Connecticut River Coastal
Conservation District

Our January 2026 Conservation Times newsletter features a cover article about a project to promote stewardship of Batterson Park Pond in New Britain, along with updates about District programs, activities, and events. Click on the newsletter image below to view the newsletter!

Have you seen our Coginchaug River water quality story map? This interactive web-based map summarizes ten years of water quality information for the Coginchaug River and tributary streams from 2012-2025, collected with the assistance of community volunteers participating in the Conservation District’s citizen water quality monitoring program, the CT River Watch Program. It has been updated with E.coli bacteria results through 2025. You can view the map here.

Our 78th annual meeting was held at the deKoven House in Middletown on Sunday, November 2. The meeting featured a program about dam removal presented by former DEEP fisheries biologist Steve Gephard, followed by a field trip to Highland Pond Preserve, where the dam was removed recently.  At the meeting we re-elected board member Denise Savageau, Old Lyme, for a three-year term as a regular member and elected new board member, Rodrigo Pinto, Moodus, for a three-year term as a regular member; reviewed our 2024-2025 accomplishments and activities; honored our conservation award winners (see details below); and enjoyed refreshments and conversation.

Many thanks to Steve Gephard, who gave a great presentation about dam removal and the Highland Pond Dam project at our annual meeting. We learned about dam removal benefits, myths, and the general process, among many other facts about dams in CT and examples of dam removal projects in the state. He also debunked myths, like dam removal will result in stinking mudflats. After his presentation he took us on a field trip to the site of the former pond/dam at Highland Pond Preserve so we could learn firsthand about the project and see changes to the area to date, including the native vegetation that has grown in in the area where the pond once was due to the seed bank. If you’re interested in having a look and observing the brook as it returns to its original state, the preserve is once again open to the public now that construction is completed. There’s also a nice walk there along a section of the National Scenic New England Blue Trail. The preserve, which is in Middletown, is accessible from either Bell Street or Atkins Street off of Country Club Road.

Congratulations to our 2025 Conservation Award Winners!

Tom ODell Outstanding District Service: Peter Picone, CT DEEP Wildlife Biologist & CT Envirothon Steering Committee Member, for long-standing contributions to the CT Envirothon as a Steering Committee member, as well as efforts to promote biodiversity and enhance habitat for wildlife through outreach and education about native plants and invasive plant management

Environmental Professional: David Brown, Middlesex Land Trust (retired), for contributions to regional land preservation efforts in collaboration with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and leadership in initiating and completing the dam removal project at Highland Pond Preserve

Project Award: School Farm and Land Lab, Amanda Thomson. Middletown H.S. Agriculture Science Teacher, for her vision for the school farm and land lab, and her dedication, persistence and hard work gaining support for and establishing this innovative learning resource for the Regional Agriculture Science and Technology Program

District Professional: Kelly Starr, Natural Resource Specialist, CT River Coastal Conservation District, for extensive contributions to providing conservation technical assistance to agricultural producers in partnership with NRCS, as well as being a leader in conservation planning work statewide

We are excited to share our 2025 Annual Report, now available on our website here.  Just click on the link to download the PDF.  We hope you enjoy the report, and please contact our office with any questions!

Our January 2025 Conservation Times newsletter has been published. The newsletter features a cover article about Agroforestry and updates about District projects, activities, and events. Click on the newsletter image below to view the newsletter!

Our 33rd CT native plant and plug sale will take place May 2-4, 2025 at the Chester Fairgrounds! The sale is by pre-order only again, with scheduled pick-ups to reduce wait times. Information will be sent in the mail the last week of February, and the webstore will be open for ordering on February 28 by the close of business.

