirable behaviors that are found during the survey to be detrimental to the Long Island Sound, such as misapplication	Long Island, NY	NYSDEC	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-9,SC-14,SC-15	250,000.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2025
10/04/2023	Adding a New Group Monitoring Two Embayments with Eelgrass Present to the Unified Water Study, 2024 Season	Monitoring	New	This supplemental proposal came out of a Long Island Sound Study Working Committee request to add UWS monitoring groups in embayments with eelgrass to characterize water quality conditions in these waters. Mumford Cove was added in 2023 in response to this interest and this supplemental proposal will bring two Fisher Island embayments into the UWS in 2024.	NY and CT	Save the Sound	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	HW-22,SC-11,SM-8,WW-27,WW-28,WW-35	35,690.00	October 1, 2023 - December 31, 2025
10/04/2023	Continuous Water Quality Monitoring for Eelgrass Pilot	Monitoring	New	Save the Sound seeks funding to coordinate and implement the Unified Waters Study establishing a comparable bay-to-bay dataset describing the eutrophic conditions and environmental health of bays and harbors around the LIS with 26 subrecipients conducting the water-quality testing.	NY and CT	Save the Sound	None	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	WW-27,WW-28,WW-35	13,280.00	October 1, 2023 - December 31, 2025
10/04/2023	Unified Water Study: Long Island Sound Embayment Research - 2024 Season	Monitoring	Ongoing	Save the Sound seeks funding to coordinate and implement the Unified Waters Study establishing a comparable bay-to-bay dataset describing the eutrophic conditions and environmental health of bays and harbors around the LIS with 26 subrecipients conducting the water-quality testing.	Soundwide	Save the Sound	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	HW-22,SC-11,SM-8,WW-27,WW-28,WW-35,SC-7,SC-9,SM-33,HW-1,WW-20,SM-9	1,201,859.00	October 1, 2023 - December 31, 2025
10/04/2023	Water Quality Observations to Support Hypoxia Management in Long Island Sound	Monitoring	Ongoing	Since 2013 the LISS has supported the deployment and operation of a buoy (ARTG) as an element of the LISICOS array, a component of the NERACOOS. LISS has also been providing partial support for the data system that allows access to the observations, and those of the ship survey program of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection. In the last year, the data system was augmented to allow calculation of the hypoxic area and volume from the ship survey data archive and this will be sustained for 2023- 2024. Sampling using autonomous gliders was added to the program in 2021 to complement the ship and buoy data through a cost-sharing arrangement with MARACOOS. Finally, we propose to add Automated Respiration Chambers (ARCs) to the sustained buoy program.	Soundwide	University of Connecticut	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-39,SM-6,WW-27,WW-32,WW-8	645,024.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2024
10/04/2023	Establishing a Long Island Sound Eelgrass Collaborative	Habitat Restoration and Protection	New	In 2022, the LISS convened a group of local experts to develop a Long Island Sound Eelgrass Management and Restoration Strategy. This document provides guidance for short- and long-term actions that should be taken to manage and restore LIS eelgrass meadows and acts as a resource for other estuaries in the region facing similar issues. Development of the Strategy represents a new phase in our effort to restore this important Sound habitat, with the formation of the Eelgrass Collaborative providing a regional, coordinated approach to implement Strategy elements.	NY and CT	University of Connecticut	None	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1,HW-25,HW-23	235,046.00	September 1, 2023 - August 30, 2025
10/04/2023	USFWS Eelgrass Intercomparison Study and Seasonality Assessment	Habitat Restoration and Protection	New	This proposal is to fund two interagency agreements to USGS and USFWS where 1) conduct an aerial survey in 2024, led by USGS, and 2) process the imagery from the aerial survey and conduct an intercomparison study between remote-sensing technologies, led by USFWS and in collaboration with CTDEEP, NYSDEC, and EPA.	Soundwide	USFWS	None	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-7,HW-23,HW-25	173,031.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2025
10/04/2023	Long Island Sound Collaborative Coastal Habitat Assessment, Restoration and Monitoring	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Ongoing	This project will provide support through both capacity building within USFWS, hiring staff focused on working in the LISS boundary and leveraging additional Service technical expertise.	Long Island Sound	USFWS	None	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1,HW-5,HW-11,HW-27,HW-2,HW-22,HW-3,HW-14,HW-16,HW-17,HW-13	268,920.00	October 1, 2022-September 30, 2026
