Alliance for the Mystic River Watershed

06/23/2026

🦀 Horseshoe Crabs Are Returning to Our Shores 🦀

Each spring, horseshoe crabs return to the beaches and tidal waters of southeastern Connecticut to spawn, continuing a migration and breeding cycle that has taken place for hundreds of millions of years, and leaving behind distinctive markings on the sand.

Often called "living fossils," horseshoe crabs have existed on Earth long before dinosaurs. Despite their name, they are more closely related to spiders and scorpions than to true crabs.

Their annual return is an important reminder of the connections that make coastal ecosystems thrive. Horseshoe crab eggs provide food for migrating shorebirds, while healthy estuaries and shorelines provide critical habitat for future generations of horseshoe crabs.

If you're exploring local beaches this season, keep an eye out for these remarkable animals and the shed shells they leave behind as they grow.

Have you spotted a horseshoe crab in the Mystic River watershed this spring?

06/21/2026

🌿 Kids in the woods and not on their devices! 🌿

This spring, 68 fifth-grade students from participated in a two-day Ecosystems Residency created in partnership with the Alliance for the Mystic River Watershed, Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation educators, and community partners.

Although some students mentioned they had never explored the woods, they were excited to explore the pond behind their school, and some sneakers got wet as they tested water quality. They examined samples under microscopes, recorded observations in field journals, and learned how ecosystems are built on relationships between plants, animals, water, land, and people.

To conclude the residency, students created clay tiles representing the relationships they observed in nature and reflected on their role as environmental stewards.

A special thank you to the students, teachers, families, and educators who made this experience possible. Your curiosity, creativity, and thoughtful observations give us hope for the future of our watershed.

💙 Swipe through to see students in action and some of the wonderful notes they shared with us afterward.

06/20/2026

We are committed to collective healing and action

Juneteenth is a reminder that freedom in the United States arrived in stages — through law, amendment, and finally, enforcement.

On September 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that enslaved people in rebelling states would be free as of January 1, 1863.

On January 31, 1865, Congress passed the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery nationwide once it was ratified later that year.

But freedom was not immediately realized everywhere.

On June 19, 1865, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas and issued General Order No. 3 — informing the more than 250,000 enslaved people in Texas that they were free.

This moment marks the origin of Juneteenth, the oldest nationally recognized commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States.

Across generations, African American and Indigenous communities have carried the weight of systemic oppression, shared ancestral trauma, and the ongoing struggle for equality.

Juneteenth invites us to honor that resilience while acknowledging the structures that continue to shape lived experiences today.

This day calls us to celebrate liberation — and to recommit ourselves to the continuous fight for justice, sovereignty, and collective healing.

Kutáputôtmuq for learning this history with us and carrying its lessons forward.

06/11/2026

A simple and challenging question: How can I be a better ally? Explore with us what it means to be reconnected with life, living with respect, responsibility, reciprocity, and restraint among all our relations.

Join us for our second conversation centered around Becoming Kin, by Patty Krawec, a book that asks what it would mean to remember that we are all related. Related to one another. Related to the land. Related to the waters that carry life through our communities. Krawec asks us to “unforget” our history and to imagine ways of living that honor relationship and giving rather than separation and taking. Each chapter examines a challenging element of colonial history in North America, and ends with aambé – let’s go. Now that we know, how will we act?

We hope to see you Bank Square Books to talk about becoming allies, reconnecting, and taking responsible action.

Another great opportunity to engage with allyship is the Cultural Intellgence workshop on June 12th Chestnut Street Playhouse

"Rather than cutting off our roots because we are ashamed or afraid of what we will find, we can learn our history. We can reimagine the relationships we have inherited, and we can take up our responsibilities to each other."

06/10/2026

Planting climbing beans that have been nourishing my family and shared with others for thousands of years.
Thank you Connecticut College Eric Vukecevich, Sprout Gardeners, and our Williams College intern...it means a lot to listen to the stories these beans can tell.

06/10/2026

We'd love to see a diamond backed terrapin!!

Behold, the jewel of the saltmarsh! 💎

The diamondback terrapin can be found in the brackish salt marshes, estuaries, and tidal creeks of Connecticut’s coastline. This resplendent reptile is the only native turtle in the state to inhabit these areas where freshwater and saltwater meet.

Once viewed as a gourmet delicacy, terrapins were heavily harvested in the early 1900s. Since then, a ban on harvesting has helped their populations rebound. Unfortunately, terrapins now face new challenges, including habitat loss, unintentionally being caught in crab traps, and road mortality.

You can help diamondback terrapins by advocating for the protection of salt marsh habitats and watching for terrapins crossing coastal roads during the spring and summer months.

Did you know? Diamondback terrapins expel excess salt they consume in their diet through modified tear ducts located near their eyes?!

Learn more at https://portal.ct.gov/DEEP/Wildlife/Fact-Sheets/Diamondback-Terrapin

06/10/2026

We'll be there!!

Wutahumun - Strawberry

Fragaria virginiana

The wild strawberry is an important skeehch (plant) to the Pequot People and other Indigenous Peoples of the Northeast.

Coveted for its fruit bearing and beautiful small white flowers - the wutahumun has its own month : Wuahumun Keesoohs the Strawberry Month or Strawberry Moon.

Wutahumuneeash are an important spring food, they get their name from the root word “-tah”meaning”heart and “mun” meaning berry - the Heart Berry - probably for their striking resemblance to a real heart.

During the Strawberry Moon, wutahumuneeash are given as gifts of friendship or love - living up to their name.

Modern strawberry varieties are actually 300 year old hybrids of fragaria virginia (wild/virginia strawberry) and fragaria chiloensis (beach/chilean strawberry). The native variety produces smaller rounder fruits than our common modern variety!

06/10/2026

Hard to capture how thrilled I am to share the incredible beans which have been growing in my ancestral village for thousands of years. These beautiful young adults from the garden at College (and one from Williams) heard the story and lovingly planted this bounty. It was a spectacular day.
vukecevich
farming redefined

06/09/2026

Humans...Meet the Heart Berry! Wutahumun. Thank you, Rashad Young

Wutahumun - Strawberry

Fragaria virginiana

The wild strawberry is an important skeehch (plant) to the Pequot People and other Indigenous Peoples of the Northeast.

Coveted for its fruit bearing and beautiful small white flowers - the wutahumun has its own month : Wuahumun Keesoohs the Strawberry Month or Strawberry Moon.

Wutahumuneeash are an important spring food, they get their name from the root word “-tah”meaning”heart and “mun” meaning berry - the Heart Berry - probably for their striking resemblance to a real heart.

During the Strawberry Moon, wutahumuneeash are given as gifts of friendship or love - living up to their name.

Modern strawberry varieties are actually 300 year old hybrids of fragaria virginia (wild/virginia strawberry) and fragaria chiloensis (beach/chilean strawberry). The native variety produces smaller rounder fruits than our common modern variety!

05/29/2026

We spent a beautiful afternoon with the and at the and café. Come and join us on Sunday at 11 for an update on water quality, climate vulnerability, youth council, and join in our all day Alliance community brainstorm about what more we want to learn and the kinds of events you would like to participate in!!