CONNECTICUT FOREST PARK ASSOCIATION

CFPA News Notes

MMM Goes National

On March 30th, CFPA was joined by Con-gressman Chris Murphy, Senator Christo-pher Dodd, and Mike Gildesgame of theAppalachian Mountain Club at a pressconference at the Hill-Stead Museum tocelebrate the national designation of theMMM Trail. Then at 3 p.m., President

Obama made the designation ofcial by

signing into law H.R. 146, the “OmnibusPublic Land Management Act of 2009.”In addition to the MMM Trail designa-tion, this legislation also designated theWashington-Rochambeau RevolutionaryRoute National Historic Trail and autho-rized funding for the Quinebaug-Shet-ucket National Heritage Corridor.With the designation, the MMM (Meta-comet Monadnock Mattabesett) Trail

ofcially becomes the “New EnglandNational Scenic Trail.” The New Eng

-land National Scenic Trail winds over 200miles along traprock ridges, through for-ests, and across a patchwork of state, mu-nicipal, and private lands in 39 commu-nities spanning central Connecticut andwestern Massachusetts. Since 1931, theMetacomet and Mattabesett Trails have been maintained as Blue-Blazed HikingTrails by volunteers of the ConnecticutForest & Park Association (CFPA).Approximately two million people livewithin ten miles of the MMM Trail, andcertain sections such as Talcott Moun-tain, Ragged Mountain, Chauncey Peak,Higby Mountain, Castle Craig and theHanging Hills are well known region-ally for providing amazing views of theConnecticut River valley. The MMM Trailtravels through several “classic New

England landscapes” and harbors diverse

natural resources fostered by the specialsoils and micro-climates associated withtraprock ridges. Just one walk along one

section of the New England National

Scenic Trail will make you a believer . .This is a special place indeed.Under this new National Scenic Traildesignation, you may wonder what isgoing to change. One change is thatthe National Park Service is now autho-rized to provide funding and technicalassistance to help CFPA and others tomaintain and protect the Trail. Anotheris that a “Trail Stewardship Council”which town, landowner, trail user, andmany other representatives will over-see maintenance and protection of theTrail’s national scenic values. Finally, a“Trail Management Blueprint” is for-mally established as the framework formanaging the Trail. This Blueprint wasdesigned during a Trail Feasibility Studyand extensive public input sessions overthe past several years which determinedthe MMM Trail was eligible to become a

National Scenic Trail and enjoys signi

-cant community support.At the same time, many things willnot change one bit. CFPA volunteerswill continue to maintain the Trail inConnecticut. Land/Trail protection willcontinue to be accomplished throughexisting state and local entities on a will-ing seller basis only, and the NationalPark Service would not own or manageany lands. Because of the wide variety of landowners along the Trail, landownersare featured in the Blueprint which callsfor the following:

NEWSLETTER OF THE CONNECTICUT FOREST PARK ASSOCIATION

Spring 2009Volume 2 Issue 1

CFPA

NewsNotes

Conserving the land, trails and natural resources of Connecticut since 1895

Trails Day Events Announced

National Trails Daywill be held Saturdayand Sunday, June 6thand 7th this year, withevents throughoutConnecticut.

Page 3

Conservation CorpsComes Full Circle

Governor Rell an-nouncement of anew CCC has CFPArecalling our own richhistory.

Page 5

Family Rambles

Well loved program getsnew name and invites families to hit the trails.

Page 6

CFPA News Notes1

CFPA Executive Director Eric Hammerling speaksat the MMM press conference in Farmington.

facebook

Find us on

(Just look for this link on

www.ctwoodlands.org

and besure to become a fan!)

(Continued on page 3)

S p e c i a l M M M T r a i l E d i t i o n !

