CHAPTER
SIX : RECREATION/OPEN SPACE
RECREATION
Branford maintains a number of recreational sites throughout
the Town (Figure
11). These include parks and ball fields, boat launches,
docks, and beaches. The Town also maintains Open Space
(Figure 12)
through various land holdings including Town, State
and Federal, and quasi-public entities such as the Branford
Land Trust, Inc. and the Regional Water Authority. Many
of the open spaces noted below are also used for passive
recreational activities such as hiking and bird watching.
In all, Branford has over 3,500 acres of open space
(Appendix IV: Recreation and
Open Space) and devoted recreational fields for
outdoor activities.
Parks
At present the Town maintains 53 recreational facilities.
They range in size from a ball field to the natural
areas surrounding the Supply Ponds. Facilities vary
at each park although most maintain open fields for
sporting activities (i.e., soccer, baseball). A list
of the parks and their major facilities are noted in
Appendix IV.
Some of the more notable parks include the Supply Ponds
Preserve, Pisgah Brook Preserve, Stony Creek Quarry
Preserve, Parker Memorial Park (Branford Point), Foote
Memorial Park (owned and maintained by the Foote Family
Charitable Trust), Young's Pond Park and Veterans Memorial
Park. The Supply Ponds encompasses about 350 acres of
open water and forested land that support a variety
of recreational activities including fishing, ice skating,
hiking trails and picnic areas. Foote and Veterans Memorial
Parks are used for a variety of activities including
athletic fields and tennis courts. Young's Pond Park
has ball fields and a dog park where area pets can run
free off leashes. Area schools also provide recreational
facilities such as the recently completed multimillion-dollar
renovation at the High School (fields and tennis courts)
and an indoor pool at the Walsh Intermediate School.
Being situated along the coast, Branford also supports
a diverse number of coastal activities such as boating,
fishing and bathing. The Town's public beach is found
at Parker Memorial Park at Branford Point. The Town
has a boat launch at Stony Creek and the State maintains
a boat launch off Goodsell Point Road on the Branford
River. A number of private marinas are present along
the Branford River, the Farm River and at Stony Creek.
Stony Creek also provides tours to the Thimble Islands
as well as seal watching and fishing expeditions.
In the western portion of Town, an old trolley line
still offers rides to the public. This line is associated
with the Shoreline Trolley Museum located in East Haven
and is the oldest operating trolley museum in the country.
OPEN SPACE
For purposes of this report, open space will be defined
as an area that is not used for any one recreational
activity (passive recreation only) and is not a managed
park. This would include conservation and land-trust
holdings, wildlife areas and land set aside for water
quality purposes (Regional Water Authority) (Figure
12, Appendix IV: Recreation and Open Space). Open
space varies around Town from lands dedicated to conservation
to lands that serve multiple purposes. Throughout the
Town, there are many private parcels of land that have
not been developed (for some reason or another) and
have become "de facto" open space lands (e.g., some
of the lands along Pisgah Brook, the old gravel pit
to the north of the landfill). Since these lands are
not public, nor are they sanctioned open space, they
will not be included in this report except where they
form an important wildlife corridor (see below).
The information presented on Figure 12 is in draft form
and is not a complete accounting of open space just
yet (it still requires additional information and editing).
Even though it is not complete, it still provides important
baseline information for the NRI. As noted earlier in
this report, the NRI is not meant to be a static document
and this is one of the areas of information that can
be updated as it becomes available.
Cemeteries
Although cemeteries are not dedicated to recreation
or conservation activities, they do form open space
in the Town and provide for vistas on occasion. The
location of the major cemeteries in Town is noted on
the Recreation/Open Space Map.
Regional Water Authority Land
The lands surrounding Lake Saltonstall are devoted to
maintaining water quality and have not been developed.
At present, the Water Authority has over 1,070 acres
associated with Lake Saltonstall, and a variety of smaller
holdings throughout the Town (i.e., 11.6 acres at Ward's
Pond, 50.90 acres along the Branford Connector at Exit
53 on I-95). A more detailed account of the Water Authority's
holdings is shown in Appendix IV. Some hiking and boating
activities are permitted on these lands.
Conservation, Wildlife Areas and Land Trust
Lands
Conservation and Land Trust lands are dedicated as open
non-developable land. Many of the conservation lands
are small parcels associated with developments over
the years, although the Town does maintain some larger
parcels such as those on Summit Drive and Brook Lane.
The Town has four main parcels set aside as wildlife
areas. These include a series of marshes on Long Marsh
Creek and Pine Creek between Pine Orchard and Stony
Creek, part of the marsh on the north side of Indian
Neck, a site along the Farm River, and the larger Branford
River Wildlife area located between Ward's Pond and
Route 139. These sites are dedicated to providing valuable
habitat for the protection of wildlife resources. These
are not recreational areas and are limited in access
whenever possible.
The Branford Land Trust has about 770 acres in its holdings
(as of April, 2003). These range from a small parcel
of less than a third of an acre at Pine Orchard Road
to the 105 acre Van Wie Preserve between Red Hill Road
and Flat Rock Road. All of these sites will be kept
undeveloped and some may be used for passive recreation
such as hiking. A complete listing of their holdings
can be found in Appendix IV.
