East Coast Greenway Charts A Downtown Path in Hartford

You wouldn’t expect to see a sign designating Capitol Avenue in Hartford, on the corner of Sisson Avenue, as the route of the East Coast Greenway – but nonetheless, there it is.  Affixed to a utility pole, not a tree. The East Coast Greenway (ECG) is being established as a 3,000 mile traffic-free (not quite yet) trail that will connect cities and towns from the Canadian border at Calais, Maine to Key West, Florida.  Linking together publicly-owned, firm-surface trails, the ECG is envisioned as a safe route for exercise, recreation and transportation for the 30 million Americans who live near the route and as a tourism destination for millions of visitors.  It includes 15 states (and the District of Columbia), 25 major cities, and scores of smaller cities, towns, villages and counties.

The 198-mile Connecticut section of the East Coast Greenway route shows off the diversity of Connecticut from coast to inland, city to country. The eastern part of the state, sometimes referred to as the “last green valley” is the most rural area in the corridor between Boston and Washington, DC.   A series of rail trails, including the Air Line Trail North and the Hop River Trail, run through this region connecting historic mill towns like Willimantic and pass through forests and farmlands between.

In the western half of the state, the Greenway connects the major cities of Hartford, New Haven, and Stamford and allows users to experience history while touring the Farmington Canal Greenway from Simsbury to New Haven. Southwest of New Haven along Long Island Sound, the interim on-road route hugs the shore through the suburbs to the New York line.

Approximately 28% of the 198-mile route is complete as traffic-free trail, and another 28% is in development. There remains much work ahead,  including the Merritt Parkway Trail, envisioned to parallel the Merritt Parkway in Fairfield County, the Farmington Canal Greenway between Southington and Farmington, and the route from Hartford to Simsbury.

Among the partners working to bring the project to completion in the state of Connecticut are:

• Bike Walk Connecticut
• Connecticut Bicycle Coalition
• Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection
• Connecticut Department of Transportation
• Connecticut Explorer’s Guide
• Connecticut Forest & Park Association
• Connecticut Greenway Council
• Farmington Canal Rail-to-Trail Association
• Farmington Valley Trails Council 
• Greenwich Safe Cycling
• Merritt Parkway Trail Alliance
• South West Regional Planning Agency

This past August, a group of 37 riders traveled from Portland and rode over 400 miles in seven days to Hartford, where they were greeted by Mayor Pedro Segarra.

Long Island Sound Coastal Clean-up Volunteers Get Ready

Save the Sound staff have been diligently preparing for the 27th annual International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) that kicks off on Saturday, September 15, 2012.  It's Save the Sound’s tenth year as the Connecticut coordinator for Ocean Conservancy's worldwide cleanup effort and the organization, a project of the Connecticut Fund for the Environment, has planned nearly 40 volunteer events over the next few weeks. Details about upcoming volunteer cleanups are listed on the Save the Sound website's calendar, including events in Stamford, Darien, Norwalk, Westport, Fairfield, Bridgeport, Stratford, Milford, West Haven, New Haven, Branford, Madison, Clinton, Westbrook, Waterford, New London, and Groton.

Long Island Sound contributes more than $9 billion to the regional economy each year.  Last year, Save the Sound brought together 2,665 volunteers, who removed more than 29,000 pounds of trash from 54 miles of coastline.

Long Island Sound is one of the nation’s great estuaries, a place where fresh water from inland waterways flows into salt water from the ocean.  The Sound is a vital economic and recreational resource and provides habitat for diverse animal and plant life.  With 10 percent of the nation’s population living within 50 miles of the Sound, pollution is one of the biggest issues threatening the health of the Sound and the plants and animals that live there.

This year Save the Sound organizers are hoping to get even more people involved, and additional information is available on Facebook, or by emailing Save the Sound's Kierran Broatch at kbroatch@savethesound.org or (203) 787-0646, x113.

Abundance of Maps and Data on CT Environmental Conditions

Connecticut Environmental Conditions Online (CT ECO) is an overflowing website providing access to data and information - the collaborative work of the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) and the University of Connecticut Center for Land Use Education and Research (CLEAR) - to share environmental and natural resource information with the general public. The website makes available an enormous range of maps and tools for viewing Connecticut’s environmental and natural resources such as protected open space, farmland soils, wetland soils, aquifer protection areas, water quality classifications, and drainage basins. Each can be viewed separately or in conjunction with other environmental and natural resource information.

