Projects
- Streamwalks
TRBP is pleased to partner with the Quinebaug-Shetucket
Heritage Corridor, Inc, who sponsors a part time water quality monitoring
coordinator. In cooperation with the USDA Natural Resources
Conservation Service and Connecticut Audubon Society Center at Pomfret
Citizen Science Program, the QSHC Water Quality Monitoring Program organizes
volunteers to participate in visual assessments of wadable streams in
targeted watersheds in the Thames basin. For more information, contact
Jean Pillo.
2007 Streamwalk Program
The tributary streams in the Poquetanuck Cove watershed were assessed,
along with portions of the upper Five Mile River and several streams that
flow into Quaddick Reservoir in Thompson.
2008 Streamwalk Program
The assessments in the upper Five Mile River/Quaddick Lake will continue
with the assistance of the Quaddick Lake Association. A new Streamwalk
program will be initiated for Eagleville Brook in Storrs and Mansfield.
Volunteer training will take place on June 21, 2008.
In the past, the TRBP participated in several natural resource stream
inventories in the Thames River
Basin. We’ve had great support from the conservation districts, now merged and renamed the Eastern
Connecticut Conservation District, and other partners such as the CT Department
of Environmental Protection and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation
Service. We trained local residents to
evaluate stream and stream bank conditions and report on them. This information base is useful to document
erosion problems and other runoff and nonpoint source pollution problems. So far the Quinebaug, Shetucket and Willimantic Rivers
have been “stream walked”.
Below are some details and an update to the Willimantic River Streamwalk
thanks to the Willimantic River
Alliance and the ECCD:
2000-01 Streamwalk
In 2000 and 2001, 50 volunteers participated in a Streamwalk along the
Willimantic River and its tributaries. After attending a training session, teams
walked, waded or paddled along the waterways to observe conditions in the water
and along the banks. All of the data they collected was entered into a database,
and a Streamwalk report was published in 2002. The Eastern Connecticut
Conservation District (ECCD) coordinated this effort and produced the
Streamwalk Report with funding in part by the Connecticut Department of
Environmental Protection (DEP) through a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) Clean Water Act 319 nonpoint source grant. At that time, ECCD was the
Windham County Soil and Waters Conservation District.
2005 Follow-up
The ECCD recently received a grant to review the Streamwalk data and to
create action plans to address water quality problems identified in 2000-01.
These plans will include revisiting specific sites and assisting towns, local
agencies and organizations to plan for improving water quality at these sites.
The goal of these projects is to improve the overall water quality in the river
and its tributaries and to enhance the quality of the Willimantic River
Greenway, which offers prime fishing sites and a canoe-kayak trail. ECCD is
sponsoring this project in cooperation with the Willimantic River Alliance and
the North Central Conservation
District, which includes a northern portion of the river's watershed. This
follow-up project is funded in part by a Connecticut DEP grant for water quality
management planning through a U.S. EPA 604 (b) grant. |
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