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Ridgelines Fall 2020

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Ridgelines Fall 2020 Newsletter of the West Rock Ridge Park Association Fall 2020 From the President: In this COVID pandemic time, West Rock Ridge State Park, and all of Connecticut’s other parks, have been important places of respite for Connecticut’s citizens. Once again, we have reason to be deeply grateful to those before us who had the foresight to create these parks. At the recent annual meeting of the Friends of CT State Parks, DEEP Commissioner Katie Dykes noted that park usage was up at all parks across the state this year, much of that in response to the pandemic, and the resulting need to interact in socially-distanced ways. As she noted, one of Connecticut’s main attractions is excellent quality of life; our state parks are an important component of that quality of life that we all enjoy. Deputy Commissioner Mason Trumble noted that in response to the pandemic, the parks stepped up and stayed open; attendance was up 300% in some parks. This is a clear illustration of how essential Connecticut’s state parks are. The pandemic is causing budget crunches across the country; Connecticut will be no exception. It will be important for all of us to remain vigilant and politically active to ensure that the Passport to the Parks funding is not diverted. The Passport to the Parks program ensures essential funding for our state parks; our state parks are essential to Connecticut citizens’ well-being, particularly in this pandemic time, but also in “ordinary” times. As Jill notes in her Update (below), the parking area at the Wintergreen entrance to West Rock Ridge State Park has been overfull this past summer. Decisions on how to solve this problem will involve a robust process reviewing all options and the potential impacts of different choices, with input from all stakeholders, including the West Rock Ridge Advisory Council, to ensure that essential wildlife areas are not impacted – such as the Woodcock display area. We are grateful for our park staff, for our volunteer trail maintainers (see articles pages 2 and 6), and for the naturalists who research in this beautiful park and share their knowledge and expertise (see article page 4). --Ted (Theodore B.) Lynn PARK UPDATE By Jill Scheibenpflug, Park Supervisor The park was busy this year. Lake Wintergreen had its usual busy season and we had wonderful weather, not much rain. Visitors were hiking, biking and kayaking. The parking lot is full most weekends. We are looking to solve this problem. We do have some ideas; one is to utilize the field where the old house is after it is torn down, hopefully this winter. We did a vista cut on the South Overlook to improve the view, especially the view of Sleeping Giant. We recently blew out Judges Cave with the leaf blower, hopefully it will stay clean. We cut the dead trees at Judges Cave. We had two big wind storms come through this summer. We had to close the park for two days so we could cut and blow the debris off the road. No major damage was done. We are hoping to work on fixing the patio before it gets too cold. We did have some vandalism issues: Graffiti on the wall at South Overlook. Someone put dead headless chickens and Porgies (fish) on the roof of the shelter. This was a first for us. It is definitely a strange thing to do. Individuals hanging out in the parking lot at Lake Wintergreen at night are leaving interesting trash behind. I hope everyone enjoys the fall, the best time to hike! PLEASE KEEP DOGS ON LEASH WHILE HIKING IN THE PARK!! IT’S NOT JUST A SUGGESTION; IT’S THE LAW! August Storms Bring Down Trees and Tree Crowns By Tom Ebersold, Volunteer Trails Manager After two years of relative quiet, West Rock experienced damage as a result of two storms in August: Tropical Storm Isaias on Aug. 4 and a strong thunderstorm that spawned a tornado on Aug. 27. The tropical storm mostly resulted in snapped tree crowns across the park, but did not bring down many trees. By contrast, the tornado cut a swath across the northern part of West Rock, uprooting rows of oak trees that completely blocked the Regicides Trail, the Sanford Feeder Trail, and Baldwin Drive. Through the efforts of volunteers and state park staff, these trees were cleared within a few weeks. The last storms to have a significant effect on West Rock took place in 2018 in the form of a March 7 northeaster and a May 15 thunderstorm. The thunderstorm also triggered the tornado that devastated Sleeping Giant State Park, and also