Canoers Clean West River

After almost two hours combing through the West River, Peter Davis held up his prize catch — not a fish, but a plastic chair.

Davis and almost a dozen fellow New Haven residents had spent their Saturday morning performing an in-river clean up at the Barnard Nature Center, the first of three locations in the city that they hope to hit in consecutive weeks.

Next weekend, they plan to take on the Duck Pond at Edgewood Park. The weekend after that, they plan to turn their attention to the creek in Beaver Pond Park.

These efforts are being coordinated by the Menunkatuck Audubon Society and the West River Watershed Coalition, with support from both the nonprofit Save the Sound and the city of New Haven’s Parks, Recreation and Trees Department.

On Saturday, the day began as early as 9 a.m. for some of the volunteers, who started with an on-land cleanup around the river. A little more than an hour later, when the tide had sufficiently come in, the team took to the water.

Split into four canoes, and armed with gloves, garbage grabbers and bags, the team scoured the West River for ​“snags” — spots in the river where trash often gathers, threatening the lives of the fish and birds that reside in New Haven’s urban oases.

The day’s efforts yielded fruit: Apart from the chair, the team also pulled out multiple plastic bottles, a large ball, and assorted pieces of trash sufficient to fill a garbage bag. They also spotted two entire shopping carts in the river, which Davis plans to retrieve in the coming days.

Dennis Riordan (pictured), the president of the Menunkatuck Audubon Society, noted that the haul from the clean-up was smaller than their corresponding efforts in 2019.

“Last year, we got out three shopping carts, a couple of tyres, and a number of assorted plastic scraps,” said Riordan. This, he continued, marked a positive sign, and a testament to environmentalists’ efforts across the years at restoring New Haven’s parks and water bodies.

Davis (pictured) — who has been at the forefront of these efforts on a daily basis for almost four decades — agreed. For most of those four decades, he was employed as the city’s river-keeper, alongside his longtime colleague David Burgess. Davis described discovering his calling when a dam broke almost 40 years ago, flooding the West River into the Westville neighborhood and leaving shopping carts, garbage and tires floating in the river. Since then, Davis and other passionate residents like him have taken it upon themselves to enter water bodies and clear trash and debris. Davis is now retired, but continues to work on a volunteer basis.

Stephanie Fitzgerald and Frank Cochran (pictured) have been volunteering for a long while as well. Cochran called volunteering an essential task, given the large amount of park land in the city of New Haven. ​“Even if we were able to fund these spaces better than we have done, it would still remain a task that is beyond the ability of the taxpayer,” he said.

Larger issues still need to be combatted, Cochran continued, particularly the continued presence of illegal dumping that he suspects comes from the other side of the West River, in West Haven.

Cochran, Fitzgerald, Davis and Riordan are all part of a generation of environmentalists who have worked to protect New Haven’s water bodies and urban oases for decades. They all gave the same answer when asked how long they had been working in this field: ​“Forever.”

Younger faces have also joined the scene, and are eager to build on the work has been done in the past.

Elizabeth Kaplan (pictured above), a park ranger employed by the city , spoke with excitement about the change she has seen in the past decade. ​“As a child, I never heard about or saw the birds that live here while growing up,” she said. Now the eagle population has risen; Kaplan estimates that there are around 70 – 80 species now, while osprey and sanderling populations have also been seen to be flourishing. ​“As an environmental educator, that’s so exciting,” she said.

The clean-up also brought in some first-timers. Cat Calhoun and Eric Zabor (in photo at right), for example, joined, in part, for recreational reasons. Calhoun is a paddler from California, and was eager for an opportunity to get on the water, while her husband Zabor engrossed himself in maneuvering his drone to take aerial photos of the clean-up.

Randall, Khalif and Jaylin (pictured), three young residents from the neighborhood of Newhallville, also joined in the clean-up. All three are fellows at the Urbanscapes Native Plant Nursery Project, a joint collaboration between the Menunkatuck Audobon Society and the Community Placemaking and Engagement Network. Beginning in May, the three worked all summer on setting up a native plant nursery in Newhallville, a project that culminated in a successful plant sale last week.

What might a plant nursery and a river clean-up have in common? A great deal, explained Robin Ladouceur, the Advocacy Chair of the Menunkatuck Audobon Society.

First, Ladouceur said, ​“all water is connected here in some way or another.” This means that pollution problems are never limited to a particular location. The sewage problem in the Mill River that left many fish dead, for example, had consequences that extended across multiple waterways in the city. Ladouceur reminisced about being struck by this fact when she saw a family of ducks struggling through fallen trees and trash during a walk in Edgewood Park — an event that gave her renewed motivation to organize and participate in clean-ups once the summer temperatures grew milder.

Second, Ladouceur argued, various environmental systems are also interconnected. The water bodies that flow through the parks of New Haven contain what is known as ​“brackish water” — a combination of sea water and fresh water that makes the region home to a diverse array of wildlife. The green spaces in New Haven that lie astride these water bodies are also important pollinator habitats, and form an important part of the ecosystem of an urban oasis. The native plant nursery project also sought to make positive interventions in this field — native plants would support native bug species, including bees and butterflies, which in turn would sustain both plant and bird species that are native to the region. Over 250 shrubs were sold last week, her colleague Riordan added, who was also encouraged by the ​“fantastic and enthusiastic young people” who are carrying the baton forward.

Ladouceur also imagined their work going a step further. Not only were various environmental efforts synergistic, she argued, but environmental justice had to be seen as ​“intimately tied to social and racial justice.” Bringing urban youth from Newhallville, an underserved community, was also part of an attempt at widening access to the city’s rivers and green spaces. ​“It’s also a question of access to the landscape. We want them to feel a sense of agency over the future.”

“Care for the environment and care for people are integral to our goals. Not to be grandiose, but they are also key to our continued existence on the planet,” Ladouceur said.