Lisa Unleashed: Newtown's Open Space
This past weekend the Newtown Bridle Lands Association (NBLA) held its annual Frost on the Pumpkin Hunter Pace across trails, fields, protected open space and private property. Thank you landowners for keeping this rural tradition alive. NBLA was founded in 1978 while the Fairfield County Hounds (FCH) still called Newtown home. Many FCH members founded NBLA, then called Newtown Bridle Lanes Association which more accurately reflected the original mission of the group; to protect riding trails in this fast-developing town. In fact, in the next ten years, Newtown’s landscape was 33 percent covered in development. As riders in the town dwindled, leaving for more open and greener pastures, the NBLA’s mission expanded to save not only riding lanes but open space for everyone.
A Legacy of Protected Lands
Preserving open space for future generations is a Newtown tradition going back 90 years. The Newtown Forest Association (NFA) was founded in 1924 with less than ten acres. Today, it boasts more than 1,000 preserved acres. This has been a great asset to those who still ride in town. Many times, I’ve ridden on NFA preserves, from the Brunot Preserve on Taunton Hill Road to the Fosdick Preserve on Boggs Hill. On many a hunter pace I’ve cantered around the Hattertown Pond Preserve and traversed the Greenleaf Preserve on my way to Huntington State Park. I’ve ridden in Newtown since the 1970s and experienced open space dwindle due to development, but know our town and state is luckier and more dedicated than many.
Back in 1998 there was a state of alarm among us horse folks, that trail riding in town might end, specifically as development encroached on the bridle trails, and our legal easements on private property to Huntington State Park was blocked. In fact, it got ugly, physical, and litigious. At one point, we were faced with a make shift wire and post fence preventing legal access to the park. It was a sad time indeed.
It was around that time that the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) wrote its first annual report of open space, mandated by a 1997 law to preserve open space. There were two programs used to help purchase worthy parcels, the first started in 1986, the Recreation and Natural Heritage Trust Program and later the Open Space and Watershed Land Acquisition Grant Program. The stated goal of the new law, “protecting 21 percent of Connecticut’s land area by 2023. … With a total of 3,205,760 acres in Connecticut, 673,210 acres must be preserved to meet the goal.”
Open Space Statewide
Newtown followed suit in 1999, when it created the Ad Hoc Open Space Task Force to, “make recommendations regarding the acquisition or preservation of open space.” Many great preservations and greenways plans have come from this group of volunteers with their first report in 2002. With the NBLA and others still holding hunter paces around the region this fall, I decided to follow up on that 21 percent open space across the state goal set back in 1997. It was an easy find at www.ct.gov/deep/openspace.
Each year since 1997, the DEEP (Department of Energy and Environmental Protection) has issued a report with the progress, future plans, and acquisitions according to land type of either public, private or utility properties. In 2007, DEP published “The Green Plan” to plan out land acquisition through 2012. You can read it here (http://1.usa.gov/10x52sT).
As of December 2013, according to DEEP it, “currently holds 80 percent of the 320,576 acres targeted for state open space acquisition, and our partners hold a conservatively estimated 68 percent of the 352,634 acres targeted for conservation partner open space preservation. This accounts for a total of 496,191 acres held as open space, or close to 15 percent of Connecticut’s land area. Connecticut is 73 percent of the way toward achieving its open space preservation goal.” One of the most recent additions: 54 acres on Hanover Road as part of the Northeast Utilities Land Trust Conservation.
Currently the The Green Plan is under review and the state is taking feedback to enhance the next five years of planning. New components include creating an inventory of all the open space, identifying the highest priority acquisitions and to protect state-owned lands. According to the 2013 report, Newtown’s open space has been 100 percent inventoried.
Take the time to send your feedback to the state on the importance of open space preservation. With the good works of the NFA, NBLA, Town of Newtown, and State of Connecticut, horse folks should rejoice — there will be trails for generations to come!
Lisa Peterson is an owner/breeder/handler of Norwegian Elkhounds and equestrian competitor. As communications director at the American Kennel Club, she has won numerous awards from the Public Relations Society of America, PRNews and the Dog Writer’s Association of America. She lives in Newtown with her husband and three dogs.
Contact Lisa via Twitter @LisaNPeterson or elvemel@gmail.com or visit her blog www.lisaunleashed.com.