The Eightmile Wild and Scenic Watershed, CT |
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Thirteen Years of Wild & Scenic Designation |
The Eightmile Wild and Scenic Watershed in Connecticut was designated in 2008. In the watershed's 40,000 acres (62 square miles), there are over 150 miles of waterways and important unfragmented blocks of habitat for state and globally rare, threatened, and endangered species. |
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Since designation in 2008, the Coordinating Committee has continued to partner with organizations, both local and state, to protect the outstanding resources of the Eightmile River Watershed. Today, nearly 40% of the land is protected open space and over 80% of the watershed is forested. |
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A drone shot by Frank DiNardi highlights the fall colors. Photo courtesy of The Eightmile River Wild and Scenic Watershed Steering Committee. |
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One question that many land, river, and park managers ask themselves is: “ How can we get the word out to residents and visitors about all the fun and exciting outdoor activities available in our region?” Read about the unique way the Eightmile River Wild and Scenic Coordinating Committee sought to answer this question.
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The Next PWSR?
With two legislative routes to designation moving through Congress, Maine's York River could be the next Partnership Wild and Scenic River. In a truly remarkable watershed with much open and preserved space, the York River makes an excellent candidate for Maine's second WSR.
In the articles below, read about the York River's legislative update and management plan, unique salt marsh ecosystems, water quality, and proposed Outstandingly Remarkable Values.
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The salt marshes of the York River estuary are some of the best examples of overall ecosystem health in Maine and provide many benefits. These areas in the York River watershed provide critical habitat to diverse and rare species.
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Three children enjoy the riverside. Photo credit to Jennifer Hunter. |
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To become a part of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, a river must meet certain eligibility criteria. This includes possessing at least one Outstandingly Remarkable Value (ORV); the York River's proposed ORVs range from historic/cultural to ecological.
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As the PWSR program grows, the NPS realized that documenting the designation stories of the rivers are important to the PWSR program. The goal of the designation stories project is to capture the origins of how our PWSRs have been designated. We started talking about this at our last PWSR in person gathering on the Great Egg. I have been tasked to move this project forward, and despite pandemics, and more, we have some success to report!
We decided to approach this project in two ways.
1. Just the facts. These are comprised of the designation stories table that we created for each river during the creation of PWSR News #6 2020-2021 (all available on the PWSR Toolkit). This captures information such as: Dates, Congressional sponsors, study bills, method of designation, ORVs, etc.
2. We wanted the second part to be more personable, to document the oral history of the designation, the narratives surrounding the paths to Wild and Scenic. With designations aging, so too are the volunteers that were critical in the process. We hope that we can identify the key players in the designation stories and prioritize them to be interviewed. This is why we have asked rivers to start creating a list of who should be interviewed to tell the stories of designation, and to prioritize them based on whatever criteria you see fit (this could include who might be retiring or moving away, those without whom you couldn’t tell the history of your designation, the people that tell the best stories, and more). If you have not yet discussed this with your Committees or sent the list to Shana, please do.
In order to develop a protocol for the project, I started with my PWSR, the Upper Missisquoi and Trout Rivers (UMATR) in VT. Knowing the designation story made it easier for me to focus on setting up a method for documenting the designation and recording the interviews. It also allowed me to practice my interviewing skills and make mistakes with the wonderful and forgiving group of volunteers that are my friends. I am proud to announce that after a partnership with Kate Geis, the videographer that completed the River Connections video with me, the highlight reel video of the UMATR designation may currently be found on her Vimeo page.
I feel that Kate captured the story of designation in this highlight reel, and the full interviews are available to the UMATR Wild and Scenic Committee so they may use this video/footage for future projects. Kate is willing to work on additional designation and PWSR video projects should we choose to hire her, and she is currently working with the Musconetcong on a video project as well.
I look forward to engaging with all of you more on designation stories at the next PWSR meeting/call. In the meantime, I hope you will check out the UMATR video. ~Shana
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PWSR News #6 Aug. 2020 - May 2021 |
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This is the final installment of the PWSR News #6. All of the installments of this issue and past issues may be found on the PWSR Toolkit.
Many thanks to everyone who made this issue of PWSR News possible, especially NPS Interns Cassidy Quistorff and Christian Kelly. We appreciate all of your hard work over the last year. Also, special thanks to Peter Bonsall at NPS for making the webpage articles look fantastic, and patiently editing them.
Newsletter design by Christian Kelly. Newsletter written and edited by Cassidy Quistorff with assistance from Shana Stewart Deeds, Corita Waters, and the wonderful supporters of the Eightmile and York Rivers.
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Check out the updated contact list for PWSRs at the National Park Service. Most locations now have a team associated with the PWSRs in that region. Corita Waters remains the NPS WSR Co-lead focusing on Partnerships and Community Engagement. Jennifer Back retired as the Water Resources Co-lead. Congratulations to Jennifer and many thanks for her service to the WSR program. |
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