Happen Housatonic Valley Association
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HOUSATONIC VALLEY ASSOCIATION YOU make it HAPPEN 2018 ANNUAL REPORT Special Thanks to our THANK YOU Corporate Partners Advanced Multifamily Security Systems, Inc. Amazon Smile Aqua Environmental Lab Aquarion Water Company t’s a new day! B & L Construction, Inc. I Bank of the West Ten years ago, we faced an economic threat to our work together Becton Dickinson Monument Valley eighth graders remove Bennett Sullivan Associates grass roll to plant a pollinator garden at across the Housatonic River Valley. You stepped up to and over Crane & Co., Inc. Lake Mansfi eld in Great Barrington. that challenge. Crystal Rock, LLC Dixon Golf, Inc. DSA Companies Board of Directors Today, we face the life-altering threat of climate change, EarthShare President accelerating at a much faster pace than scientists predicted even Fairfi eld Processing F. Anthony Zunino FirstLight Power Resources, Inc. one year ago. Vice President Foresight Land Services, Inc. George S. Logan GE Foundation Harney & Sons Fine Teas Secretary And now, because of you, we are armed, energized and taking Harper Haines Fluid Control, Inc. Barton Jones action with allies all across the region. Heritage Development Group, Inc. Treasurer IBM Matching Gifts Program James H. Maloney Illinois Tool Works Foundation What does this mean for the forests and meadows that offer Ion Bank Foundation Linda Allard our best defense against climate change? This year alone you Iroquois Gas Transmission System Christine Baranski conserved another 2,000 acres of these critically important Just Give.Org Ann Barrett Kimberly Clark Joseph Ellis lands. What about the streams and sources of drinking water that Lee Bank Lou Hecht provide clean, cold water? This year you’ve restored and targeted Litchfi eld Bancorp Dan Horan O’Connor Davies, LLP Ecton Manning hundreds of miles for protection. And the lands that sustain us? National Iron Bank Rebecca Neary* That we love and enjoy? You’re stepping up to save them, too. Pawling Engineered Products, Inc. Michael M. Nesbitt Phoenix Realty Management Alexandra Peters* Pitney Bowes Employee Barclay Prindle It’s a new day. The challenges are big. So is our resolve. Because Involvement Fund, Inc. Evan van Hook of you. The Platt Brothers & Co. Honorary Members Precision Resources Allan L. Frew Price Chopper’s Golub Foundation Diane von Furstenberg On behalf of the Board and staff – thank you! Salisbury Bank and Trust Tata & Howard, Inc. Advisory Council United Way of Greater Waterbury David Dolinsky White Horse Country Club Shep Evans and Restaurant Robert Houlihan Winters Brothers Waste Systems Christopher Kukk, Ph.d Zuberry Associates David Platt Harmon Smith Steven J. Whitman *Joined in fi scal year 2019 Cover Photos Paddlers on a Stockbridge trip by HVA. House fi nches by Joe Ellis. Wood Turtle Beaver and snow scene in northwest SHEARST. PHOTO Connecticut by Bill Wakeley. F. Anthony Zunino, President Lynn Werner, Executive Director hvatoday.org 2 Special Thanks to our Project Sponsors Donald and Elizabeth Abbott Bernard R. Adams and Edna H. Travis Aquarion Water Company Berkshire Regional Planning Commission Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation The Bok Family Foundation BTCF-Berkshire Environmental Endowment Fund YOU City of Danbury City of Pittsfi eld Commonwealth of Massachusetts protect Connecticut Community Foundation Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection WATER Connecticut Institute for Resilient and Climate Adaptation Connecticut Lands Conservation Council Cornwall Land Trust Christopher Craig JOE ELLIS PHOTO The Dutchess Land Conservancy Eversource Energy Because of you, a spectacular cold water You also … Fairfi eld County’s Community Foundation Farmington River Coordinating trout stream is restored in Pittsfi eld’s Churchill Launched Berkshire stream teams in the Committee Brook! The old two-pipe culvert was perched Konkapot and Green Rivers. Fields Pond Foundation high above the brook’s surface, stopping Tracked down storm water pollution in Dalton, FirstLight Power Resources, Inc. trout from swimming upstream to spawn. Lanesborough and Pittsfi eld, Massachusetts. S. L. Gimbel Foundation Fund Louis and Elaine Hecht With city and state agencies, HVA members Tracked down bacteria pollution in the Historic New England and volunteers, and additional funds from Berkshire’s Southwest Branch. Honeywell International Corporation the Natural Resource Damages Trustees and Mapped at-risk streams across the Litchfi eld Horizon Foundation the Massachusetts Environmental Trust, we Hills and Southern Valley. Shirley Howe Iroquois Gas Transmission System replaced the pipes with an open-sided bridge Continued restoring the health of Wells Brook Barton and Debby Jones culvert. Now the brook runs naturally. Fish, by