Environmental Journalists Talk About Their Beat Rotting Holes—Home Sweet Home
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CONNECTICUT Woodlands ENVIRONMENTAL JOURNALISTS TALK ABOUT THEIR BEAT ROTTING HOLES—HOME SWEET HOME. BLUE TRAILS MAP INSIDE. The Magazine of the Connecticut Forest & Park Association FALL 2015 Volume 80 No 3 The ConnectiCuT ForesT & Park assoCiaTion, inC. OFFICERS PRESIDENT, ERIC LUKINGBEAL, Granby VICE-PRESIDENT, WILLIAM D. BRECK, Killingworth VICE-PRESIDENT, DAVID G. LAURETTI, Bloomfield VICE-PRESIDENT, STARR SAYRES, East Haddam TREASURER, JAMES W. DOMBRAUSKAS, New Hartford SECRETARY, ERIC HAMMERLING, West Hartford FORESTER, THOMAS J. DEGNAN, East Haddam DIRECTORS BRETT BOSKIEWICZ, Simsbury STARLING W. CHILDS, Norfolk JESSI CHRISTIANSEN, Killingworth R. RICHARD CROCE, Killingworth RUTH CUTLER, Ashford CAROLINE DRISCOLL, New London PETER KNIGHT, Bloomfield MICHAEL LECOURS, Farmington SCOTT LIVINGSTON, Bolton JEFF LOUREIRO, Canton RUSS CHAREST ERIN McGRATH, Wesleyan University LAUREN L. McGREGOR, ESQ., Hamden Building a bridge on the new trail in the Whitney Forest. See page 22 JEFFREY O’DONNELL, Bristol DAVID PLATT, Chester RAYMOND RADIKAS, Glastonbury ALEX J. SIEBERT, Wesleyan University Annual Membership RICHARD WHITEHOUSE, Glastonbury Connecting People to the Land Individual $ 35 HONORARY DIRECTORS Our mission: The Connecticut Forest & Park Family $ 50 Association protects forests, parks, walking GORDON L. ANDERSON, St. Johns, FL Supporting $ 100 HARROL W. BAKER, JR., Bolton trails and open spaces for future generations by RICHARD A. BAUERFELD, Redding connecting people to the land. CFPA directly Benefactor $ 250 RUSSELL BRENNEMAN, Westport involves individuals and families, educators, GEORGE M. CAMP, Middletown community leaders and volunteers to enhance ANN CUDDY, Ashland, OR Life Membership $ 2500 PRUDENCE CUTLER, Farmington and defend Connecticut’s rich natural heritage. SAMUEL G. DODD, North Andover, MA CFPA is a private, non-profit organization that ASTRID T. HANZALEK, Suffield relies on members and supporters to carry out JOHN HIBBARD, Hebron its mission. Corporate Membership JOSEPH HICKEY, Wethersfield JEAN CRUM JONES, Shelton Our vision: We envision Connecticut as a Club / Non-profit $ 75 EDWARD A. RICHARDSON, Glastonbury place of scenic beauty whose cities, suburbs, Sustaining $ 100 L.P. SPERRY, JR., Middlebury and villages are linked by a network of parks, SALLY L. TAYLOR, Mystic Landmark $ 250 SIDNEY VAN ZANDT, Noank forests, and trails easily accessible for all people to challenge the body and refresh the spirit. We Stewardship $ 500 STAFF picture a state where clean water, timber, farm TRAILS PROMOTION MANAGER & ENGAGEMENT ADVOCATE, Leadership $ 1000 JENNIFER BENNER, Rockfall fresh foods, and other products of the land make EDUCATION DIRECTOR, LORI PARADIS BRANT, Rockfall a significant contribution to our economic and TRAIL STEWARDSHIP DIRECTOR, CLARE CAIN, Niantic cultural well-being. EVENTS AND VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR, ELIZABETH FOSSETT, Meriden MEMBERSHIP & MARKETING DIRECTOR, Connecticut Woodlands MARTY GOSSELIN, Durham EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ERIC HAMMERLING, West Hartford Published quarterly by the DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR, JAMES W. LITTLE, Hebron Connecticut Forest & Park Association, ADVANCEMENT ASSISTANT, KARA MURPHY, Guilford 16 Meriden Road, LAND CONSERVATION DIRECTOR, LINDSAY SUHR, North Haven Rockfall, CT 06481-2961 FOREST & PROGRAM DIRECTOR, GOODWIN FOREST CENTER, Indexed in the Connecticut Periodical Index, Printed on 60% Recycled, JAMES PARDA, Coventry ISSN 00106257 OFFICE MANAGER, TERESA PETERS, Durham FSC and Green-e Certified Paper Telephone: 860-346-TREE EDITOR, CHRISTINE WOODSIDE Fax: 860-347-7463. COPYEDITOR, ROBIN GOLD GRAPHIC DESIGNER, KAREN WARD E-mail address: [email protected] Web site: ctwoodlands.org 2 | CONNECTICUT WOODLANDS | FALL 2015 CONNECTICUT Woodlands The Magazine of the Connecticut Forest & Park Association FALL 2015 Volume 80 No.3 CONTENTS FEATURES DEPARTMENTS 6 THE ENVIRONMENT BEAT. 4 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE. Thoughts on what the pope’s Society cannot give a hoot climate encyclical means for without understanding. the world. By Steve Grant. By Eric Lukingbeal. Not simply a job— a public service. 5 EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE. By Judy Benson. Media and Connecticut’s outdoors. By Eric Hammerling. A jumble of puzzle pieces falls into a pattern that engages. 20 ON THE TRAILS By Nancy Cohen. Poetry on the trails: From mushroom farms to the A pilot project. state capital. By Tom Tella. By Patrick Skahill. Why I do trail work. On foot, eyes down. By Tom Ebersold. By Christine Woodside. CFPA building new hiking trail Thirteen years after he thought at Whitney Forest. he’d run out of ideas. By Clare Cain. By Peter Marteka. 23 OBITUARIES. 18 HOLEY HABITATS. Philip Jones, Robert Brown, Development and land patterns Cristine Staubach, Martha Vernlund. diminish numbers of available cavities for wildlife needs. 26 TRY THIS HIKE. By Diane Friend Edwards. Find fabulous foliage views on the Metacomet Trail. 