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Calling researchers and environmental advocates

Volunteers clear invasive plants from Quinnipiac Meadows

A preserve within a preserve

From 1-91, the strip of land looks like a golden wild island in the River. Although it is actually connected to land, the 35-acre Quinnipiac Meadows/ Eugene B. Fargegorge Preserve serves as an island of sorts: a serene oasis of plant life and wildlife amid the surrounding bustle of houses and highways, billboards, condos and shopping centers.

With ospreys and owls, herons, fox and terapin, wildlife abounds in the preserve, but the land’s true potential is being compromised by threat that many never notice: invasive plant species. Aggressive, weedy trees and shrubs have created a dense thicket in areas of the preserve. In the upland portion in particular, three invasive shrubs — bush honeysuckle, buckthorn, and autumn olive — dominate the land,  smothering the native trees, such as eastern red cedar, winged sumac, and eastern cottonwood, that make the area unique.

The New Haven Land Trust is working to create a preserve within the preserve, clearing and suppressing the invasives so the coastal riparian plant community can thrive. On October 13 and Oct. 20, dedicated groups of volunteers rose to the labor-intensive occasion. Donning long pants, close-toed shoes and work gloves, they wielded chainsaws and machetes to clear an overgrown 1.2 acre area near the bird blind overlooking the salt marsh and river.

“In an urban environment, preserving the few natural places that we do have is critical,” said JR Logan, volunteer and board president for the New Haven Land Trust. “These volunteers have chosen to put their efforts into creating an environment where we can have a greater biodiversity, a space where those in New Haven can have an experience with nature.”

The Land Trust plans to mow an additional five acres overrun with invasive grasses and, when the weather warms, add new plantings of native species to help the preserve thrive as a wildlife habitat.

In line with its mission to promote the appreciation and preservation of natural resources in New Haven, the New Haven Land Trust has been working in the Quinnipiac Meadows preserve for more than a decade. In 2009, The Quinnipiac River Fund supported a Land Trust program to promote public education and access in the Preserve. Volunteers fuel the current invasive-clearing work, with support by the National Resources Conservation Service for the project’s management.

There are many ways communities abutting the Quinnipiac River can help keep it and the surrounding environs clean.

This past spring, Save the Sound installed nine rain gardens in Southington as part of the Connecticut Fund for the Environment’s Quinnipiac River Watershed Project. Rain gardens look like any other garden on the surface, but their science is impressive. The Southington rain gardens were designed to capture rain water from rooftops, collect it within the soil of each garden and slowly release it into the ground, recharging groundwater supplies with clean water. The project was supported by a community of volunteers who turned out to help and have become a voice for green infrastructure and clean water resources on the Quinnipiac River.

“We’re always on the lookout for volunteers who like to help out with rain gardens or installing native plantings as part of our habitat restoration projects,” says Chris Cryder, Special Projects Coordinator for Save the Sound (a program of Connecticut Fund for the Environment).

For more information about how to build your own rain garden, visit www.reducerunoff.org.

photos by Ian Christmann

Plant lupine, hollyhock or phlox and you may find iridescent-feathered hummingbirds frequenting your yard. Cultivating wild grape vines or crabapple trees can entice cardinals and bluebirds.

Fueled by a grant from the Quinnipiac River Fund, Audubon CT is teaming up with Urban Resources Initiative to demonstrate that, with just a little forethought, everyday plants chosen to beautify yards and parks near the Quinnipiac River can have added benefits for birds and other wildlife.

A surprisingly diverse variety of beloved bird species call the Quinnipiac area home, including great blue herons, robins, mockingbirds, cardinals, blue jays, golden finches, eagles, monk parakeets and more.

“Many birds, especially migratory birds are losing habitat and becoming threatened,” said Chris Ozyck, associate director of Urban Resources Initiative.“ Urban areas are critical, especially near rivers or estuaries.”

Common plants provide birds with food in the form of fruits, berries or nectar, and nesting places and materials. Equally important are plants that attract pollinators, such as bees, beetles, ants and butterflies, which bring their own winged beauty to the area.

To introduce the community to bird-friendly plants, Audubon and URI conducted public workshops: one with a public space focus, held at Dover Beach, and another geared towards people’s private yards and gardens. A pocket-guide to bird-friendly plantings was also made available in both English and Spanish.

The Audubon/URI partnership supplemented these education efforts with a hands-on planting day on September 13, 2013. As part of a 9/11 Day of Service and Remembrance, more than a dozen volunteers from Americorps Vista, Americorps Alums and Peace Corps came out to make Dover Beach Park even more attractive for birds and people alike. New plantings included an oak, maple, crab apples and a plethora of shrubs and perennials.

