Chapter 3 USFWS Federally endangered Jesup’s milk-vetch Affected Environment ■■ Introduction ■■ Part I: The Connecticut River Watershed Environment ●■ Land Use: Historic and Current ●■ Physical Environment ●■ Biological Environment ●■ Socioeconomic Environment ■■ Part II: General Refuge Information ●■ Refuge Administration and Facilities ●■ Land Acquisition History ●■ Conte Refuge General Public Use ■■ Part III: Description of Individual Refuge Divisions and Units ●■ Refuge Divisions ●■ Individual Refuge Units Introduction Introduction This chapter describes the existing physical, ecological, socioeconomic, and historical environment of the refuge and larger Connecticut River watershed. This description serves as the baseline condition for determining the potential environmental impacts of the four management alternatives we analyze in this draft CCP/EIS. See chapter 4 for full description of these four alternatives and chapter 5 for the analysis of the alternatives’ environmental impacts. This chapter is divided into three parts to describe the environment at different scales. Part I describes the entire watershed’s environment. Part II provides more general refuge information, while part III provides more specific and information on the refuge’s existing divisions and units. Several appendixes include supporting documentation and descriptions used to compile this chapter. For example, appendix M describes resource plans we used as references. Consulting these individual plans would provide the reader more detailed information on a wide variety of resources of interest. Of particular note, we recommend readers consult the respective State Wildlife Action Plans for Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire. These plans provide a comprehensive description of each State’s fish and wildlife, historic and current habitat trends, and species and habitats of elevated conservation concern (New Hampshire Game and Fish Department 2005, Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection Bureau of Natural Resources 2005, Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department 2005, Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game 2006). As we noted in chapter 2, the amount of information about the watershed is impressive, and new plans and information are being produced at a rapid pace. We highlight below the information we think is most important to relate about the watershed and refuge resources; it is based on information that was available during preparation of this draft document. Some of this information may become dated before completing the final document, but we will provide updates before the final CCP is issued. Part I: The Connecticut River Watershed Environment Land Use: Historic and As noted in chapter 1, our project analysis area is the entire 7.2 million-acre Current Connecticut River watershed, located in the Northeastern United States (“Map 1.1. Location of the Connecticut River Watershed and the Service’s Northeast Region (Region 5)”). It covers portions of four states: New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, and Massachusetts (a very small portion also occurs in Maine and Canada). Of the watershed’s 7.2 million acres, 13 percent lies in Connecticut, 24 percent in Massachusetts, 28 percent in New Hampshire, and 35 percent in Vermont. The watershed also includes more than 20,000 miles of tributaries and streams (TNC 2013a). Both historic and current land uses in the watershed have been, and continue to be, largely influenced by its diverse geography and the changing needs of society. The next two sections describe the land use history of the Connecticut River from its earliest settlement by humans to the current day. We also direct readers to some interesting facts about the watershed on the CRWC Web site (CRWC 2013; http://www.ctriver.org/river-resources/about-our-rivers/watershed-facts/; accessed December 2014) Cultural and Historic Resources Overview for Connecticut River Watershed Starting with the earliest human occupation of the Connecticut River watershed more than 11,000 years ago, the river has provided focus for settlement, cultural exchange, and travel. People have been influenced by the environment and the Chapter 3. Affected Environment 3-1 Part I: The Connecticut River Watershed Environment – Land Use: Historic and Current types of natural resources that were available. In turn, they affected the ecology of the watershed through their activities and land use (Waller and Cherau 2011, T. Binzen, personal communication 2013). According to archaeological evidence, the first inhabitants were Paleoindian explorers who entered a sparsely vegetated landscape dominated by lakes of glacial meltwater. These people were highly mobile. They exchanged stone materials over great distances, and preferred to live on sandy plains of glacial outwash (Waller and Cherau 2011, T. Binzen, personal communication 2013). These people Over the ensuing millennia, the climate changed within the watershed and the types of vegetation and animal species evolved as well. The Native American inhabitants formed societies that occupied different topographic zones within the watershed, adjusting to shifts in climate and ecology. After 7,000 years ago, tools for fishing become more common in the archaeological record. Native settlement tended to focus in upland areas. After 3,000 years ago, the vegetation regime in the watershed became similar to what is seen today. Along the coast, sea levels stabilized and systems of estuaries took the form that can be recognized today. Native Americans reoriented their settlement systems to the valley floors and coastal areas. Vast seasonal runs of diadromous fish drew people to gather at waterfalls and rapids along the Connecticut River and its tributaries. In addition to hunting and fishing, horticulture played an increasing role in Native American subsistence, and settlements became larger and more permanent (Waller and Cherau 2011, T. Binzen, personal communication 2013). The native peoples of the watershed belonged to the Algonquian culture, sharing a common language and social structure and following an annual subsistence cycle. Landscapes they inhabited were highly variable, from the mountainous headwaters in the north, to the broad verdant plains of the central valley, down to the southern tidal area. Through time, the river formed a common chain and a route for travel, exchange, and communication (Waller and Cherau 2011, T. Binzen, personal communication 2013). When the first European explorers arrived on the lower Connecticut River in the early 17th century, they encountered large Native populations, including members of the following tribes: Western Abenaki in the upper Connecticut River valley; Squakheag in New Hampshire; Norwottuck, Agawam, Woronoco, and Pocumtuck in the middle valley; and Wangunk in Connecticut. Dutch and English traders competed for influence with tribes, incrementally working their way further up the river to centers of trade in present-day Hartford and Springfield. Competition between tribes increased as the fur trade made control of headwater areas more important (Waller and Cherau 2011, T. Binzen, personal communication 2013). Between 1620 and 1700, colonial settlement was rapid in the lower watershed. Within the Connecticut River watershed in the Connecticut and Massachusetts Bay colonies, the establishment of townships followed a common pattern. Proprietors were granted tracts of land which they were expected to “improve” by felling trees, building farmsteads, and cultivating cropland. The soils of the lower valley were highly favorable for this enterprise. Simple industries such as sawmills, grist mills, and tanneries were ubiquitous on the streams and smaller tributaries. As late as 1700, however, the northern frontier of colonial settlement was not far above Springfield. The watershed from that point north to the French colonies of Canada was unfamiliar to the colonial settlers. In the aftermath of regional conflicts in the early and middle 1700s (including Queen Anne’s War and the French and Indian War), the Native American inhabitants of the lands north 3-2 Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge Part I: The Connecticut River Watershed Environment – Land Use: Historic and Current of the frontier were decimated by disease and conflict, and colonial settlement expanded progressively northward (Waller and Cherau 2011, T. Binzen, personal communication 2013). During the Industrial Revolution in the 1800s, forms of land use transformed the ecology of the Connecticut River watershed. Agriculture, population growth, and a profusion of new industries characterized the southern portion of the watershed. The establishment of the planned industrial city of Holyoke, Massachusetts, was emblematic of transformations in the central and northern watershed. By the 20th century, the availability of electrical power meant that industrial enterprises could be established away from the watercourses on which they had previously depended (Waller and Cherau 2011, T. Binzen, personal communication 2013). Forests and Farmland The landscape of eastern North America was completely transformed by logging, land clearance, and agriculture during the 18th and 19th centuries (Torrey and Allen 1906; Fisher 1933; Raup 1966; Cronon 1983; Whitney 1994). In central New England, 50 to 80 percent of the forested uplands were converted to pasture, hay fields, and tilled land by the mid-1800s and supported thriving agricultural activity based upon livestock and crop production (Bidwell and Falconer 1941;