Grantee: Collective Oyster Recycling & Restoration FoundationGrant Amount: $99,607.50LISCIF Program Priority: Projects that foster a diverse balance and abundant populations of fish, birds, and wildlife; Projects that result in quantifiable pollutant prevention or reduction.
Recover and plant approximately 350,000 pounds (7000 bushels) of shells with support from non-governmental organizations and the Connecticut Department of Agriculture Bureau of Aquaculture and Laboratory.
The project will significantly impact the sustainability and resilience of historical shellfish beds in Long Island Sound and address the strategies of the Long Island Sound Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP). While the focus of this project is shell recycling and oyster habitat restoration, we are also working on expanding and building off of that work to create more community education and engagement in two specific ways. The first is a community-based small oyster habitat restoration project in Bridgeport along the shores of either the Yellow Mill Channel or the Pequonnock River. We are also working on creating mentorship and training programs for individuals from Bridgeport and New Haven interested in oyster farming and oyster habitat restoration.
Grantee: Alliance for the Mystic River WatershedGrant Amount: $99,987.68LISCIF Program Priority: Public engagement, knowledge and stewardship.
Develop an inclusive curriculum that blends Tribal knowledge with best practices in ecological design to guide youth and community-led projects for resilience in the Mystic River Watershed.
Resilient communities and ecosystems are rooted in right relationships and knowledge systems built on ancestral wisdom to inform their planning and design practices. To support a diverse array of local and regional resilience interventions, we propose the development of a coherent, accessible, and inclusive curriculum and learning ecosystem, aligning current best practices in regenerative built environment design, green infrastructure, nature-based solutions, and other forms of land-based design (e.g. ecological restoration) with Tribal cultural values and knowledge systems. This curriculum will directly inform community and youth-led place-based interventions for social and ecological (community) resilience and stimulate further co-design efforts. This work builds on the last two years of work by The Alliance for the Mystic River Watershed (AMRW) to build relationships and community education, engagement, and outreach capacity in support of developing our Watershed Resilience Action Plan (WRAP). This work, including the Youth Centered Design Circles funded by the Long Island Sound Community Impact Fund, our monthly Planners’ Convenings, and Community Conversation Circles, has identified to date over 30 specific place-based intervention concepts, and this curriculum will support their integration into our WRAP in order to seek implementation funding.
Grantee: Connecticut River MuseumGrant Amount: $99,614.00LISCIF Program Priority: Public engagement, knowledge, and stewardship.
Offer an array of environmentally focused programs that support environmental literacy; raise awareness of the River’s ecosystems and the interconnection of our cultural stories and the River’s ecology (past, present and future); foster critical thinking and creativity to identify environmental challenges facing the River; and empower people to take action and contribute to positive change.
Environmental education, a core Museum tenet, is codified in our Strategic Plan. As Jacques-Yves Cousteau famously said, “We only protect what we love, we only love what we understand, and we only understand what we are taught”. Building on this perspective, the Connecticut River Museum emboldens a new generation of River Stewards who will love the Connecticut, the backbone of New England and the source of percent of the freshwater in the Long Island Sound. The museum offers educational programs for learners of all ages, reaching more than 30,000 people, as we raise awareness about the River.
Grantee: Interdistrict Committee for Project OceanologyGrant Amount: $99,801.49LISCIF Program Priority: Public engagement, knowledge, and stewardship.
Provide K-12 students with hands-on educational opportunities both in the classroom and the field.
Curriculum development between classroom teachers and informal educators to develop a new high school course with a focus on Long Island Sound topics and robust professional development will be a cornerstone of this work. The project engages youth to increase knowledge and understanding of the ecological health of the Thames River and Long Sound Island Sound and will increase appreciation and environmental stewardship among teachers and students in communities in the Thames River watershed and Long Island Sound. This project will culminate with place-based, student-led stewardship action projects designed to promote community resilience to the environmental effects of climate change.
Grantee: Mill River Wetland CommitteeGrant Amount: $33,035.74LISCIF Program Priority: Public engagement, knowledge, and stewardship.
Support citizen science programming for students in Bridgeport’s East Side neighborhood.
Students in Bridgeport’s historically overburdened and underserved East Side neighborhood participated in Mill River Wetland Committee’s Groundwater Unit in the Fall of 2024. The program will now expand this to 3 other grade levels over the next two years. This opportunity will connect diverse populations using a shared watershed preservation model. Examining the unique environmental challenges facing the Sound will promote integrated problem solving and collaborative research study. Introducing same-age peers in unknown geographic proximity will motivate students to discover the regional waterways that connect them using maps and zoom software. This project builds an aquatic-based relationship of interdependent research study at an age when students are ready to use the skills taught in younger grades. Students will learn how their actions on and near their local waterways and wetlands can affect the health of the watershed and the Sound in both positive and negative ways. The project sustainability model will incorporate extension of MRWC’s existing Water Warriors citizen science community engagement program. MRWC intends to pursue expansion of this project by continuing to involve students in subsequent grades, research future grant opportunities, seek private donations and apply the CT SeaGrant funded, grant writing assistance to educate our MRWC organization.
Grantee: Save the SoundGrant Amount: $99,996.97LISCIF Program Priority: Projects that enhance community resilience and sustainability.
Provide formerly incarcerated individuals and high school students in New Haven, CT with resume-building green-job opportunities that will also benefit the community.
Using a bioretention pocket park recently built on an abandoned lot in the neighborhood of Fair Haven as a learning laboratory, EMERGE crew members will undergo green stormwater infrastructure training led by CLEAR on how to install and maintain a bioretention system; identify native plants and weeds; and manage invasive species. Then CLEAR and EMERGE crew members will teach the skills to the students, who Save the Sound and Junta are simultaneously teaching how to be Environmental Ambassadors. EMERGE crew members will build their skills by stewarding the site over 18 months and earn certification in green infrastructure. The program will culminate with a boat trip led by the Sound School on the adjacent Mill River for EMERGE crew members and the Environmental Ambassadors to see how their work affects water quality, and three community events to showcase the work of participants and deepen the community’s connection with the park.
A fact sheet is also available with descriptions of the projects that were awarded grants in 2025 for the Long Island Sound Community Impact Fund.
2025 LISCIF Grant Slate
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