If these fish could talk…

…they might say, “caution.”

The lower Quinnipiac River offers a bounty of fin-laden delights, such as bluefish and bass – tempting possibilities for a low-cost, high-protein family dinner, but eating these fish too often can be a serious health hazard.

To shed light on Quinnipiac’s fish contamination and consumption risks, the Connecticut Coalition for Environmental Justice (CCEJ), with support from the Quinnipiac River Fund, launched a safe fishing project from 2010 – 2012. Through casual one-on-one conversations, brochure distribution and multi-lingual signage, the CCEJ helped hundreds of fishers on the Quinnipiac River understand the hidden dangers they may be ingesting.

Even when pollution is miles away or many years past, fish can harbor levels of cancer-causing chemicals – such as mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) – thousands of times higher than the water. Chemical spills can elevate PCB levels in fish for years after the spill has ceased, and mercury in air pollution can travel long distances before being deposited into the river.

In Meriden, north of the Quinnipiac River Gorge, a history of heavy pollution makes eating any caught fish (other than stocked trout) ill advised. In the lower Quinnipiac, tidal waters help lessen some pollution, but fish consumption risks still remain high. The CCEJ focused its education efforts on this area, where the river’s proximity to highly populated urban areas and low-income neighborhoods makes fishing for food a popular activity.

To lead the education efforts, CCEJ brought on lifelong fisherman Robert Hudson, who brought an angler’s attitude to the task. Donning casual clothes and often carrying a fishing pole, he spoke with nearly 170 fishers, most of whom said they were not aware of the safe fishing guidelines.

Tidal in nature, the lower Quinnipiac bears the same fish-eating cautions as the Long Island sound: most saltwater fish are safe to eat, except for bluefish longer than 25 inches and striped bass, which should not be eaten by pregnant women, women who plan to become pregnant or children under the age of six. For everyone else, the Department of Public Health recommends no more than one meal a month of these large fish.

Hudson provided fishermen with pamphlets explaining the guidelines, and also explained a practical and simple way they could help reduce contamination of the river and river-caught fish: by switching their lead weights to alloy-encased ones.

Hudson’s education work helped inform CCEJ’s effort to promote a state bill to restrict lead fishing weights, similar to measures that have passed in Maine and New Hampshire. CCEJ also worked with the State Department of Environmental Protection to ensure fish signage is posted in fishing areas in English and Spanish.

The Quinnipiac River Fund has granted $27,000 to the Connecticut Coalition for Environmental Justice for its safe fishing project and broader activities building environmental awareness and safeguarding the health of residents who use the Quinnipiac River.

Ideas for keeping your corner of the planet clean and green

Did you know that the CT Department of Energy and Environmental Protection offers some ideas you can use at home, work, in your community or play, including healthier alternatives to toxic cleaning and pest management?

Some of their resources include:

• Hmm, don’t know what to do with all those packing peanuts, unwanted prescription medication or those burned out CFLs? A guide to find out how to manage those not-so-common household items in the most environmentally preferable way.
• Everyone has to clean sometime! Check out some healthier alternatives to toxic cleaning products and breathe easier in every room of the house.
• Planning a building or renovation project? Information for using green building products and techniques.

Visit them on the web.

Quinnipiac River photographs by Ian Christmann

LULA empowers unified effort to protect the Quinnipiac

“We must begin thinking like a river if we are to leave a legacy of beauty and life for future generations.” ― David Brower

When it comes to the Quinnipiac, or any river for that matter, what happens in one town, doesn’t stay in that town. With a 165 square mile watershed reaching 14 municipalities, the Quinnipiac River flows 38 miles from Farmington’s Deadwood swamp to the New Haven Harbor, taking with it all the health or harm imparted along the way. Water-polluting problems, from sewer overflows to pesticide run-off, in any one area can undo water improvement strides made by towns or groups further downstream or upstream.

Recognizing that lasting water quality improvements require a uniform effort, the Land Use Leadership Alliance (LULA) brings together local land use leaders – such as those serving on planning and zoning commissions – and empowers them to protect the Quinnipiac through appropriate regulations.

“Many of the leaders of the planning and zoning commissioners are volunteers with diverse backgrounds that may or may not have informed them of the relationship between development and watershed,“ explained Marjorie Shansky, a LULA law trainer and Quinnipiac River community resident. “LULA gives them the tools necessary for knowledgeable administration of land use laws for environmentally appropriate outcomes.”

