The Connecticut Audubon Society Coastal Center at Milford Point is a nature center and bird sanctuary in Milford, Connecticut, established in 1995. Over 300 different species of bird have been observed at this location. The Coastal Center is located on an 8.4-acre (34,000 m2) barrier beach—the Smith-Hubbell Wildlife Refuge & Bird Sanctuary—and is situated next to the 840-acre (3.4 km2) Charles Wheeler Salt Marsh and Wildlife Management Area at the mouth of the Housatonic River. The Coastal Center provides easy access to Long Island Sound and its many habitats: tidal salt marshes, barrier beaches, tide pools and coastal dunes, and utilizes these habitats for environmental education for youth and adults. These various environments and habitats support a variety of bird, plant and animal communities for observation and study. The Coastal Center also contains educational exhibits and live animals.
A nature center is an organization with a visitor center or interpretive center designed to educate people about nature and the environment. Usually located within a protected open space, nature centers often have trails through their property. Some are located within a state or city park, and some have special gardens or an arboretum. Their properties can be characterized as nature preserves and wildlife sanctuaries. Nature centers generally display small live animals, such as reptiles, rodents, insects, or fish. There are often museum exhibits and displays about natural history, or preserved mounted animals or nature dioramas. Nature centers are staffed by paid or volunteer naturalists and most offer educational programs to the general public, as well as summer camp, after-school and school group programs.
Milford is a city within Coastal Connecticut and New Haven County, Connecticut, between Bridgeport, Connecticut and New Haven, Connecticut, United States. The population was estimated to be 52,536 in a July 2016 estimate. The city includes the borough of Woodmont. Milford is part of the New York-Newark Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA Combined Statistical Area.
The Housatonic River is a river, approximately 149 miles (240 km) long, in western Massachusetts and western Connecticut in the United States. It flows south to southeast, and drains about 1,950 square miles (5,100 km2) of southwestern Connecticut into Long Island Sound. Its watershed is just to the west of the watershed of the lower Connecticut River. Birds and fish who live in and around the river contain significant levels of PCBs and present health risks.
The Coastal Center aims to promote awareness of Long Island Sound's ecosystem, the birds and habitats it supports and to foster their preservation, in keeping with the mission of the Connecticut Audubon Society. [1]
The Connecticut Audubon Society, founded in 1898 and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to "conserving Connecticut’s environment through science-based education and advocacy focused on the state’s bird populations and habitats." Connecticut Audubon Society is independent of the National Audubon Society.
The center is one of five nature centers and 19 wildlife sanctuaries operated by Connecticut Audubon Society, which is not part of the National Audubon Society.
The National Audubon Society (Audubon) is a non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservation. Located in the United States and incorporated in 1905, Audubon is one of the oldest of such organizations in the world and uses science, education and grassroots advocacy to advance its conservation mission. It is named in honor of John James Audubon, a Franco-American ornithologist and naturalist who painted, cataloged, and described the birds of North America in his famous book Birds of America published in sections between 1827 and 1838.
