The Environmental Protection Agency and Long Island Sound Study announced $1.6 million in grants Friday aimed at monitoring, educating and rehabilitating Long Island Sound.
Eighteen of the community-based projects are in New York — ranging from grassland restoration in Lloyd Neck to the redesign of Sunken Meadow Creek in Kings Park — and will receive $763,352. An additional $918,430 in matching funds have been pledged by the recipients.
"Protecting and restoring Long Island Sound have long been priorities for EPA," EPA Regional Administrator Judith A. Enck said. "These grants will support vital and diverse projects throughout the region to improve water quality and remove pollution from the Long Island Sound watershed and involve the public in the protection of one of the nation's most important natural treasures."
In all, 39 projects in New York and Connecticut will be aided by grants from the Long Island Sound Futures Fund. The grant program pools funds from the EPA, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Natural Resources Conservation Service.
The EPA, along with the states of New York and Connecticut, formed the Long Island Sound Study in 1985. Since 2005, the Futures Fund has awarded more than $4.5 million in grants to 105 projects targeting the Sound.
2011 New York Grants
Project Organization AwardCaumsett State Park coastal grasslands restoration
State Parks Dept., Lloyd Neck $39,466Removing ghost fishing gear to restore the Sound for LI Fisheries
Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County in Huntington, Oyster Bay and Northport Harbors $98,556 Restoration of forests at Audubon's First Bird Sanctuary Theodore Roosevelt Sanctuary and Audubon Center, Oyster Bay $34,977 Engaging Sweet Corn Farmers to reduce nitrogen in LI Sound American Farmland Trust in Town of Southold $150,000 Sponge Park Street Swale infrastructure initiative Regional Plan Association at Van Wyck and Long Island Expressway, Queens $59,935 Engineering Design of Sunken Meadow Creek State Parks Dept., Kings Park $60,000 Mill River-Beekman Creek restoration project: Phase one Friends of the Bay, Oyster Bay $40,000 Crab Meadow Watershed hydrology study and stewardship plan Town of Huntington in Northport $58,000 Mamaroneck River Corridor buffer restoration County of Westchester, Planning Department, Mamaroneck $41,000 Hempstead Harbor 2011 water quality monitoring program Village of Sea Cliff in Hempstead Harbor $40,000Adopt-a-Trout: Promoting community-based stewardship
Hofstra University, Shu Swamp, North Shore Wildlife, Town of Mill Neck $34,978 Great egret foraging science education project Rocking the Boat, South Bronx $20,000 Sound Experiences: From Ship-to-Shore IV Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County, and schools in Nassau-Suffolk counties $35,000 BYOB -- Bring Your Own Bag Citizens Campaign for the Environment, Northport and Port Jefferson $25,000 FOB water quality monitoring report Friends of the Bay, Oyster Bay-Cold Spring Harbor Estuary $6,440 Festival of Little Neck Bay and Long Island Sound Alley Pond Environmental Center, Douglaston $4,999 Coastal Classroom on the East River City Parks Foundation, Astoria and Long Island City $10,000