Category: Q River Fund projects

A preserve within a preserve

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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.

If these fish could talk…

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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.

“Nobody knows it’s here…”

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“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.

Nearly $70,000 in Grants Awarded to Foster Awareness of Environmental Issues and More

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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

Quinnipiac River featured in New Haven Magazine

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Quinnipiac River featured in New Haven Magazine

New Haven Magazine’s May edition featured the Quinnipiac River in an eight page article “Exploring the Quinnipiac River Watershed” by Melissa Nicefaro and photographs by Ian Christmann.

“A $20,000 grant from the Quinnipiac River Fund will present many opportunities to access and explore the river this summer… For 20 years, the fund has supported cleanup efforts and research on the Quinnipiac River. Alderman says $1 million went into the foundation with the stipulation that the income from it would be used to clean up the river. The fund gifts about $110,000 a year to organizations such as the QRWA and provides grants for projects that will enhance the river.

“’It’s one thing to have scientists and researchers looking at what the pollution is, but it’s another thing to get people to care about this river,’ says the Community Foundation’s director of grants and scholarships, Sarah Fabish.”

Click here for link to New Haven Magazine online. (Article begins on page 33)

Trout stocking the Quinnipiac

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QRWA trout stocking draws record crowd

Photos by Ian Christmann

QRWA trout stocking draws record crowd

One hundred and sixty slippery newcomers made quite a splash in the upper Quinnipiac on Thursday, April 18. The rainbow, brown and brook trout were released into the river at five spots alongside the Gorge Linear Trail in Meriden in preparation for the opening day of fishing season on April 20.

The annual event – organized by the Quinnipiac River Watershed Association (QRWA) – drew its biggest crowd ever with approximately 70 eager helpers. By foot, bike or stroller, the volunteers followed the Harding Trout Hatchery truck through the 1.3 mile Gorge. When the truck stopped, the youngest stockers clamored for buckets and coolers, carried the trout to the river’s edge, and carefully released them in the shallows and slow current.

“Stocking the river introduces people to its potential,” said Peter Picone, a member of the QRWA board of directors. “It allows people to understand and appreciate what kind of fish are in there and get people excited about the opportunities the river provides them.”

The trout ranged from 12 – 20 inches, with the three biggest drawing special excitement from the crowd. QRWA purchased the trout with proceeds from a game dinner organized by Michael Roberts, Woods ‘n Water magazine column writer.

QWRA is one of the many grant recipients of the Qunnipiac River Fund, which is the only Fund in the State solely dedicated to the preservation and protection of the River. The Fund supports projects and organizations that help improve both the quality and our understanding of the Quinnipiac River, New Haven Harbor and it’s surrounding water sheds – through research, public access, land use planning, land acquisition, habitat restoration, advocacy, and education on the Quinnipiac River and New Haven Harbor.

Adding further excitement to the fishing season on the Quinnipiac River, the QRWA tagged seven fish and offers prizes to those who catch the tagged fish. Within the first week of the season, two of the seven tagged fish were caught. If you catch a tagged fish, contact the QRWA Fish Stocking Program chairperson at 860-919-7236.

Quinnipiac River Fund Launches New Way to Navigate the Q: www.TheQuinnipiacRiver.com

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New Haven, CT (July 26, 2012) –The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven’s Quinnipiac River Fund announces the launch of a new website  – www.TheQuinnipiacRiver.com – created to serve as a comprehensive source of advocacy and information about Connecticut’s Quinnipiac River. The Quinnipiac River Fund helps lead the efforts to restore the Quinnipiac’s water quality and overall ecological health. Each year the Fund distributes more than $100,000 to projects that conserve and protect the River and surrounding watersheds.

The Quinnipiac River Fund’s new website provides information about the Quinnipiac River’s history and health, as well as serves as the main site for communicating information related to the history of the Fund.  This means that former projects funded by the Quinnipiac River Fund will be included on this site so that people can see what has already been researched and what further projects are indicated to improve the health of the River.

The new website features a searchable database of nearly 200 projects made possible with funding from the Quinnipiac River Fund.  A small sample of those are: a survey of contaminants in the River; the creation of a River canoe guide; educational workshops for municipalities of how to protect the river, the creation of a GIS system database; and reducing pesticide uses in towns that abut the River.

The site will also have information about the Funds grant application process. “This new website is a rich database of information, created to increase collaboration around advocacy efforts,” says Nancy Alderman, the Advisory Committee Chair of the Quinnipiac River Fund and President of Environment and Human Health, Inc. “We hope this new resource will facilitate greater sharing and communication that furthers our efforts to protect and preserve one of Connecticut’s natural resources.”

The website also includes an integrated Google map to serve as a platform for mapping canoe launches, fishing access, photographs, walking trails; a community calendar to post and announce river-related activities and opportunities, including nature walks, cleanup days and public meetings/hearings; and a news/blog page.

The website was developed by New Haven-based creative agency Catalyst Collaborative and features photographs from the Consider the Quinnipiac photo-based advocacy campaign, created by Ian Christmann of Catalyst Photography and funded by the Quinnipiac River Fund. The web team included Ian and Carolyn Christmann, Daniel Carter, Will Cowen and Bahador Pazoki.

Earlier this year, the Quinnipiac River Fund awarded $111,000 to 11 organizations to improve the environmental quality of the Quinnipiac River and New Haven Harbor and the watersheds. Since inception, the Fund has awarded more than $1.7 million in grants.

The Quinnipiac River Fund was established in 1990 as a result of a court settlement between the National Resources Defense Council, the Connecticut Fund for the Environment and the Upjohn Corporation concerning wastewater discharges by the Upjohn Chemical Company of North Haven CT into the Quinnipiac River. A fine of $1,225,000 was levied on Upjohn for continually exceeding its permitted industrial releases into the Quinnipiac River and was used to create the Quinnipiac River Fund, administered by The Community Foundation. The Fund is advised by a committee that meets once a year to make funding recommendations to The Community Foundation. Committee members include:  Nancy Alderman, President of Environment and Human Health, Inc., Gordon Geballe, the Assistant Dean of theYale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and Margaret Miner, Director of Rivers Alliance.

Since 1928, donors to The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven have built the community’s endowment currently valued at over $350 million. In 2011, The Community Foundation distributed more than $19.5 million in grants, including grants from its affiliate The Valley Community Foundation, from over 800 different named charitable funds that support a wide range of programs and organizations. For more information about The Community Foundation visit www.cfgnh.org, find us on Facebook atwww.facebook.com/cfgnh, or follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/cfgnh.

 

Contact:

Tricia Caldwell
Communications Manager
203-777-7090
tcaldwell@cfgnh.org