CT ECO's mission is to encourage, support, and promote informed land use and development decisions in Connecticut by providing local, state and federal agencies, and the general public with convenient access to the most up-to-date and complete natural resource information available statewide.

Among the dozen agencies providing data are the Connecticut Departments of Public Safety, Transportation and Office of Policy and Management, the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Geological Survey.

If you’re interested in any of the maps or information – including maps of every town in the state – it is worth a look.  And even if you’re not, it’s worth a look just to see the volume of information that is available.  For those interested in staying up-to-date on any changes to the site, that is only an email away.

Hartford's Way Forward: Blue, Green and Walkable

Hartford’s status as one of the nation’s most promising triple-threat cities of the 21st century will be on full display in the coming months.  EnvisionFest in September and Riverfront Recapture’s annual Big Mo’ Block Party in  October will celebrate  a city where (1) America’s first National Blueway meets the (2) Greenway of one of the nation’s (3) most walkable cities. First National Blueway

This spring, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar established a National Blueways System and announced that the 410-mile-long Connecticut River and its 7.2 million-acre watershed will be the first National Blueway— covering areas of Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut.  In ceremonies at Riverside Park in Hartford, Salazar said that partnerships along the Connecticut River provide an example for the rest of the nation.

"The Connecticut River Watershed is a model for how communities can integrate their land and water stewardship efforts with an emphasis on 'source-to-sea' watershed conservation," he said. "I am pleased to recognize the Connecticut River and its watershed with the first National Blueway designation as we seek to fulfill President Obama's vision for healthy and accessible rivers that are the lifeblood of our communities and power our economies."

The new National Blueways System is part of the America's Great Outdoors Initiative to establish a community-driven conservation and recreation agenda for the 21st century. Establishment of a National Blueways System will help coordinate federal, state, and local partners to promote best practices, share information and resources, and encourage active and collaborative stewardship of rivers and their watersheds across the country.

Walkable City

Earlier this year, Prevention magazine rated Hartford as the #13 most walkable city in the nation, stating that “Car-free recreation is one of the city's selling points—and proof that it's taken full advantage of state funding for safer, better pedestrian access. From wide promenades to intersections that take pedestrians out of the periphery and into easy view, Hartford is more walker-friendly than ever.”

The designation also noted that walkers can “Hop between attractions like the Riverfront and the Arts and Entertainment District, as well as the city's abundant parks—and know that you're never going to ‘run out’ of sidewalk, or safe places to cross.”

First EnvisionFest is September 29

Those features will be on prominent display on September29 during EnvisionFest, Hartford’s newest celebratory event that is being designed to showcase and celebrate the ingenuity of the city’s and state’s industries, artists and people, providing a glimpse of the city’s future by encouraging people to experience the recently developed iQuilt Plan through walking, culture and innovation.

Hartford cultural institutions, Connecticut industries and artists will celebrate their vision of the future through interactive displays, exhibits, performances and activities in open houses and public spaces throughout downtown, all connected through walking and biking routes.

iQuilt Greenway

The iQuilt vision will be displayed on September 29 along the GreenWalk, along with sidewalk activities and prototypes of seating, lighting and signage. Walking throughout downtown will bring you to various Hartford destinations connected with food, drink, music, artists and activities.

Downtown Hartford is an unusually compact historic district packed with more than 45 cultural assets and destinations within a 15-minute walk: museums, performance spaces, historic landmarks, modern architecture, and public art.  The iQuilt Plan links those assets with a vibrant and innovative pedestrian network. Its centerpiece is the GreenWalk, a one-mile chain of parks and plazas connecting the gold-domed Capitol in Bushnell Park to the waterfront of the Connecticut River.

Walk the Walk(s)

Riverfront Recapture is a non-profit organization dedicated for three decades to restoring public access to the riverfront along the Connecticut River in Hartford and East Hartford.  It's annual Big Mo fundraiser on October 12 will mark the 10th anniversary of the Riverfront Boathouse in Hartford.  The organization’s four parks, which cover four miles of pristine shoreline and 148 acres, are connected by a growing network of riverwalks.  In addition to physically constructing the parks, Riverfront Recapture is also responsible for managing, maintaining and programming the parks, producing events and offering activities. In 2010, Riverfront Recapture set an attendance record with more than 960,000 people coming the Riverfront to enjoy the parks and the many festivals, concerts, and sporting events.

