The Guilford Foundation awarded a 2026 Community Impact Grant to Save the Sound to support an important coastal resilience project at Chittenden Park, where erosion and rising seas threaten one of Guilford’s most significant stretches of shoreline.

Save the Sound is working in partnership with the Town of Guilford to develop a living shoreline along approximately 1,100 feet of Chittenden Park at Guilford Harbor and the mouth of the West River. Unlike traditional shoreline protection that relies heavily on hardened structures, living shorelines use natural features and materials to reduce erosion and wave energy while protecting and restoring coastal habitat.

The need is significant. Chittenden Park forms the seaward edge of a 155-acre section of the West River Marsh, part of the more than 1,100-acre East River and West River marsh complex, one of the largest and most ecologically important tidal marsh systems along the Long Island Sound coast. According to analysis by the UConn Center for Land Use Education and Research, the park’s beach and tidal wetlands are eroding at a rate exceeding 50 feet per decade, with an estimated 377 feet already lost.

The impact extends beyond the natural habitat. Continued erosion threatens nearby homes and infrastructure along Seaside Avenue and Rock Point Avenue, while the loss of beach and marsh could make these neighborhoods increasingly vulnerable to flooding and storm-surge damage. The project will also help protect recreational resources enjoyed by residents for sports, walking, and nature observation. Chittenden Park has broader significance as the southern terminus of the 215-mile New England National Scenic Trail.

Save the Sound and the Town of Guilford are now working with engineering firm SLR Consulting to develop project designs and secure the permits needed to move the living shoreline toward construction. TGF grant funding will help advance this phase of the project, including gathering input from regional environmental and restoration experts.

The grant will also support a Chronolog photo station at the park, allowing residents and visitors to use their phones to contribute photographs to a visual record of the changing shoreline. The station is expected to remain for five years, creating an opportunity to document the site before, during, and after restoration and provide information that can help guide future projects.

The Chittenden Park project is part of a larger effort to make Guilford’s 15-mile coastline more resilient. Conceptual restoration designs have also been developed for Grass Island, Long Cove, and Chaffinch Island, creating opportunities to apply what is learned at Chittenden Park to other vulnerable coastal areas in town.

In a news release, DEEP Commissioner Katie Dykes said, “Almost all of Connecticut is within the Long Island Sound watershed. These innovative projects will protect and restore valuable coastal marsh habitat, remove impediments to migratory fish passage, and advance innovative green stormwater infrastructure – advancing our shared goal of protecting and improving the health of the Sound that provides ecosystem, recreation, and economic benefits to the citizens of Connecticut.”

For more than 50 years, Save the Sound has worked to protect the land, air, and water of the Long Island Sound region through environmental science, ecological restoration, advocacy, and community engagement. Its work at Chittenden Park brings that expertise directly to Guilford, helping protect an important natural and recreational resource while preparing our community for the environmental challenges ahead.