CONNECTICUT FOREST PARK ASSOCIATION

CFPA News Notes

Board Of Directors

President:

David Platt,

Higganum

Vice-Presidents:

Jean Crum Jones,

Shelton

Eric Lukingbeal,

Granby

David Sullivan,

Higganum

Treasurer:

Gordon Anderson,

Glastonbury

Secretary:

Eric Hammerling,

West Hartford

At Large:

Mark Ashton,

New Haven

Richard Bauerfeld,

Branford

William D. Breck,

Killingworth

Russell Brenneman,

Westport

George M. Camp,

Middletown

Starling W. Childs,

Norfolk

Ruth Cutler,

Ashford

James Dombrauskas,

New Hartford

Laurence Diamond,

Coventry

Caroline Driscoll,

New London

Astrid T. Hanzalek,

Sufeld

David Leff,

Collinsville

Scott Livingston,

Bolton

Geoffrey Meissner,

Southington

Karen Mignone,

Faireld

Bob Morrison,

Manchester

James Ritchie,

Sandy Hook

Starr Sayres,

East Haddam

Donald L. Snook,

Westport

Deborah Spalding,

Madison

Colin Tait,

Norfolk

Richard Whitehouse,

Glastonbury

Staf

Jennifer Benner

, WalkCTCommunications Coordinator

Lori Paradis Brant

, Education

Director

Steve Broderick

, Forest & ProgramDirector, Goodwin Forest Center

Ann T. Colson

, Trail ConservationDirector & GIS Specialist

Linda Cunningham

, FinancialManagement Assistant

Eric Hammerling

, Executive Director

Damon Hearne

, Land ConservationDirector

James W. Little

, Director of Development

Leslie Lewis

, WalkCT Director

Teresa Peters

, Ofce Manager

Dan Donahue

, Volunteer Forester

From the Executive Director’s Desk

Legislative Update

Every February since our inception,

CFPA has been actively engaged with thestate legislature to ensure Connecticuthas the best laws and funding availableto support sustainable forestry, well-managed state parks and forests, naturalresource/open space protection, andoutdoor recreation/trail use. This year,the combination of a sagging economy,

large federal and state budget decits,

political concerns with raising taxes,

and large scal stimulus initiatives has

presented unique challenges. Becauseof these challenges, the pace of activityhas been notably brisk at the Legislature,and CFPA has been working hard on thefollowing issues:

Recreation/Trail Use

: of course, weare thrilled about the action in Congressto designate the MMM Trail as the New

England National Scenic Trail and thank

Congressmen Murphy (CT) and Olver(MA) as well as Senators Dodd (CT),Kerry (MA), and all their colleaguesfor their support (see cover story). Atthe same time, a bill was introducedin the state Legislature, Proposed Bill5108, An Act Preserving Certain HorseTrails, which proposed that the MMMTrail (yes, the same one just designatedas a National Scenic Trail) and anotherBlue-Blazed Hiking Trail become “horsetrails.” CFPA opposed this bill, and wethank the AMC and Housatonic ValleyAssociation for signing-on to our testi-mony against it. After working with the bill’s sponsor to remove the Blue-BlazedHiking Trails and make other changes,we are now able to support a revised bill.

State Parks and Forests:

in the Gov-ernor’s Budget, attendance fees woulddouble for state parks, forests, beaches,

campgrounds, hunting and shing

licenses, and all licenses/permits cur-rently under $150. We are concernedthat this will reduce the ability for thepublic to enjoy our state facilities andencourage tourists to visit neighboringstates rather than Connecticut (the park and user fees in Massachusetts, NewYork, and Rhode Island would all be lessthan ours). We would support a mod-est increase in fees, but otherwise we areconcerned that this increase would notonly increase costs, but also would likelyreduce revenues.

Sustainable Forestry:

last year CFPAsuccessfully worked on new legisla-tion ensuring that more revenues fromsustainable timber harvests on statelands would come back to support the

CT DEP’s forestry program through the

Conservation Fund. This year, the Gov-ernor’s budget has proposed folding theConservation Fund into the state’s Gen-eral Fund. Although this move would

result in personnel savings for the DEPoverall, it may become more difcult to

target funding to support the Forestrydivision.

