ENVIRONMENT Trash collecting in the brook, leading to Housatonic River
A Resource For Sustainability New Milford plans long term rehab of Great Brook
O
ne of the best resources for towns and cities is SustainableCT. And one of the best resources in SustainableCT is the Community Match Fund. Recently, New Milford’s Sustainable Committee utilized this resource to help them restore Great Brook, a small tributary river located in their town. A large majority of towns and cities in Connecticut are already registered for SustainableCT, 123 out of 169, in fact, and just over half of them are certified Bronze or Silver. But only 53 towns so far have taken advantage of the Community Match Fund. Any currently participating municipality can create a project on the Patronicity platform, and SustainableCT will match it dollar-for-dollar. In New Milford, the goal was to “remove years of accumulated rubbish and invasives that crowd out native species, while strengthening the banks of Great Brook, a Housatonic River Tributary.” From their Patronicity page, they said that the banks of the brook are beginning to collapse where invasive plant species have overtaken native plants. As part of the ecosystem, these species can cause downstream – literally – effects where native birds and animals are locked out of their normal territories. The campaign started in the middle of November 2020, and was officially fully funded on January 1, 2021. This gave the Sustainable New Milford team
$15,000 for a “robust and comprehensive master restoration plan for the entire four-mile stream.” According to the project budget, around $4000 was to be spent on field assessment, $5000 towards a community-chosen long-term permitted-engineered project, with other expenses going toward short term projects and plans. Some of which included volunteer clean-ups in April, June and September. The April and June cleanups already happened with “masked volunteer residents on distanced and staggered shifts with technical expertise,” according to a letter to the editor to the New Milford Spectrum. While this will be an ongoing project to help the environment surrounding Great Brook, it’s important to salute the work and effort of the town, volunteers, and supporters through the fundraising campaign. It shows that the will to do these green projects is there, and that the community is often willing to put their green – i.e. money – to saving the environment. For more information on SustainableCT’s Community Match Fund, you can contact Abe Hilding-Salorio, the Community Outreach Manager at (860) 465-0256, or at hildingsalorioa@easternct.edu. For more information about all of SustainableCT’s efforts, visit them at SustainableCT.org AUGUST 2021 | CONNECTICUT TOWN & CITY | 31