Trail System
At present there are a number of hiking trails located
throughout the Town located on public and quasi-public
lands (Figure 13 - 2001 Inventory of Branford Trails;
reprinted from South Central Regional Council of Governments
Preliminary Trail Inventory for Branford, CT). Official
trails have been established in the Supply Ponds Preserve,
within the Regional Water Authority's land around Lake
Saltonstall, along the old Stony Creek Trolley Line,
Young's Pond Park and Stony Creek Quarry Preserve, among
others. At present 83 % of the proposed trail system
has been established (373 miles out of the 449 miles
proposed) (Table 6: Trails). Attempts have been made
to make this system more continuous and uniform around
Town; however, there are portions of the trail that
are still discontinuous pathways that include roadways
and patches of private land. Plans are also being considered
to connect these trails to a larger trail system, the
Shoreline Greenways Trail, that will run continuously
along the Connecticut shoreline from Lighthouse Point
in New Haven to Hammonasset State Park in Madison. For
more information contact the Conservation and Environment
Commission.
Wildlife Corridors
Throughout the Town, important wildlife corridors can
be identified in both public and private lands. In many
cases, these corridors differ from what they were historically
because many of the natural areas in Town have been
developed. A wildlife corridor can range from dedicated
conservation lands to railroad and utility right-of-ways.
Wildlife corridors can come in many forms depending
on the animal species being considered. For example,
the storm drains around Town may be considered corridors
for rats and raccoons. However, for larger organisms
or those more sensitive to urban development, corridors
are the more traditional open spaces around Town. Since
the storm drains are not in danger of future development,
they will not be considered further here.
The largest contiguous tracts of land that have not
been developed are those associated with rivers and
streams. These areas have, therefore, become the primary
corridors for wildlife movements in Town, even though
a number of species would prefer not to traverse wet
environments. Small steams and wetlands connect almost
all of the landscape and allow for the movement of animals
throughout the Town. Utility right-of-ways also provide
a significant corridor for many species. Often an animal
that wants to move through Town must deal with a variety
of different type corridors for an individual trip and
may use open space, roadsides and even people's back
yards to make the journey. Although there are places
for animals to migrate through Town, most are highly
fragmented and at some point require crossing major
roads. This is perhaps the most hazardous portion of
their journey. Unfortunately, some of the most important
corridors are privately owned and many could face development
in the future, further stressing animal populations
in Town.
Since the majority of corridors are associated with
drainage ways, it is important that this resource be
protected from further development. It would not be
practical to identify all of the wildlife corridors
in Town within the budget constraints of this NRI. However,
there are some important corridors that are considered
below.
The Branford River Basin
The Branford River and its associated habitat is a major
corridor north of I-95. The river maintains an almost
continuous string of habitats from Lake Gaillard to
Ward's Dam and is not only an important corridor but
habitat resource as well. Below Ward's Dam, development
and channelization of the River limits the main stem
of the river as a corridor. Instead tributaries such
as Queach Brook and Pisgah Brook provide an important
corridor alternative between the upper reaches of the
basin and the coastal portions south of Route 1. Since
most of the development in Town is concentrated below
Route 1, the wildlife corridors become more circuitous
towards the coast. For example, to travel from Route
1 to the shoreline, an animal can use the marshes below
the High School to Tabor Drive. At Tabor Drive, the
corridor turns along the railroad tracks to the old
Cosgrove gravel quarry. From here the path generally
moves through the Branford landfill to the Town-owned
woods located at the end of Waverly Park Road. This
leads to the Sybil Creek marsh system and the coast.
The Farm River Basin
Lake Saltonstall and the Regional Water Authorities
lands are important corridors and habitat in the western
portion of Town. Although the Farm River does connect
to this drainage way it is interrupted by Route 1 and
a number of developments as it winds its way through
East Haven and out to the Long Island Sound. Wildlife
corridors in the area are pushed into the smaller streams,
along yards of private homes and areas adjacent to Pent
Road. Although the lower Farm River Basin does have
some open habitat in the tributaries (e.g. Minore marsh),
these too are interrupted by residential development
along the banks of the River and the route is often
more circuitous for the animals (they must actually
move through the tidal marshes in places which could
be problem at high tide).
Other Basins
Perhaps the best concentration of wildlife corridors
is found in the eastern portion of Town. A combination
of fewer residential developments and large undeveloped
tracts associated with Tilcon and Stony Creek Quarry
operations has kept this portion of Town free from major
interruptions in wildlife corridors. The Tilcon rail-line
also provides a good north-south orientated corridor
that can also reach Lake Gaillard in North Branford.
In addition, the abundance of smaller drainage basins
provides a greater choice of corridors, particularly
between the coast and inland areas. Not only do we see
more uninterrupted corridors in this section of Town,
the presence of large open spaces such as Towner Swamp,
various Land Trust holdings, and the broad open shrub/scrub
wetlands located along Quarry Road provide excellent
habitat for many of the migrating species as well.
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