To the Editor:

I wanted to express my personal appreciation to everyone who supported the riparian buffer tree planting last Saturday along a treeless section of Town open space through which the Pootatuck River flows. This river area would have remained treeless without the planting of larger trees since there exists a strong infestation of invasive plants including mugwort, mile-a-minute, multiflora rose, and Asian bittersweet, which now overwhelm any natural native plant growth and prevent it from surviving. These plantings will support heritage food chains, stabilize the ground, reduce the erosion effects of flooding, plus provide needed shade on the stream to keep its cold-water characteristics that support its remaining native cool water life forms. This riparian buffer work is part of the Pootatuck River Partners’ Pootatuck River Watershed Management Plan, the draft of which can be found at the Pootatuck Watershed Association website pootatuckwatershed.org.

Thanks to the Town for permitting the plantings to be done; to Holmes Fine Gardens for sourcing and delivering the plants to the work area; to Candlewood Valley Trout Unlimited for covering the substantial cost of materials and the native sycamore, swamp maple, and spotted alder trees; and not the least the young women and leaders of Scout Troop 870 and other volunteers from the Pootatuck Watershed Association, Candlewood Valley Trout Unlimited, and the Newtown Conservation Coalition for putting on their boots and gloves to plant the trees and then to stake and cage them to guard against beaver and deer damage.

Newtown is blessed with a wonderful asset in the Pootatuck River and its tributaries and the aquifer underneath it that is the water source of much of the Town’s residents’ drinking water. With continued efforts such as those last Saturday, we hopefully will restore and support our town’s legacy of a healthy stream habitat and water supply for the residents of Newtown and the native life forms that also reside in and along and depend on the river and its watershed, now and in the future.

Gratefully yours,

Randy Walker

President, Pootatuck Watershed Association

Newtown