10/04/2023	Coastal resiliency assessment: near-term coastal change along the shorelines of Long Island Sound	Habitat Restoration and Protection	Continuing	This project is designed to build out data and interpretative capabilities in three years where year-end product deliverables have independent value and can stand-alone. The project will first quantify rates of shoreline change, then use the rates to update a coastal landscape change assessment that incorporates multiple hazards datasets with geomorphic and ecologic characteristics via machine learning (ML) outcomes, to identify areas with the highest propensity for experiencing change. Combining the updated shoreline change rates into the coastal landscape change assessment can be used to identify coastal vulnerability hot spots, determine areas with more potential for resiliency, and can be used to help detect optimal areas for investing in protective measures, such as living shorelines. More broadly, these products can be used to inform decision makers about the increased likelihood of near-term (10 years) coastal change hazards in the coastal zone including impacts to landforms such as tidal wetlands, dunes, and human infrastructure.	Long Island Sound	USGS	None	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	SC-21,SM-1	289,596.00	October 1, 2023-September 30, 2025
10/04/2023	Report to update Nutrient Loads from the CT River at Middle Haddam	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	New	The goals of this project are focused toward providing updated load estimates for the Connecticut River at Middle Haddam, CT from 2015 to 2022. This data will be compared to loads estimated from the CT River at Thompsonville, CT. being calculated as part of other USGS research to inform on what percent of the total load in the Connecticut River came from Connecticut portion of the watershed. The report will also calculate the incremental load from wastewater treatment plants between Thompsonville and Middle Haddam using data from the Connecticut Nitrogen Credit Trading Program. Having the information on the proportion of the nitrogen load from wastewater sources will provide useful information on the contributions of nonpoint source nitrogen loads in the Connecticut River as well.	Middle Haddam, CT	USGS	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-23,WW-24,WW-9,WW-31	82,000.00	October 1, 2023-September 30, 2024
10/04/2023	Summary report of water-quality and streamflow data collected to support the CTWM HSPF Model	Water Quality Planning and Implementation	New	The proposed project is to publish a USGS Scientific Interpretive Report (SIR) summarizing the water-quality and streamflow data collected February 2020 to March 2023 to support the update of the statewide Connecticut Watershed Model (CTWM) Hydrological Simulation Program-Fortran (HSPF) model. The updated CTWM HSPF model will be used to estimate loads of selected nutrients and sediments throughout the state of Connecticut and into Long Island Sound (LIS). Data collected to support the update of the statewide CTWM HSPF model also could be used to characterize nutrient, carbon, and suspended sediment transport to LIS from the major tributaries across the state of Connecticut.	CT	USGS	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-23,WW-24	140,000.00	October 1, 2023 - April 30, 2025
10/04/2023	Eelgrass Aerial Survey 2024	Monitoring	New	This proposal is to fund two interagency agreements to USGS and USFWS where 1) conduct an aerial survey in 2024, led by USGS, and 2) process the imagery from the aerial survey and conduct an intercomparison study between remote-sensing technologies, led by USFWS and in collaboration with CTDEEP, NYSDEC, and EPA.	Soundwide	USGS	None	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-7,HW-23,HW-25	40,243.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2025
10/04/2023	USGS Staff Support for the Long Island Sound Study	Coordination	New	USGS will hire staff to provide technical support to LISS	Long Island Sound	USGS	None	N/A	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	SM-13	250,000.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2024
10/04/2023	Continuous Monitoring in Support of Nutrient Load Estimations on the Connecticut River	Monitoring	New	The project will continue collecting streamflow data at the Connecticut River at Northfield near the Massachusetts/New Hampshire/Vermont border (USGS station 01161280 Connecticut River near Northfield, MA). Streamflow data collected from this monitoring station will be used for nutrient load estimation.	Northfield, MA	USGS	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-7,WW-27,WW-28	65,000.00	January 1, 2024 - December 30, 2024
