Get Ready for Spring Volunteer Opportunities!

Coastal cleanups, rain garden plantings, eelgrass weaving!While the official start of spring is still a few weeks out, planning for spring volunteer opportunities is well underway!

COASTAL CLEANUPS

Our shorelines will need more sprucing up than usual this year in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

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Cleanup Captains are beginning to pick dates and locations for volunteer events with Save the Sound this spring, so check ourwebsite calendar  over the next few weeks for when and where you can lend a hand.

RAIN GARDEN PLANTINGS

Another way to volunteer this spring is to help plant a rain garden. Save the Sound is seeking volunteers to assist in 12 residential rain gardens in town of Southington this spring. Check our website calendar  over the next few weeks for when and where you can lend a hand.

Photo: Kierran Broatch
Photo: Kierran Broatch

A rain garden acts like a sponge, collecting and absorbing stormwater runoff, and it filters and cleans the water too. These rain gardens will help replenish drinking water supplies and protect the health of local streams and rivers.

EELGRASS WEAVING

You can also help restore eelgrass populations in Long Island Sound this spring by volunteering for an eelgrass weaving project in Clinton on Friday, May 3 from 10 A.M. to 12 P.M. With limited space, it will be first come first serve for eelgrass volunteers.

Eelgrass (Zostera marina) is a submersed rooted plant that forms “meadows” in our local bays.  Over the last 25 years many of these meadows have been lost to pollution, disturbance and disease.  The loss of this critical habitat has resulted in a decrease in overall productivity and significant decreases in the numbers of fish and shellfish we rely on for food and recreation.

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In an effort to reverse this trend, Save the Sound and Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Marine Meadows Program are teaming up to make a difference. The basic concept involves the use of SCUBA divers to collect healthy shoots from existing meadows followed by delivery of these shoots to land-based volunteers for processing.  While on land, the shoots are woven into a biodegradable burlap disc which make up a “planting unit.” Divers will then plant the units just outside Clinton harbor, where the goals is to form a continuous eelgrass meadow.

If you have questions, comments, or would like to hear more about upcoming Save the Sound volunteer opportunities, please feel free to contact Kierran Broatch at 203-787-0464, Ext. 113 or at kbroatch@savethesound.org.

Posted by Kierran Broatch, volunteer and outreach associate for Save the Sound

3 thoughts on “Get Ready for Spring Volunteer Opportunities!

  1. Hello, we are doing an event for Save the Sound on May 11, 2013 and I am trying to figure out how to register.

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