Back by the Cochinchaug

After the paddle up the Cochinchaug River, I decided to take my morning walk through Veteran's Park, which forms the Northern border of a stretch of the Cochinchaug which is stressed due to the commercial development on its border along Route 66.

I started out walking through Wesleyan, and noticed a tree removal posting on two hundred-year plus specimens in front of the Wesleyan Film Center. The Buildings and Grounds Department have made it a practice to post notices on trees which are about to be taken down because they are diseased, dead, or severely stressed. The only problem with the posting is that you have to be on foot to notice them, and if your regular route doesn't take you by a posted tree, you might not notice it in the week or two the postings are up. In addition, these postings are pretty nondescript, black print on regular white printer paper, and after a rain shower or two, they devolve into a wrinkly, unreadable mass.

The two trees in front of the Film Center are definitely stressed, and likely won't make it a few more years. And to be frank, trees, especially city trees, don't last forever. However, what's not implicit in the posting to cut the trees is that the construction of buildings, walks and driveways around the trees probably had a lot to do with their weakened state.

I've said it before, and I've said it to Dave Hall, head of Wesleyan buildings and grounds, that I'm not always convinced of the effort taken to help trees, especially trees that stand in the way of some proposed building, or which interfere with regular groundskeeping. A half a block away from these trees is a blank spot where an old variety apple tree stood a few years ago. I used to pick apples from this tree for applesauce and pie, and it was a bit ragged, and the rotting fruit was messy and attracted yellow jacket wasps. It's my contention that sometimes this tree removal is a way to make mechanical powermowing easier for the groundskeeping contractors.

On Washington Court, where the apple tree was, a new ornamental maple has been planted. But near Russell House, where two apple tree were taken down, there were no replacements of any kind, and the power mowers zip up and down the hill, unimpeded by low hanging apple branches or rotten fruit.

I think the Wesleyan crew has got to consider the value of the old trees it has, and the concessions it makes for modern groundskeeping. Currently, the grounds crew has been observed, and confronted, because they pour the very toxic RoundUp (glyphosate) at the base of trees so that the grass and other plants will die, and trimming will not be necessary. While RoundUp is purported to only affect broad leaf grasses, one only needs to do a Google search to see that the effect of having a herbicide poured on a tree's roots cannot be healthy for the trees, or the people, birds, insects and animals who come in contact with the area around those trees. There are a lot of stressed curbside trees around campus. What's more, the runoff from the trees, inevitably end up in the local stream and rivers, where glyphosate has been proven to affect amphibian life.

In addition, while Wesleyan painters are doing a great job making some Wesleyan-owned properties look spiffy with new paint jobs, I've noticed that some of the painting contractors have given up on the reliable ladder and scaffold method of reaching paintable heights, for the rolling boom lift, or crane. While these cranes can get painters to tough-to-reach spots, evidence can be found that these heavy vehicles are compacting earth around the mature, though ecologically fragile old trees on campus. Witness the deep tire tracks next to an ancient tree near the Russell House. Will we be seeing "notices to remove" flapping from these tree trunks in a few years?

Once past Wesleyan, and my worry about the trees there, I continued on to Veterans' Park. I walked through parking lots adjacent to the Cochinchaug and remembered how Wesleyan professor Barry Chernoff described dead spots in the river as it runs through the park because of the way rainwater sheets off these parking lots (and the parking lots of existing, and being-built commercial properties along route 66). The river is beautiful from the park, and I saw a few small brook trout swimming.

As I walked through the Palmer Field parking lot (the expansion of which was prevented by Chernoff's testimony to the Zoning Board), I noticed a small brook which feeds into the Cochinchaug. Grey water flowed through the brook, which was filled with litter. A little further upstream, an ugly algae bloom was in progress (perhaps the result contamination by goose feces in the pond which feeds this stream at Butternut Park), and just before the culvert that runs below route 66, a muskrat was gathering new grass, and a small garter snake swam along the surface.

Walking back up Washington Street my mood was brightened considerably by a mimosa tree in full bloom in front of one of the homes there. The flowers are spectacular to see and smell. The homeowner, who was sweeping her walk, explained that she transplanted a sapling many years ago from her former apartment building in Hartford, and that the tree blooms all day and night, wafting its lovely fragrance on the night breeze.

Put off a parking lot

I bumped into John Hall at the Feet to the Fire Festival (the Jonah Center, which he helped found was co-sponsor), and he told me that an unneccesary paving plot was rejected by the Inland Wetlands Commission.

It's a pleasure to sit at a town commission meeting where commissioners seem engaged, alert and willing to listen to scientific reason. This was the case at the Inland Wetlands Commission last week as the town's public works department, and their civil engineer proposed paving (actually re-paving) a lot near the town's Veteran's Park because it had fallen into disrepair.

The meeting began with chairman Joe Carta insisting that diagrams of the proposed work be situated so that the attending public could see as well as the board. It progressed with the presentation, followed by an eye-opening public rebuttal by John Hall and Barry Chernoff, who made the point that re-surfacing the lot would do great harm to the Coginchaug River, which runs adjacent to the lot. In terms of usage, the lot is used when capacity of other lots at Palmer Field are filled - approximately a dozen times a year.

In addition, Chernoff noted that a lot for a new CVS, a short way upriver, will already sheet runoff, along with sand and salt, into the already distressed Coginchaug.

According to Hall, the board set the Public Works department away to come up with another, better plan for the lot, which should include larger river buffers.

Tales from Feet to the Fire

As I said a few times at the inaugural Feet to the Fire festival, I'm not sure a parking lot filled to the brim with cars is exactly cause to celebrate, but it did mean that during the festival's five hours, an appreciative crowd roamed Veteran's Park.

Organizers have already called the festival a success, but it was more the diverse mix of students and townies, seniors and pre-schoolers, academics and neighbors that demonstrated that a festival which uses art to inform about the environment, is a creative, and innovative way to tackle an immediate problem.

An while my sons' entire pre-school class seemed most intent on scooping tadpoles from an impromptu puddle on the site, there was food, music, activities, drama and even a circus.

For me it was bumping into dozens of friends and acquaintances, and getting a real sense of community.

I hope today's response bodes well for seeing a second F2F.

Feet to the Fire schedule

When I stopped by Starbucks in Hartford to pick up my coffee this morning, Danielle, one of the baristas needed to check my ID to be sure my ATM card belonged to me.

"Middletown, eh?" she said. "There's an environmental festival there tomorrow."

"I know," I said. "See you there."

Feet to the Fire tomorrow at Middletown's Veteran's Park. Schedule here.