Wetlands Agency Seeks Changes In The Ram Pasture

By Andrew Gorosko

Town wetlands officials plan to meet with representatives of the Newtown Village Cemetery Association, Inc, to discuss the association’s maintenance practices at the Ram Pasture, in light of water quality protection issues affecting Country Club Brook.

The town’s top conservation official wants the association to consider transforming the broad open lawns of the Ram Pasture into a meadow and reviewing its policy of open public access to the site.

The association, however, disputes the wetlands agency’s view of the matter.

Country Club Brook enters the Ram Pasture near the intersection of Elm Drive and Sugar Street. The stream runs north-to-south on the 13-acre property, which parallels South Main Street and Elm Drive. Country Club Brook is a tributary of Deep Brook. The lower reaches of Deep Brook at Fairfield Hills are a native trout breeding area

The Ram Pasture is owned by the association, which allows public use of the site. The property is the location of the town’s annual Christmas tree lighting event and kite-flying festivals.

Town Conservation Official Rob Sibley this week said the association was issued a wetlands violation warning letter stating that its maintenance practices on the Ram Pasture must be reviewed because those practices may be contributing to streambank degradation on the site. The streambank there has experienced “extreme erosion,” he said.

There has been clear evidence of water quality degradation in Country Club Brook, Mr Sibley said.

A water quality problem in Country Club Brook is apparently being worsened by the maintenance practices at the Ram Pasture, Mr Sibley said.

Town wetlands officials want the association to review its maintenance of the stream channel and adjacent land, Mr Sibley said.

The loss of a stable streambank on Country Club Brook is not a good environmental situation, Mr Sibley said. Without the proper corrective steps being taken, such streambank erosion would continue, he said.

Each time there is a heavy rainstorm, the problem of stream sedimentation in Country Club Brook at the Ram Pasture is obvious, Mr Sibley said.

The association should consider whether it would be better to maintain its land at the Ram Pasture as a lawn or as a meadow, he said. Also, the group should review its policies on public access to the site, he said.

The association should think in terms of using “best management practices” to environmentally care for the property, he said.

Currently, the property is mown, with some higher vegetation being left to grow in areas along the stream where wet conditions persist.

Although the town wetlands agency has a regulation concerning the provision of a protective 100-foot-wide vegetative buffer zone extending from each side of a stream, having, in effect, a 200-foot-wide buffer zone along the length of Country Club Brook at the Ram Pasture “probably would not be feasible,” he said.

The width of such a buffer zone could be variable, he said.

Other land parcels in the area that border on Country Club Brook, including the Newtown Country Club property and golf course, will be reviewed in terms of environmental protection compliance, Mr Sibley said.

“I need to treat everybody the same. It is our job to do [environmental enforcement] as fairly as possible,” he said.

Mr Sibley that the town’s Dickinson Park on Elm Drive has been the site of a streambank restoration project conducted by the private environmental group known as Trout Unlimited.

The cemetery association and town wetlands agency have tentatively scheduled a meeting for November 17 to discuss the environmental aspects of Ram Pasture maintenance.

Ann Astarita, the town’s wetland enforcement official, said she expects that the town and the association can meet to discuss the issues and reach “an equitable compromise.”

Association

Maureen Crick Owen, the cemetery association president, said this week that the association has been mowing the Ram Pasture for more than 20 years, and is now suddenly facing enforcement action by the town wetlands agency for doing such mowing.

The association has hired a lawyer to defend its position that such lawn mowing there does not constitute a “regulated activity,” as is claimed by the wetland agency, she said.

Mowing the lawn on the Ram Pasture is a permitted activity under state law, she said. The association is in compliance with state law when it mows the lawn there, she added. The Ram Pasture has “residential” zoning, she noted.

The property is maintained by the association for the benefit of the residents of the town, Ms Owen said.

“The association is a good citizen in town…We are good citizens,” she said.

Ms Owen said she understands that the wetlands agency is concerned about water quality protection, but asked why environmental enforcement issues concerning Country Club Brook have now commenced at the Ram Pasture.