Long Island Sound Futures Fund Grants 2023

In December, federal and state environmental agencies and officials from New England and New York, including the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), announced 39 grants totaling $12 million to organizations and local governments to improve the health of Long Island Sound.

The grants are matched by $8 million from the grantees themselves, resulting in $20 million in total conservation impact for projects in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont.

An array of Long Island Sound Futures Fund (Futures Fund) 2023 grants will support projects that improve water quality by preventing 2.7 million gallons of stormwater and 101,000 pounds of nitrogen pollution from flowing into Long Island Sound waters.

The projects will also remove 120 tons of marine debris from the sound and support planning for restoration of 880 acres of coastal habitat and 102 miles of river corridor vital to fish and wildlife.

The projects are designed to reach 30,000 people through environmental education programs that increase awareness of how to improve the health and vitality of the Sound.

Funding for the grant program comes from the EPA as part of the Long Island Sound Study (LISS), with additional support from FWS, NFWF, and The Zoetis Foundation.

The LISS initiated the Futures Fund in 2005 through EPA’s Long Island Sound Office and NFWF. Since its inception, the Futures Fund has invested $56 million in 640 projects.

The program has generated an additional $65 million in grantee matching funds towards these projects for a total conservation impact of $121 million.

Futures Fund projects have opened 121 river miles for fish passage, restored 842 acres of fish and wildlife habitat, treated 208 million gallons of stormwater pollution, and engaged 5 million people in protection and restoration of the sound.

A complete list of the 2023 Long Island Sound Futures Fund grants recipients is available on the NFWF Long Island Sound Futures Fund website.

Long Island Sound provides economic and recreational benefits to millions of people while also providing habitat for countless numbers of invertebrates, fish, and migratory birds.

Related Information

New England Facts

Wetland, Woodland, Wildland Guide to Vermont

Vermont contains a great diversity of wetlands, ranging from open water habitats to rich forested swamps.

Because of differences in hydrology, parent soil material, historical land use, topography and other factors, each wetland can be unique in appearance, biota, and function in the landscape.

Some general wetland types present in Vermont include open water wetlands, emergent wetlands, scrub-shrub wetlands, forested wetlands, wet meadows, fens, bogs, and vernal pools.

A great place to learn more about the different types of wetlands in Vermont is in Wetland, Woodland, Wildland: A Guide to the Natural Communities of Vermont.

A completely updated second edition, co-authored by Elizabeth Thompson of the Vermont Land Trust, and Eric Sorenson and Robert Zaino of the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, incorporates recent scientific research about the state’s natural communities and includes descriptions of seventeen newly recognized natural community types.

With updated photographs, line drawings, and user-friendly writing, the guide is suitable for amateur naturalists as well as professional scientists.

The book is published by the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, The Nature Conservancy, and the Vermont Land Trust, and it is distributed by Chelsea Green Publishing.

Wetland, Woodland, Wildland: A Guide to the Natural Communities of Vermont can be purchased in local bookstores or online (https://vtfishandwildlife.com/wetland-woodland-wildland).

source: Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department