Eightmile River Wild & Scenic Coordinating Committee (ERWSCC)

The Eightmile River Watershed News

2016-2017

Richard H. Goodwin Trail Opens

Along the Goodwin Trail: T to B. A woodland meadow, local dignitaries and board members at trail dedication and remnants of the past along the trail. P. Young Official Ribbon Cutting at the newly restored pedestrian bridge over the Eightmile River on the Richard H. Goodwin Trail. L to R, Art Carlson (East Lyme Conservation Commission), Chuck Barscz (National Park Service) and Rob Smith (ERWSCC, E. Had- In This Issue……. dam Land Trust & Conservation Commission). Photo by Humphrey Tyler

 East Branch-A Re- stored River

 Important Bird Area Chairman’s Column: Recognized With the dedication of the Good- selves into the natural world. This  Salem Community win Trail this past June, fourteen coordinated effort between the Trail miles of forested habitat are now Eightmile River Wild & Scenic Co-  Headwaters of Lake open for hiking. From East Lyme ordinating Committee, the water- Hayward to be Pre- to East Haddam this mostly unin- shed towns and the Town of East served terrupted trail system shows off Lyme was promoted as one way to  Bugs in the Water the Eightmile River watershed as showcase this multifaceted land- a peaceful place to immerse our- scape. To think that here in near-  Community Events continued on next page

Chairman’s Column continued

coastal Connecticut you can hike It reminds us of the adage of think- fourteen miles with hardly a hint of ing globally and acting locally. The civilization is a testament to the Eightmile River watershed with its watershed’s largely unbroken for- 40,000 acres cannot by itself pro- ested landscape. For those of us vide sanctuary enough for the long- who live within the Eightmile River term survival of all of our native flo- system it is literally the nature of ra and fauna, but it’s a starting these surroundings that make it is place. And as adjacent watershed so beguiling. And for those living groups, like the Salmon, continue outside the watershed the Goodwin to raise awareness about the im- Trail provides a regional resource portance of natural systems, our for nature exploration. area of southeastern Connecticut stands out as a valuable refugium Another way to look at the Goodwin for our native flora and fauna. Trail is to think of how it showcases the needs of the thousands of other It is the primary goal of the Eight- species that inhabit this watershed. mile committee to assist and facili- I read in Newsweek recently that tate management practices that On the Goodwin Trail according to the World Wildlife Fed- foster a compatible relationship be- P. Young eration the earth has lost almost tween all species inhabiting this 60% of its wildlife populations with- river ecosystem. Which brings us 2015-2016 Financial Report in the last 40 years because of hu- back to the Goodwin Trail because Income man activity. What a startling and here you can experience these habi- disturbing statistic. Our wildlife re- tat blocks and their connections NPS Federal Funds quires large blocks of open space to with one another. Walk the trail Annual Funds: $56,000 supply their life cycle requirements and notice how you move through Cost-Share Grant* $7,300 collectively resulting in a balance in the system of uplands and out- nature. From top predator to mi- crops, wetlands and waterways, dif- Cost Share Grant * $10,000 croorganisms, there is interconnec- ferent zones of forest and vegetation (carry over) tion between them all. As these and how they are all connected. Total: $73,300 connections are broken through The Goodwin Trail shows you all ______habitat loss, species begin to drop the parts and how they merge into out and because of their interde- the whole. It’s a great walk and an Expenditures pendence on one another a cascad- education as to how nature is put Operating Costs $45,702 ing effect of species loss sets in. together. Anthony Irving

Subcommittees -Education $2,433 SMALL GRANTS, EASY PROCESS! -Project Review 0 Sometimes a small infusion of cash at just the right time is all that’s needed to get a -Mon. & Science $1,611 great idea off the ground. With that in mind, the Eightmile River Wild and Scenic Coordinating Committee has created a Community Small Grant Program. If you -Protection & Mgt. $940 are an educator, a community leader, a civic group organizer…really anyone …with -Executive $3,960 an idea for a program or project that supports education and outreach to the local Cost Share Project $10,000 community about our amazing watershed, and if $50 to $300 would make your idea Other Projects $2,624 happen, we want to hear from you. Visit our website at www.eightmileriver.org and click on Eightmile River Small Grant Application on the home page, to find out Total $67,270 the types of programs that would qualify, and you can fill out a simple application. *NPS Cost Share Grants can We have a world-class resource right here in our backyard and it’s also a fabulous extend over multiple years classroom. Let’s work together to take advantage of it.

