New and Ongoing Research, A Web Redesign and an Award-Winning Outreach Coordinator

Contact:

Larissa Graham, Long Island Sound Study Outreach Coordinator, NYSG, ljg85@cornell.edu

Stony Brook, NY, June 09, 2010 – A newly-redesigned Long Island Sound Study (LISS) Web site, www.longislandsoundstudy.net, was recently launched, emphasizing the Program’s commitment to this estuary of national significance. Long Island Sound is one of 28 nationally-designated estuaries under the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) National Estuary Program, established by Congress in 1987 to improve the quality of Long Island Sound and other places where rivers meet the sea.

LISS’s new Web site design adds more graphics and content, including Connecticut Sea Grant’s (CTSG) presentation of Long Island Sound, “Living Treasures,” and a Fish and Wildlife Service video on alewife migration, which features the Bride Brook restoration project at Rocky Neck State Park.
 
“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,” says LISS Communications Coordinator Robert Burg. Over the next few months, expect further additions, adds Larissa Graham, New York Sea Grant’s (NYSG) LISS Outreach Coordinator. These including an enhanced Sound Health section to track the environmental conditions of the Sound.

Last week, Graham was presented with an Outstanding Stewardship Partner Award at Brookhaven National Laboratory's Open Space Stewardship Program celebration for her work with the Program. Over the past two years, Larissa has developed numerous research projects within Long Island Sound Study Stewardship Areas through the Open Space Stewardship Program, involving eight partner agencies and over 700 students. To learn more about Stewardship Areas around the Sound, click here.

Sea Grant Programs in New York and Connecticut are also in the second of a number of two-year Long Island Sound research projects. In March 2009, the Sea Grant Programs awarded nearly $820,000 in LISS grants to five projects that are examining some of the most serious threats to the ecological health of Long Island Sound  – the historical problem of the Sound’s low oxygen conditions as well as emerging issues of red tide and the effects of climate change on the Sound’s ecosystem. For more on these projects, click here.

In more Sound research news, preliminary proposals are being accepted through Friday, June 25, 2010 for NYSG and CTSG’s Long Island Sound Study extra-mural research program. The intent of this program is to fund research in support of the management of Long Island Sound and its resources.

In fiscal year 2010, The Long Island Sound Sound Study received $7.8 million from, the largest amount ever for program activities. Congress passed a $4 million increase to the President’s $3.0 million dollar request for Long Island Sound. An additional $800,000 is expected through the National Estuary Program. The additional funds will be used to expand support for implementation of restoration and protection projects.