A green heron in Baker Cove. Photo Credit: ECCD

• updating aging stormwater infrastructure;
• installing tree filters and rain gardens;
• removing invasive plants growing along stream corridors and re-vegetating stream banks with native plants;  
• adopting behavioral changes to responsibly manage animal waste and test lawns before applying fertilizers and other lawn chemicals; and
• revising land use regulations to incorporate the most current stormwater management practices, including low impact development and other green infrastructure techniques.  

Successful implementation of these management measures will require significant effort by watershed stakeholders and managers.  But it will result in the reduction of bacterial and other pollution to Baker Cove which will improve water quality, ultimately allowing Baker Cove to be removed from Connecticut's list of impaired waterbodies and the recreational shellfish beds to re-open.

For more information on the Baker Cove Watershed Plan, please contact Judy Rondeau, Natural Resource Specialist at the ECCD, at 860.887.4163 x401   

In September 2013, the DEEP acquired 155 acres of some of the most ecologically significant, privately owned land on the lower Menunketesuck River in Town of Clinton. The property was purchased from Mrs. Harriet Sciongay of Westbrook for $1.2 million through funding provided by the EPA's Long Island Sound Study. The Sciongay family persisted in making sure that the property would be managed for conservation, when it would have been easier and potentially more lucrative to sell to others. Because of the Sciongay family's commitment to hold the land until they found a qualified conservation buyer, the property is now in public ownership and will be managed for conservation, in perpetuity, for the benefit of future generations.  

Located approximately 1.5 miles south of DEEP's Weber Woods unit of the Cockaponset State Forest, the acquisition includes 1. 2 miles of high quality riparian land along the west side of the Menunketesuck River and Chapman Mill Pond. The purchase complements the Town of Westbrook's 2004 acquisition--also from the Sciongay family--of 83 acres on the east side of Chapman Mill Pond. Together, these acquisitions protect the majority of the undeveloped land along Chapman Mill Pond and have already served as a catalyst for other conservation projects within the lower Menunketesuck River corridor.

A Long and Winding Path to Conservation

DEEP's Office of Long Island Sound Programs (OLISP) had identified the Sciongay property as a high priority coastal land acquisition opportunity back in 2006 using a computer-automated geographic information system (GIS) support tool known as the Coastal Land Assessment Methodology, or  "CLAM" (please see the "Landscape Stewardship" article in the October 2005 issue of Sound Outlook for a description of CLAM). However, it wasn't until summer of 2011 that OLISP began meeting with the Sciongays to discuss a conservation sale of their property to DEEP. It would take over two years of natural resource surveys, engineering studies, subdivision approvals, modifications to a dam, removal of a cottage, and complex real estate negotiations between buyer and seller before DEEP would be able to acquire the property, just before federal funding for the acquisition was set to expire.

Interestingly, this was not the first time the property had been evaluated for acquisition.  As far back as March 2000, the Sciongays offered to sell their land on Chapman Mill Pond to what was then CT DEP for $3.1 million. Although a state property acquisition review committee recommended acquiring the property, limited funding and competing priorities resulted in DEP declining to proceed with the transaction. In 2007 the Sciongay family worked with the Connecticut office of the Trust for Public Land to sell the land to the Town of Clinton. However, negotiations broke down and the Sciongays ultimately reached an agreement with DEEP.  

Wildlife and Habitats of the Menunketesuck Greenways

The Sciongay property is located within two State-designated greenways (see hatched area on map). The Menunketesuck-Cockaponset Regional Greenway that extends from Long Island Sound at Westbrook Harbor north through the Town of Haddam, and the companion Town of Westbrook "Menunketesuck Municipal Greenway" highlight an important regional/municipal conservation focus area anchored on the north by the Weber Woods unit of Cockaponset State Forest and the Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge Salt Meadow Unit to the south. The area between these two anchor properties includes a nearly continuous corridor of existing and targeted protected open space with significant ecological and outdoor recreation value. The Sciongay property was targeted for acquisition because it meets both these objectives.

In terms of ecological resources, the Sciongay property stands out. It hosts 71 species of birds, 21 species of mammals including river otter, and 17 species of reptiles and amphibians that frequent the property. The acquisition includes a healthy stand of coastal forest that is a part of a larger block extending north into the Cockaponset State Forest. These large blocks of unfragmented forest are believed to provide critical "stop-over" habitat for birds migrating along the Atlantic Flyway. Interspersed throughout the site's woodlands are red maple swamps and at least two vernal pools, an increasingly rare and critical habitat for declining populations of amphibians such as toads, wood frogs, and salamanders. The property also supports reptiles including wood turtles and box turtles, both of which are State-listed Species of Special Concern. Snapping turtles have been observed crawling out of Chapman Mill Pond to lay their eggs in unusual sand deposits near the center of the property.

An 18th century masonry dam on the property marks the head-of-tide on the Menunketesuck River where aquatic life such as mussels, blue crab and migratory fish congregate. Below the dam are two State-listed Endangered and Species of Special Concern plants, as well as abundant runs of anadromous fish (fish that start their lives in freshwater, migrate to the sea to grow and mature, and then return to the stream of their origin to spawn). The most prominent of these for the Menunketesuck River are alewives and blueback herring , collectively referred to as river herring. Despite the dam, a remnant run of these fish have been able to hang on by spawning right below the dam, every spring, as if hopeful that someday there will be a way around that big stone wall. Fortunately, DEEP and its partners, including the Connecticut River Coastal Conservation District, recently obtained funds to design and build a fish passage facility at the Chapman Mill Pond Dam to pass river herring, and other species of migratory fish, up-stream of the dam where they are expected to find more suitable breeding habitat.   

A Catalyst for New Conservation and Recreation Opportunities

The Sciongay acquisition increases protected open space within the 5,000 acre Menunketesuck Greenway to nearly 1,800 acres and has already spurred other conservation acquisitions within the Menunketesuck Greenway. Most recently, the Town of Westbrook acquired or signed contracts to acquire 186 acres about 0.5 miles north of the Sciongay property near the Menunketesuck River. This new acquisition will protect a corridor of unfragmented forest and critical wetlands and groundwater recharge land that supply clean water and maintain base flow to the Menunketesuck. 

The Sciongay property is also expected to be available to the public for outdoor recreation opportunities consistent with the primary purpose of conserving the land's ecological functions and values. DEEP staff will evaluate the property and make recommendations for future public uses, which might include incorporating the acquisition area into the nearby Cockaponset State Forest or the Messerschmidt Wildlife Management Area.

Keep reading Sound Outlook for further news and opportunities associated with this remarkable land conservation acquisition.  And while the Sciongay property is prepared for public use, please see the Connecticut Coastal Access Guide which describes approximately 300 places already open to the public on Connecticut's coastal waters.

For more information about the Sciongay property acquisition or the Connecticut Coastal Access Guide, please contact David Kozak in DEEP's Office of Long Island Sound Programs at 860.424.3608.