Hampton Nature Preserve Gets Financial Boost

Hampton is the recipient of a $22,750 grant from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection that will add acreage to the Maurice and Rita Edwards Preserve.

• Town: Hampton

• Project Title: Edwards Preserve Addition

• Sponsor: Town of Hampton

• Grant Award: $22,750

• Total Acres: 6.5 acres

• Description: This is a 6.5 acre addition to the 50.8 acre Maurice and Rita Edwards Preserve that was purchased with a grant from this program in 2013. The parcel has over 1,000 feet of road frontage and is adjacent on three sides to the existing Edwards Preserve. Wooded with open fields, the parcel will provide opportunities for passive recreation and complement the James Goodwin State Forest.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said grant awards of almost $6 million to support 17 communities in the purchase of 949 acres of open space, to assist three urban communities in enhancing or developing community gardens, and to allow a fourth urban community to establish a natural habitat for environmental education.

Ensuring Connecticut Maintains Its Natural Beauty

“Preserving the best of Connecticut’s open space is critical to protecting our land, water, and wildlife and ensuring Connecticut maintains its natural beauty,” Malloy said. “Through these grants, we will increase the availability of open space for our residents to enjoy – whether they live in our state’s beautiful cities, suburbs or rural areas.”

The Open Space and Watershed Land Acquisition program, administered by the DEEP, assists local governments and land trusts in purchasing open space using funding from the 2005 Community Investment Act and state bond funds. This grant program requires a conservation and public recreation easement that will ensure that the property is forever protected for public use and enjoyment.

With $5.9 million in state open space grants, the public will soon have 17 new places in which to enjoy all that nature has to offer. More than $500,000 in grant funds will assist in the creation or enhancement of eight community gardens in three urban areas and the creation of a conservation area with a focus on environmental education in a fourth community.

Being Close to Nature; Protecting Habitats

In total, over 665,000 of Connecticut’s residents (or 19-percent of the population) will be within a 10 minute drive of one of these resources.

The DEEP prioritizes funding for projects that meet the multiple goals of open space, such as protecting vital habitats, creating and enhancing recreational resources, and protecting our valuable water resources.

Open space protection projects help Connecticut achieve the goal to protect 673,210 acres of land by 2023. Connecticut has 500,242 acres designated as state or local open space lands, 74.3 percent of the goal. More than $125 million in state funding has been awarded to municipalities, nonprofit land conservation organizations, and water companies to assist in the purchase of 32,237 acres of land in 135 cities and towns.

“When we work with our partners to protect open space, we protect our natural resources, we enhance our communities and sense of place, and we have new locations where we can connect with the natural world,” DEEP Commissioner Rob Klee said. “This funding is another step toward meeting our goal of preserving twenty-one percent of Connecticut’s land, or 673,210 acres, as open space by the year 2023.”

The Urban Green and Community Garden Initiative is available to targeted and/or distressed municipalities. These grants can be used to reclaim or enhance an existing open space or community garden. The benefits of this program is not only to open an area up to recreation and environmental education but to improve community health through various actions such as producing various vegetables and fruits and providing much needed green space in more highly developed areas.

Photo of Veteran’s Memorial Park, Bridgeport, by Eduardo Mueses, via flickr creative commons