13 -16 CFPA IN THE COMMUNITY. By Diane Friend Edwards. A timeline of CFPA milestones 28 FROM THE LAND. and descriptions of its many Rooting for rutabagas. offerings. By Jean Crum Jones. Map of the Blue-Blazed HikingTrails. Notes on naming beneficiaries. On the Cover: Judy Benson, health and environment reporter for The Day, leaps across a stream in Torrington while watching a University of Connecticut researcher who was looking for bear hair samples. DANA JENSEN FALL 2015 | CONNECTICUT WOODLANDS | 3 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Thoughts on what the pope’s climate encyclical means for the world BY ERIC LUKINGBEAL HE IS IN LOCKSTEP WITH THE OVERWHELMING SCIENTIFIC CONSENSUS THAT THE EARTH IS n late May, when Pope Francis issued WARMING AND THAT HUMANS ARE CAUSING MOST OF IT. HE BELIEVES THAT IMMEDIATE an encyclical about ACTION IS NEEDED TO HEAD OFF DISASTER AND ALLOW A HABITABLE WORLD TO BE LEFT TO I climate change, I decided to read its English translation on FUTURE GENERATIONS. the Vatican’s website. Although mainstream overwhelming scientific consensus that the The theme of connectedness is omnipres- media outlets wrote extensively about this Earth is warming and that humans are caus- ent. The late renowned ecologist Barry Com- document, I suspect the actual readership ing most of it. He believes that immediate moner’s first principle is that everything in the of the entire document, called “Laudato Si’: action is needed to head off disaster and environment is connected. Francis uses the On Care for Our Common Home,” is quite allow a habitable world to be left to future word, but in a different sense. He means that small. I am not a Catholic, and I have never generations. “Dominion” over the earth is the health of the environment is connected read an encyclical before, but I decided to not the correct interpretation of the Scrip- both to human’s spiritual happiness and to read all 46,000 words, in two sessions over tures; instead, “responsible stewardship” is economic justice for the poor. The three are two days. correct. Nature should not be viewed as a connected, and none can be achieved in iso- “Laudato Si’” took its title from Francis source of profit and gain. Francis has no faith lation from the other two. Francis’s view of of Assisi’s Canticle of the Creatures, which in the market as a solution to environmen- modern civilization is bleak. “The accumu- reads in full: “Praise be to you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sus- tal problems; as he says, “Some circles main- lation of constant novelties exalts a superfici- tains and governs us, and who produces var- tain that correct economics and technology ality which pulls in one direction. Let us ious fruit with flowers and herbs.” will solve all environmental problems yet by refuse to resign ourselves to this. Other- The early public reaction to the pope’s itself the market cannot guarantee integral wise we would simply legitimate the present powerful work was of two kinds. Environ- human development and social inclusion.” situation and need new forms of escapism to mentalists praised it, as it is not often that He also says this: “To seek only a technical endure the emptiness.” The ecological crisis is someone with the ear of 1.3 billion peo- remedy to each environmental problem . is just one small sign of the “ethical, cultural and ple speaks so clearly on the topic of climate. to separate what is in reality interconnected spiritual crisis of modernity, and we cannot Some politicians and corporate interests sug- and to mask the true and deepest problems presume to heal our relationship with nature gested that the pope and his church ought to of the global system.” His language is blunt. and the environment without healing all fun- stick to improving society’s moral standards “It [the idea that unlimited growth is possi- damental human relationships.” He also says, and stay out of the science of climate change. ble] is based on the lie that there is an infinite “Many people today sense a profound imbal- After I read the encyclical, I thought the supply of the earth’s goods, and this leads to ance which drives them to frenetic activity critics had missed (or were blind to) Pope the planet being squeezed dry beyond any and makes them feel busy in a constant hurry Francis’s point. The point is that how we limit.” The notion of progress itself comes which in turn leads them to ride rough-shod treat our “common home” is a deeply moral in for heavy criticism. Consider this: “Tech- over everything around them. This too affects issue and, in one sense, the most important nology, which linked to business interests is how they treat the environment.” moral issue we humans face. Jean-Paul Sartre presented as the only way of solving these Francis is skeptical too of political or purely made a similar point: “Everything has been problems in fact proves incapable of seeking legal-regulatory fixes: “We should not think figured out except how to live.” Francis has the mysterious network of relations between that political efforts or the force of law will a lot to say on the morality of how we live. things and so sometimes solves one problem be sufficient to prevent actions which affect Francis lays his case out in methodical only to create others.