The New CCMP: a Plan to Restore and Care for Long Island Sound

Nicole Tachiki, a Strategic Planning Coordinator for the Long Island Sound Partnership, coordinated the drafting of the revised 2025 Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan. She wrote this article for the LIS Partnership.

The 2025 Long Island Sound Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP) reflects the collective expertise and passion of those who work, play, visit, and live in the Long Island Sound watershed. The Plan contains the program’s new vision statement “Long Island Sound and its watershed have clean waters, healthy habitats, thriving wildlife, resilient coasts, and an engaged public.” The mission statement is “The Long Island Sound Partnership leads a collective effort to restore and care for the Sound and its watershed.” Core values to guide the Partnership’s operation and activities include actionable science, respect and trust, and adaptive management.

The revised CCMP outlines the Partnership’s goals, objectives, and actions to protect and restore the Long Island Sound. Those familiar with the 2015 CCMP will recognize the three overarching goals of Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds, Thriving Habitats and Abundant Wildlife, and Sustainable and Resilient Communities. New to the 2025 CCMP is the fourth goal of an Informed and Engaged Public, which emphasizes the importance of having people in the watershed participate in caring for the Sound. The 2015 CCMP included a goal for Sound Science and Inclusive Management. This is no longer a standalone goal because the Partnership believes sound science and inclusive management should be reflected across the program goals and activities.

Under each goal, the objectives describe the aspirational outcomes the Partnership plans to achieve in the next ten years. The objectives have one or more defined measures of success structured to be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (a framework known as SMART). Indicators of progress have also been identified to provide supporting data and insight into the progress made toward achieving the goals. Each objective has corresponding actions, which describe the broad and strategic activities to be accomplished in the next five years to achieve the objective. The streamlined organizational structure of goals, objectives, and actions simplifies the program’s ability to track CCMP implementation and will allow the Partnership to communicate progress in a meaningful and efficient way. Detailed descriptions of the CCMP objectives and actions are included in the CCMP appendices.

Long Island Sound Partnership staff, collaborators, and members of the public contributed to the major revision of the CCMP. Since the Fall of 2023, the program has worked arduously to write the new Plan. The Partnership formed four writing teams comprised of subject matter experts to inform the development of objectives and actions under the corresponding four CCMP goals. Over 60 individuals participated on the writing teams and contributed their expertise to drafting the Plan’s content. In the Spring of 2024, seven public engagement sessions were held to hear from Long Island Sound watershed residents about their priorities and interests. A total of 135 individuals participated in these engagement sessions and provided feedback to inform the Plan. During the 60-day CCMP public comment period in the Fall of 2024, the Partnership received 245 public comments from 31 commenters. Program staff reviewed and responded to each comment, revising CCMP text where appropriate, which further strengthened the Plan’s content. The Partnership is grateful to everyone who attended public meetings, provided comments, shared their expertise, and informed the CCMP development process. The Long Island Sound Partnership is excited to move forward with a focus on taking action to implement this plan for the next 10 years.