This year marks the 25 th year of coastal management in Connecticut. Congress passed the federal Coastal Zone Management Act in 1972. The General Assembly followed soon after with Connecticut Coastal Management Act passed in 1980. The act’s purpose is to balance the protection of our fragile coastal resources and water dependent uses with sustainable economic uses of the shoreline.

We have much to celebrate in this 25 th year of responsible coastal management. We have learned to value the wetlands and cherish coastal access as a treasure for all Connecticut citizens to share. I am especially proud of our accomplishments to protect southeastern Connecticut’s coastal resources.

Since 1980, Connecticut has restored more than 1,875 acres of tidal wetlands, including 130 acres within the Barn Island Wildlife Management Area in Stonington and 20 acres of wetlands at Mumford Cove in Groton. We have improved public access throughout the state, with the addition of a new park at Fort Trumbull, more land at Bluff Point and Haley Farm and the Mystic River Park. We made new pathways to the sea including establishing a public access path and tidal marsh viewing area as part of a residential subdivision at Wamphassuc Point in Stonington. We added 144 acres of tidal wetlands, coastal forest, vernal pools and inland wetlands to the Barn Island Wildlife Management Area in Stonington. In our continuing effort to clean up the waters of Long Island Sound, we designated the waters from the Rhode Island border to Pine Island Bay in Groton as a federally designated No Discharge Areas for boat sewage.

The innovative “Clean Marina Program” rewards marinas, boatyards and yacht clubs with certification as “Connecticut Clean Marinas” by demonstrating that they operate at standards above and beyond regulatory compliance. By using
green” products, recycling and recapturing pollutants before they are discharged into the sea, we are improving our waters. Congratulations to Dodson’s Boatyard in Stonington for leading the way.

You have helped, too, by buying Long Island Sound license plates to raise funds to increase public access to the waterfront and by protecting storm sewers that drain into the Sound. And I send a special thank you to the volunteers of this year’s beach clean up sponsored by Save the Sound, a program of the Connecticut Fund for the Environment. Every September they set out to clean our beaches and collect data for researchers.

The state Department of Environmental Protection offers a Connecticut CoastalAccess Guide on its website at www.dep.state.ct.us/coastalaccess. Check it out and find a new pathway to the Sound to explore on your next weekend walk.

Long Island Sound is a treasured natural resource we all share. I am honored to do what I can in Hartford and I thank you for all you do, too. To learn more about the General Assembly, I encourage you to visit our website at www.cga.ct.gov. Of course, you can always call me at the Capitol at 1-800-842-1421 or send me an e-mail at Catherine.Cook@cga.ct.gov.