10/04/2023	USGS Continuous Water Quality Monitoring in Norwalk River	Monitoring	New	USGS has been operating a continuous water quality monitor station on the Norwalk River Estuary at the Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk since the Spring of 2021. This monitoring station was equipped with both near surface and near bottom water quality monitors that collected water temperature, specific conductance, salinity, dissolved oxygen, turbidity and chlorophyll a. During the summers of 2021 and 2022 the dissolved oxygen concentrations often went below 3 mg/ L in both the near surface and near bottom water. This seasonal hypoxia is the result of excess nutrients entering the harbor and fueling algal blooms in portions of the upper Norwalk harbor. USGS has engaged with many different aspects of the Norwalk community to communicate the water quality issues that are being observed in the Norwalk River estuary. This location would be able to demonstrate the effective partnerships between the many local, state, and federal partners working together for a healthier LIS.	Norwalk River, CT	USGS	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-7,WW-27,WW-28,SC-6	125,000.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2024
10/04/2023	Connecticut River at Middle Haddam Nutrient Loading	Monitoring	Ongoing	Before 2009, the USGS calculated nitrogen loads at the Connecticut River at Thompsonville, CT because it is the only streamgage on the Connecticut River without tidal influence. In 2009, recognizing that a large portion of the urbanized land use in the watershed and many wastewater-treatment facilities are downstream from this site, the USGS established a station on the Connecticut River at Middle Haddam, CT. Unlike other stations where periodic data are collected, this station can provide continuous time-series data for nitrate, streamflow, turbidity, colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM), and specific conductance. In addition, discrete samples of nitrate, ammonia, total organic nitrogen, and total nitrogen are collected approximately 18 times per year to validate the total nitrogen concentration model that allows for the computation of instantaneous total nitrogen loads .	Middle Haddam, CT	USGS	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-27,WW-28,WW-7	82,000.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2024
10/04/2023	In-Stream Nitrogen Monitoring in the Upper Connecticut River Watershed	Monitoring	Continuing	To optimize efforts to reduce loading of nitrogen to Long Island Sound, managers need a better understanding of relative magnitude and timing of nitrogen transported to LIS from tributaries to the Connecticut River in the northern portion of the Connecticut River watershed. The primary goal of the proposed study is to develop and implement a water quality monitoring strategy for nitrogen (N) phosphorus (P) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in the upper basin states of Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire	Connecticut	USGS	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-23,WW-24,WW-25,WW-7,WW-27,WW-28	545,000.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2026
10/04/2023	Major Long Island Sound Tributary Sampling	Monitoring	Ongoing	The project would be the fifth year of a long-term monitoring project to collect water quality data on the three major tributaries to Long Island Sound (Thames, Connecticut, and Housatonic Rivers). The goal of the project is to characterize water quality in the three major tributary s estuaries and to further develop a nitrogen loading station in the lower tidally effected Housatonic River estuary.	Connecticut	USGS	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-7,WW-27,WW-28	305,000.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2024
10/04/2023	USGS Coastal Acidification Monitoring	Monitoring	Ongoing	USGS will continue to contribute to this long-term coastal acidification monitoring, increasing spatial and temporal coverage of the Long Island Sound and its embayments. Data from this project will include parameters needed to assess the aragonite saturate state in the lower reaches of the major tributaries and embayments to the LIS. These data will enable water resource managers to provide baseline information on the current status of aragonite saturation and evaluate changes over time.	Long Island Sound	USGS	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-28,WW-32,HW-23,SM-8	300,000.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2024
10/04/2023	USGS Water Quality Monitoring in Selected Near Coast Environments of Long Island Sound	Monitoring	Ongoing	Long-term continuous data at four wetland locations (Connecticut River at Old Lyme, Connecticut River at Essex, Oyster Bay, and Flax Pond) to assist in understanding the range of salinity conditions that currently exist and will help understand some of the possible changes that may occur under different hydrologic conditions that may occur as a result of global climate change	Essex and Old Lyme, CT; Oyster Bay and Flax Pond, NY	USGS	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-7,WW-27,WW-28	250,000.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2024
10/04/2023	CCMP Revision Support and Facilitation Contract	Coordination	New	To hire a contractor to provide support and facilitation as LISS undergoes a CCMP Revision.	Long Island Sound	EPA	None	N/A	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	SM-13, SM-36	100,000.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2024
