April 2019 NewsBrief
North Stonington Citizens
Land Alliance NewsBrief
April 2019
Please accept our apologies for erratic Land Alliance incoming telephone messages to 860-599-5517, Land Alliance number. The uneven, sometimes late, sometimes never, phone calls have baffled us, we hope to have the problem solved very soon. We ask that for now, you leave an email at landallianceinc@gmail.com or a phone message at 860-599-5731, Jeffery.
Happy Earth Day April 22. Forty nine years ago, in 1963, Gaylord Nelson, a Wisconsin Senator, convinced President Kennedy to hold a nationwide speaking tour to discuss the country’s environment. Earth Day was founded on April 22, 1970, as a “teach-in.” Nelson received the President’s Medal of Freedom in 1995 for the many years of his personally strong conservation commitment.
DO SOMETHING WONDERFUL TODAY TO ACKNOWLEDGE EARTH DAY! SEND AN EMAIL TO TELL US: WHAT IS ONE SMALL THING YOU DID/CAN DO FOR NORTH STONINGTON, FOR EARTH ITSELF, ON EARTH DAY. landallianceinc@gmail.com
EXPLORE FOWLER-GRINDSTONE PRESERVE, A DEEP GREEN BEAUTY
as part of the yearly CT Trails Day sponsored across the state by CT Forest and Park which Land Alliance will hold on June 1, 2019, Saturday morning, at 10:00 am.
Explore this 75-acre forest with its rows of ancient stone walls, 2 glacial erratics (one of them has a stairway to the top), the confluence of Pendleton Hill and Hetchel Swamp Brooks, both of which are now part of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, narrow paths through deep forests, rocky outcroppings, and a logging road born of another era. Native American ceremonial stone work has been discovered and documented.
Tim Crandall and Bill Hixson, who designed and built the trail patterns many years ago, will be the leaders for the approximate 2 mile walk. Meet at Fowler Road; at the “Upper Trail”, right side of road, park either within the drive or along the roadside.
Dogs on leash are welcome. Rain cancels. Pre-registration is not necessary. Call: 860-245-4340 or 860-599-5731 with your questions. All are welcome.
Historical Feature at Fowler Grindstone Preserve
As many of you have learned, North Stonington’s Shunock and Green Fall Rivers and five other rivers with their tributaries (no small feat!) are now a part of The Wood-Pawcatuck Wild and Scenic Rivers Act: the Pawcatuck, Wood, Beaver, Shunock, Green Fall, Usquepaugh, and Queen Rivers! A new council will meet in May with the task of implementing the Stewardship Plan, which was researched and written by the 3-year study group, and which received full U.S. Congressional and Presidential approval in March 2019.
Shunock River, North Stonington, CT
Land Alliance has long advocated water resource protection. We have volunteered and funded URI’s Watershed Watch, out in the deepest places by boat, testing NS ponds, lakes and brooks in a tri-season format for over the past 25 years.
In its land holdings, both small and large, Land Alliance holds brook and pond sections of:
Wyassup Brook at Wyassup East Preserve
Yaubucs Brook at Wyassup West Preserve
Spalding Pond at Samuel Cote Preserve
Pendleton Hill Brook at its confluence with Hetchel Swamp Brook at Fowler-
Grindstone Preserve
Pendleton Hill Brook at Headwaters Preserve
Silex Mine Brook at Ives Preserve
Milltown Village Preserve brook
Leave your phones and tablets at home or in your car, take a little while with friends and neighbors over a cup of coffee or tea at someone’s home (kitchen is great) without it being part of a meeting, group organization, or theme, important in our lives as they are. Interested? Give a call, or you might even hear from us, it is an idea with lots of interest already: 860-599-5731: Madeline Jeffery, Land Alliance
Do you hope, do you plan to leave your land protected in the future? Let it take place now during your lifetime; it can bring relief and joy. There are choices you can make:
Consider A Retained Life Estate
The Land Trust becomes the owner of your property upon your death. Until then, you and your family retain an interest in your property that lasts for your lifetime, you can live on it, use it for the rest of your life, with certain duties remaining: taxes, mortgages, upkeep. Your estate receives a charitable deduction equal to the value of the property.
Consider A Conservation Easement
Good if you want to live, yet also permanently protect your land during your lifetime and yet want your family to inherit it by having a non-profit 501-c-3 hold a conservation easement over whatever plans you have for all, of part of, your acreage. You decide the acreage, the plan; taxes are approximately equivalent to act 490.
Consider Land in Trust.
You give/sell your land to a non-profit either during your lifetime or in your will, protection in perpetuity. You set the guide lines for how land is to be used when you no longer own it. You may or may not continue to live on land. It is taken off tax roles.
Some Good News Around Town
* Townspeople overwhelmingly voted that North Stonington will not accept toxic fracking wastes of any kind to be delivered, deposited, or buried anywhere in NS. Fracking states need disposal areas for the voluminous wastes they create and are eager to ship and pay.
* There will be no new State Police Firearms Training Facility coming to Griswold, Voluntown, or any other town in SE CT. Congratulations to the determined leadership of 2 grassroots groups in Griswold and Voluntown. Their committed collaboration with their CT Congressmen stopped this thing cold. They did not give up. Thank you!
*A new bridge at the junction of Pendleton Hill and Clarks Falls Roads is in the works. Shrubs and trees have been cut, markers are being placed, and a work trailer is on the premises. Pendleton Hill Brook will flow more easily on its way to Spalding Pond, Green Fall River, and into the Pawcatuck itself.
*NS Village will continue to have both of its Main Street/Rt 2 entrances remain green. Although the Selectmen had voted to sell 3 corner parcels of town-owned land at the one entry, P&Z did not give its required approval for the sale. A small handful of residents came to the rescue to show the importance of keeping the 3 parcels from a possible sale, to help keep the village separate from Rt 2.
*The Spring at Rt 184/ 49, a NS icon, is flowing again through a new white pipe in the hillside after not running at all for at least one entire year. Who is the kind soul who wanted the spring to run again out of the grassy embankment? If you know more details, please, we are interested.
On Our BookShelf, Ready for a 1-Month Loan: these books are visual, literary treasures
David M. Carroll, Writer, Naturalist, Artist
Betty Perkowski and Madeline Jeffery first met David M. Carroll on the stage in Boston’s Faneuil’s Hall, on Earth Day, 1999, as Land Alliance, David M. Carroll with 37 other environmental individuals and groups were honored by The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for “their exceptional work and commitment to the environment.”
David M. Carroll thoughtfully gifted Land Alliance with copies of his books. His very fine, exquisite pen and ink drawings, his passionate understanding and knowledge of the special ecology he has tracked for decades in the field, and his journal writings, have won him the prestigious John Burroughs Medal. In 2006 he was a recipient of an MacArthur “genius” award.
The Year of The Turtle a natural history
Following The Water a hydromance: a National Book Award Finalist
Trout Reflections A Natural History of the Trout and its World
(images from Trout Reflections by David M. Carroll)
P.S. We feel especially close to David Carroll, who lives in New Hampshire, his brother, friend Andrew Carroll, lives in North Stonington with his family.
(A Note of Practicality)
A CALL TO PAY 2019 DUES, RENEWAL
A CALL TO SEND 2019 DUES, NEW MEMBER
Both are Important To Us
Dues per person: $15.00 each year
Open Land Fund: includes stewardship upkeep, signs and tools, land purchases
Contributions: includes yearly insurances, surveys, legal fees, printing, WEB site, et al.
(All dues and donations are tax exempt to the full extent of the law under 501-c-3.)