Ed Bills Dam Removal Restores River Life Eightmile River Wild & Scenic Coordinating Elizabeth Robinson, Eightmile River Land Steward, The Nature Conservancy Committee Members After several years of planning The riverine ecosystem. Through a great Nature Conservancy—partnering with deal of careful engineering and hard Anthony Irving, Chair American Rivers, CT Department of work the East Branch River channel Energy and Environmental Protection was restored, providing access to an Town of Lyme and several private land owners— additional ten miles of the East Bernie Gillis completed the removal of the last re- Branch River for migratory fish. Sally Town of East Haddam Harold, who serves as David B. Bingham the director of river res- Salem Land Trust toration and fish pas- Anthony Griggs sage for the Connecti- cut chapter explains: Town of Salem “Dam removal and fish- Eric Belt way construction help Town of Salem rebuild native migratory Linda Bireley fish populations by Lyme Land Conservation Trust providing access to up- stream habitats critical Richard Chyinski for spawning.” Moni- Salem Land Trust toring this past Spring Parker Lord showed the success of Town of Lyme Newly restored riverine habitat. P. Young the project. Fluvial spe- Melvin Woody maining dam on the East Branch of cialist species (those requiring swiftly Lyme Land Conservation Trust the Eightmile River. flowing water) including long-nose dace and fall fish were already seen Paul Armond Removal of the nearly 80-year-old Town of Lyme dam at Ed Bills Pond began late Sep- exploring the newly restored channel. tember in 2015, as the first breach of A community tour of the project and Rob Smith the structure was created and water tree planting took place in early Octo- East Haddam Land Trust again flowed unencumbered under the ber of 2016. Over 100 native saplings Mary Augustiny bridge on Salem Road. As the project and tublings were planted along the Town of East Haddam continued the pond underwent a re- river banks, helping to further restore Susan Merrow markable transformation back into a the habitat and prevent erosion. Town of East Haddam Kim Barber-Bradley Immediate Temperature Improvements: Comparing the last three summers of data above Town of Salem the dam (blue line) with below the dam (red line), 2016 summer results showed critical improvements in water temperature. For full data report visit: www.eightmileriver.org Jamie Fosburgh National Park Service

28.0 Eric Thomas Temperature ºC 26.0 CT DEEP 24.0 East Branch of Elizabeth Robinson the Eightmile The Nature Conservancy 22.0 at Darling Rd

20.0 Staff 18.0 East Branch of

the Eightmile 16.0 at Salem Rd Patricia Young Program Director Lyme Forest Block Recognized as an Important Birds Area Corrie Folsom-O’Keefe, Important Bird Area Program Coordinator Audubon Connecticut

This past summer, Audubon Connecticut, in partnership with Since 85% of our region’s woodlands are privately owned, Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental large blocks of forest, like the Lyme Forest Block, may have Protection recognized the Lyme Forest Block as an Im- hundreds of landowners. Small actions by individual land- portant Bird Area (IBA). This 60,000 acre forest block in- owners can have a significant impact in maintaining large cludes wooded areas in Salem, Lyme, East Lyme, Old Lyme, blocks of high quality habitat for birds. Here are some tips Colchester, and East Haddam that are important to the glob- for managing your property with birds in mind: ally vulnerable Cerulean Warbler, near threatened Wood Around the home, plant native vegetation that provides Thrush, and a fruit, seeds, nectar, and hosts butterfly and moth variety of oth- larvae for birds to eat all year round. er forest nest- Maintain or encourage a mix of deciduous and conifer- ing bird spe- ous trees on your property. Conifers provide protec- cies. The tion from the elements and predators in the winter area also sup- months. ports a variety Along woodland edges, encourage the growth of vegeta- of bird spe- tion of varying heights, from grasses and wildflow- cies listed on ers, to shrubs, to small trees. This will create habitat Connecticut’s for a wide variety of birds. Threatened Promote a dense understory and midstory of native trees and Endan- and shrubs that provides nesting and foraging habitat Cerulean Warbler Laurie Doss gered Species for species such as the Wood Thrush. List and over- Retain snags and downed deadwood and create brush laps with the Eightmile River Wild and Scenic Watershed. piles. Woodpeckers nest in holes in snags; while Public recognition benefits IBAs by increasing landowner, downed deadwood provides protection for ground local community, and visitor knowledge on the value of a site nesting birds. to birds. Once engaged, people make efforts to prevent dis- Learn more about invasive plants and develop a plan for turbance to birds and their habitat, and partake in steward- monitoring and control. ship. Recognition of IBAs can build and strengthen commu- Promote a diversity of forest age classes from very young nity pride and provide leverage in attaining funding for moni- (<20 years; <10% of the property) to very old (>20 toring, education, and habitat management. It can also spur years; >75% of the property) across the property and the conservation of lands within or near IBAs and collabora- landscape. Cerulean Warbler nest on the horizontal tion on projects. Lastly, IBAs have the support of Audu- branches of mature trees, but forage in canopy gaps bon’s network of state offices and sanctuaries, chapters, and with younger vegetation. constituents. Public recognition of an IBA carries no regula- tory authority and conveys no legal status, instead however, it encourages volunteer stewardship of local natural resources.

