The Garden

…common in far northern wetlands; and the other, much less common still here in Connecticut, is Golden Club. The only other Golden Clubs I’ve seen hereabouts were in a small…

Who Owns the Connecticut River?

…The question: was the boundary Halls Stream or the Connecticut Lakes 10 miles to the east. In 1827, the two countries agreed to submit their competing claims to a neutral…

The New England National Scenic Trail

…indigenous to Colombia, to research and develop an Indigenous Site Survey of the NET. Through this multi-year project, Jay has surfaced research, oral history, and traditional knowledge about environmental stewardship,…

Duck Hunters

…It is pretty easy, even for novices, to identify ducks when they are landing in decoys: says Muldoon, “If you can’t identify ducks coming into decoys, you shouldn’t be waterfowling.”…

Below the Surface: Spawning Below the Surface

…that use internal fertilization, and live offspring issue from the mother’s body (are born). For this article, we will concentrate on the common species in our river that are hatched,…

Let’s Go

…Land Conservancy (Excellence in Community Engagement Award), Connecticut River Gateway Commission (Special Award for Excellence in Conservation), Madeline McClave (Katchen Coley Award for Excellence in Conservation), and Granby Land Trust…

Below the Surface – Restoring Fish Runs

…cables, computers, and complex plumbing. When listing the benefits of dam removal, we mentioned many positive ecological benefits in addition to allowing fish to move upstream. Unfortunately, fishway construction really…

Charter Oak

…gave all governing power to the General Court (one of the reasons Connecticut is so litigious), with the right to elect deputies and magistrates given to the freemen or electors….

Lady Fenwick

…The doughty craft’s destination was the Connecticut River. Deep in her hold were boxes and barrels packed with seeds, cuttings, and saplings. The cargo comprised a formal English garden to…

Crossing the Bar

…forced Goodspeed’s Hartford and New York Transportation company into receivership, and the businessman himself died a year later from illness brought on by overwork. At 410 miles, the Connecticut River…

Practical Beauty

…Holyoke a Green Community, and the high-speed fiber optic network, solar panels, and hydroelectric resources drew the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center to Holyoke in 2012. “The City of…

Below the Surface- The “Silver” Eel

…the fish is ready but waiting. Waiting for the fall rains to come to trigger its migration. Even though it is one of the Connecticut River’s largest fish, very few…

Celebratory Ecology- Streamside Walking

…Maple, pollinated in part by spring winds. These are the soft optimistic colors of early spring. When summer comes on, celebratory aquatic insects appear on the water’s surface, and flying…

Up and Over, Clearing Obstacles to Reach Habitat

…mainstem river produce hydroelectricity and therefore are licensed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). FERC’s regulations allow the state and federal natural resource agencies to recommend (“prescribe”) fish passage…

Made You Look

…bronze symphony that took fourteen years to complete. I have seen the “original” on Boston Common, and another “copy” in the Smithsonian, as well as smaller versions in other museums….

My Ride Down Hog River

…down the Park (formerly called the Hog) River in Hartford. I felt compelled to take a ride down our publication’s namesake river. I’ll admit though, I was nervous. I knew…

My Forest Romance With Nyssa

…River valley during his formative years as a naturalist and ecologist. He began his Osprey–DDT research as a student at Wesleyan University. He continued his doctoral research on northeastern osprey…

Nature’s Heart

…life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come…

Once Upon an Island

…hauling the bricks out to their island, Brockway Island, an elongated squiggle of land that separates Essex from Lyme on the far shore, like an ungainly comma. They were building…