— Published by Greater Long Island.com

Stony Brook, NY, February 20, 2021 - A monthly educational webinar series that highlights various community science opportunities has been launched by Long Island environmental groups in support of local wildlife conservation efforts.

Anyone interested in helping scientists with their projects — and learning about what is being done for water quality, horseshoe crabs, bats and an emerging coyote population — among other Long Island centered research —- can tune in to the coming 2021 webinars.

Seatuck Environmental Association, Long Island Sound Study, and New York Sea Grant are hosting the series together.

Community Science LI spans the next seven months, coinciding with the volunteer monitoring season for each project.

The webinars include monitoring projects focused on water quality, horseshoe crabs, bats, eastern coyotes, and diamondback terrapins – and incorporate presentations from local researchers, environmental management leaders, and community science project coordinators.

Community Science LI featured its first webinar in the series titled, “River Otter Monitoring,” on Jan. 27 from 5 to 6 p.m.


Diamondback terrapin/Luke Ormand

The webinar drew over 300 attendees from various backgrounds, including members of the general public, students, professors, teachers, and environmental professionals.

Most were from Long Island, but a few tuned in from New Jersey, Connecticut, Vermont, and even California. During the webinar, Wildlife Biologist Mike Bottini and Seatuck’s Policy Program Coordinator Arielle Santos discussed the natural history of River Otters on Long Island, their current distribution, tips on identification, and how to survey them in the field using the free Survey 1-2-3 platform.

The recorded webinar and associated resources can be found on Seatuck’s website.

The next webinar will cover River Herring & American Eel monitoring on Long Island. The annual volunteer River Herring & American Eel Survey is one of Long Island’s longest running community science projects. Started in 2006, the survey engages volunteer community scientists to monitor runs of migratory river herring and American eels in rivers and streams across Long Island.

The survey, organized by Seatuck and partners at the Long Island Sound Study, Peconic Estuary Program and South Shore Estuary Reserve – aims to find the waterways where “remnant” runs of river herring still exist and then to monitor the size and timing of those runs.

This information is vital to improve access and restore local populations of these ecologically important fish. All webinar attendees will be able to participate in in-depth discussions with local project coordinators on how to survey for river herring and American eel in their communities.

The webinar is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 25, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Registration is required.

More Info: Community Science Long Island

“Community Science Long Island” — a partnership of the Long Island Sound Study, New York Sea Grant, Seatuck Environmental Association, the Peconic Estuary Partnership and the New York Department of State’s South Shore Estuary Reserve — is an education series about community science opportunities (also known as citizen science) in Long Island and the importance of those projects in supporting research and local environmental management efforts.

These webinars, which currently run through July 2021, will inspire you to explore nature and be a part of community science programs on Long Island.

Speakers in the series range from researchers, environmental management leaders, and community science project coordinators.

For more information on future webinars, the full event schedule, and registration information, visit seatuck.org/community-science-webinars.

More Info: Long Island Sound Study

Long Island Sound is one of the 28 nationally designated estuaries under the National Estuary Program (NEP), which was established by Congress in 1987 to improve the quality of Long Island Sound and other places where rivers meet the sea. 

The Long Island Sound Study is a cooperative effort sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency and the states of Connecticut and New York to restore and protect the Sound and its ecosystems. The restoration work is guided by a Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan under four themes: Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds; Thriving Habitats and Abundant Wildlife; Sustainable and Resilient Communities; and Sound Science and Management.

For more on what you can do to make a difference, click over to the "Get Involved" or "Stewardship" sections of the Long Island Sound Study's website. News on the Long Island Sound Study can also be found in New York Sea Grant's related archives.

If you would like to receive Long Island Sound Study's newsletter, please visit their site's homepage and sign up for the "e-news/print newsletter" under the "Stay Connected" box.

More Info: New York Sea Grant

New York Sea Grant (NYSG), a cooperative program of Cornell University and the State University of New York (SUNY), is one of 34 university-based programs under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Sea Grant College Program.

Since 1971, NYSG has represented a statewide network of integrated research, education and extension services promoting coastal community economic vitality, environmental sustainability and citizen awareness and understanding about the State’s marine and Great Lakes resources.

Through NYSG’s efforts, the combined talents of university scientists and extension specialists help develop and transfer science-based information to many coastal user groups—businesses and industries, federal, state and local government decision-makers and agency managers, educators, the media and the interested public.

The program maintains Great Lakes offices at Cornell University, University at Buffalo, SUNY Oswego and the Wayne County Cooperative Extension office in Newark. In the State's marine waters, NYSG has offices at Stony Brook University in Long Island, Brooklyn College and Cornell Cooperative Extension in NYC and Elmsford and Kingston in the Hudson Valley.

For updates on Sea Grant activities: www.nyseagrant.org has RSS, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube links. NYSG offers a free e-list sign up via www.nyseagrant.org/nycoastlines for its flagship publication, NY Coastlines/Currents, which is published quarterly.