The Hartford Courant
www.ctnow.com

By PENELOPE OVERTON
December 05, 2000

Connecticut awarded its highest level of environmental protection to 1,200 acres of the state's most unique natural areas Monday, creating eight new preserves on state-owned lands across the state.

The rare designation was given to lands in Westbrook, Old Lyme and Lyme, Groton, Cornwall, Windsor, Scotland and Colebrook. The lands range from rivers filled with Atlantic salmon to the sandy slopes of the state's only inland sand dunes.

"When you create a natural area preserve, you elevate the status of the land to the highest priority and put it in the state spotlight," said Jim Murphy, manager of the state Department of Environmental Protection's natural area preserve program.

"It's a guarantee to the people that whatever makes these lands special will not be lost, whether it be the land itself or the animals and plants that live and grow there. The state is committed to doing whatever it takes to protect these special places."

The announcement increased the state's natural area holdings to 6,700 acres.

New preserves include: Duck Island, Westbrook; Lord Cove, Lyme and Old Lyme; Roger Tory Peterson Wildlife Area, Old Lyme; Matianuck Sand Dunes, Windsor; Gold's Pines, Cornwall; Bluff Point, Groton; Merrick Brook, Scotland; and Sandy Brook, Colebrook.

The state will create a management plan for each preserve, spending up to a year enlisting consultants and hosting local public hearings, Murphy said. It can cost the state as much as $10,000 to develop a single management plan.

Depending on the area being preserved, plans address such issues as where to put up fencing and signs, how many times a year an area should be mowed, and whether predatory plants or animals should be removed. All costs are borne by the state.

Motorized vehicles and new roads are banned.

The state limits itself to developing a few management plans each year because of budget and staff limitations, Murphy said. Some previously designated areas have yet to get a plan, while one new one, Bluff Point in Groton, already has one ready to go.

The smallest of the new preserves is Westbrook's Duck Island, a 3-acre island less than a mile off Grove Beach Point. Endangered and threatened birds such as the snowy egret and the Roseate tern nest in the island's shrub upland and rocky shoreline.

The largest is the 566-acre Roger Tory Peterson Wildlife Area in Old Lyme, one of the largest contiguous areas of undeveloped river tidal marshes in the country. This mix of salt and brackish marshland is home to dozens of rare birds.

Plans to confer further protection upon Lord Cove pleased Eddie Eaton, a retired machinist and amateur photographer who spent Monday morning slogging around the salt marsh in search of wading birds and ducks to capture on film.

"I live for those days I can watch a great blue heron hunt among the cattails," he said. "I can lay on the shore all day long and watch the ducks fly overhead in the fall. It doesn't take much to ruin a nesting area, so I say the more protection the better."

Gov. John G. Rowland announced the selection of the new preserves in Waterford at a ceremony to honor the late William Niering, a Connecticut College botany professor. Rowland renamed nearby Goshen Cove Natural Area Preserve after Niering.

When Rowland took office, Connecticut had six natural area preserves, Murphy said. The earliest natural area preserves included forest research plots in Chester and Portland. Monday's announcement raised the total number to 25.