|
Conserving LI Sound
Bordered by the New York-Connecticut metropolitan region with over 10% of the U.S. population living within 50 miles of its shores, Long Island Sound is one of the most urbanized estuaries in the United States. Pressures from the huge population and the associated development within the region have resulted in the loss of thousands of acres of estuarine habitats, including tidal wetlands, coastal forests, eelgrass beds, shellfish reefs, beaches and dunes, and riverine migratory corridors for anadromous fish.
With major support from the Pew Charitable Trusts, Save the Sound, Inc. has initiated the Long Island Sound Habitat Preservation and Restoration Project in order to address the need to preserve remaining habitats and begin to restore degraded and destroyed habitats around the Sound. The overall goal of the project is to restore at least 3,000 acres of estuarine habitat and at least 150 river miles of anadromous fish habitat by the year 2010. Save the Sound is one of eleven member groups of Restore America's Estuaries (RAE), a Pew-supported initiative whose goal is to restore a total of 1 million acres of estuarine habitat nationwide by 2010 (see Atlantic CoastWatch, February, 1998).
An early result of the project will be publication of theLong Island SoundConservation Blueprint, a realistic plan and comprehensive how-to manual for municipalities and community groups to use in planning and undertaking habitat restoration efforts in their areas. Although the text is tailored to Long Island Sound, much of the information is applicable to the rest of the New England and mid-Atlantic coasts as well. The Blueprint will be released in September 1998 and will cost approximately $15 to cover printing and postage costs.
Contact Save the Sound, Inc., at Tel. (toll-free) 888-SAVE LIS or E-mail savethesound@snet.net.
URLs: Save the Sound, Inc. http://www.savethesound.org; Restore America's Estuaries http://www.estuaries.org; Pew Charitable Trusts http://www.pewtrusts.com; EPA Long Island Sound Office http://www.epa.gov/region01/eco/lis |
