This year’s Stonington buoy created by TNC celebrates the beauty and resilience of salt marsh ecosystems—like the one TNC is working to restore at Rocky Neck State Park. The design features an estuary full of life: a fiddler crab scuttling along the shore, an osprey clutching its catch, a great egret wading in the shallows, alewife swimming, and vibrant flora like purple milkwort and swamp aster.
Salt marshes are vital for healthy coastlines, filtering water, buffering communities from flooding and erosion, storing carbon and providing wildlife habitat.
TNC’s Milford buoy honors the importance of native trees in Connecticut. It features five iconic species—Tulip Tree, Pin Oak, Eastern Redbud, Shadblow Serviceberry and Flowering Dogwood—each vital for cooling neighborhoods, improving air quality, supporting wildlife, and combating climate change.