removing invasives and planting trees Peter R. & Cynthia K. Kellogg Foundation turtles and wildlife pass freely! And buffer along its bank with Dover High students, Kent Land Trust Lake Waramaug Task Force plantings fi lter pollution from road runoff. HVA interns and community volunteers. Litchfi eld Land Trust, Inc. Marcia Brady Tucker Foundation You’ve made it possible to map dozens of At year’s end we were analyzing watershed Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts problem culverts like this across the watershed health indicators and planning a new watershed Massachusetts Local Cultural Councils of Becket, Dalton, Hinsdale-Peru, Pittsfi eld in places like Dover, New York, the Berkshires, health dashboard to share with the public and and Washington northwest Connecticut and as far south as our partners. Massachusetts Department of Danbury, Seymour and Oxford. Miles of stream Environmental Protection habitat are being restored, one culvert at a time. Massachusetts Environmental Trust Middlebury Land Trust Millbrook Garden Club And you helped New York’s Ten Mile River Mount Riga Incorporated Watershed Collaborative launch its Protection National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Initiative for the region’s spectacular cold water Natural Resource Damage Trustees Northwest Connecticut Community trout streams, drinking water and wetlands, and Foundation the natural lands that nurture them. Miles of Northwest Hills Council of Governments stream surveys, water quality sampling at 15 key Oppenheimer Environmental Fund sites, and culvert monitoring are all underway Pitney Bowes – vital fi rst steps toward a watershed action plan! New culvert at Pittsfi eld’s Churchill Brook Continued on Page 4 3 Special Thanks to our Project Sponsors (Continued from Page 3) Pootatuck Watershed Association, Inc. Rivers Alliance of Connecticut, Inc. Roxbury Land Trust Robbins-de Beaumont Foundation Salisbury Bank and Trust Company Salisbury Land Trust Schantz Galleries Sharon Land Trust YOU Richard and Pamela Stebbins Town of Bethlehem Town of Cornwall conserve Town of Dover Town of Kent Town of New Milford LAND Town of Norfolk Town of Oxford Town of Sharon Town of Warren Trout Unlimited – Connecticut Chapter BILL WAKELELY PHOTO U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Union Savings Bank Because of you, a spectacular property in stretching from the Harlem Valley in Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area Norfolk teeming with brook trout, song birds Amenia, New York to Sharon, Connecticut D. Evan van Hook and wildlife is permanently protected! Linking in a critical Follow the Forest landscape. Jean Vitalis Canaan Mountain to the Blackberry River, The Greenprint Partners Pledge Fund will Eliot and Annick Wadsworth the 420-acre Vagliano parcel is also a vital provide the last piece of funding to the Warren Land Trust Weantinoge Heritage Land Trust link in a corridor of woodland and meadow Dutchess Land Conservancy and their Joseph Welsh stretching from the Harlem Valley through the farming partners to seal the deal! Werth Family Foundation Litchfi eld and Berkshires hills and into Canada. Helped the Salisbury Association Land Trust This corridor protects our cool clean streams, and the Cornwall Conservation Trust secure drinking water, and bird and wildlife habitat and state and federal funds to conserve another THANK YOU SO MUCH!! buffers our region against climate change. 360 acres of vital habitat. “We at the Dutchess Land Launched the online Regional Trails Map Conservancy are so very excited Partners in the Litchfi eld Hills Greenprint portal that HVA developed for the 21 town and grateful for your hard work and Collaborative are working to conserve this Northwest Hills Council of Governments brilliance in pairing the protection of Meili Farm with HVA’s Greenprint Follow the Forest vision. The Vagliano property that won the 2018 Regional Planning Partners Pledge Fund. I’ve told is a shining example of the power of partnership Award from the Connecticut Chapter of Hans Joerg and Craig Meili the that happened with you, a generous private the American Planning Association! The great news, and they are absolutely donation of $250,000 through the Greenprint online map is a great way to fi nd hiking thrilled! This funding makes it Partners Pledge Fund, state and federal trails near you. Now neighboring Councils of possible for the Meili family to conservation partners and funding, including the Governments in Connecticut are following fulfi ll their goal of protecting the suit as a great model across the State. farm in a way that makes the most federal Highlands Conservation Fund. sense for future sustainability. It will Helped the Warren, Litchfi eld and Middlebury also have a tremendous impact on The Greenprint Partners Pledge Fund gave land trusts hire shared Greenprint