Diminishing River Herring Draw Environmental and Economic Attention

It is difficult for most people to get worked up about herring, even in New England, but the Pew Charitable Trusts Environmental Group is leading a charge to preserve the herring population, and with it much of the region’s fish-related industry.  Connecticut is among the states at the center of the effort, given the prominence of Long Island Sound and the Connecticut River. The concern, as reported by the Associated Press, is that off-shore trawlers pull up hundreds of thousands of pounds of herring at a time, depleting a species that is a critical food for just about every commercial fish in the region. The small, nutrient-rich fish are eaten by larger fish we love to catch and eat–tuna, haddock, cod and striped bass.  Without herring to chase and eat, these fish could fade from inshore waters. The herring's influence even extends to ocean tours, which depend on abundant herring to attract whales and birds to the ocean surface to feed and be seen.

The numbers, Pew points out, are nothing short of alarming.  Catching herring is prohibited in Connecticut waters, but as the numbers reflect, the fish aren’t reaching those waters like they used to.  According to the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), millions of river herring once returned annually to Connecticut, but environmental officials say that by 2006, only 21 passed the Holyoke Dam on the Connecticut River.

The New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) – which manages fishery resources within the 200 mile limit of the coasts of the New England States - meets June 20 in Portland, Maine to decide how to protect river herring at sea, and Pew is urging Connecticut to help protect the herring.  The NEFMC members include the principal state official with marine fishery management responsibility (or their designee) for Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut.  Members are nominated by the governors, and appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce.

In the Connecticut River, habitat restoration has helped river herring return to their native areas. In the 1970s, runs had dwindled to about 200 fish. With community efforts, half a million blueback herring were counted in 1986. But by 2008, the run had again plummeted to only 84 fish.

NEFMC is also in the midst of a search for a new executive director.

Federal EPA Salutes Eight in CT for Protecting Environment

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has honored eight Connecticut individuals, businesses and state and municipal agencies for their work to protect and sustain the region's natural resources. Hartford's Betsey Wingfield, who works in the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection; Anthony Leiserowitz, of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies in New Haven; and Kevin Taylor of the Waterbury Development Corp., were individual honorees.

In the environmental, community, academia and nonprofit category, among those honored were:

Long Island Sound Study Citizens Advisory Committee  (Curt Johnson and Nancy Seligson, co-chairs): The volunteers of the Long Island Sound Study Citizens Advisory Committee have helped bring together a unified group of people dedicated to improving water quality in the sound. This group includes volunteers from community organizations, businesses, educational organizations, environmental groups and local government. Together these groups developed “SoundVision,” a community blueprint for clean water, healthy habitats, and economically strong communities.

Goodwin College: In 2005, Goodwin College announced dramatic plans to build a riverfront campus along Riverside Drive in East Hartford. With the help of EPA and other agencies, Goodwin created a new campus community with educational, economic, and environmental benefits for the region and beyond. The effort involved demolishing more than 30 above-ground oil tanks and other defunct industrial installations before redeveloping a formerly unusable industrial area. Late 2008, the college opened the 109,000 square-foot academic center. A year later, it rolled out its environmental studies degree program, which took advantage of access to the river and undeveloped flood plains for study of river ecology. In 2010, the Connecticut River Academy, an environmentally-themed magnet high school, also opened at the River Campus in a temporary space.

Other honorees were the Connecticut Department of Public Health's Drinking Water Section, Danbury's Ethan Allen Interiors Inc. and Greenwich Hospital (Thomas Lazzaro, John Huber).

Norwalk hotel operator HEI Hospitality LLC received an Energy Star Award.

Blue-Blazed Hiking Trail Traverses 88 Towns, 825 Miles in CT

In the spirit of Earth Day, the Connecticut Forest and Park Association (CFPA) is highlighting Connecticut's progress through the years to preserve the environment.  CFPA has been a longstanding voice urging the state to set a national example for successful forest conservation and reverse the damage to Connecticut's natural resources. The impact - a century in the making - is worth noting:  when the organization began its work (in 1895), Connecticut was 20% forested: today it is 60% forested. CFPA remains vigilant and involved in the sound management and protection of land, water and wildlife resources.

In addition to protecting land for public enjoyment, CFPA's leaders established the Blue-Blazed Hiking Trail System in 1929 which traverses public and private lands throughout 88 towns in Connecticut and is enjoyed by thousands of citizens each year. Today, approximately 825 miles of trails are maintained by hundreds of CFPA volunteers working in cooperation with many public and private landowners, contributing approximately 15,000 hours to trail work every year.