In 2025 we will again have a large selection of shrubs, ground covers, edibles, perennial flowers, ferns, grasses and sedges, some new and some old favorites!  Our ecoregional plants include potted trees—Black Gum, Eastern Red Cedar and Northern Red Oak—and a wide variety of shrubs, such as American Cranberry Bush, Black Elderberry and Silky Willow. A selection of perennial and grass landscape plugs will be sold again in 5 or 10-packs.  Some of our new plants, or ones we haven’t offered in a while, include Blue Cohosh, Downy Goldenrod, Narrow-leaved Evening Primrose, Jack in the Pulpit, Ostrich Fern, and White Baneberry.

We are excited to offer conifer seedlings again after a year off. The conifers— Balsam Fir, Canaan Fir, Eastern White Pine, and White Spruce—will be sold in small pots rather than as plugs or bare-root seedlings. Potted seedlings have a larger root mass than plugs and do not require immediate planting.

Orders are due by April 6, 2025.

Order early for the best selection! You can shop in our webstore at www.conservect.org/ctrivercoastal/, download a copy of our brochure and order form, or phone our office at (860) 346-3282 to receive a hard copy.  Some of our plants will only be listed in our webstore, including our landscape plugs, so we encourage you to check our online offerings.

We look forward to seeing you in April at the Chester Fairgrounds! Please contact us with any questions!

Our 77th annual meeting was held at the deKoven House in Middletown on Sunday, November 17. The meeting featured a presentation about the Cultivating Justice Program and the Miller Bridge Community Farm in Middletown, followed by a tour of the urban farm. The presentation was given by Diana Martinez, who spearheaded formation of the farm as Cultivating Justice Program Manager with the Katal Center for Equity, Health, and Justice. At the meeting we re-elected board members, including Lorraine Jalbert, Middletown, for a three-year term as regular member; Ed Natoli, Salem, for a three-year term as a regular member, and Bob Alvarado, New Britain, for a 2-year term as an alternate; reviewed our 2023-2024 accomplishments and activities; honored our conservation award winners (see details below); and enjoyed refreshments and conversation.

Diana Martinez (on right) discussed the path that led her to the equity and justice work around food and farming she does now, then spoke about the Miller Bridge community, the development of the farm, and its goals and future plans. The farm was founded at Roosevelt Park in 2023 in Middletown’s North End as part of Cultivating Justice, through a partnership between BILPOC (Black, Indigenous, Latine, People of Color) farmers, community residents, Wesleyan University’s Center for Community Partnerships, and the Katal Center for Equity, Health, and Justice. Goals include cultivating community and increasing access to food in this under-resourced neighborhood. Over the last year they established raised beds and beehives, added laying hens, and are planning for additional growing space and composting in collaboration with, and in support of, the local residents. While on the tour we discussed possible habitat improvement projects that could benefit the farm, including pollinator plantings. We look forward to supporting conservation planning, implementation of new practices, and educational programming to benefit the community in this urban space.

Many thanks to Diana Martinez for her engaging and eye-opening presentation and tour. Thanks also to our conservation awardees and guests, friends of the conservation district, and staff and board members who joined us for the meeting.

Congratulations to our 2024 Conservation Award Winners!

Tom ODell Outstanding District Service: Chet Arnold, UConn Center for Land Use, Education and Research (formerly), for many significant contributions over more than 35 years, including as Director of CLEAR, to further land conservation and management through education, communication and research

Organization Award: UConn Center for Land Use, Education and Research, for outstanding efforts to support land use decision makers in balancing growth and natural resource protection for nearly 25 years, which have contributed significantly to improved land use decisions, natural resource health, and community resilience in the state

Project Award: Miller Bridge Community Farm, Diana Martinez with Cultivating Justice, for collaborative efforts to cultivate community and increase access to food through founding the Miller Bridge Community Farm in Middletown’s North End, working with BILPOC farmers, community residents, Wesleyan’s Center for Community Partnerships, and the Katal Center for Equity, Health, and Justice.

Special Merit: Chris Frey, Salmon River Watershed Patnership, for significant 11-year volunteer contributions to water quality monitoring and assessment efforts in the Salmon River Watershed, including summer baseline monitoring, macroinvertebrate sampling, and establishing and coordinating the conductivity logger program.

