Housatonic Valley Association Inc

Programs: Land: lead a collaborative of 24 land trusts in nw ct focused on strategic, high quality conservation (the litchfield hills greenprint); conserve land directly and with partners including working to protect 400 acres in norfolk and identifying 3 signficant parcels for conservation; complete mapping across the entire housatonic watershed of strategically important core and riparain forest and the lands that connect to launch a longterm conservation action plan with partners; and complete data analysis and mapping of terrestial condition. Continue to develop housatonic river greenway; install new river access sites in new milford and in stockbridge; create the first on-line portal of hiking trails throughout 27 ct towns; create an on-line portal of core forest corridor; provide consulting services to land trusts in ct and ny on stratgic vision, collaboration, and shared services; continue work on 3 access sites.

water: continue to monitor and restore stream health and habitat, including macro invertebrate, temperature, shoreline assessments and culvert evaluations across the berkshires and ct; maintenance of buffer plantings in dover, a rain garden in millerton, and wetland buffers in amenia; continue to improve brook trout habitat at in dover, ny; multiple river cleanups with 80 volunteers; maintenance of fish ladder to improve thermal refuge in ct; completion of mapping of potential sources of polluted runoff in on-going watershed restoration action planning for the still river (7 towns in greater danbury, ct area); continue the ten mile river watershed partnership with town leaders to address shared flooding, recreation and polluted runoff issues and complete data anaylysis and mapping of water conditions and river health across the entire housatonic river watershed for all 24 subwatershed regions.

education: bring watershed education, and river/storm drain awareness to hundreds of school children and families in ma and ct, and land conservation and water quality education to adult volunteers through training and multiple presentations; lead 7 paddle trips along the housatonic in ma and ct; expand riversmart outreach to businesses along the river valley; develop new partnership with the arts in the berkshires to raise awareness; continue education work along the salmon kill river; continue to promote naugatuck rivernet, publish paddle guides and housatonic riverside trails in ct and ma; continue the youth envionmental job training program in the greater danbury area; expand social media outreach around rivers, recreation and restoration; and work with dover on a pilot project to improve town practises and regulations to increase climate change sustainability.

issue response - study and alert communities of potential problems to contamination of the environment; respond to complaints and developments threatening ground water and river quality; review reports and develop solutions to problems