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Coastal Environment and Community Resilience Education Program

Long Island Coastal Steward President Denis Mellett shows growing shellfish at Brookhaven’s mariculture facility. File photo by Kyle Barr

Town of Brookhaven Supervisor Ed Romaine (R) announced Dec. 21 that the town was awarded a 2020 Long Island Sound Futures Fund matching grant to fund the town’s Coastal Environment and Community Resilience Education Program. The Town will match the $8,799 grant with $4,450, making the total conservation impact $13,249. The grant combines funds from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

“The Long Island Sound is vital to the ecology and economy of Brookhaven town and it is our goal to preserve it for future generations,” Romaine said in a release. “Thanks to the Long Island Sound Futures Fund grant, we will continue to increase public awareness and encourage participation in our environmental protection efforts in the town.”    

Brookhaven’s year-long Coastal Environment and Community Resilience Education Program will run from Jan. 1, 2021 through Dec. 31, 2021. The goal is to foster conservation by bringing people to the Long Island Sound or by bringing the Long Island Sound to the people. The town’s environmental educator will conduct presentations paired with hands-on activities tailored for each audience at public libraries throughout the Town of Brookhaven. Presentations and tours will include detailed descriptions of the intricate balance of the coastal ecosystems, the wonderful flora and fauna on the shore, dunes and salt marsh, and the positive and negative impacts of human activity in these places. 

The program will also include informative, guided tours of Cedar Beach in Mount Sinai, including the town’s Marine Environmental Stewardship Center and shellfish and eel grass restoration projects. There will also be nature tours for people of all ages and hands-on conservation programs with the Junior Environmental Stewards at Mount Sinai Harbor and West Meadow Beach in Stony Brook. The series will create more sustainable and resilient communities by increasing knowledge and engagement of the public in the protection and restoration of the coastal environments of Long Island Sound.