Stratford Point Named One Of Best Restored Shores Nationwide

STRATFORD, CT — Stratford is home to one of the best restored shores in the country, according to one national group.

The American Shore & Beach Preservation Association has named the Stratford Point Living Shoreline among three recipients of the annual Best Restored Shores Awards, which recognize projects that apply nature-based solutions to enhance the country’s shorelines.

“We are very pleased to see the Stratford Point Living Shoreline project receive this national recognition,” Mayor Laura Hoydick said in a town news release. “The Town of Stratford has been very supportive of this critical project and its ecological benefits, which we believe will result in lasting and meaningful change with how communities increase coastal resilience by promoting and preserving important natural habitats. I congratulate all the partners in this important project for receiving this well-deserved recognition.”

Sacred Heart University, the University of Connecticut and the Connecticut Institute for Resilience and Climate Adaptation worked together with the support of the town on the project, according to the news release. The endeavor included an artificial reef, smooth cord grass, marsh, high marsh coastal dune and upland woody grassland mosaics.

“We had several hundred volunteers over the past few years help us plant thousands of grass seedlings that have grown and spread across the once eroding landscape,” said Jennifer Mattei, principal investigator and professor at Sacred Heart, in the news release.

The project's goals included providing an additional 750 feet of coastal erosion control, 4.5 acres of intertidal habitat, 1.5 acres of coastal dune habitat, and 25 acres of woodland and meadow. Monitoring the project will provide insight to the effectiveness of living shorelines to increase coastal resilience, and will serve as a design basis for future coastal communities in Connecticut and New England, the news release said.

In recognizing Stratford Point Living Shoreline, the association noted the project is an outstanding example of how to work with multiple partners, as well as with nature, to solve difficult human-caused coastal degradation problems, according to the news release.

“Especially noteworthy were its well-characterized objectives, long-term monitoring plan that demonstrated success, and the multiple funding partners involved in taking the project from concept to execution that achieved real environmental and coastal resilience outcomes," the association said in its award notification, which was quoted in the town news release.