multi-agency and public-private collaboration. The project was chosen for one of nine Coastal America Partnership awards. Coastal America

Partnership is a national award program that recognizes outstanding collaborative efforts to protect, preserve and restore the nation's coastal

resources.

The Southern New England - New York Bight Coastal Program worked closely with Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection on a

successful application for $1 million from the National Coastal Wetlands Conservation grant program. This funding was then matched by $1.5 million

from The Nature Conservancy and many local government and nonprofit partners, as well as the Connecticut Corporate Wetlands Restoration

Partnership.

Together, the partners were able to purchase 144 acres of wildlife habitat, including wetlands and crucial forest-wetland edge. This property was

under severe threat of conversion into an 18-hole golf course, but thanks to the partnership it will instead be permanently protected under state

management. With this new addition, Barn Island has become the state's largest protected coastal land holding, with a total of 1,013 acres of

upland and wetland habitat.

An award ceremony will be held later this summer.