10/04/2023	Environmental Justice - Internal Assessment	Stewardship and Resiliency	New	To hire a contractor to conduct an internal assessment of the LISS partners' understanding of environmental justice.	Long Island Sound	EPA	None	N/A	Sound Science and Inclusive Management	SM-17	43,000.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2024
10/04/2023	Long Island Sound Community Impact Program	Environmental Justice	Ongoing	This RFA to select an organization to manage the Long Island Sound Community Impact Fund (LISCIF) is key to meeting LISS s EJ goals. EPA will provide funds to the LISCIF annually to be used for awards under this competitive opportunity. EPA expects to provide up to $5 million to cover 3 years for the development of the competitive grant program, two rounds of pass-through funds in years two and three of the award, and the technical assistance and support program for underserved communities.	Long Island Sound	Restore America's Estuaries	None	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	SC-4	0.00	October 1, 2022 - September 30, 2027
10/04/2023	Nitrogen reduction upgrades to WWTPs	Infrastructure	Ongoing	The Chicopee WPCF is a wet-weather treatment facility with an average flow of 15.5 million gallons per day (MGD) and a peak hourly flow of 47 MGD, serving a population of approximately 55,000. The WPCF utilizes a high purity oxygen (HPO) secondary treatment system that discharges to the Connecticut River, and ultimately Long Island Sound. The City has been issued a final permit that includes a mass-based annual average total nitrogen limit of 647 lbs/day (5 mg/L at 15.5 MGD). In 2017, Woodard & Curran began a high-level evaluation to study the feasibility and requirements to achieve this nitrogen limit at the Chicopee WPCF. In 2021, with the permit requirements becoming clearer coupled with a better understanding of the WPCF processes, performance and land/space available for improvements, Woodard & Curran updated the 2017 report culminating in a formal recommendation and refined cost estimates for upgrades to achieve the new total nitrogen permit limit at the WPCF.	Chicopee, MA	MA DEP	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-4,WW-2	4,000,000.00	October 1, 2022 - September 30, 2027
10/04/2023	NYS Long Island Sound Watershed Septic System Replacement	Infrastructure	Ongoing	NYS s Septic System Replacement Fund Program provides critical funding to counties to assist homeowners with replacing cesspools, or inadequate septic systems that impair water quality. Suffolk County with 380,000 systems, and Nassau County with 100,000 systems have the highest number of septic systems, per county, in New York State. Using state funding Each county has built a local grant programs to allow homeowners to upgrade their systems with innovative/alternative on-site treatment systems (I/A OWTS) that treat nitrogen to at least 19 mg/L. The level of nitrogen in the effluent from a conventional septic system is 40 mg/L.	Long Island	NYSDEC	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-12,WW-7	3,000,000.00	October 1, 2022 - September 30, 2024
10/04/2023	NYS Water Quality Improvement Projects (WQIP)	Infrastructure	Ongoing	The Water Quality Improvement Projects (WQIP) Program is a competitive, reimbursement grant program that funds projects that directly address documented water quality impairments or protect a drinking water source. The program is managed by NYSDEC Division of Water staff and has funded hundreds of projects over 17 rounds of funding. It has been successful at assisting eligible applicants and at completing construction/implementation projects in categories such as wastewater treatment improvement, non-agricultural nonpoint source abatement and control, aquatic connectivity restoration. The WQIP program is on avenue for the NYS DEC to implement projects that advance implementation recommendations in TMDLs or Nine Element Plans for State waters.	Long Island	NYSDEC	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2,WW-35	3,000,000.00	October 1, 2022 - September 30, 2025
10/04/2023	Habitat Restoration, Riverine Connectivity, and Living Shorelines Implementation	Environmental Justice	New	This project will provide a ready source of funding to be used for identified and potential emergent living shoreline projects that can advance naturebased approaches to mitigate erosion and support healthy coastal habitats. Another goal of this project is to restore stream connectivity in the state by developing fishways, fixing restrictive culverts, and removing outdated dams.	Connecticut	CT DEEP	None	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-1,HW-11,HW-12	2,750,000.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2028
10/04/2023	Coastal Access Improvement Support	Environmental Justice	New	CT DEEP is seeking funding to acquire land and improve access along the Connecticut coast in a way that prioritizes Environmental Justice Communities and enhances climate resiliency. The requested funds will help ensure that these communities are prioritized in land acquisition and coastal access efforts and that the acquired land will improve overall climate resiliency	Connecticut	CT DEEP	None	N/A	Sustainable and Resilient Communities	HW-3,HW-9,SC-4,SC-31,SC-2	3,600,000.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2028
