Category: Community and history

Quinnipiac Riverfest 2015

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The 6th Annual Quinnipiac Riverfest brought the crowds down to the historic and scenic Fair Haven waterfront for an afternoon of live music, beer tasting, boat rides, and more.

Held every spring on the Sunday in the first weekend in May, Riverfest is the second part of the Fair Haven Waterfront Weekend, which starts on Saturday with the Fair Haven Family Stroll for Quality Early Childhood Education. The weekend is organized by the Chatham Square Neighborhood Association in collaboration with local businesses and the City of New Haven. Riverfest is hosted by the Quinnipiac River Marina and Boat House Café, a full-service marina and restaurant that has become a favorite local breakfast spot since a recent renovation.

The family-friendly celebration had craft activities for children.

The Quinipiac River Watershed Association brought canoes and led guided rides on the river with the help of volunteers. The association also distributed information about their efforts to protect the river and tips for how everyone can help keep the water clean.

Local musicians, headlined by Goodnight Blue Moon entertained the crowds.

Local breweries poured samples of their latest craft beers

The New Haven Fire Department brought a rescue boat for kids to explore.

Vespoli, the Fair Haven builder of world-class racing shells, was on hand to display the sleek boats used by the some of the best crew teams in the world.

Yale Crew Returns to the Q River

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Outdoor training sessions typically begin for the Yale Crew teams in late February or early March, depending on when the ice breaks apart and opens the wide, flat, fresh water of Lake Housatonic in Derby, home to Yale’s Gilder Boathouse. Not this year. An unremitting stretch of freezing temperatures created an unusually thick layer of ice on the Housatonic, forcing coaches to look for alternative practice sites for the start of the season.

“The earliest I’ve ever rowed outside was February 6th and the latest was the first day of March. This year we have blown through that record,” said Andy Card, coach of the lightweights. “This is unpreceded in my 26 years at Yale.”

With the first race just a month away, Card and the other coaches searched for thawed sections of water up and down lower Housatonic. Everything was locked in. They looked on the Saugaguck River in Fairfield County and as far away as New London.

Then, an option close to home presented itself to Card as he was driving on a bridge over the Quinnipiac River.

“That was the body of water that was wide open. It was ridiculously wide open,” Card said.

The coaches worked out a deal with the Quinnipiac River Marina for access to the river for the first three weeks of March.

“It’s been awesome. Seeing them out there has been invigorating,” said Marina owner Lisa Fitch said.

Practicing on the Quinnipiac has returned Yale Crew to its roots. Prior to moving its facilities to Derby a century ago, the team rowed out of boathouses on the Quinnipiac River. Rowing on a tidal body of water with currents has been a learning experience for the teams.

“We’ve had to follow the tides and learn the river, learn the bridges,” said Card. “It’s been a whole new adventure.”

A river-full weekend

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New Haven celebrates community and the Q River

It was a weekend of fun on the Quinnipiac River in New Haven. Thousands came out to enjoy festivities in two separate events on the weekend of May 3 – 4, and the river played  center stage for both.  On Saturday May 3, the 4th annual Fair Haven Family Stroll brought the community together to champion high-quality early childhood education. Organized by Alexis Hill Montessori School and Friends Center for Children, the stroll kicks-off with a 1.5 mile stroll around the river: beginning in Quinnipiac River Park, crossing the Ferry Street Bridge, through the historic Quinnipiac Avenue community, crossing over the Grand Avenue turn bridge and ending back in the park for a festival full of family fun.
Read more about the Family Stroll in the New Haven Independent.
On May 4, the Chatham Square Neighborhood Association’s 5th annual Riverfest attracted hundreds to Anastasio’s Boathouse cafe and the Quinnipiac Marina, where  great food, live music, magicians and guided canoe rides delighted audiences of all ages. The guided canoe rides were provided by the Quinnipiac River Watershed Association (a multi-year grantee of the Quinnipiac River Fund) and the magician, C.J. May the Resourcerer, turned magic into a kid-friendly message on keeping the Quinnipiac River clean.
See photos from the event on the Chatham Square Neighborhood Association website.

Rain Gardens: clean water resources on the Quinnipiac River

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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.

To call a hummingbird

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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.

Art installation raises river awareness.

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The ‘Quinnipiac River Bottled’ on Beinecke Plaza in the Yale News

“On Earth Day 2013, the public helped create an art installation by the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History and local artist Fritz Horstman. The interactive exhibit on Yale’s Beinecke Plaza featured thousands of bottles of Quinnipiac River water creating a scale outline of the river. It was part of the 2013 Celebrate Sustainability week-long celebration sponsored by the Yale Office of Sustainability.” (YaleNews)

See the video: http://news.yale.edu/videos/quinnipiac-river-bottled-beinecke-plaza

photos by Ian Christmann