The Nature Conservancy of Connecticut has unveiled its $4 million plan to transform and restore marshes and an estuary at Rocky Neck State Park.
The environmental group will work with the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and other agencies over the next three years to understand why the marshes are disappearing.
Tim Clark is the conservancy's Resilient Southeastern Connecticut program director. He said the organization has a lot of data to collect.
“We’re going to be measuring how much freshwater is coming in. We’re also going to be looking out in the Sound, we’re going to be measuring the movement of sediment along the beach,” Clark said. "Basically, what is the influx of saltwater into the system? We’re going to be able to kind of come up with a series of ideas as to why this is disappearing.”
Marshes provide multiple benefits to the environment, from biodiversity of plant and animal species to filtering clean water and providing local flood protection.
Jessica Canizares is the director of Coastal Ecosystem Projects with the conservancy.
“Our goal here is threefold. We intend to plan for full tidal exchange between Bride Brook and Long Island Sound. The second goal is to restore the 80-acre salt marsh and the third goal is to improve public access and recreation opportunities,” Canizares said.
Once the project is complete, the conservancy will develop a plan to correct the issues and seek state and federal funding.
They expect restoration to take around 10 years.
