HVA, CLA To Host Meetings On Protecting Local CL&P Land

The Housatonic Valley Association and the Candlewood Lake Authority will host informational meetings in Newtown and Brookfield on lands which are currently owned by Connecticut Light & Power and could be threatened with sale during the current electricity deregulation or upcoming proposed merger with Consolidated Edison.

Local land trusts, land use boards and commissions, government officials, and other interested people are invited to attend to learn about this opportunity to protect open space in their communities.

The sessions are scheduled at 7 pm on Monday, May 15, in Room 5 at the Brookfield Town Hall, on Pocono Ridge Road (off Route 133), and on Tuesday, May 16, at 7 pm at the Booth Library, 25 Main Street in Newtown. The Brookfield session will cover the towns of Bridgewater, Brookfield, New Fairfield, New Milford, and Sherman. The Newtown meeting will cover Danbury, Bethel, Newtown, Monroe, and Oxford.

At the meetings, HVA and CLA will give an overview of the potential threats to these lands; share the results of their research on these parcels, including location, size, natural resource assessment, and proximity to other protected open space or water bodies; and discuss with attendees local priorities for protection and how interested parties can work together to protect important lands.

CL&P owns more than 2,000 acres of land in the Housatonic River Valley, in addition to the five hydropower plants along the river. These parcels stretch from the Massachusetts border to the Housatonic estuary in Shelton. For decades, CL&P has managed these parcels as open space, making many available to the public for recreation. Many of them are riverfront lots, providing vegetative buffering protecting rivers and lakes against polluted runoff; a river corridor habitat used by both common and rare animals, birds, and plants, opportunities for river access and waterfront recreation for naturalists, hikers, boaters, anglers, and artists; and scenic vistas.

Working with CL&P, local conservationists, and government leaders, HVA has already successfully protected several properties of regional and/or national importance – Candlewood Lake and lands along the Appalachian Trail corridor and the Housatonic River in Kent.

Founded in 1941, HVA is a non-profit conservation organization dedicated to protecting the Housatonic River and its entire 2,000-square-mile watershed, stretching from the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, through western Connecticut and a small part of eastern New York, to Long Island Sound. HVA works to achieve a balance between resource protection and community growth through research, education, advocacy, and community assistance.

HVA’s work to research and protect CL&P property has been funded by the Carolyn Foundation, the Waterbury Foundation, the Meserve Memorial Fund of the Fairfield County Foundation, the Ellen Knowles Harcourt Foundation, the EnTrust Fund, Northeast Utilities, and HVA members. Research support was also provided by CL&P.

For more information about the meetings, contact Land Protection Director Elaine LaBella or Environmental Projects Manager Kristen Andersen at HVA at 860/672-6678.