The Connecticut Chapter of the American Society of Landscape
Architects (CTASLA) has presented its annual Connecticut Olmsted Award to
Connecticut Fund for the Environment/Save the Sound.
The award, named after Connecticut native Frederick Law Olmsted, who founded the
modern landscape architecture profession in the 19th century, is given annually by
CTASLA to an organization or person from Connecticut who has employed the
principle of stewardship of the environment as a guiding force in their actions.
"Few organizations understand the economic, cultural, and natural benefits of Long Island Sound like the Connecticut Fund for the Environment and Save the Sound," said CTASLA president Oliver Gaffney, a landscape architect with New Haven-based TPA Design Group. "As a non-profit organization, they are committed to restoring and protecting all that impacts the region’s environment, including rivers and shorelines, wetlands and forests, the air we all breathe, and the waters of the Sound itself."
From offices in New Haven, Mamaroneck, and on Long Island, Connecticut Fund for
the Environment/Save the Sound leads environmental action across the Long Island
Sound region in a variety of ways — from legislative advocacy and legal action to
environmental monitoring, engineering projects, and training and resources for
communities. Together with tens of thousands of dedicated volunteers, activists, and
members in Connecticut and New York, the team fights climate change, saves
endangered lands, protects the Sound and its rivers, and works with nature to restore
ecosystems.
CFE/Save the Sound is a pioneer in urban green infrastructure, installing rain gardens
and bioswales that have become a model for Connecticut communities. These
attractive, customizable, and pollinator-friendly green spaces protect neighborhoods
and city streets from flooding, filter pollutants from stormwater runoff, help recharge
groundwater, and can even provide habitat and food sources. Along our shoreline and
waterways, CFE/Save the Sound’s restoration projects have brought riverbanks and
coastal marshes back to vibrant life.
The award was presented by CTASLA during a February program at the State Capitol
on "Risk and Resiliency: Adapting to Connecticut’s Changing Climate," which attracted
landscape architects, legislators, planners, environmental activists, and interested
citizens. In accepting the award, CFE President Curt Johnson quipped that he and his
staff have been able to “stop bad things from happening to good land."
For more than 40 years CFE/Save the Sound has been ensuring that people can enjoy
the healthy, clean, and thriving "good land" here in Connecticut — which will also
benefit generations to come.
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