For Earth Day And Forever: Preserve The Meadow At 6 Commerce Road
To the Editor:
While many are joined in the effort to save the meadow at 6 Commerce Road from development, there are numerous reasons why we care so much. The nearby presence of the Hubbard Sanctuary is one very huge reason. But it’s not the only one.
Before the Hubbard sanctuary was dedicated in 2014, before Fairfield Hills Mental Hospital was established in 1928, and even before our town was founded in 1705, this meadow and surrounding fields lying within Colonial settler Samuel Sherman’s square mile farm have continued to play a key role in Newtown’s 300-year-long agricultural heritage.
Never developed, the meadow replenishes our critical underground aquifer. Downhill runoff of clean rainwater and snowmelt continues to nourish our Deep Brook and Pootatuck River wild trout sanctuaries. Native birds and wildlife including endangered pollinators depend upon its rare grassland habitat to survive.
All these factors and so many more must be considered before we throw away this heritage in the name of progress. Surely the best future use for the meadow at 6 Commerce Road lies in preserving it, not in destroying it.
Dottie Evans
Newtown
I wish when the Hubbard Sanctuary was so generously given the land the town understood the ramifications of the impact of such a generous endowment were understood. I would never have thought it would have prevented the town from selling one small nearby lot. The CVH club already counts a day care, a real estate group, four office buildings, an environmental clean up company, and a SEWAGE treatment plant as neighbors. I think we should tear down all these properties to honor the club. As for it being a “sanctuary and not a club” I have to question why over three (3) acres of open fields and native grasses were stripped? Doesn’t sound like a sanctuary to me. Don’t even get me started on the clubs rating on Charity Navigator!