Certificates of Appreciation: Pam and Rick Huntley, Susan Michael, the Lecky Family and Lorrie Martin, for invaluable, long-term support of the Conservation District’s water quality monitoring activities in the Coginchaug River watershed as Connecticut River Watch Program volunteers.

We are excited to share our 2024 Annual Report, now available on our website here.  Just click on the link to download a PDF. We hope you enjoy the report, and please contact our office with any questions!

The District updated and published a new version of our tri-fold guide, How to Create a Streamside Buffer Garden in April 2023. You can download a PDF of the guide here, or contact our office for hard copies.  The guide is intended to build awareness of streamside buffers as important nature-based solutions that enhance resilience from storms, protect water quality and stream health, and promote biodiversity. This practical guide is one of several the District has produced to promote backyard stewardship of our natural resources. Funding was provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency §319 NPS Grant Program administered by the CT Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP).

Our 2024 native plant sale was another resounding success!! Many thanks to everyone who contributed to this effort to support and promote use of native plants in the landscape: our customers, volunteers, Board members and staff, and our nurseries for the beautiful plants they grow. It’s gratifying to have so many native plant lovers participate in the sale, and also that so many people are willing to devote their time to help make this major event possible. We look forward to seeing you at next year’s sale!

The 2020 expanded edition of Invasive Plants In Your Backyard! A Guide to Their Identification and Control are available only on our website now.

You may be familiar with our guide to identifying and controlling invasive plants, which was first published in 2009 and developed with assistance from the CT Invasive Plant Working Group. It was most recently expanded and reprinted in 2020 (the 4th edition!), and includes 22 plants that are considered a concern in CT.  Download a PDF copy of the 2020 guide here (25.6 MB). To date, we have distributed over 35,000 copies of the four editions of the guide and have very few hard copies left.  We are currently planning for our 5th edition, which will include four additional plants.

This practical, easy-to-use guide was developed to help landowners identify and control non-native invasive plants in their yards. Invasive plants thrive outside their natural range, threatening the health of our native plant and animal communities. Controlling invasives is a challenge, but the benefits are great!  The guide provides detailed identification and control information on the most common backyard invasives, along with recommendations for native alternatives.

Please contact our office if you are interested in obtaining hard copies of the next edition, especially if you are interested in large numbers!

The Conservation District’s virtual 2020 annual meeting featured an excellent presentation about the Connecticut River aquatic invasive plant survey undertaken by the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (CAES), given by Greg Bugbee and Summer Stebbins.  Aquatic invasive plants are a major concern in the Connecticut River from an ecological, recreational and economic perspective. Hydrilla (Hydrilla verticillata), a relative newcomer in the state, forms dense stands that crowd out native vegetation, harm fisheries, limit recreation, impede navigation and reduce property values.

Greg and Summer’s presentation covered recent efforts to document Hydrilla in the river by the CAES Invasive Aquatic Plant Program, and the plans going forward to address it.  Managing the fast spreading Hydrilla presents some difficult challenges that will require a variety of management measures, and a great deal of funding.  For more information, you can view the recording of the presentation and Q&A here. http://

Our long term Board member and friend, Tom ODell, passed away on July 28, 2018. Tom was an integral and significant part of the Connecticut River Coastal Conservation District over the 44 years he participated on the Board of Directors, the past 30 as Chairman. Tom led us through many challenges, changes and transitions, and contributed at the statewide level benefiting all five of CT’s conservation districts. We are very grateful for his dedication to the Conservation District, his leadership, all that he contributed to the organization over the many years, and his unwavering commitment to local conservation. Tom was also active in CT’s conservation community through many other local and regional organizations. His legacy will live on in the many open spaces he worked tirelessly to protect, his work to protect water quality and other natural resources, and his efforts to engage young people in conservation. In honor of Tom, we have renamed our District Long Term Service conservation award after him.

Tom’s obituary was published in The Hartford Courant on August 29, 2018.