20th Anniversary Forest & Garden Party

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The Jonah Center Board invites you to help celebrate our 20th Anniversary at our Forest and Garden Party on Saturday, June 22 from 3:00 to 5:00 PM at the South Middletown home of Jon Morris and Pam Frost.

Over the past 14 years, they have transformed their thirty-acre property into a beautiful and inspiring model of sustainable living, with highly productive vegetable gardens, fruit trees, a woodlot that they harvest selectively and keep free of invasive plants, a solar-heated swimming pool, perennial borders, solar panels, and decorative use of stone and wood. Continue reading →

Vernal Pool & Wood Frog Video by Phil LeMontagne

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Deep in the forest, hidden in the confines of a thick Laurel grove near the Bear Hill Loop Trail in the Maromas section of Middletown, a silent vernal pool waits for the oncoming spring.  Sometimes spring comes late, sometimes early. This year it was especially early. When the weather is right, after a warm rainy 50 degree night, Wood Frogs will leave their shelters to congregate at vernal pools where they raucously compete for mates.  Wood Frogs are “vernal pool obligates”, which means that a vernal pool is the only place where they can reproduce.  The following video gives a peek into a short, but very busy period of time in the life cycle of a Wood Frog.

(Click on the image below to play.)

The Solar Eclipse on April 8

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This image shows the path of the eclipse over northern New England.

The moon’s shadow will pass over northern Vermont at a speed of 2600 mph. The total eclipse in Burlington will last approximately 3 minutes and 15 seconds, starting at 3:26 p.m.  That doesn’t sound like much time, but those who have witnessed previous total eclipse say it is not to be missed.

The Vermont State Park website lists a number of parks that will be open for eclipse viewing. Driving time from Middletown to northern Vermont is approximately 4 hours, but make allowances for possibly heavy traffic.  A detailed map showing the path of the eclipse can be viewed here.

Near darkness will come quickly, accompanied by changes in the sounds made by birds and crickets (if one is in an otherwise quiet place) and the dramatic light effects of the corona. Viewers need to wear ISO 12312-2 rated sunglasses (which can be purchased online) until the eclipse is total.

Public Workshops on Route 9 Traffic Signal Removal

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By John Hall

The article below was posted before the Feb. 21 & 22 workshop sessions.  Since then, we have learned that there will be a follow-up workshop and presentation at Wesleyan University on April 30.  The exact time and campus location of that event have not been announced, but we will add those details to this post when they become available.  Continue reading →

Traffic Cameras Survey

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traffic camera

Please let us know your thoughts about the use of “automated traffic enforcement safety devices” (i.e. cameras) to reduce deaths and serious injuries of pedestrians and bicyclists. (Read the article “How To Reduce Speeding” posted earlier on our website.)  If you support such use, please add your name, street address, and town to a petition to the governing body of your town of residence (especially Middletown and Portland) requesting the adoption of a local ordinance that would permit the use of these devices in limited, prescribed locations.

Continue reading →

Herbicide Treatment of Water Chestnut

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The proliferation of invasive plants such as water chestnut and hydrilla in the Connecticut River, its tributaries, and local ponds has led to more common use of EPA-approved herbicides by government agencies such as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS).

Paddlers work on a thick mat of water chestnut plants. If we can pull out the plants, the challenge becomes how to carry them, and then where to dispose of them.

The Jonah Center has asked these agencies, and others, for advice on how best to manage the water chestnut infestation in the Mattabesset River (Floating Meadows). The message we have heard is consistent. Hand-pulling is best where it is feasible. But there are some shallow areas with dense, stubborn infestations where hand-pulling by paddlers is not effective. Such areas represent a small percentage of the total surface area, but the seeds from these remote patches keep germinating in deeper areas, producing more patches that hand-pullers face each year. Every year, the seed bank in these coves and creeks grows. Continue reading →

$3 Million Awarded to Air Line Trail – Farmington Canal Trail Connector Route

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The Jonah Center’s most far-reaching project — to connect the 2 longest multi-use trails in Connecticut — has been awarded 3 grants: a $315,000 route study grant by CT DOT in February 2022; a $500,000 grant by the state bond commission in April 2022; and a $2 million grant by the bond commission in October 2023. We thank Senator Matt Lesser whose leadership and advocacy has enabled this progress and funding. (Please note that none of these funds pass through or benefit the Jonah Center.) These grants will allow the project to proceed from route study (which is now underway) to design and construction work. The most recent $2 million grant is intended to be used as state & local matching funds for $8 million in federal transportation funds to be applied for in the future. In short, we are well on our way to making the connector route a reality. Continue reading →

“Save As Your Throw”: A Concept Whose Time Has Come

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by Krishna Winston

Currently president of the Jonah Center Board and chair of Middletown’s Resource Recycling Advisory Commission, Krishna Winston has been committed to environmental conservation since long before recycling became mandatory in the State of Connecticut in 1991. She served on the task force that designed Middletown’s first recycling program. In October of this year she spent sixteen hours going door to door on Middletown’s north side to inform residents about the new co-collection program beginning in November.

The Context

 Connecticut’s waste crisis became impossible to ignore once the MIRA trash-to-energy plant shut down in the summer of 2022, leaving 49 towns—representing about a third of the state’s trash—in the lurch. But the crisis has been in the making far longer. For decades the state DEP (now DEEP) has been setting targets for reducing waste, and time and again those targets have been missed. With more and more disposable and single-use items, along with packaging, much of it difficult or impossible to recycle, many residents’ trash carts are filled to overflowing. Because of contamination, single-stream recycling, originally intended to simplify and promote more recycling, has actually lowered the value of the material collected. To separate mixed recyclables into marketable commodities, material-recovery facilities (MRFs), like the one recently inaugurated by Murphy Road Recycling in Berlin’s industrial park, must be equipped with sophisticated and costly equipment imported from other countries. Whereas recycling once brought in some revenue, in recent years municipalities and hauling companies have been paying for recycling, and the cost keeps going up. Continue reading →

Spectra Development’s Vision for City Property

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The City of Middletown has engaged Spectra Construction & Development to produce plans for the property between the Middletown Police Department and deKoven Drive. A 2-level parking arcade occupied this site until 2018, when the deteriorating arcade was demolished. The property in its current condition is shown below, looking from Sgt. Dingwall Drive toward the Superior Court building and the Connecticut River.

At a recent meeting of the Middlesex Chamber of Commerce, Spectra presented preliminary renderings of one vision for the property. The preliminary nature of these drawings needs to be underscored, because this vision depends upon the City being successful in its effort to acquire the property owned by ATD (Attention to Detail) at the corner of Dingwall Drive and deKoven Drive, shown here.

Below are some of the renderings that Spectra shared at the Chamber of Commerce meeting. (We have permission to share these with our readers.) Continue reading →

Sidewalk Progress In Portland

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After a long delay, the residents of Chatham Court (Portland Housing Authority) now have a sidewalk leading to Marlborough Street. This project, proposed in 2019 by former First Selectwoman Susan Bransfield and Portland’s  Complete Streets Group, provides residents with pedestrian access to medical offices, food shopping, and more. We appreciate the initiative of current First Selectmen Ryan Curley and Public Works Director Ryan O’Halpin, who persuaded property owners on Riverside Street to grant easements for sidewalk construction and relocation of some utility poles.

More information on Portland’s sidewalk plans can be found here.