LULA originated at Pace University Law School in 1996, with a goal to give land use leaders the technical and process tools they need to make decisions for creating sustainable and conservation-minded communities. In 2004, LULA piloted programs in Connecticut, where the – obstacles of 169 independent municipalities, lack of county government, underfunded and understaffed regions, and volunteer boards often with two-year turnover, makes LULA’s leadership empowerment and education all the more important.

In 2008, assisted by a grant from the Quinnipiac River Fund, LULA began its focus on the Quinnipiac River, a waterway whose history includes Connecticut’s first recorded pollution control legislation – a measure that prohibited Meriden from discharging raw sewage into the river and resulted in the construction of the state’s first sewage treatment plant.

Diving into current regulations, LULA conducted a regulatory review in 2008 to determine, town by town, what measures were currently in place to protect the watershed; the results pointed to a significant disparity in municipalities’ approaches to the river.

From 2009 – 2011, additional Quinnipiac River Fund grants enabled LULA to respond to this disparity by conducting multi-day training events that have empowered more than 75 of the watershed’s land use leaders with greater understanding of the scope of their jurisdiction and the laws related to natural resource and watershed protection.

Outcomes of the trainings include regulation amendment, creation of a natural resources inventory where none had previously existed, formation of a conservation commission where one had previously not existed, and adoption of collaborative processes by the municipalities in their approach to large-scale development. While these results are encouraging, LULA knows that ongoing training is a perpetual need, as commission leadership changes frequently, as do regulations.

In 2012, further support from the Quinnipiac River Fund supported LULA in conducting a second regulatory review to determine water protection progress and provide a more current, comprehensive regulation overview – one that, upon completion at the end of the summer 2013, will help municipalities get on the same page, share resources where possible, and avoid redundancies.

Since 2008, the Land Use Leadership Alliance has received $60,500 from the Quinnipiac River Fund. For more information about LULA, visit http://www.easternrcd-ct.org/lula.htm.

“Go where it flows…”
QRWA’s 33rd annual Quinnipiac Downriver Classic

Read the Record Journal article here.  http://www.erecordjournal.com/ee/recordjournal/publink.php?shareid=0ea064b37#.UZoHi6EXFO0.facebook

Photos by Diego

“Nobody knows it’s here…”

Proposed trail highlights hidden beauty behind Target

From DVDs and diapers to paninis, pasta and apparel, North Haven’s Universal Drive shopping area has much to offer, and if the efforts of a dedicated group of North Haven residents succeed, it may soon proffer a new opportunity of a wilder kind.

Tucked behind Target, across an empty parking lot, a small path leads through the trees and opens to stunning views and alluring possibilities for bird-watching, walking, cycling, launching canoes or nature study along the banks of the Quinnipiac River marsh.

“Nobody knows it’s here,” said Don Rocklin, a member of the North Haven Trail Association, a volunteer-led group working to turn the foot path into a full-fledged recreational trail along the River. Indeed, the shopping center’s buildings turn their back on the scenic marshland, which, according to Association president Steve Fontana, is their loss.

The North Haven Trail Association came together in 2007 with an ambitious long-term goal of creating trails on both the east and west sides of the North Haven section of the Quinnipiac. The group originally focused on a deep woods and meadow trail near Valley Service Road that would link with the Quinnipiac River trails in Meriden and Wallingford. While this area remains on the radar, the development of the Universal Drive shopping area shifted their focus to this more popular destination.

“It’s right in our backyard,” said Pat Bartek, a North Haven resident and member of the Association, explaining her motivation is to “to respect, value and save the green parts of town.”

The proposed trail begins behind Target and follows the Quinnipiac River tidal marsh south for one mile. In subsequent stages of development, the trail would continue north behind Best Buy, Barnes and Noble and the movie theater.

On Saturday, June 1, the North Haven Trail Association participated in National Trails Day and celebrated the marshland’s aviary opportunities by hosting a bird-viewing hike in the area. Led by Florence McBride of the New Haven Bird Club, the hike drew 35 binocular-bearing bird and trail enthusiasts eager to catch a glimpse of warblers, egrets and even the bald eagles that nest in the area.

Other North Haven Trail Association events have included cleanup days and an Earth Day hike exploring the marshland’s history, including the mysterious railway remnants in the area.  And these activities are only the beginning as the Association works to create a town and regional resource – one that will benefit nearby businesses and real estate values, while promoting physical fitness and environmental appreciation.

Since 2008, the North Haven Trail Association has received $18,000 from the Quinnipiac River Fund to help expand Quinnipiac River access and appreciation. The funds have been used for research and wetlands mapping and surveying. For more information about the Association, visit www.northhaventrails.org.

