Groton Open Space Association

GOSA Urges The Day To Recognize Eccleston Brook’s Value

NEW LONDON–GOSA Board Member Joan Smith sent the letter below to The Day concerning Eccleston Brook and other environmental matters. The letter was published by the newspaper Jan. 9, 2006.

(Begin text): We applaud your call to protect clean water and good spawning habitat for our Native Brook Trout. We would add Groton’s Eccleston Brook to your list of valuable streams. It is “Class A” and supports Native Brook Trout, other fish species, and an endangered Wood Turtle colony. Its surrounding forest supports 75 bird species, including a rare breeding pair of Red-shouldered Hawks. Its wetlands contain a remnant of an Atlantic White Cedar swamp, one of Connecticut’s “thirteen most imperiled ecosystems,” and its watershed area supports two outstandingly productive vernal pools, featuring amphibian egg mass counts over 1,340. Amphibians are indicators of a healthy ecosystem, and like Brook Trout, can alert us to environmental stress.

Except for impacts from road sand at four specific road crossings, Eccleston Brook is in excellent condition. Groton Open Space Association has been doing everything it can to protect this resource from developmental pressure. We have provided expert testimony to land-use commissions and have suggested alternative designs for the Mystic Estates and Four Winds at Mystic projects [in addition to making efforts to preserve the tracts involved]. GOSA was successful in opposing a town-sponsored timber harvest in the Mortimer Wright Nature Preserve, and in opposing a proposal to dump road sweepings above the wetlands behind the Town Hall Annex. We encouraged slope stabilization at the site, but are still concerned that sand and salt are mixed in an open area above the wetlands.

Since 2002, more than 1,400 housing units have been proposed in Groton, and new applications keep appearing. Fort Hill Brook, Bindloss Brook and Great Brook, a main component of Groton’s reservoir system, are also at risk, as are our upland shrub habitats, forests, estuaries and tidal wetlands. GOSA has advocated that Groton update and strengthen its land-use regulations, conduct an inventory of its remaining resources and commission a “build-out” analysis, for use as a planning tool. Groton is headed for full build-out, and our natural resources could be lost forever. (End Text)