The Lyme Forest Block is a landscape-level Important Bird Area. Landscape-level IBAs are different from many previ- ously recognized IBAs in their size and in the number of landowners. Any landowners that are within the boundary of these landscapes are eligible for the benefits of recognizing their properties as part of the IBA. For more information about landscape-level IBAs and to register your property as part of the Lyme Forest Block IBA, visit: http:// ct.audubon.org/conservation/important-bird-areas.

Wood Thrush A. J. Hand

Bugs in Our Water….That’s a Good Thing? state and the results are used as part of a biennial assessment Pat Young, Program Director, Eightmile River Watershed to determine if a stream segment is meeting its aquatic life support goals. As with many watersheds, a primary threat to Well to be a bit more precise, finding certain types of benthic water quality is stormwater run-off also referred to as non- macroinvertebrates in our local streams is a good thing, a point source pollution. Non-point source pollution can in- very good thing. Every fall volunteers and students working clude nutrients, pesticides, oils, salt, sand, sediment and other with the Three Rivers Community College and ERWSCC, waste products that are discharged via stormwater or failing head out to our streams, brooks and creeks to conduct riffle septic systems. Annual assessments allow us to monitor wa- assessments. Developed by Connecticut Department of En- ter quality to ensure our local streams are healthy. ergy and Environmental Protection and approved by the En- This year 11 stream segments were assessed in the Eightmile vironmental Protection Agency, this type of assessment uses River Watershed, including two brooks in Salem which have riffle benthic macro-invertebrates (aka water bugs) to verify never been sampled. Final results should be available in stream health. spring of 2017, but even with drought conditions we can Certain species of insects, espe- report that we found a variety of stoneflies, caddisflies and cially those in the stonefly, cad- mayflies. disfly and mayfly families, are not tolerant of pollution. So when a number of different species from these families are found in the collection sample it tells us the water quality is good or even ex- cellent. The water bugs are col- A Roach-like Stonefly-A lected in well-oxygenated riffle Riffle Dwelling Macroin- habitats by using an aquatic sam- vertebrate with a “0” Pol- pling net and turning over and lution Tolerance Rating gently scrubbing the rocks imme- diately in front of the net. Six sites in the same or adjacent riffles are sampled as part of the collection protocol. The contents of the net are then emptied into a container and the bugs are then sorted by type into white ice cube trays using tweezers. Each type is then identified and several representa- tives are preserved in a voucher and sent to the State DEEP lab for verification. Three Rivers Community College Students at Ransome Brook in Salem with ERWSCC Board Member David Bing- This type of assessment is done in the fall throughout the ham and Toby the Dog. P. Young

Salem Community Trail: A new bridge over Harris Brook hand built by dedicated volunteers expands the multi-use trail system that extends from Music Vale Road up to the town complex. Clear span bridges built above the FEMA flood zones minimizes riparian habitat impacts, channel erosion and potential flooding. Photos courtesy of Sue Spang Protecting Headwaters By Andy George ment plan is for it to become a community forest, open to the public with access to hiking trails and outdoor educa- tion. The Colchester Land Trust acquired the Bulkeley Hill Pre- serve in August 2016. This new Preserve is a 115-acre par- The Colchester Land Trust currently has a capital campaign cel with frontage on scenic and rural Bulkeley Hill Rd. It is going to raise $850,000 to protect 200 acres in Colchester bounded on three sides by residential development and on and to repay a loan for the Bulkeley Preserve. They are one side by 15 acres already preserved by the Colchester about halfway to their goal. For more information or to Land Trust. contribute, please visit the website. The land www.colchesterlandtrust.org was offered to the Land Trust for a bargain sale. While this parcel primarily consists of upland hard- wood forest, it also fea- tures a 23- acre wetland system, a pond, vernal pools and intermittent streams that provide habitat for a diverse population of wildlife. The Bulkeley Hill Preserve is located in the head- waters for BOTH the Eightmile River and Salmon River watersheds, offering further protection to downstream habi- tat. As the preserve sits just north of Lake Hayward it is key to helping protect the lake as well. The long term manage-

Community Events: As part of its commitment to the community ERWSCC was pleased to be able to present a variety of programs in 2016 and planning is already underway for 2017 programs.

 Preserving Forests with New England For- estry Foundation  FrogWatch USA with Mystic Aquarium  Designing Storm- water Treatment Systems with East Haddam Middle School  Stream Bug Pro- gram at Devil’s Hopyard with Trout Unlimited and Groton Middle School  Summer Family Programs at Devils Hopyard  RiverFest 2016 with local and statewide conser- vation groups 1066 Saybrook Road P.O. Box 70 Haddam, CT 06438

Go WILD on the Eightmile Three Great Ways to Stay Connected

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Alewives in the Eightmile Photo by DEEP Inland Fisheries, Diadromous Program