The Deep Brook Museum

There is a little-known museum in town where an ancient way of life has been preserved just as it was before Newtown had a name. The price of admission is a sturdy pair of boots.

That museum is a section of Deep Brook that runs through the heart of Fairfield Hills to its confluence with the Pootatuck River near the end of Commerce Road. It is a Class 1 trout fishery, which means that wild brown trout and other native strains of trout are reproducing naturally in the brook just as they have since prehistory. In a state with hundreds of rivers, streams, and brooks, trout are sustaining themselves this way in just eight precious places, and Deep Brook is one of them.

With the transfer of various state properties to the Town of Newtown six weeks ago, the town took ownership of a long, narrow, 22-acre strip of land on both sides of Deep Brook. In truth, no one ever really owns treasures like these, but in taking on this watery “greenway” through Fairfield Hills, Newtown is taking on a great responsibility to ensure that Deep Brook flows in its present pristine state to the stewardship of future generations.

There are threats at hand. Newtown’s sewage treatment plant dumps treated water into the Pootatuck River near the mouth of Deep Brook. In addition, state-owned land leased for agricultural use borders the brook, bringing pesticides and fertilizer into a sensitive area of the brook’s watershed. And unexpected eco-calamities are always possible as the town enters a protracted period of demolition and development on the Fairfield Hills campus just uphill from the shady glens cradling Deep Brook. Uncontrolled siltation from the construction of the Reed Intermediate School temporarily damaged the brook, and last winter’s oil spill at Canaan House came very close to ending forever the continuous run of natural trout there.

Fortunately, Deep Brook has an emerging legion of formidable defenders. (See story on page C1.) State environmental officials, the area chapter of Trout Unlimited, and an assortment of local volunteers, including the open space advocates assembling the Newtown greenway known as Al’s Trail, are pooling resources and expertise to protect Deep Brook and its watershed from misuse and contamination. And they are not wasting any time. An ambitious planting project gets underway next weekend when volunteers will begin planting 400 native trees and bushes along the brook. The vegetation will slow the advance of any errant contaminant and enhance the breeding conditions for the trout.

With luck, the development of the rest of Fairfield Hills will exhibit the same sense of good will, shared purpose, and responsibility we see in this effort to protect Deep Brook. If you want to help set this standard, volunteers are still needed to help plant trees and bushes between September 23 and 26. Call Pat Barkman at 426-8949 to sign up, or show up at 9 am at the Commerce Road cul-de-sac on Friday or Saturday. Bring work gloves, a pail, a shovel… and a sturdy pair of boots.