cut across the northern part of West Rock, bringing down rows of pine and oak trees. These weather systems were the first significant storms to affect the trails since Super Storm Sandy in 2012. Tropical Storm Brings Down Tree Crowns Tropical Storm Isaias brought down occasional tree crowns, plus many small branches, and left carpets of leaves along the trails in some locations. The worst damage was along the Teal Trail. I cleared about four blowdowns that were partially blocking the trail, mostly oak crowns, including one blowdown behind Common Ground High School that was completely blocking the trail. Someone had cleared a couple of blowdowns along the Red Trail south of the main entrance. North of Lake Wintergreen up to Mountain Road, there was minimal to moderate damage. Thanks to Tom Parlapiano and Bob Stobierski for helping me to survey and clear damage along those trails. State workers cleared Regicide Drive to the South Overlook and Judges Cave. The state had also cleared Baldwin Drive as far north as the gravel road to the antennas. Thanks to Paul Wetmore for his work in clearing blowdowns on the Yellow Trail off Mountain Road, and on the Red Trail and Red-White Trails north of Mountain Road to Hill Street. Tornado Affects the Northern Section of West Rock A strong thunderstorm passed through Connecticut on Aug. 27, one that spawned a tornado from Bethany to North Haven, and a microburst from North Haven to Guilford. The northern end of West Rock was hit hard by this storm. Others parts of the park were minimally affected by those winds. On Aug. 28, I decided to walk the Sanford Feeder Trail after work and I chose well. There were multiple oak tree crowns blocking the trail, all of which I cleared. There were three oak trees across the trail, ranging in diameter from 12 to 15 inches. One was located midway along the trail just north of the open area with the culvert and remains as a stepover. The other two were located near the Regicides Trail, where the trail levels off. The one at the Regicides Trail was a double trunked tree that was also blocking that trail. I cut away enough branches from one of the trees that people could slide over it. I cleared enough branches from the double trunked tree, so people could stoop between the trunks. Trail maintainer John Rek was the major force in clearing the large trees that came down from this storm. John used his chainsaw on Aug. 29 to cut through the many downed trees on West Shepard Avenue north of the gate, which we needed to do to even reach the Regicides Trail. John also cut through the trees at the Sanford Feeder and Regicides Trails, cutting them narrow enough to discourage any potential ATV use. Eli Cleary helped with the clearing of West Shepard Avenue. The two of us used hand saws to cut medium-sized branches and rolled away the tree trunks that John had cut. Eli and I also cleared multiple blowdowns on the Regicides Trail heading up to the Regicides Trail. We used the brush to line the trail to keep people on the trail and to discourage them from cutting across the switchbacks. As we left I looked at the Regicides Trail by Baldwin Drive and saw a line of trees down heading north, which clearly defined the tornado path. Ridgelines, Fall 2020 2 John Rek, Gordon Daniell, Bob S. and I returned on Aug. 31 and cleared the multi-tree blowdown blocking the Regicides Trail north of Baldwin Drive. Gordon and I cleared tree crowns along the Regicides Trail heading south, some of which I used to mark the boundaries of the trail. On Baldwin Drive, we cut open a path through the tree crowns and cleared some of the small to medium-sized limbs on the trees. Driving to West Rock on Aug. 31, I drove on Hatfield Hill Road in Bethany, which sustained noticeable tree damage from the storm. This road is on a direct line pointing toward West Rock. My next visit was Sept. 4 when I did work on the Red-White and Red Trails starting from the Hill Street parking area. The Red Trail is clear from the Red-White junction near the field to its northern end at the Regicides Trail. Someone had cleared a tree crown on the Red Trail along the climb to the top. I cut the top part of oak trunk at the Regicides Trail junction, leaving a log on the ground that is easy to step over. John and I returned on Sept. 9. We saw that the state had cut most of the oak trunks across the northern end of Baldwin Drive. I cut the tree crowns from three other trees to open up the road, while John cut open the oaks blocking the Regicides Trail in that area.
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