About Us

Welcome to Cedar Island Environmental (IslandEnviro) — the local Cedar Island, Clinton Connecticut organization working around the harbor, rivers, salt marshes and Long Island Sound to promote ecologically important knowledge for the environment and people. It's how I work that has made the Cedar Island Environmental so successful — and makes me optimistic that I can expand that great environmental awareness to meet the challenges ahead. This site is intended to provide information about the Cedar Island Environmental Awareness Campaign and the IslandEnviro network.

Clinton Chart       SAT Map

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If you have a question about the Cedar Island Environmental, please email it to island.enviro@gmail.com for more information.

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Our Mission

Cedar Island Environmental (IslandEnviro) is a private organization that shares a common interest, curiosity and love for the Clinton Harbor natural world, the Hammonasset Natural Area Preserve, the Long Island Sound and topics in oceanography, marine science, nature, pollution and the environment.  IslandEnviro strives to promote sound conservation practices and to educate others about oceanography, nature and the environment.

Online Source for Education and Environmental Awareness 

Cedar Island Environmental provides monthly newsletters via email and online. If you wish to receive our  newsletter, subscribe today. The new Island Enviro Drift contains environment news bits, tweets, posts, shares, and newswires.   The Intertidal Zone is a monthly publication on local environmental issues and news about the Long Island Sound and it's surrounding estuaries, harbors and rivers. The IZ concentrates on the marine science area where the ocean meets the land between high and low tides. The intertidal zone is an extreme ecosystem because it constantly experiences drastic changes. In addition, Cedar Island Environmental provides online links to our environmental neighbors, the green infrastructure, map & data sources, coastal communities and the local marina directory on our Directory page. You can download and/or view marine science reports, newsletters, Army Corps New England Quarterly Reports, State Swimming Area Water Quality Reports, CT DEEP Boating news, marine fishing regulations and our Hurricane Awareness brochure on the Resources page.

Our Founder, President and Webmaster

Cedar Island Environmental (IslandEnviro) was founded in September 2009 with an oceanographic information sharing vision by Joe Lanza.  After 40 years of living on Cedar Island, Joe decided to establish an environmental entity utilizing both his oceanographic and information technology expertise to provide the best ocean, enviro, nature and policy resources to the greater Clinton Harbor, Cedar Island and Long Island Sound region.  This IslandEnviro website was established on March 28, 2010 to achieve the mission to reach out to the entire public domain and establish connections with other environmental organizations.

Mr. IslandEnviro

After a 38 year career in ocean science, defense electronics, systems engineering and national security, Joe Lanza officially retired on 31 March 2023 from the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport, Rhode Island. He served as the Navy’s leader in active SONAR and International Cooperation. During his almost 27 years with the U.S. Navy, Joe received several NAVY achievement awards including Special Act, Empowering Your People, First-Line Supervisor, Defense Acquisition, Japan Foreign Military Sales, Quality Service, and Security Cooperation.

Joe Lanza started his oceanographic career at the Harbor Branch Foundation in 1985 after graduating from the Florida Institute of Technology. He was a research assistant in the Marine Sciences Division with a specialty in chemical oceanography. His main focus was the Bering Sea Project and Seasonal Upwellings in the Gulf Stream. Harbor Branch Foundation later became the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution. Then Joe launched into his defense military career as a systems engineer with Data Design Laboratories in New London, Connecticut working with the explosive stimulus effects on Navy submarine transducers.

It was taking an electronics engineer position with Tracor Applied Sciences in 1986 that was Joe’s game changer in life. Hired by the Austin, Texas HQ’s elite Analysis and Applied Research Division, Joe quickly became a leader in underwater acoustics and sonar signal processing. There he worked with world icons Thad Bell and Dr. Van Holliday in specialized SONAR programs. Joe became an expert in the Navy’s AN/SQS-53C battle group SONAR aboard destroyer ships. He also researched bioacoustics in marine mammals and SONAR and frequency analysis.

Academic achievements from the U.S. Naval War College include joint professional military education, diploma from Naval Staff College in 2000, graduate degree in National Security and Strategic Studies from Naval Command College in 2004. 

In 2009, Joe Lanza founded Cedar Island Environmental to promote others to conserve, improve and protect the natural resources and environment of the Long Island Sound and Clinton Harbor region. Now IslandEnviro will explode into a new future with Joe at the helm full-time in retired life. Great environmental expectations ahead.

The thoughts and opinions expressed in this website are those of the authors and are not necessarily those of the Environmental Committee or the Cedar Island Improvement Association (CIIA) or the Cedar Island Improvement Committee (Executive Committee of the CIIA).