10/04/2023	Habitat Characterization	Infrastructure	New	CT DEEP is requesting funds to provide support for environmental characterizations in Long Island Sound that can support science-based management decision making processes, particularly those involving the potential future placement strategies of energy transmission infrastructure.	Long Island Sound	CT DEEP	None	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	SM-1,SM-3,SM-2	0.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2028
10/04/2023	Green Infrastructure	Infrastructure	New	CT DEEP is seeking funding for planning, outreach and implementation of Green Infrastructure projects. These projects shall be prioritized to address the needs of climate resiliency, flooding, stormwater runoff and Environmental Justice (EJ) Communities	Connecticut	CT DEEP	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2,WW-12,WW-15,SC-23,SC-30	150,000.00	October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2028
10/04/2023	Support for Stewardship Land Acquisition by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation	Climate Change	Ongoing	NYSDEC is requesting funds to provide support for the acquisition of three properties: Two acquisitions (Watson and Kozikowski) would be additions to NYSDEC s Conscience Bay- Little Bay State Tidal Wetland Area in the Conscience Bay-Little Bay- Setauket Harbor Significant Coastal Fish and Wildlife Habitat; and the third acquisition (Bateson) lies between and is in the watershed of both Little Bay and Port Jefferson Harbor, an LISS Inaugural Stewardship Area.	Setauket, Port Jefferson, NY	NYSDEC	None	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-3,HW-9	2,909,800.00	October 1, 2022 - September 30, 2025
03/12/2024	Feasibility Study to Enhance Fish Passage at a Road-Stream Crossing (CT)	Habitat Restoration and Protection	New	Conduct a feasibility study and alternatives analysis and prepare a concept design for removal of a culvert, the road-stream crossing, and share with the public at a workshop, Haley’s Brook, Town of Groton. Project will establish a potential pathway to address flooding in the community and to restore 2.3 miles of fish passage to Long Island Sound.	Groton, CT	Town of Groton	None	N/A	Thriving Habitat and Abundant Wildlife	HW-3,HW-23	150,000.00
03/12/2024	Enhancing Opportunities to Make Water Infrastructure Repairs (NY)	WQ Planning and Implementation	New	Provide technical assistance to eleven municipalities and to 20 of their representatives with individualized feedback and in five workshops to identify needs for and opportunities to finance improved storm and wastewater system improvement; and prepare funding applications for two communities, Westchester County, New York. Project will foster improved water quality resulting from upgrades and repairs to aging storm and wastewater systems along the Bronx River and Long Island Sound.	Westchester, NY	Bronx River Alliance, Inc.	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-2	61,805.88
03/12/2024	Retrieval of lost and abandoned lobster traps in Long Island Sound using local fishers’ knowledge and sonar data	WQ Planning and Implementation	New	Supplementing lobstermen's local knowledge with side scan sonar to identify areas of derelict lobster trap removals in Long Island Sound (LIS). This project will determine the extent to which technology can enhance and streamline the process of utilizing fishermen knowledge to remove derelcit lobster traps. This project will remove approximately 4,800 traps (weighing 240,000 pounds) from the NY and CT waters of the LIS.	Long Island Sound	Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	WW-17,HW-22	385,966.93
03/12/2024	Design to Improve Water Quality, Public Access and Resilience (CT)	WQ Planning and Implementation	New	Advance the community’s concept design to 100 percent engineered design for a new green space, living shoreline, and green infrastructure, and conduct 10 events to engage 200 members of the public in design, Bridgeport, Connecticut. Project will enhance the resilience of flood-prone waterfront properties to storms and improve water quality with nature-based solutions and provide for increased public access in an underserved community.	Bridgeport, CT	The Trust for Public Land	None	N/A	Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds	SC-31,WW-2,HW-22	349,980.20
03/12/2024	Framework for Volunteer-Driven Oyster Restoration Projects on Long Island	Habitat Restoration and Protection	New	Deliver volunteer training program and technical assistance support to provide a framework to increase community supported shellfish restoration efforts in Manhasset Bay, Town of North Hempstead, New York.	Manhasset Bay, NY	Cornell Cooperative Extension of Nassau County

Projects to Support the Management Plan

Ecosystem Targets and Associated Implementation Actions

Ongoing LISS Projects by Activity Type

Implementation Actions Drive Ecosystem Target Progress

Interactive Projects Table