Inspiring the Next Generation of Coastal Stewards

The Long Island Sound is one of the largest estuaries in the United States-like other estuaries, the Sound is a highly productive ecosystem and provides critical habitat for hundreds of species of fish, birds, and marine organisms. It is also an important economic and recreational resource for the nearly nine million people who live in its watershed.

To perform vital services for the region, the Sound depends on clean water and a healthy ecosystem-and engaged watershed communities with the knowledge and tools to protect it. Yet the health of this critically important living resource is threatened by litter, plastic pollution, and climate change.

According to the recently published Long Island Sound Study Environmental Justice Needs Assessment, community members reported that many students in the Bronx lack opportunities to visit and learn about the Sound or other natural areas in the borough. They also expressed the need for resources to support climate education that would benefit the community.

To counter these trends and increase awareness of the Long Island Sound, plastic pollution, and climate change, the National Wildlife Federation in New York City collaborated with Bronx-based schools, local partners, and community members to launch a new place-based, climate and arts program for middle and high school students during the 2023-2024 school year. Known as Plastic Avengers: a Community Climate, Arts, and Action Program about the Long Island Sound, the program has engaged approximately 150 middle and high school students in hands-on, environmental education, arts, and stewardship activities about the Sound and its watershed.

Experiential Learning on the Long Island Sound

To kick off the program, classes experienced the open waters of the estuary during boat tours on the Riptide III, a fishing boat that docks at City Island, Bronx. For many students, it was their first visit to the Sound or their first boat ride.

While on the boat, student groups rotated through three different activities to make observations and collect scientific data about the Sound. From the top deck, they studied a nautical chart of the Long Island Sound: they located the Bronx, Manhattan, Long Island, and the East River and traced the Sound's shorelines all the way out to the Atlantic Ocean.

Using binoculars, students observed both natural and human-made shorelines-marshes, rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, riprap, piers, bulkheads, and more-and looked for wildlife that depend on the Sound as habitat. They spotted fish, gulls, and cormorants in or near the water and learned from the boat crew that seals and whales are becoming more frequent visitors to the waterbody.

With our partner BioBoat at the back of the boat, groups tossed plankton nets into the water to collect samples and observed and identified the plankton using digital microscopes. To understand how plastic pollution and human activity can impact the marine food chain and the health of our water bodies (and us!), students also towed a manta trawl to collect microplastics from the water.

They separated the organic material from the non-organic organic materials and analyzed the different types of microplastics found under microscopes. They discussed what happens when small fish ingest these tiny plastic particles, then bigger fish eat those small fish…and we eat the bigger fish.

Finding microplastics in the water-and realizing how pervasive they are in our environment-was eye-opening for many students. Groups discussed how microplastics make their way into our waterways and then brainstormed solutions to mitigate the problems of plastic litter or reduce the production and consumption of single-use plastics.

Geology walk at Pelham Bay Park. Credit: Cynthia Carris Alonso

Community Studies and Coastal Stewardship

Classes continued their studies at school and in their communities during the remainder of the school year. They took field trips to Pelham Bay Park to study how the park's diverse habitats are vital to both humans and wildlife. Bordering Long Island Sound, the park has 13 miles of shoreline, freshwater and saltwater marshes, woodlands, grassy meadows, and fascinating geology.

With partners American Littoral Society, NY Sea Grant, and NYC Urban Park Rangers, classes explored the rocky shoreline and learned about its glacial history, conducted water quality tests to understand how the Sound supports aquatic life, and they caught Atlantic silversides, moon jellies, and more while seining. Inspired by their new knowledge and ready to take action to protect the Long Island Sound, classes also removed hundreds of pounds of trash from the park's salt marsh!

To understand how human activities impact the health of the Sound, classes investigated the watershed in their school neighborhoods. Students researched the city's wastewater infrastructure and organized litter cleanups to remove trash and debris that can slip through the storm drains and pollute the waterways surrounding the city.

Classes at Comprehensive Model School Project measured the infiltration rate of the soils in the community's tree beds to understand how much water they absorb during rainfall; then, they loosened and amended the soil to reduce compaction and planted groundcovers in the tree beds so they would absorb more rainfall, helping to reduce the amount of pollution that ends up in the Long Island Sound during storms.

Top photos: Water quality testing at Pelham Bay. Credit: Sarah Ward | Bottom left: Seining for fish. Credit: Cynthia Carris Alonso | Bottom right: Neighborhood litter clean up. Credit: Carolina Castro

Songwriting on the Sound

To give students an opportunity to express themselves creatively and translate their knowledge and insights into art, classes collaborated with partner rFuture to write, perform, and record original songs about their experiences learning about the ecological health of the Long Island Sound.

Reflecting on how we depend on the Sound and it depends on us to protect and care for it, the songs explore the themes of pollution, activism, restoration, and interconnection. The youth songwriters find parallels between struggles in their lives or in their communities and the threats to the Sound. With lyrics that evoke universal feelings and sensations, their songs reveal how their deep connections with nature sustain them.

Find excerpts of the lyrics from one song below. Find a full film with student interviews and the original recordings of the songs written by Comprehensive Model School Project, World View High School, and PS 175 City Island on YouTube.

Access to a clean, healthy, Long Island Sound

Many people who live in the New York City portion (the Bronx and parts of Queens) of the Long Island Sound watershed may not be aware of the estuary or have opportunities to enjoy it. The Bronx has only one public beach-Orchard Beach-where people can directly access the Sound. In fact, fewer than half of Bronx residents who live within a half-mile of the waterfront (of any waterbody) can access it.

The waterfronts of many Bronx neighborhoods-particularly in low-income communities and communities of color-have been overburdened by polluting industries, power plants, waste transfer stations, and heavily-trafficked highways for decades, producing excessive levels of air, water, and soil pollution. By educating the youth today and allowing their natural curiosity to activate a spirit of stewardship, a cleaner, more equitable future awaits the Long Island Sound and its residents.

Hope for the Future

"I would hope that everyone will be able to see it [the Long Island Sound] and know about it so they can experience it for themselves".

"My hope for the future is to see people take action and see them care more for the environment".

The value of in-depth, interdisciplinary environmental education cannot be overstated: There is strong evidence that place-based education and stewardship programs in urban communities develop young peoples' environmental consciousness and help them understand how to address ecological issues through collective action.

The Plastic Avengers program is inspiring the next generation of coastal stewards and enabling Bronx youth to use their voices to raise awareness about the threats to the health of the environment and envision a sustainable future.

The Plastic Avengers program is made possible through a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, with support from the Long Island Sound Futures Fund.

Find out more about NWF's Education and Engagement programs for youth from Pre-K to Higher Education here.

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