Using Biological Monitoring to Assess Restoration Success and Plan Future Projects in Connecticut Coastal Streams
Alex Krofta
Save the Sound
New Haven, CT
The Ecological Restoration Team at Save the Sound uses in-house expertise and outside partnerships to monitor both the biological impacts of our restoration work, and to help plan future projects. We will present an overview of methods and results from various monitoring efforts, focusing on a Mystic, CT dam removal and 5+ years of monitoring fish passage, resident summer fish communities, impoundment revegetation, and diadromous fish migration at subsequent barriers in the watershed. Similar post-dam removal monitoring efforts will be described in brief, as well as river herring passage at a technical fishway, an eDNA pilot study, and volunteer-based monitoring at potential future restoration sites. In addition, implications of these results and the value of monitoring for public engagement will also be discussed.
About Alex Krofta
As Ecological Restoration Projects Manager at Save the Sound since 2019, Alex Krofta has been coordinating living shoreline, green infrastructure, and river restoration projects with a focus on dam removal. He studied at Clark University and the Conway School, and has prior experience in wildlife field research, conservation land management, and riparian buffer restoration.
