International Coastal Cleanup Day, which will be held on September 19, 2015 at Soundview Park from 9am to 12pm, is an opportunity to help clean the Bronx River that reaches far beyond our local river banks. One of the event’s sponsors, the Long Island Sound Study, makes the connection between what goes into our river and its impact on the Sound.
Long Island Sound is an “Urban Sea.” The coastal counties in CT and NY bordering LIS have the second highest population density in the northeast, second only to those bordering NY/NJ Harbor (into which the Bronx River also feeds, incidentally). Long Island Sound is an estuary, which is “where the rivers meet the sea”. The fresh water and saltwater mix and sort of slosh back and forth with the tide, between the lower reaches of the river and the ocean. So what goes into either the Bronx River or the Long Island Sound, also goes into the other.
Long Island Sound Study (LISS) supports cleanup efforts like the International Coastal Cleanup Day because they allow local volunteers to come together to care for the water, and to build commitment for reducing the pollution that finds its way into the river every day.
LISS’s vision for the Sound is of waters that are clean, clear, safe to swim in, and charged with life. It is a vision of waters nourished and protected by extensive coastal wetlands, by publicly accessible, litter-free beaches and preserves, and undeveloped islands. It is a vision of abundant and diverse wildlife, of flourishing commercial fisheries, of harbors accessible to the boating public, and of a regional consciousness and a way of life that protects and sustains the ecosystem.
We in the Bronx are down with that.
For more information about the International Coastal Cleanup Day contact Joseph Sanchez at Joseph.Sanchez@parks.nyc.gov
