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2010 Accomplishments:

Griswold Airport Property Protected!
Voters in Madison on January 26th approved the town’s purchase of the former Griswold Airport property, comprising 42 acres of open grasslands, a rare coastal forest, and critical tidal marsh habitats. The 42-acre property, located on the Boston Post Road, is adjacent to Hammonasset Beach State Park and includes prime wetland habitat, upland forest, and significant frontage along the Hammonasset River. The property is a key component of the globally significant Hammonsasset ecosystem and an ecological gem in its own right.

For more information on this project, please see our January 2010 newsletter.

Check out Griswold Airport on Google Maps.

A photo gallery of the Griswold Airport and adjacent Hammonasset Beach State Park can be found here.

$6M for the Conte Refuge included in President’s Land and Water Conservation Fund Budget Request!
The Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge is included in the President’s budget request for $6,000,000 in funding to acquire land in the Connecticut River Watershed. This is among the highest proposed funding levels in the Department of the Interior budget, second nationally only to the Rocky Mountain Front Conservation Area. This year’s request will seek funding to protect over 2,200 acres of land in Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Stay tuned for more details in our Feb. 2010 newsletter.

You can find the Friends of Conte and photos of the above mentioned places on Facebook. To see what the President says about the Conte, click here.

Foundation Funds Project For The Birds
Audubon Connecticut was awarded a $75,000 grant by the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven to support the work of the Important Bird Areas (IBA) Program in the Greater New Haven area. This grant is funding a three year project to identify and protect key bird habitat in Greater New Haven.

For more details on this project, please see our November, 2009 newsletter.

Connecticut and Northeast Fare Well in Interior Appropriations Conference Committee Budget
In October of 2009 the Interior Appropriations Conference Committee released their report on funding levels. Connecticut and the Northeast will receive much needed funding for open space protection, habitat restoration and research with the following conservation funding coming to Connecticut:

• $7 million for Long Island Sound Stewardship and Restoration Acts
• $2 million for additions to the Stewart B. McKinney NWR
• $2.5 million for additions to the Silvio O. Conte NWR
• $4 million for projects in the Highlands

Many thanks go to our House and Senate lawmakers who worked so hard to secure this funding! These funding levels represent a real victory for Audubon's Long Island Sound Campaign, a partnership of Audubon Connecticut, Audubon New York and our DC policy office. But the real credit goes to all of you - our Audubon members and supporters - who spoke out in support of these critical programs and projects. It couldn't have happened without your advocacy. Thank you!

2009 Accomplishments:

Fiscal year 2009 was an amazing time for conservation in Connecticut, and Audubon is thrilled to have played a role in many conservation victories during this year. Working in partnership with other local, state, and national NGOs, and with federal, state and municipal partners we were able to leverage your support into over $25,000,000 in funding to protect and restore critical areas for birds, resulting in over 1,000 acres protected at IBAs and other key areas in Connecticut in the last fiscal year alone. Some of the key conservation success stories include:

• Working in partnership with the Trust for Public Land, Audubon’s science and policy team helped to add 20 acres to the IBA at the Salt Meadow Unit of Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge through $700,000 in funding through the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
• Audubon played a significant role in the successful efforts to protect the 624-acre Goss Property at the tidal headwaters of the East River in Guilford, a huge victory in efforts to protect the East River Marsh and its globally important nesting population of Saltmarsh Sparrows.
• Audubon worked with the Connecticut DEP and other partner to protect the 47-acre Guilford Sluice Property, helping to secure a grant from the Coastal Wetland Conservation Grant in the amount of $261,250 from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
• Audubon’s lead role in passage of the Long Island Stewardship Act bore its first fruits February 19th when Governor M. Jodi announced the state’s plan to purchase, and protect as open space, a 48-acre parcel of land in the town of Stonington that will expand the adjacent Barn Island Wildlife Management Area (WMA). The $920,000 purchase of this property from the Crowley family will be funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Long Island Sound Study Stewardship Program Fund.
• The Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge was awarded $3,800,000 in funding from the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which enabled the first major acquisition of land by this Refuge in Connecticut, the 290-acre Elm Camp Johnson Property in Haddam Neck. Audubon provides leadership to the Refuge Friends Group and advocated for this funding.
• Audubon helped to secure funds for Long Beach West Cottage Removal. Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (D-3) announced $909,000 for Barrier Beach Restoration on Long Beach West through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
• 450 acres of grassland habitat in Suffield were protected by the Connecticut DEP as part of the Connecticut Grasslands Habitat Initiative. Audubon’s 2001 report “Protecting Connecticut’s Grassland Heritage” was a key supporting document in the initiation of this effort to secure habitat for Connecticut’s endangered grassland birds. Audubon serves on the DEP’s Grassland Advisory Council and advocated for the agency’s request for this funding.

Stratford Great Meadows Complex
Long Beach, Pleasure Beach, and the Stratford Great Meadows marsh are part of a two-mile coastal barrier beach and tidal marsh system that contains sand dunes, tidal wetlands and sand flats. Much of the tidal wetlands and upland areas belong to the Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge, while Long Beach West and Pleasure Beach are owned by Stratford and Bridgeport. In November, after a sustained campaign, Stratford residents voted to sell Long Beach West to the US Fish and Wildlife Service for inclusion in the McKinney Refuge. This vote is but one victory on a long road that would permanently protect Connecticut’s largest undeveloped barrier beach.

The Stratford Great Meadows marsh and Long Beach West/Pleasure Beach barrier beach complex was recognized as an IBA in October, bringing the total number of IBAs in Connecticut to 27. The marsh, dune, and barrier beach habitats in this area provide wintering habitat for waterfowl, raptors, and songbirds; migratory stopover habitat for thousands of migratory shorebirds each year; and are a regionally significant area for nesting Piping Plovers and Least Terns during the breeding season. Great Meadows contains the largest block of unditched salt marsh remaining in Connecticut (about 225 acres). This summer, Audubon and Connecticut Audubon Society partnered to create a comprehensive breeding bird atlas for the IBA as part of a project funded in part by the EPA Long Island Sound Study and National Fish and Wildlife’s Long Island Sound Futures Fund, and the Jeniam Fund.