Natural Resource /Open SpaceProtection

: the Governor’s Budget hasproposed “raiding” $12 million from theCommunity Investment Act Fund. Thisimportant fund over the past 3 years hasutilized a $30 fee for the recording of land records in municipalities to sup-port over $35 million in grants and $75million in matching funds to 130 townsin support of farmland protection, openspace conservation, low income hous-ing assistance, and historic preservation.

We have testied on numerous occa

-sions and are talking with Legislators toencourage that this fund remain intact,especially as other open space and agri-cultural land protection funds are beingcut elsewhere in the budget.

Other Budget Issues

: As a way to slimgovernment, the Governor’s budget pro-posal has suggested cuts and consolida-tions of over 50 Boards & Commissions.This list originally included some Boardsthat both are important to some of ourstate’s most important natural resourceissues and, in our opinion, would resultin no real budget savings. Fortunately,a few of these Boards such as the ForestPractices Advisory Board and State Tree

Protection Examining Board have re

-cently been removed from the “cut list.”

CONNECTICUT FOREST PARK ASSOCIATION

CFPA News Notes

Join us for ConnecticutTrails Day 2009 and

TakeIn the Outdoors!

National Trails Day will be held Saturdayand Sunday, June 6th and 7th this year,with events taking place throughoutConnecticut! The Trails Day theme for2009 is “Take in the Outdoors”, an invita-tion to get outside and experience every-thing Connecticut’s great outdoors has

to offer. Events range from hiking and

biking to paddling, horseback-riding,trail maintenance, orienteering, letterbox-ing - a great variety of fun activities foreveryone to enjoy!Connecticut Forest & Park Associationhas served as American Hiking Soci-ety’s state coordinator for Trails Daysince 1993. We’re proud to say that, withenthusiastic participation by more thana hundred groups and organizations,Connecticut has consistently held thehighest number of events of any state inthe nation!Want to get outdoors and join one of the many Trails Day activities? Check ourwebsite (

www.ctwoodlands.org

) in mid-April, when we will post all the TrailsDay events. All members will receivea brochure, but if you want to suggestsomeone to add to our list, send an e-mail to info@ctwoodlands.org with “TD brochure” in the subject line, or call TerriPeters at 860-346-2372.

Trails Day Field Meeting at GoodwinForest Conservation Education Center

Remembering the past, learning for the future

Sunday, June 7, 1:00 – 4:00 p.m.

On June 4, 1949, CFPA held its spring eld meeting at Pine Acres Farm, James L.

Goodwin’s 1,700-acre managed forest in Hampton, CT. Today, that property is theGoodwin State Forest and Conservation Center, owned by the CT Department of

Environmental Protection and operated cooperatively by DEP and CFPA.

On Sunday, June 7, Trails Day visitors will enjoy a guided hike over the verysame ground our predecessors walked almost exactly 60 years ago. We will visitsome of the same forest stands, including a 75-year old “Blue Ribbon” researchplot, as well as more recent forest and wildlife management areas in the samevicinity. Goodwin Center Forester and Program Director Steve Broderick will join

DEP Foresters, Experiment Station researchers and CFPA trails experts to lead

guided walks throughout the afternoon. Hope to see you there!

Environmental educator Judy Rondeau teaches fern & wildower ID in the Haley Wildlife Gardens.

Establish a system for ongoing com

•

munication with landowners;All existing landowner uses and

•

rights will continue to be at the dis-cretion of the landowners;Trail protection will occur with

•

landowners on a voluntary basisonly; andNo federal eminent domain would

•

be possible with designation.For more information about the New

England National Scenic Trail, please

check the Trail section of CFPA’s website(www.ctwoodlands.org/MMM), or visitthe new website that will soon be set-upto inform the public about the Trail atwww.newenglandnst.org.

(MMM Trail - Continued from Page 1)

JOIN US: Spring TrailWorkshop

Sat., May 2 - Jackson Cove,Oxford.

This workshop will cover basic hiking trail design and mainte-nance. Projects include bridge build-ing, bar and kiosk construction, trailrelocation, brushing, blazing, and safetool usage. Visit