The North Branford Land Conservation Trust: It’s About the Land

The Representative Policy Board (RPB) of the South Central Connecticut Regional Water District will hold a public hearing on May 5 here in North Branford to consider an application by the Regional Water Authority (RWA) to sell 60.35 acres of Class III (“off watershed”) land east of Lake Gaillard on Beech Street and Pomp’s Lane for $2,115,000. If the policy board approves the sale, the land must first be offered to the town (priority right) and the state, which have 90 days to exercise their option to buy the land, and an additional 18 months to raise funds to meet the offering price.

The land is in three parcels: 17.2 acres, 23.7 acres and 19.5 acres. A detailed report about the proposed sale is filed at the and libraries. Each member of the RPB represents a town in the regional water district whose vote is weighted according to the number of customers served and the amount of land held by the RWA. Proceeds from the sale can only be used for capital improvements to the water system including the purchase of watershed land and/or to reduce debt. Proceeds cannot be used to lower current water rates. For more information, go to RWA’s Web site www.rwater.com and click on “Our Land”.

I’ll make my disclosures now: I am a Regional Water Authority retiree, having worked for the organization since its acquisition of the New Haven Water Company in 1980 and the New Haven Water Company since 1960. I live next to one of the parcels, having purchased my building lot from the water company in 1968.

The land has been owned by RWA and by RWA’s predecessor, the New Haven Water Company, since the 1920s when the company was building Lake Gaillard dam and acquiring land for the reservoir and its watershed. Most of the land under and east of the reservoir was farmland. Entire farms were purchased by the company, including portions of farms extending beyond the watershed. 

Yale School of Forestry, under an agreement with the water company dating back to 1902, managed the company’s landholdings until 1947. Hayfields and pasture were planted with seedling trees such as red pine, white pine, Norway spruce and hemlock. Wood lots and older forests were managed for timber and other forest products with a long-term goal of improving the quality of forest growth for economic benefit to the company while protecting the watershed.

In the recent decade, RWA has worked with town governments (including North Branford), the state, land trusts and other organizations by contributing to open space land acquisition funds. If land is developed, the quality of runoff will decline, storm flows will increase and dry weather flows decrease as natural cover is replaced by roads, driveways and buildings.

Towns, state government and conservation organizations such as land trusts can work together so that land can be saved for present and future generations to enjoy. But doing so requires giving up present resources and adding to public debt so land will be protected forever.

Park land in the Northford and North Branford sections of town, enjoyed by residents for at least two generations, was saved for public enjoyment by previous generations at a time when the town was building elementary and middle schools and a high school had to be built to meet the demands of a growing town. Today, growth has slowed, but challenges of the past endure as school buildings need to be replaced or renovated, while children must be educated to new standards of excellence, preparing them for life in a competitive global economy.

There will be more discussion about the RWA land at the next meeting of the on Wednesday, April 6 at the Atwater Library. Also, we will have more information about a tour that we plan to run at Lake Gaillard and the Tilcon quarry on May 4. 

Otto Schaefer is the acting president of the North Branford Land Conservation Trust. For more information or to help, contact Schaefer at nblct_1968@yahoo.com.