One of our Reserve’s first efforts in habitat mapping aimed to quantify the spatial distribution and variety of invasive plants in our upland properties and initiate planning for an ongoing program of invasives removal and habitat restoration. With the support of a GIS specialist and experienced botanist, students and staff new to plant identification utilized a FREE mobile mapping app to record data and photographs in the field. This rapid assessment sampled over 150 sites across two State Parks over two months. Learn more by viewing a June 26, 2024 webinar recording.

Lola Jalbert, NERRA’s cub reporter, catches up with Meg Shah, recent graduate from the University of Connecticut and undergraduate intern at the Connecticut Reserve. They talked about modern lawns and historic eelgrass, why the Reserve is a sweet spot for undergraduate scientists, and why climate doom isn’t always the answer. Read more about Meg’s research here. 

The Clean Water Pod is a podcast all about clean water efforts! Join host Jeff Berckes to explore challenges and successes of the 303(d) program in the United States. In this episode he is joined by professors Jamie Vaudrey (CT Reserve’s Research Coordinator) and Jim Cotner to speak about phosphorus and nitrogen – two common nutrients found in freshwater and coastal ecosystems. They explore what these nutrients are, where they come from, and how they impact water quality. Listen on Podbean.

Education Coordinator, Larissa Graham, and Research Coordinator, Jamie Vaudrey, were interviewed by Connecticut East for a National Ocean Month podcast. Listen on Youtube.

Listen to the “NERR or Far: The Reserves Are Where You Are” podcast episodes on this website or on Spotify. Podcast content covers coastal ecology, management, anthropology, hazard mitigation and opportunities for public interaction with National Estuarine Research Reserve sites. This podcast was created for grades 6-12 and includes supplemental resources for teachers, including worksheets for the classroom.

Talk NERRdy to Me is a monthly column about leaders and luminaries from across our Reserves. In this issues, the National Estuarine Research Reserve Association’s roving reporter Nik Charov spoke with Kevin O’Brien, supervising environmental analyst, and Jamie Vaudrey, the first research coordinator at the newly designated Connecticut Reserve. They talked about why the mouth of the Connecticut River doesn’t have a city on it, some do’s and don’ts of the designation process, and why the Long Island Sound isn’t as boring as it sounds.