Innovative “Living Shoreline” Will Help Improve Bird Habitat at Stratford Point

With the ceremonial check at the grant announcement are, from left, Mark Tedesco, director of EPA’s Long Island Sound office; Alex Brash, president of Connecticut Audubon Society; Professor Jennifer Mattei, of Sacred Heart University; LaTina Steele, lecturer at SHU; Associate Professor Mark Beekey of SHU; Assistant Professor John Rapaglia of SHU; Anthony Zemba, director of Conservation Services for CAS; Lynn Dwyer of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation; Milan Bull, senior director of science and conservation for CAS; and Amanda Bassow, director of NFWF’s Eastern Partnership office.

November 7, 2013 – Connecticut Audubon Society and Sacred Heart University of Fairfield have been awarded a $59,000 Long Island Sound Futures Fund grant to construct an innovative “living shoreline” project at Stratford Point to both improve critical bird and wildlife habitat and protect the state’s coastline from storms like Hurricane Sandy.

The living shoreline includes the construction of a reef through the installation of 40 permeable concrete reef balls—a technology never before used in Long Island Sound— along with the restoration of a salt marsh behind the reef. The project will be constructed in roughly 3.5 acres of intertidal zone of the 40-acre coastal estuary restoration site at Stratford Point, which is managed by Connecticut Audubon Society (CAS).

The living shoreline is designed to test the feasibility for use by other coastal communities throughout the state to help protect against major hurricanes and storms, and prevent erosion and other negative impacts of sea level rise.

The living shoreline works by slowing down and breaking up waves and storm surges that cause erosion, allowing for sediment deposition and for protective tidal marsh plants to take root. A natural community will emerge, providing habitat that acts as a fish and blue crab nursery and a hard substrate for shellfish settlement, and enhancing habitat for Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets, Black-crowned Night-Herons and other birds. Read more here…