Grantee: Collective Oyster Recycling & RestorationGrant Amount: $94,977.34LISCIF Program Priority: Restoring habitat within the Important Coastal Habitat Types targeted by LIS Partnership; Projects that foster a diverse balance and abundant populations of fish, birds, and wildlife; Public engagement, knowledge, and stewardship; Planning and design that set-the-stage for implementation of water quality projects, eligible habitat restoration projects and resilience projects.
Collective Oyster Recovery and Restoration’s (CORR) project will recover and recycle shells from restaurants, seafood businesses, and festivals to continue maintaining a statewide, sustainable shell recovery and recycling network for oyster habitat restoration in Long Island Sound and preserve oyster reefs in Bridgeport, Stratford, and Branford, CT. With support from the Connecticut Department of Agriculture (DoAG) Bureau of Aquaculture and Laboratory, several non-governmental organizations will collaborate to recover and plant approximately 350,000-400,000 pounds (7000-8,000 bushels) of shells annually. This will significantly enhance the sustainability and resilience of historical shellfish beds in the sound and address the strategies of the Long Island Sound Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP). While the focus of our project is shell recycling and oyster habitat restoration, we will broaden this initiative to foster greater community education, involvement, and outreach about the vital impact oysters have on our ecosystem and why shell recycling matters. Key components include increasing educational presentations in schools for students and presenting to more adults and community groups (garden and rotary clubs, etc.). Maintaining the success of our program is important, and LISCIF26 funding supports operational costs–providing us with a stable foundation for future organizational growth.
Grantee: Harbor Watch, a Program of EarthplaceGrant Amount: $85,501.60LISCIF Program Priority: Projects that result in quantifiable pollutant prevention or reduction; Public engagement,knowledge, and stewardship.
Harbor Watch is proposing to conduct a trash removal and community education project in the Bruce Brook Watershed. During the Bruce Brook Watershed-based plan development, the ever-present trash issue plaguing the brook became evident during stream walks by the consultant and during community meetings where residents identified trash as one of the main contributors to poor water quality in the watershed. A litter trap installation would serve two purposes: to prevent trash found along the banks from reaching Long Island Sound and to improve water quality in the watershed by reducing areas where trash accumulates and slows water flow. Post installation of the trap, Harbor Watch will assess how frequently the trap fills and determine the size of storms that would require special cleanout events to ensure proper maintenance beyond the life of the grant. During cleanouts, in an effort to learn from the litter trap, the trash types and amounts will be quantified. Harbor Watch plans to share the information learned from the trap cleanouts with the community to highlight the major contributors (such as material type or brand) and to provide suggestions on ways to change individual actions to stop the pollution at the source.
Grantee: Friends of Brookside Farm MuseumGrant Amount: $30,000.00LISCIF Program Priority: Restoring habitat within the Important Coastal Habitat Types targeted by LIS Partnership; Public engagement, knowledge, and stewardship; Planning and design that set-the-stage for implementation of water quality projects, eligible habitat restoration projects and resilience projects.
The Friends of the Brookside Farm Museum (BFM) propose a forest and wetland restoration initiative that will transform approximately 40 acres of degraded land into a thriving native ecosystem. Located across from two public schools and connected to a community center in East Lyme, the site will serve as both a restoration model and an accessible outdoor learning space. The project will remove invasive species, reintroduce native plants, and rebuild habitat to support greater biodiversity and wildlife presence. Improvements include constructing an additional walking trail, enhancing existing paths, installing educational signage, and creating a wetland-viewing platform and outdoor classroom. Guided by ecological experts, the area will become a space for recreation, reflection, and hands-on learning. Brookside will also function as a community education hub, offering biodiversity training, book clubs, discussion groups, and collaborative programming with Parks and Recreation and the East Lyme Public Library. These programs will empower residents to practice ecological stewardship at home, encouraging broader adoption of native habitat restoration. Project funds will support tools, community engagement supplies, outreach materials, and a seed-library initiative, creating lasting environmental and educational benefits for the region.
Grantee: Alliance for the Mystic River WatershedGrant Amount: $97,094.06LISCIF Program Priority: Public engagement, knowledge, and stewardship; Projects that enhance community resilience and sustainability; Planning and design that set-the-stage for implementation of water quality projects, eligible habitat restoration projects and resilience projects; Community-based science projects.
