LISS's Redesigned Web site to go Live on May 11
LISS’s Web site is going through a makeover. The new design, scheduled to go live May 11, adds more graphics and content, including CT Sea Grant’s presentation of Long Island Sound, “Living Treasures,” and a Fish and Wildlife Service video that highlights the work to restore fish migration on the Bride Brook. The primary objective of the redesign is to make it easier to find the hundreds of pages of existing content about the Sound and the efforts of our partners to restore and protect it. Over the next few months, expect further additions, including an enhanced Sound Health section to track the environmental conditions of the Sound.

Urban Waters Initiatives Tops Citizens Summit Agenda
Come attend the 20th annual Long Island Sound Citizens Summit on May 7 in Bridgeport to take a fresh look at making the waterfront a center of community activity. Green Cities/Blue Waters: connecting urban communities to ecosystems will feature a wide range of speakers, including a public works engineer, a real estate development professional, and community advocates from the Long Island Sound area who are experts on projects from greening the landscape to preventing stormwater runoff from entering streams, rivers, lakes, and eventually the Sound. The keynote speaker will be Curt Spalding, the Regional Administrator of EPA New England. For almost 20 years, Spalding served as Executive Director of Save The Bay, a nationally recognized, 20,000-member environmental advocacy and education organization with headquarters in Providence. Read the brochure or visit the Connecticut Fund for the Environment’s Web site to learn more about the panelists and how to register. The Citizens Summit is sponsored by Save the Sound, a program of Connecticut Fund for the Environment (CFE), and LISS.

LISS Seeks Research Proposals
The Long Island Sound Study Research Grant program will be releasing a Request for Proposals (RFP) on May 7. The program anticipates awarding approximately $1.2 million to cover the entire duration of all selected projects. The LISS Research Grant Program is designed to award funds to researchers whose work helps meet the needs of decision-makers to improve the management of Long Island Sound. Specific topic areas have been identified by the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee as priority areas for research funding. For more details regarding the RFP, priority topic areas and the LISS Research Program, please visit www.NYSGProposal.org beginning May 7.

Futures Fund Deadline is May 7
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation will be seeking Requests for Proposals for the Long Island Sound Futures Fund grant program until May 7. The program, which was initiated by LISS, seeks proposals for projects that include habitat restoration, stewardship, watershed management, nonpoint source pollution control, and public involvement and education. See www.nfwf.org/lisff.

Seafloor Mapping Opportunity
A bi-state and federal partnership is seeking Requests for Qualifications and Interest from organizations and government agencies to perform Long Island seafloor mapping activities. Specifically, this request focuses on the collection of high resolution geophysical data for the seafloor of Long Island Sound, in the territorial waters of the states of Connecticut and New York. The request is supported by a settlement fund that was created for the purpose of mapping the benthic (or seafloor) environment of Long Island Sound to identify areas of special resource concern, as well as areas that may be more suitable for the placement of energy and other infrastructure. Visit LISS’s seafloor mapping page to view the request and for more information.

LISS/Partners Sponsor First of its Kind Climate Adaptation Series
Through a Climate Ready Estuaries grant to the Long Island Sound Study, the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (CT DEP) is co-hosting with ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability a series of coastal climate adaptation workshops for Groton, CT. This series of workshops is the first of its kind to engage representatives from the federal, state, and local governments to collaborate across political boundaries to prepare for climate change impacts. The objective is to define strategies for maximizing resilience to climate change impacts throughout Connecticut and the northeast using Groton as a model.

The first workshop on Jan. 27 provided an overview of regional climate impacts and started a dialogue with the 80 attendees on the potential impacts of climate change on Groton, most notably storm surge and sea level rise. The second workshop on March 31 was focused on identifying specific vulnerabilities. Presentations included the New England Environmental Finance Center modeling the cost of various scenarios and the cost of adaptation strategies, including the cost of doing nothing. The maps of impact areas from different sea-level rise projections were amazingly similar to the current impact areas, making participants reflect on their knowledge of what already is vulnerable. The third and final workshop, in which participants will focus on identifying strategies for implementing adaptation actions, is planned for early summer. After the series of workshops, a presentation will be made to those who would be involved in implementation. The final report scheduled to be released this fall will summarize lessons learned and how other communities can implement this process.

