Vision and Mission

Estuaries are biologically rich, economically valuable, and highly vulnerable ecosystems. The vision and mission of the proposed CT NERR (as well as the entire Reserve System) reflects the importance of these areas within our communities. The proposed CT NERR vision statement is the overarching description of what the reserve would like to achieve or accomplish and encapsulates how it should be distinguished.

CTNERR Vision: A resilient, healthy Long Island Sound estuary and watershed where human and natural communities thrive.

The reserve mission statement describes the reserve’s core purpose and focus and describes its unique contributions.

CTNERR Mission: To collaboratively integrate science with conservation, learning, recreation, and economic viability using ecologically diverse sites in southeastern Connecticut.

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(((short statement on available space and facilities – this will be a place where we will list our analytical capacity ad when we get up and running, a place where we list our fee for services. This is also a place to highlight what we will collaborate on and how we prefer to be engaged))))

The CTNERR’s research and monitoring will adapt and change based on community needs and climate and anthropogenic stressors. The fundamental objectives are:

Research and Monitoring Priorities

1. Improve opportunities to support and conduct basic and applied research within the Reserve,
2. Contribute to status and trends assessments and forecasting of environmental quality by tracking short-term variability and long-term changes in abiotic and biological parameters within the reserve through establishment of the System Wide Monitoring Program (SWMP),
3. Encourage and assist in a multi-agency approach to research, monitoring, and science leveraging ecosystem-based management, and
4. Provide coastal resource managers, the scientific community, and general education practitioners with appropriate scientific and technical information to foster informed decision-making.

Stewardship Priorities

The Reserve’s stewardship program works with partners to plan and facilitate beneficial activities, like training volunteers, monitoring and habitat restoration. The main objectives are:

1. Improve opportunities to support and conduct basic and applied research within the Reserve,
2. Contribute to status and trends assessments and forecasting of environmental quality by tracking short-term variability and long-term changes in abiotic and biological parameters within the reserve through establishment of the System Wide Monitoring Program (SWMP),
3. Encourage and assist in a multi-agency approach to research, monitoring, and science leveraging ecosystem-based management, and
4. Provide coastal resource managers, the scientific community, and general education practitioners with appropriate scientific and technical information to foster informed decision-making.

Education Priorities

The CTNERR is an outdoor living classroom providing important, hands-on learning experiences for all ages. The main objectives are:

1. Develop and support the next generation of environmental stewards and environmentally literate citizens by providing hands-on, experiential, place-based learning opportunities in the NERR to students and educators, particularly those from underserved and environmental justice communities, and
2. Promote environmental stewardship, environmental literacy, and science-based management and decision-making across a wide variety of sectors, including businesses, municipalities, and the public.

The Coastal Training Program

The Coastal Training Program (CTP) focuses on improving decision-making for coastal communities. CTP programs are aimed at government staff, NGOs, consultants and regional organizations. The main objectives are:

1. Establish the CTNERR’s CTP as a reliable and relevant source for training and support on coastal management issues.
2. Deliver science-based knowledge and skills appropriate to the needs of coastal decision-makers through partnerships that support program content.
3. Increase access of CTP target audiences to the Reserve and its resources through increased networking and information sharing

According to NOAA’s Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard, Long Island Sound is in Temperate Northern Atlantic ecoregion. An ecoregion is defined as an area of similar or homogeneous species composition when compared to other areas. In the aquatic setting, the Reserve’s area is composed of Estuarine Coastal subsystems, Estuarine Open Water subsystems, and Estuarine Tidal Riverine Coastal subsystems.

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The NERR lies within the eastern coastal ecoregion (Dowhan and Craig 1976) a seaboard region that is five to seven miles wide, where the regional forest is the Coastal Hardwoods. The terrestrial areas include a variety of coastal upland habitats. Focusing on only those areas which are above the mean higher high-water line, the habitats include: coastal forests-woodland, coastal meadows/grassland, coastal shrublands, beach and dune grasslands, and coastal bluff. A few State of Connecticut-defined Critical Habitats (Metzler and Barrett 2006) are found within the area, these include: coastal woodland/shrubland, coastal grassland, and floodplain forest. Threats to terrestrial habitats include habitat loss and degradation, invasive species, pollution, coastal development, sea level rise, and climate change.

Properties located in the CTNERR include freshwater ponds, freshwater coves, freshwater tidal and non-tidal marshes, and floodplain forests. A few State of Connecticut-defined Critical Habitats (Metzler and Barrett 2006) are found within the area. These include: beach shore, intertidal marsh, freshwater aquatic, poor fen, and floodplain forest. Sites includes freshwater marshes, ponds, and streams. Bluff Point Natural Area Preserve hosts one of the rarest freshwater wetlands, a sea-level fen, and Haley Farm State Park hosts a poor fen. No site includes tidal freshwater rivers, as the limit of saltwater in the Connecticut River and Thames River occur north (landward) of the alternative’s boundaries.

Including saline areas below the mean higher high-water line, habitats within the area include: tidal marshes, rocky intertidal, intertidal beaches, intertidal mud and sand flats, intertidal algae beds, subtidal hard bottoms, subtidal soft bottoms, and submerged aquatic vegetation. Commercially leased and recreational shellfish beds are concentrated in the eastern end of the CTNERR while two large natural shellfish beds are located in the lower Connecticut River. Most of the terrestrial sites within the CTNERR include tidal salt marshes, tidal brackish marshes, or freshwater marshes along some part of their coastline. The offshore areas of the CTNERR include an array of submerged aquatic vegetation, soft bottom, and hard bottom (reefs, bedrock/gravel zones, rocky/boulder areas), which span a depth regime from 1 to over 150 feet in depth (“Long Island Sound Resource Center – About the Long Island Sound Resource Center,” n.d.). A few State of Connecticut-defined Critical Habitats (Metzler and Barrett 2006) are found within the area, these include: beach shore and intertidal marsh.

