Fall Lecture Series

The Connecticut Audubon Society and its Roger Tory Peterson Estuary Center are pleased to present the final Connecticut River Estuary lectures of 2016, in partnership with the Lower Connecticut River Council of Governments, Essex Meadows, Friends of Whalebone Cove and the Lyme Art Association.

We urge you to note the different venues for this upcoming lecture series.

Thursday, September 29, 2016, 4:30 p.m. Old Lyme Town Hall
Sea Level Rise on Our Coast May Not Be as Bad as You Expect

The Connecticut Audubon Society and its Roger Tory Peterson Estuary Center are pleased to join forces with the Lower Connecticut River Council of Governments in bringing this lecture.

Sea-level rise poses a range of threats to natural and built environments: eroded coastlines, flooded infrastructure, inundated real estate, destroyed or damaged habitat for threatened and endangered species.

Impacts are expected to be widespread, including in New London and Middlesex Counties. But individual coastal areas will respond differently according to their physical features, geologic setting, ecology, and level of development.

Robert Thieler will discuss which coastal habitats are likely to be resilient, which are likely to be transformed, and which will require buffer zones. These key features are essential for preserving the coastal area’s intrinsic values. He will also discuss practical actions we can take today to improve sustainability.

Dr. Thieler is a principal investigator for the USGS, Coastal and Marine Geology Program, Woods Hole, Massachusetts. The USGS team has demonstrated that nearly 70 percent of the coastal landscape has some capacity to respond dynamically to sea level rise. We are particularly grateful to Dr. Thieler for enthusiastically agreeing to meet with area students as part of our Meet the Scientist Program.

Thursday, October 13, 2016, 4:30 p.m. Essex Meadows
Enjoying the Waterways that Define Us

Connecticut’s Estuary and coastal towns have been defined by the area’s many waterways, from Long Island Sound, to the Connecticut River and its estuary, to its many tributaries and ponds and kettle holes. These have provided a rich source of mercantile commerce, seafaring, farming and recreation as well as fertile areas for scientific investigation.

Richard Conniff, a long-term observer and writer about the natural world, and a Connecticut Estuary resident, will share his observations with entertaining stories about his personal discovery of the Ospreys and alewives he encounters from his back porch and on morning rows on Rogers Lake.

Richard will also expand our scientific horizons with the incredible story of Yale zoologist and biogeochemist G. Evelyn Hutchinson. Hutchinson played a leading role in the rise of modern ecology, and spent 60 years investigating Linsley Pond, an incredibly rich kettle hole in North Branford. Hutchinson’s story illustrates the intensity and effectiveness of modern ecological studies, which the Estuary Center hopes to stimulate in the Connecticut River Estuary.

Thursday, October 27, 2016 5:30 p.m. Lyme Art Association
Conserving and Enhancing the Fish of the Connecticut River

The Connecticut Audubon Society and its Roger Tory Peterson Estuary Center are pleased to join with the Friends of Whalebone Cove and the Lyme Art Association in bringing this lecture.

The Connecticut River Estuary contains the highest fish diversity in the region — 78 species, including Atlantic salmon, American shad, largemouth bass, winter and summer flounder, and the endangered short-nosed and Atlantic sturgeon.

Steve Gephard will discuss work on the Connecticut River that is conserving and enhancing the river’s fish, based on his 30 years of experience with fish species that migrate between fresh and salt water to spawn. His work includes removing dams and building fish-ways to reconnect fish runs with upstream habitat, and protecting and restoring aquatic habitat. 

Steve Gephard is a supervising fisheries biologist with the Inland Fisheries Division of the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. He is in charge of the Diadromous Fish Program and the Habitat Conservation and Enhancement Program. Steve serves on a number of regional fisheries management commissions and serves as a U.S. Commissioner to the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization, an international treaty commission dedicated to conservation of Atlantic salmon in international waters.