Boggs Hill Road—

Town Seeks To Balance Wildlife Protection Against Flood Safety

By Andrew Gorosko

Amid controversy over what makes for the optimum water level at a large swamp along Boggs Hill Road, the head of a local land conservation group, which owns a majority of that swamp, says that the town is seeking to reach a water-level compromise that would balance the issues of wildlife habitat preservation against public safety.

Bob Eckenrode, president of the Newtown Forest Association (NFA), said May 20 that he was among a group of people who inspected the extensive swamp on May 19 in seeking to learn what water level should be maintained there.

The swamp is visible from Boggs Hill Road just northeast of its intersection with Palestine Road. It is largely owned by the nonprofit NFA, which owns numerous undeveloped open space areas throughout town.

Some Boggs Hill Road residents are upset over the town’s recent lowering of the water level of the swamp, sometimes known as The Great Bogg, charging that the decreased water level in the swamp poses ecological hazards to wildlife there.

Public Works Director Fred Hurley, however, maintains that the town’s recent reduction of the swamp’s water level was an emergency measure necessary to prevent the prospect of water from the swamp flooding over the adjacent Boggs Hill Road. Water level problems at the swamp are caused by recurring beaver activity, Mr Hurley said.

Resident Chet Hopper of 131 Boggs Hill Road is among several Boggs Hill Road residents who have complained that the town’s recent lowering of the water level in the swamp has damaged wildlife habitat. “It’s literally destroyed the natural habitat,” he said this week.

The water level at the swamp remains too low, he said, adding that he wants the town to raise the water level as soon as possible.

Town Land Use Agency Director George Benson said his inspection of the swamp with Mr Eckenrode, Mr Hopper, and some Conservation Commission members on May 19 led to a consensus that the water level probably should be raised there by roughly one foot. However, the specific way in which that would be accomplished remains unclear, Mr Benson added.

“What damage was done [by lowering the water level] is done,” Mr Benson said.

The town will now formulate a plan through which the water level would be raised, he said. That might take place soon or possibly not until next fall, he said.

 Mr Benson said the public works department should have obtained a town wetlands permit before it recently lowered the swamp’s water level. After he received a complaint from Mr Hopper on the matter, Mr Benson said that the public works department raised the water in the swamp somewhat, but left the water level lower than it had initially been.

 “It was a disruption, definitely. It will cause some problems, short-term,” Mr Benson said of the swamp’s water level having been lowered. Also, it was a bad time of year for lowering the water level, he said. Fish probably were most affected by the lowered water, he said.

“It’s not good that this happened,” he said.

Provided that the swamp’s water level is raised upward to some degree, the situation should not cause long-term problems for the wildlife habitat there, Mr Benson said.

The land use agency wants to prevent such situations from occurring again, he said.

The agency will seek to balance the issues of possible road flooding against that of wildlife habitat preservation, he said.

The initial water drawdown removed too much water from the swamp and removed it too quickly, he said. Also, it occurred during a sensitive time of the year for such an aquatic environment, he said.

“It was unfortunate. I really think it was a misunderstanding between the public works department and the land use agency,” Mr Benson said.

As soon as the land use agency learned of the drawdown, it had the public works department partially restore the water level in the swamp, he stressed.

“The whole process is going to be reviewed,” he said of the town performing such work in the wetland areas.

“I think we’ll be able to avoid an enforcement action” against the public works department, Mr Benson said, noting that department’s cooperation in the matter.

Public Works

Mr Hurley said the public works department will allow the water level at the swamp to stabilize, adding that any raising of the water level likely would not come until next fall when environmental conditions are more suitable for such work.

Ironically, in order to raise the swamp’s water level, the town would first need to remove the dam that holds back the swamp, in effect, lowering the existing water level before the water could then be raised to a point higher than its current level, but not as high as the level it had been at before its initial lowering, he explained. Physical changes would need to be made at the dam to create the new water level.

Also, Mr Hurley said there is no clearly defined measure of the swamp’s optimum water level should be. The water level naturally fluctuates based on weather conditions, he added.

The town will seek a compromise water level lying somewhere between what nearby residents would want and what provides suitable flood protection for Boggs Hill Road, he said.

“It’s a complex issue,” Mr Hurley said.

Mr Hurley said he wants to keep the water level of the swamp at least two feet lower than the level of Boggs Hill Road’s drainage gutter. Before the public works department lowered the swamp’s water level, the swamp’s water level was less than two inches lower than the road gutter, he stressed.

Mr Eckenrode said it is heartening that the town is seeking to reach a water-level solution amid the competing interests of habitat preservation and flood protection.

“It’s a very complex situation, what the actual water level should be,” he said.

“I’m sure everything will turn out fine. Nature has away of repairing itself,” he said.

 “It’s a natural resource management issue,” he said. “We would like to reassure the neighbors…everything’s being done to resolve this in a most responsible way,” he said.