Long Island’s Eelgrass Restoration Project Featured in PBS Documentary
On Earth Day, April 22, New York’s public broadcaster, WNET Channel 13, featured Cornell University Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County’s eelgrass restoration project in its documentary on New York waterways, Fragile Waterways. Chris Pickerel, a restoration ecologist with Cornell, was interviewed on the importance of the underwater grass in improving fish habitat in the Sound. Chris’s father, a Peconics bayman, also was interviewed in the documentary, which can be viewed on-line at http://www.thirteen.org/fragile-waterways/. Cornell has worked on three eelgrass restoration projects in the Sound, with financial support through the Sound Futures Fund, as well as in other sites around Long Island.

Historic Alewife Release in Stamford
On April, 20, the CT DEP, City of Stamford, and LISS showcased work to restore the Mill River and allow for the return of herring runs. A ceremony at Scalzi Park featured the release of 400 alewives into the Rippowam River (popularly known as the Mill River), where they will now be able to migrate upstream to breed and then move downstream to Long Island Sound as a result of the removal of old dams. Removal of two dams by the City of Stamford with support from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Mill River Collaborative in 2009 began a comprehensive restoration project that currently has opened up 4.5 river miles. During the ceremony, students from the nearby Cloonan Middle School received World Water Monitoring Day certificates for their efforts starting a water quality monitoring program on the river. Read more (pdf).

New Educators’ Web site
The New York State Marine Education Association (NYSMEA) has launched a newly redesigned Web site at www.nysmea.org. The Web site includes lesson plans, job postings, research opportunities, field trip destinations, and marine-related links. New York Sea Grant partnered with NYSMEA to re-launch the site and will also be providing support to manage and update it.

New Web site for Organic Landscaping
The Connecticut chapter of the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) has launched a new regional Web site dedicated to teaching homeowners and commercial landscapers proper methods to grow and maintain a beautiful and organic lawn and garden (which also helps prevent runoff of pesticides and inorganic fertilizers into waterbodies). The program was funded with help from a Sound Futures Fund grant. CT NOFA’s mission is to extend the vision, principles and expertise of organic agriculture to the landscapes where people live their daily lives. In this site you can learn about NOFA’s nationally recognized Standards for Organic Land Care , its accreditation program for professional organic landscapers, and resources for homeowners, property managers and organizations seeking to adopt sustainable organic landscaping practices. Visit Organic Land Care.

EPA Requests Proposals for Urban Watershed Capacity Building Grant
Through the Targeted Watershed Grants Program, EPA plans to award up to $600,000 to an eligible entity to manage an Urban Watershed Capability Building Grant. A key component of the Urban Watershed Capacity Building Grant is to engage communities in capacity building activities to foster an increased connection, understanding, and ownership of their waters. EPA is soliciting proposals from eligible applicants that address the following two project components: (1) establish and manage a competitive urban watershed subaward program; and (2) provide urban watershed technical services to subawardees. Proposals must be received by EPA by May 19. Selection of the successful applicant will be announced this summer. For more information, visit the Targeted Watersheds Grants program Web Site.

New Water Quality/Smart Growth Scorecard Developed by EPA
EPA is releasing a first-of-its-kind water quality scorecard that will help communities in rural, suburban and urban settings incorporate green infrastructure practices to protect local water quality and improve both the built and natural environment. The Water Quality Scorecard was developed to help local governments identify opportunities to remove barriers and revise and create codes, ordinances, and incentives to better protect water quality. Whether applied to a community with combined stormwater and sanitary sewers, municipal separate storm sewers, or no existing stormwater infrastructure, the Water Quality Scorecard guides municipal staff, stormwater managers, planners, and other stakeholders through a review of relevant local codes and ordinances to ensure that these codes work together to support a green infrastructure approach and a discussion of how land use policy and other regulations may present barriers to implementing a comprehensive water quality protection approach. The scorecard also provides policy options, resources, and case studies. Go to Water Quality Scorecard to download a copy.