Please join us for our Annual Meeting on Sunday, June 8th at 4 pm at the Nature Center. Meet and vote for the 2025-2026 Board and Officers.

Guest Speaker: Jo-Marie Kasinak, M.S, Assistant Teaching Professor, Department of Biology, Sacred Heart University

“Project Limulus: 27 years of horseshoe crab research, education, and conservation”

By training Jo-Marie Kasinak is an aquatic ecologist working in both freshwater and marine habitats. Currently she is collaborating on a restoration project in Stratford CT, the goal of which is to restore the intertidal habitat and coastal upland at the site. Reef balls and oyster castles have been added to the intertidal zone and salt marsh grasses have been planted. In the upland, hundreds of trees, shrub, and pollinator habitats have been planted as well. Kasinak is also the Director of Project Limulus, a long term and large scale study of the horseshoe crab population in Long Island Sound. Each year Project Limulus hosts dozens of talks and beach walks where they educate hundreds of children and adults about horseshoe crabs and the Long Island Sound ecosystem. For the past few years Kasinak has been collaborating with researchers from Southern Connecticut State University, the University of Connecticut, and Cardiff University (Wales), to explore Ocean Identity and how ocean spaces impact people. This marine social science project is using the education and outreach program of Project Limulus as a test bed for the survey designed to mean Ocean Identity. For more information on Project Limulus visit www.projectlimulus.org, for more information on Ocean Identity visit www.oceanidentity.org.

To be Held at the Nature Center at Sherwood Island State Park, Westport, CT

Directly off I-95 Exit 18 Sherwood Island Connector)

Free Admission    Refreshments

Bring your binoculars for birding from the porch at 3 pm. Use our spotting scope to check in on our resident Osprey. See if you can spot a Bald Eagle. Observe the Purple Martins caring for young in the colony nest boxes right in front of the Nature Center.