HOUSATONIC VALLEY ASSOCIATION 2016 ANNUAL REPORT Celebrating 75 years – with you! Special Thanks to our TO MEMBERS AND FRIENDS Corporate Associates Advanced Multifamily Security Systems, Inc. Aqua Environmental Lab Aquarion Water Company B & L Construction, Inc. e can’t say it enough – thank you! Becton-Dickinson Co. Bennett Sullivan Associates W Berkshire Bank Foundation, Inc. You are the heart and soul of this great River Valley. For 75 Bouvier Insurance years, the passion of our members and friends has poured C.H. Nickerson & Co., Inc. through the western hills of the Berkshires and trout streams of Center Subaru HVA’s 25th anniversary Connecticut Institute for auction broke all records as the Harlem Valley’s Ten Mile Watershed, across the fi elds and Communities, Inc. the community turned out to forests of the Litchfi eld Hills to the oyster beds of Milford and Crystal Rock LLC honor auction founder and Stratford. Dixon Golf, Inc. environmental leader DSA Companies Diane von Furstenberg. Fairfi eld Processing Corp. FirstLight Power Resources, Inc., You restore rivers, teach children and protect natural places. subsidiary of GDF Suez N.A Because of you, town road crews and leaders are working with Foresight Land Services, Inc. Board of Directors university scientists to fi nd and fi x stream-blocking culverts. Price Chopper’s Golub Foundation President Greylock Federal Credit Union F. Anthony Zunino Conservationists are collaborating, and saving large tracts of our Harney & Sons Fine Teas Vice Presidents remaining forests. Young adults are gaining hands-on land and Harper Haines Fluid Control, Inc. George Logan Heritage Development Group, Inc. water stewardship experience and essential job skills. Iroquois Gas Transmission System Secretary Kimberly-Clark Corporation Barton Jones Litchfi eld Bancorp Treasurer Facing the challenges ahead – stressed fresh water systems, National Iron Bank James H. Maloney shrinking forest habitat, increasing demands on precious and O’Connor Davies, LLP Pawling Engineered Products, Inc. Linda Allard fi nite water supplies – we know that it is you, our members and Phoenix Realty Management Christine Baranski friends, who balance the odds. The Platt Brothers & Co. Joseph Ellis Precision Resource, Inc. Peter Greenoughj* R.H. White Construction Company Ecton Manning You make success possible! Imagine what this river valley would Rotary Club of Derby-Shelton, Inc. Michael M. Nesbitt be without you. On behalf of the staff and board at HVA, thank Salisbury Bank & Trust Barclay Prindle The Stephen B. Church Co. Honorary Members you! The Stone Construction Co., Inc. Allan L. Frew Tata & Howard, Inc. Diane von Furstenberg Tighe & Bond Union Savings Bank Advisory Council Upper Housatonic Valley National Leendert DeJong Heritage Area David Dolinsky Zuberry Associates W. Paul Dooley Shep Evans Christopher Kukk, Ph.d David Platt Harmon Smith Steven J. Whitman *With thanks to Peter for his service before leaving the board in June, ALL PHOTOS FROM HVA FILES EXCEPT WHERE NOTED F. Anthony Zunino, President Lynn Werner, Executive Director www.hvatoday.org 2 Special Thanks to our FOCUS ON WATER Project Sponsors Donald and Elizabeth Abbott Bernard Adams and Edna H. Travis Advanced Multifamily Security Systems, Inc. Linda Allard Angry Beavers Paddle Club Anonymous B & L Construction, Inc. Christine Baranski Becton-Dickinson Co. Bennett Sullivan Associates Berkshire Bank Foundation, Inc. Berkshire Environmental Action Team Berkshire Environmental Endowment Fund Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation Big-Y Supermarkets Scott and Roxanne Bok Borough of Naugatuck Bouvier Insurance You protect clean water and healthy rivers! Brandeis University Bull’s Bridge Inn Canyon Ranch You restore water quality Sharon Casdin Expand watershed work to the Pootatuck Center Subaru The new Still River Watershed Partnership aims River with the Pootatuck River Watershed C.H. Nickerson & Co., Inc. to restore the Still, one of our most polluted Association and Candlewood Valley Trout Darlene Clouthier City of Derby rivers, to fi shable, swimmable condition. Unlimited. City of Pittsfi eld Partners are mapping sources of pollution and Find more barriers to water fl ow and fi sh and Commonwealth of Massachusetts identifying restoration opportunities, wildlife Connecticut Audubon wildlife movement at stream crossing culverts Connecticut Community Foundation and recreation sites across all seven watershed working with town leaders, UCONN, the Connecticut Department of Energy towns in the greater Danbury region; the report Berkshire Environmental Action Team and the and Environmental Protection Connecticut Institute for Communities, Inc. should be ready this winter! Farmington River Watershed Association! Of Cornwall Conservation