The state Department of Environmental Protection’s announcement this week that it would like to buy about half the land holdings in the state from BHC, the former Bridgeport Hydraulic Company, came as a relief to conservationists in Newtown. As part of a proposed greenway along the Aspetuck River and buffer to the Collis P. Huntington State Park in Bethel and Redding, DEP would like to purchase 602 acres in Newtown adjacent to the state park in the Poverty Hollow Road area. The state says it is not interested in an additional 44 swampy acres of BHC land in Newtown.

The announcement came after months of concern by environmental and conservation groups that the sale last January of BHC’s parent company, Aquarion, to the Kelda group, a multi-national utility based in England, would result in the sale and development of up to 12,000 acres in southwestern Connecticut. BHC disputed those figures, but it was clear that thousands of acres of land not designated as protected watershed could eventually be sold off by the utility, including as much as 460 acres in Newtown, according to the Connecticut Fund for the Environment. The new owners sought to allay fears by agreeing to a moratorium on the sale of any of its land holdings for two or three years, depending on the land’s proximity to a watercourse or its use as a watershed area. The moratorium, however, was only a temporary reprieve from the threat of developed utility lands.

The DEP’s decision to try to acquire the land is extraordinarily good news for Newtown. It would create over 600 acres of new, permanent open space in an area of town that is facing increased pressure for development. That is more than three times the acreage the town is thinking of purchasing at Fairfield Hills. As state-protected land, the tract would be a de facto expansion of the scenic Huntington State Park into Newtown and would provide a greenway link to the Aspetuck River. The DEP is also proposing the state’s acquisition of 2,895 acres in Easton and another 1,218 in Redding, setting aside still more land in towns facing their own development pressures in environmentally sensitive areas.

This move by the state’s environmental agency reflects an environmentally enlightened attitude about the importance of watercourses, watersheds, and adjacent lands to the quality of life in Connecticut. Northern Fairfield County is growing and transforming itself through development. It is good to know that in some areas, at least, the awareness of the need for open space is growing as well.