Long Island Sound Watershed Operations
Protecting and enhancing shellfisheries is an important component of the Long Island Sound Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan. The Connecticut Council on Soil and Water Conservation and Audubon Connecticut were awarded a PL-566 $100,000 grant to develop, in a collaborative effort, a Watershed Operations Plan. When approved the plan will attract significant funding from USDA-Natural Resource Conservation Service.
The Long Island Sound is an estuary of national importance and is an important economic driver for the region. Shellfishing is important to Connecticut’s economy generating over $30 million in farm-gate sales, providing over 300 jobs statewide, and supporting both the recreation and tourism industries. Just as important, shellfish, including the over 700,000 acres now under cultivation in Connecticut’s coastal waters, provide a range of ecosystem services important to improving and maintaining the health and biodiversity of the Sound.
Two major impacts to the shellfisheries are threatening this import resource: 1) stormwater runoff and 2) loss of habitat/habitat modifications. Tackling these concerns will require major funding for implementation.
Using the Cape Cod Water Resources Project as a model, the Council and Audubon are developing a watershed operations plan for Long Island Sound that identifies specific restoration sites and provides access to engineering and construction funds at USDA NRCS. Using LISS funds to develop a watershed operations plan to protect shellfisheries will leverage those funds by creating another funding mechanism for LIS restoration.
Created by Public Law 566 (PL 566), the watershed operations program is administered by USDA NRCS and offers financial and technical assistance for numerous purposes including: erosion and sediment control, watershed protection, flood prevention, water quality improvements, and fish and wildlife habitat enhancement. 20% of the total benefits of this program must be related to agriculture. With a focus on shellfish aquaculture, the program has been used successfully in Cape Cod to implement stormwater management retrofits and improve tidal flushing beneficial to local shellfish beds and to improve fish passage. Like EPA 319 program, a watershed operation plan must be developed and approved to access funding. One important component of the PL 566 program is that, unlike many other USDA programs, funding can be used on both public and private lands.
- Lead Partners:
- CT DEEP
- Connecticut Council on Soil and Water Conservation – Denise Savageau, Chair
- Audubon Connecticut – Robert LaFrance
- Key Partners
- USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service
- Connecticut Department of Agriculture Division of Aquaculture
- Connecticut’s Conservation Districts – 3 coastal districts
- Other Identified Partners
- UConn Sea Grant
- Save the Sound
- Local shellfish commissions
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Long Island Sound Watershed RCPP
In 2015 the Connecticut Council on Soil and Water Conservation was awarded ten million dollars from the Natural Resources Conservation Service, a branch of the US Department of Agriculture, to implement what has never been attempted in the New England states before -- a multi-state, multi-agency effort to reduce nitrogen pollution from stormwater within the Long Island Sound watershed.
The Long Island Sound Watershed Regional Conservation Partnership Program (LISW-RCPP) focuses on private working lands to manage soil nutrient loss, protect non-industrial forest habitat, biodiversity, and drinking water sources, and stem erosion and thus improve resiliency on working lands through riparian restoration.
The Three Pillars of Conservation of the LIS Watershed
I. SOIL HEALTH AND NUTRIENT MANAGEMENT
III. FORESTS, BIODIVERSITY & SOURCE WATER PROTECTION