Resources from The Community Foundation’s Quinnipiac River Fund Will Help Measure and Monitor Chemical Levels in the Quinnipiac River and Support the Development of a Recreational Trail along the River’s Edge

New Haven, CT (May 30, 2013) – The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven is pleased to announce that $69,500 in grants has been awarded from the Quinnipiac River Fund to 7 organizations for programs that reduce river pollution, support the environment and educate the public about the Quinnipiac River. The River flows from west of New Britain southward to Plainville, Southington, west of Meriden, Cheshire, through Wallingford, Yalesville, North Haven and into New Haven Harbor.

Grants and distributions from the Quinnipiac River Fund are recommended each year by an Advisory Committee comprising three members:  Nancy Alderman, President of Environment and Human Health, Inc., Gordon Geballe, the Assistant Dean of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and Margaret Miner, Director of Rivers Alliance of Connecticut.

The following priorities are given to funding requests:
• Researching what pollutants are in the Quinnipiac River;
• Developing research methods of reducing pollution, or otherwise improving the River’s environmental health;
• Developing means of reducing both non-point and point sources of pollution to the river;
• Researching the permitting process and looking at the permits themselves;
• Supporting environmental advocacy;
• Studying the ecology of the Quinnipiac River and the New Haven Harbor;
• Providing public education about the Quinnipiac River and its watershed;
• Purchasing land on the Quinnipiac River for conservation purposes, or to reduce pollution and improve public access to the River.

2013 Grant recipients of the Quinnipiac River Fund:

Audubon Connecticut: $12,000 – to support the “A Fair Haven for Wildlife: Community-based land stewardship to benefit wildlife and waterways” project, in partnership with the Urban Resources Initiative.

Connecticut Coalition for Environmental Justice : $7,000 – to provide general operating support for fostering awareness of environmental issues of the Quinnipiac River and promoting activities that safeguard the health of residents that  use the Quinnipiac River.

Mill River Watershed Association of South Central Connecticut Inc.: $15,000 – to support environmental advocacy, particularly through raising awareness of new federal phosphorus requirements for the lower Quinnipiac River.

North Haven Trail Association: $5,000 – to support the research of private property land titles and negotiating easements with property owners to allow sections of the trail to pass through their land.

Quinnipiac University: $7,000 – to support Surveying the Quinnipiac River, a study of bis-2-ethylhexyl phthalate and other plasticizers in an effort to characterize contamination from industrial sources.

Yale University: $8,500  – to support monitoring of sediment accretion, elevation change, and sea level rise in the Quinnipiac marshes.

Yale University: $15,000  – to support the measurement of hexavalent chromium concentrations and chemical behavior in stormwater within the Quinnipiac River watershed and in the Quinnipiac River itself with the condition to obtain studies about the Quinnipiac River from the Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection.

In addition to the aforementioned grants, distributions from the fund are being made to the University of Connecticut’s Energy & Environmental Law Practice Clinic to review the discharge monitoring report compliance histories of five publically owned treatment plants discharging to the Quinnipiac River. The Fund is also continuing its work with Catalyst Collaborative, the designer of the Quinnipiac River Fund website, www.thequinnipiacriver.com, which provides information, lists resources, shares research, and promotes advocacy specifically related to the work and impact of the Quinnipiac River Fund.

The Quinnipiac River Fund is a component fund of The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven that was established in 1990 by a court settlement of litigation between the Connecticut Fund for the Environment, the Natural Resource Defense Council and the Upjohn Company concerning wastewater discharges from Upjohn’s plant in New Haven.  The settling parties agreed that distributions from the Fund were to be used “to improve the environmental quality of the Quinnipiac River and the New Haven Harbor and the watersheds of these water bodies, and otherwise to benefit the environment of these resources.” For more information about the Fund, including projects and reports for which grants have been awarded, access points to the River and activities, visit www.thequinnipiacriverfund.com.

Thanks to the generosity of three generations of donors, The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven awarded $21 million in grants and distributions in 2012 from an endowment of approximately $380 million and comprising more than 830 individually named funds. In addition to its grant-making, The Community Foundation helps build a stronger community by taking measures to improve student achievement, reduce New Haven’s infant mortality rate, promote local philanthropy through www.giveGreater.organd encourage community awareness at www.cfgnh.org/learn. For more information, visit www.cfgnh.org or www.facebook.com/cfgnh.

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Contact:
Tricia Caldwell
Communications Manager
The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven
203-777-7090
tcaldwell@cfgnh.org