The Reserve area is best described as a sheltered coast, as the shoreline is protected from the Atlantic Ocean by Fishers Island and Long Island. The area includes a few small bays (e.g., Esker Bay, Niantic Bay) and two main tidal rivers: the Thames River and the Connecticut River. The aquatic portion of the Reserve area includes or borders 22 estuarine embayments. These are, from east to west:

• Waterbodies within the Reserve area: Palmer Cove, Venetian Harbor, Mumford Cove, Poquonock River, Baker Cove/Birch Creek/Birch Plain Creek/, Griswold Cove/Black Hall River, Griswold Cove/Back River, and Lord Cove.
• Waterbodies adjacent to the area: Alewife Cove, Goshen Cove, Jordan Cove, Gardners Pond, Niantic River, Pattagansett River, Bride Brook, Four Mile River, Threemile River, Lieutenant River, Duck River, North Cove (Essex), Middle Cove (Essex), South Cove (Essex), North Cove (Old Saybrook), and South Cove (Old Saybrook).

A salt marsh is one characteristic used in the designation of an area as a sea-level fen. This area is occasionally flooded by the tides but sits above the reach of the typical spring high tides. This natural community is dominated by herbs, occasionally with some scattered shrubs or short trees (Dreyer and Caplis 2001; USFWS 1994).

Some of the tidal marshes are dominated by low and high marsh (salt marshes) while others include more high marsh and upland habitats and exhibit more of a freshwater influence (brackish marshes). The marshes in the lower portion of Connecticut River are complexes of brackish marsh and tall reed marsh, often occurring within the same property (Barrett 1989). All marshes are highly-productive zones, providing food, shelter and breeding habitat for numerous invertebrates, fish and birds. Many of the brackish tidal wetlands along the Connecticut River have been recognized as wetlands of global importance by the Ramsar Convention (Dreyer and Caplis 2001; USFWS 1994).

Intertidal areas include rocky substrates, beach, and flats composed of mud and sand. The rocky intertidal areas support a more diverse assemblage of organisms, as there is a firm substrate for these organisms to hold onto. The intertidal beaches and flats support a less diverse area as the sediment shifts and moves with the waves and along-shore current.

Soft bottom (sandy and silt/mud/clay) dominated habitats are perhaps the most prevalent and least complex of the range of subtidal habitats in the Reserve area, but they are nevertheless important as many burrowing species adapt to life in these habitats. Tidal and storm currents form sand waves and sand ripples which, like rocks and fauna in more spatially complex habitats, provide refuge from current flows. The cohesive nature of fine silt and clay sediments as well as an abundance of nutrient rich material provide an optimal habitat for many infaunal and epifaunal invertebrates.

Boulder and gravel areas are the most spatially complex habitats. These areas range in structure from large piles of boulders to flat pavements of small cobbles and pebbles. The relative stability of rock substrates provides a home for many encrusting (including cold water corals and mobile organisms, and the crevices between and under boulders provide cover from predators and refuge from swift currents.

The coastal and estuarine habitats of Long Island Sound and Fishers Island Sound, such as seagrasses, shellfish beds and salt marshes, provide a home, feeding area and nursery for marine fish, marine invertebrates, sea turtles, marine mammals, and birds. As foundational, biogenic habitats essential for marine biodiversity and function, seagrass, shellfish, and salt marsh ecosystems represent a source of food security for humans through recreational and commercial fishing activities, and nursery habitat provision for major fisheries along the eastern seaboard. As ecological engineers, the species forming the habitats create structures that stabilize sediments and dampen wave energy, helping reduce coastal erosion and the impacts of storms.

Submerged aquatic vegetation and macroalgae are often the dominant structure-forming organisms in the nearshore shallow waters. Like terrestrial grasses and trees, these primary producers provide dissolved oxygen, food, and shelter for organisms living within the habitat. Dense meadows of seagrass (submerged aquatic vegetation tolerant of higher salinity estuarine to marine waters) provide refuge from predators and tidal currents.

Seagrasses and salt marshes are also important carbon sinks, sequestering and storing up to ten times the amount of carbon by area as their terrestrial forest equivalents (Millenium Ecosystem Assessmen 2005; Valiela 2015). Whales, sea turtles, and fish that migrate or move between coastal, estuarine, and ocean habitats as they feed and reproduce, depend on Long Island Sound, Fishers Island Sound, the rivers, and offshore habitats throughout their life histories.[

(((JV note – Reference the Blue Plan – a sentence or two about it, then link to Blue Plan. Other relevant viewers or data analyses?)))

The CTNERR exists within a region shaped by long standing interactions between human communities and coastal ecosystems. Southeastern Connecticut supports a diverse mix of residential, commercial, industrial, recreational, and conservation land uses that influence estuarine conditions.
The Reserve area and surrounding region support a wide range of ecosystem services, including fisheries, aquaculture, recreation, tourism, shoreline protection, and cultural heritage. These services contribute significantly to the regional economy and quality of life but also place demands on estuarine resources.

Climate change, sea level rise, pollution, and coastal development represent the most significant long term threats to both ecological integrity and human communities. Addressing these challenges requires integrated science, monitoring, and management approaches that are central to the mission of the CTNERR.

Human and climate related stressors to estuarine habitats include habitat loss and degradation, invasive species, pollution, marine debris, climate change, sea level rise, barrier/dams, human harassment, and fishing / overfishing. Descriptions of threats and potential impacts are included in Table 1. Threats to riparian and freshwater habitats include habitat degradation, habitat loss, invasive species, pollution, coastal development, sea level rise and its impact on saltwater intrusion, and climate change.

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