SoundVision
In 2011, Save the Sound and the Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) of the Long Island Sound Study reignited excitement by unveiling the SoundVision Action Plan, a two-year plan to jumpstart the restoration and preservation of Long Island Sound.
The Action Plan has four major components:
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Protecting Clean Water to Achieve a Healthy Sound
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Creating Safe and Thriving Places for All Sound Creatures
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Building Long Island Sound Communities that Work
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Investing in an Economically Vibrant Long Island Sound
Joined by numerous elected officials, businesses, and advocates, SoundVision traveled to seven ports in Connecticut and New York to involve communities and let residents know how they could do their part to protect and restore the Sound. The Long Island Sound community has proved it has the patience, openness, and dedication necessary to identify its common goals. Together, we can achieve our shared vision of Long Island Sound as it should be—clean, safe, abounding with life, and a source of both recreational and commercial activities.
To find out more and read the SoundVision report, visit www.LISoundVision.org.
How was SoundVision developed?
Eighteen years ago, the Long Island Sound community developed the Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan, (CCMP) which identified six key drivers on the road to Long Island Sound's recovery. Thanks to significant federal, state, municipal, and private efforts and investments, there have been numerous successes since the CCMPs, including the development of new plans like the Stewardship and Habitat Restoration Initiatives.
However, much has changed since that first plan. The Sound is facing threats not imagined twenty years ago—once-thriving fisheries are collapsing, sea levels are beginning to rise and water quality remains an issue. These challenges demand that we reevaluate the goals of the past, develop and integrate plans for the future and reinvigorate the community.
SoundVision was developed after a review of that CCMP; tracking of Long Island Sound protection and restoration expenditures and program outcomes; surveys of CAC members; facilitated workshops with New York and Connecticut residents; and input from a wide range of stakeholders. The result is the two-year citizen’s action plan and a longer report that includes a set of integrated themes and goals, steps to achieve those results, ways to measure success, and an outreach strategy to connect with the entire the Long Island Sound community.
This coordinated effort has helped show us where we have been, where we are going, and what it will take to get there.