Trust (see www.stillriverwatershed.org for more). the 2,000 assessed so far across the northwest Cornwall Consolidated School Hills, throughout the Berkshires and south into Continued on Page 5 You also ... Seymour, more than half are impediments to Create New York’s Ten Mile Watershed fi sh and wildlife passage and can pose fl ood Partnership among town leaders and risks. organizations to improve stream health, water Evaluate “Rest of River” PCB remediation. quality and recreation, and reduce fl ooding throughout the ten-town watershed. And you help ... Pass legislation designating the Housatonic Organize fabulous river cleanups and paddle River as Wild and Scenic from North Canaan trips across the watershed. to New Milford with the Housatonic River Install a new river access dock in Stockbridge, Commission, Northwest CT Council of and continue work on access sites in Great Governments, Rivers Alliance and other great Barrington, Pittsfi eld, West Cornwall, Kent partners! and New Milford. Build trout refuges in Cornwall Bridge’s Furnace Brook with the Housatonic Fly By year’s end, we were working with town Fisherman’s Association. leaders to prioritize culverts for replacement Monitor water quality at storm drains across to enable fi sh and wildlife to move safely and Berkshire Director Dennis Regan Pittsfi eld, and maintain rain gardens to trout to return home to spawn, and reduce with the newly completed fl oating improve water quality along city sidewalks. costly fl ood damage, too. dock river access in Stockbridge. 3 IN MEMORIAM FOCUS ON LAND We lost two dear friends this year. We miss them every day. Ellen Rosenberg passed away in May. Ellen served on HVA’s board for 23 years, most recently as vice-president. As a retired professor of anthropology at Western Connecticut State University, she brought BILL WAKELEY PHOTO wisdom to our climate change Appalachian Trail in Falls Village looking into the southern Berkshires and river restoration work, especially in urban areas such as her beloved Still River You protect spectacular landscapes matches private individuals and family watershed. Ellen was an along the Housatonic River by ... foundations with land protection projects of early and passionate voice for Bringing together community trail leaders regional conservation signifi cance. collaborating with tributary to share ideas about conserving and linking Tapping remaining funds in the Greenprint groups and land trusts riverfront land, and… Landowner Incentive Fund (launched with across the watershed, now a Producing a Trail Map and Guide to a grant from the Jessie B. Cox Foundation fundamental part of all we do. Housatonic Riverfront trails and protected last year), Greenprint member land trusts areas from Hinsdale and Dalton south into completed projects totaling 1,400 acres in Einar Kent, Connecticut. Norfolk, Colebrook, Winchester, Kent, Lindholm New Hartford and New Milford. The passed away ... and Greenprinting the Litchfi eld Hills Incentive Fund covers costs incurred by in January, The Litchfi eld Hills Greenprint Collaborative land trusts accepting donated or deeply leaving a is working to protect large swaths of our most discounted sales of land or easements. four-decade important landscapes before it is too late. legacy of Unfragmented forests provide vital wildlife And you helped ... environmental leadership with habitat and replenish streams and wells with Protect a sensitive wetland next to the HVA and area organizations. cold, clean water (http://litchfi eldgreenprint.org). Amenia Town Hall. A retired architect who Evaluate the impact of a cell tower on designed in cities and towns You enabled the Greenprint to help two of its conserved and recreation lands and streams from Boston to Washington own – the Cornwall Conservation Trust and in Wassaic, New York and Kent, Connecticut. DC., Einar served as HVA’s the Goshen Land Trust – protect two amazing president in the 1990’s. He properties totaling 442 acres. The Cornwall At year’s end, we were evaluating led HVA through turbulent property completes a 1,000-acre swath of development impacts in several communities times on the Housatonic conserved land along the Housatonic River. and working with multiple landowners and land River, determined to resolve The Goshen land links another 1,000-acre trust partners to attract $10 million in public and hydropower relicensing and path abutting Canaan Mountain and the private funding needed to preserve more than PCB clean up issues. Einar Torrington Water Company. Both deals were 1,500 acres across 12 northwest Connecticut listened, refl ected, moved helped by $400,000 donations through the communities containing critical forest habitat forward – and succeeded. Greenprint Partners Pledge Fund, which and sources of