NeighborWorks® Week 2016: Creating Opportunity to Connect

Day 5 of our NeighborWorks Week activities (Wednesday, June 8, 2016)! Creating Opportunity to Connect with the West River Watershed Coalition! 

The West River Watershed Coalition is a group of organizations and individuals working together to improve the West River.

Interested in joining? Visit their fb group page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/westrivercoalition

NeighborWorks® Week 2016: Creating Opportunity to Explore

On June 4th & 5th, the West River Watershed Coalition (which NHS of New Haven is a part of) sponsored two incredible West River hikes. 

NHS staff member, Kathy Fay, managed to score this awesome shot with our NeighborWorks Week signage! 

You can view more photos here.‪

Cleaning up Beaver Ponds Park with Local College Students

Update (3/23/16):
We received this great note this morning:

"Thank you, UNH students, and Neighborhood Housing Services, for your heroic work cleaning up the badly neglected Sherman Avenue side of Beaver Ponds Parks. We, as Friends of Beaver Ponds Park, thank you for your arduous work clearing old bottles and even the kitchen sink out of the park.

Nan Bartow 

Bill Bidwell

Friends of Beaver Ponds Park"

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All this week (March 14-18), University of New Haven students have been working with NHS to clean up Beaver Ponds Park, along Sherman Parkway. They were joined on Friday, March 18 with a few more students from Yale, and together they picked up trash and debris from the site.

Stephen Cremin-Endes (NHS) addressing the group

Beaver Ponds Park is owned by the City of New Haven and is an approximately 107-acre park that includes athletic fields (including Bowen Field) and an approximately 86-acre wetland and pond system. Friends of Beaver Ponds Park is a community group active in preserving and enhancing the pond areas for recreational uses.

Trash funneling into the pond.

A trash study was conducted in 2009. The study found that residential waste including plastic bags, bottles, cigarette butts, food wrappers, etc. from the areas surrounding Beaver Pond Park are improperly discarded and are transported by the stormwater system into the pond. Click here to learn more about this issue.

5 trash bags collected in just one morning!

UNH Student, Brianna

University of New Haven student, Brianna, says, 
"I haven't done a ton of community service and wanted some new experiences. We're always learning about other students going to exotic places for spring break to clean up, but sometimes where you really need the help is locally."

LtR: UNH Students Jen & Sarah

Sarah, a sophomore at UNH says, "I chose to volunteer as part of an Alternative Spring Break. I wanted to get more involved. When I first got here, [the Pond] was disgusting. There were bottles everywhere, from one end to the other."

Jen says "I’ve never really done anything like this. So I thought why not? And you have an entire week to do it. I actually enjoy it. It’s nice to feel like you’re making a difference." 

Cleaning up everything -- including the kitchen sink!

Thank you to all our volunteers! 

For more information about this activity, or any of our other volunteer opportunities, feel free to reach out to Stephen Cremin-Endes, Director of Community Building & Organizing at NHS: scremin-endes@nhsofnewhaven.org.

Press Conference! Join Save the Sound & the West River Watershed Coalition!

Save the Sound, on behalf of the West River Watershed Coalition, cordially invites you to celebrate the official release of the West River Watershed Plan. To mark the occasion, Save the Sound will be hosting a press conference along the West River in New Haven’s Edgewood Park at 5:15pm on Wednesday, October 21^st.

Show your support for the West River Watershed and commitment to the goals of the West River Watershed Plan!

Arrive for the 5:15pm press conference and stay for Green Drinks at 6pm at Manjares in Westville, where members of the Watershed Coalition will share the major findings and recommendations of the West River Watershed Plan as well as progress we’ve already made to restore and protect the West River and its tributaries.

What: Celebration and Official Release of the West River Watershed Plan

When: 5:15pm, Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Where: Edgewood Park, Entrance at 355 W Rock Ave near the corner of Whalley Ave and W Rock Ave in Westville, New Haven

Who: Save the Sound, the West River Watershed Coalition and YOU!

Update! West River Watershed Plan

A few weeks back, we posted an article on the draft West River Watershed Plan -- here is that post, in case you'd like more information.

We're happy to announce that the West River Watershed Plan is now live and ready to view on Save the Sound's website. You can find information on the plan, as well as all technical memos and appendices there.

Please feel free to share the plan with friends, neighbors, and colleagues!

Save the Sound & Environmental Engineers, Fuss & O'Neill, Present the West River Watershed Plan

On Tuesday, August 18, NHS of New Haven was proud to host the West River Watershed Coalition, Save the Sound, and the environment engineers, Fuss & O'Neill, as they presented their draft of the West River Watershed Management Plan. 

Presentation at the Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven

For close to a year, Save the Sound has been working on behalf of the West River Watershed Coalition to gather information about the ecological challenges that the West River faces, and what is needed to make its whole watershed healthier. 

Photo Credit: West River Watershed Management Plan

The 25-mile long West River originates north of Lake Bethany near Route 42 and flows south through Bethany, Woodbridge, New Haven, and West Haven, eventually discharging into New Haven Harbor.

The presented West River Watershed Plan focused on five areas of improvement --

1. Capacity Building -- strengthening and building local capacity to implement the watershed management plan.
2. Water Quality -- improving the water quality of the impaired segments of the West River and its tributaries by reducing loadings of bacteria and other pollutants. Consistently meet water quality standards for creation and aquatic habitat. Protect and enhance high quality and unimpaired waterbodies.
3. Habitat Protection and Restoration -- protect and restore terrestrial, streamside, and aquatic habitat.
4. Sustainable Land Use and Open Space -- promote sustainable land use and appropriate development in the watershed while protecting and improving water quality and natural resources, enhancing public access to and connectivity of waterbodies and open space, and addressing current and future flooding problems.
5. Education and Stewardship -- promote stewardship of the watershed through education and outreach, improved access to the West River and its tributaries, and citizen involvement in science, conservation, and restoration activities.
   

If you would like to read the full West River Watershed Management Plan and/or offer any comments or suggestions, please contact Kendall Barbery, Green Infrastructure Program Manager, CFE/STS at kbarbery@savethesound.org by August 24th, 2015. 

Photo Credit: West River Watershed Management Plan