This project builds on two years of Long Island Sound Community Impact Fund work. Previous LISCIF funding strengthened youth, cross-generational, inter-tribal, and cross-cultural collaboration supporting the development of our Watershed Regeneration Action Plan (WRAP) through a simple and effective “design circle” process. The third round of funding expands work by: 1) Piloting the curriculum developed through our Center for Indigenous and Regenerative Community Learning (CIRCL) in area schools and community gatherings, highlighting the relationships between water, land, and human decision making; 2) Working with BuildGreenCT and the Mashantucket Pequot Museum to host the 2027 Northeast Summit for a Sustainable Built Environment (NESSBE) with a proposed theme of Culture of Place: How Regenerative Systems for Shelter Take Care of Life on Land and in the Water. This event expands on our work with the Alliance CIRCL, supporting Indigenous knowledge leadership as foundational to repairing relationships between humans, land, and water.; 3) Creating participatory art and idea boards from the conference that remain on view so that a wider audience, including school children, can contribute their own ideas; and 4) Providing a CIRCL Toolkit Guide to Regeneration for Educators, Community Builders, and Youth Leaders, will document our shared learning. It will inform the Watershed Regeneration Action Plan, and can be shared across the Long Island Sound watershed as a model for developing long-term resilience capacity.
Grantee: Trust for Public LandGrant Amount: $100,000.00LISCIF Program Priority: Public engagement, knowledge, and stewardship; Projects that enhance community resilience and sustainability; Planning and design that set-the-stage for implementation of water quality projects, eligible habitat restoration projects and resilience projects.
Trust for Public Land (TPL), in collaboration with local government, partners, and residents, will address the CCMP’s Sustainable and Resilient Communities theme in Bridgeport, Connecticut, by finalizing community designs for new parks that showcase green infrastructure at vulnerable waterfront properties on the East Side and downtown. This 12-month effort will result in successfully obtaining permits and launching the implementation phase for nature-based solutions on the shoreline, including a native salt marsh with innovative tidal channels, as well as living shorelines. The consensus-based designs for these new parks emerged from a collaborative, long term process led by TPL. As the city’s primary nonprofit partner for waterfront revitalization, TPL will serve as project manager during the grant period while addressing SRC Actions 2-2, 2-3, 3-1, 3-3, and 3-4. This project will set the stage for implementation of resilience projects at these sites in Bridgeport, an achievement representing the culmination of years of community engagement around protecting the Sound and increasing equitable public access.
Grantee: African American Society #024Grant Amount: $99,297.90LISCIF Program Priority: Public engagement, knowledge, and stewardship; Projects that enhance community resilience and sustainability.
D-Path will expand engagement with Long Island Sound and its watershed, advance environmental stewardship, and implement on-the ground restoration projects to Improve water quality. The program leverages the African American Society’s (AAS) headquarters in Hamden, CT, and its farm in Washington, CT to engage youth from urban coastal communities and statewide decision-makers in hands-on agricultural and environmental learning that highlights the connections between upland rivers, streams, and the LIS watershed. Grant funding will support a pilot fall semester followed by a full-year launch. Youth stewards from Greater New Haven will participate in twice-monthly farm-based learning, beginning with a pilot cohort, then expanding to a full-year program with youth participating in twice-monthly sessions and a month-long summer overnight camp. Youth will learn sustainable, regenerative, and culturally rooted farming and land-stewardship practices and will support the farm’s transition from conventional to organic production. Activities include greenhouse construction, compost, manure management, and installation of green stormwater infrastructure. Participants will contribute to a major restoration project that remediates a legacy cesspool using nature-based solutions, transforming an environmental liability into a landscape that protects soils and waterways. Produce grown through the program will be distributed by AAS to urban coastal communities facing food insecurity, extending the benefits of D-Path. D-Path will engage decision-makers through immersive farming experiences that highlight how agriculture practices Influence water quality, food access, and health, strengthening support for sustainable farming and watershed management policies.
Grantee: Mill River Wetland CommitteeGrant Amount: $69,439.00LISCIF Program Priority: Public engagement, knowledge, and stewardship.
Goal 1: Continue Watershed Lab at Barnum School in Bridgeport, CT. (Implementation Phase) Students in grades 2, 4, 5, and 7 in Bridgeport’s historically distressed East Side neighborhood will continue to participate in Mill River Wetland Committee’s Watershed Units from Fall 2027-Spring 2028. In addition, fifth graders will participate in a unique multi-faceted series of lessons and field experiences during which they will partner with peers, whoalso participate in the watershed study trips and live adjacent to the Long Island Sound Estuary. Throughout the year peers will exchange their own citizen science findings and personal learning experiences surrounding urban water pollution and conservation practices where they live. This opportunity will connect diverse populations using a shared watershed preservation model. Student and community members will also have additional program opportunities which will include after school activities, STEM-related events, and repeated exposure at partner organized events. Goal 2: Mill River Environs Watershed Lab Expansion. (pre-implementation and/or implementation phase). MRWC will build lasting relationships that can be sustained beyond the project by increasing the capacity to deliver high-quality adaptable E-STEM based programs. Expanding organizational infrastructure by onboarding passionate educators and staff, upgrading data management tools and usage, and bolstering community outreach in multiple areas will lay the groundwork for future impact.
LISCIF26 Awardee Fact Sheet
Sign up to receive our newsletters and updates. Choose the topics that interest you most!
"*" indicates required fields