Forest issues discussed at FALPS meeting

BARKHAMSTED —  The Friends of American Legion and Peoples State Forest (FALPS) group held a membership meeting at Matthies Grove pavilion on Sunday, Sept. 11, to discuss current issues, including the early closing of the American Legion campgrounds.

State Reps. Jay Case (R-63) and Craig Miner (R-66) were among those present at the meeting to listen to and discuss issues facing state parks.

Among the speakers was Eric Hammerling of Connecticut Forest and Parks Association.

“In Connecticut, there are 109 state parks and 32 state forests,” Hammerling said in his speech to event attendees. “We always see things and expect they always have been there and they always will be there, but they won’t unless folks like FALPS are really involved.” 

In 1924, the land used for Peoples State Forest was purchased by individual environmentalists and several groups, such as the Daughters of the American Revolution, for $8 an acre. The land was then donated to the state.

Hammerling focused on the Conveyance Act, a specific effort to allow the general assembly to either trade, sell, or give away public lands. “The concern is, these public lands can be given away without much public process,” he said. “The way the Conveyance Act typically works is at the beginning of the session there is a hearing, and you have several proposals that are made. Some very non-controversial; some of them are very controversial.” Hammerling said that earlier this year there had been a proposal by the city of Groton to take 66 acres of Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) land along the Mystic River “for municipal development purposes and open space.”

“There was no definition of what that meant, and it was pretty broad,” Hammerling said. “We and a lot of other organizations testified against this, and fortunately it was removed from the Conveyance Act.” 

However, Hammerling said that eight acres of Hammonasset State Park were given to the town of Madison “for nothing.” “No one had a chance to weigh in and make sure it didn’t happen,” he said. 

Hammerling said that Witkos has been working on a bill that passed in both chambers of state legislature to help protect forest land.

“If it gets to the constitutional amendment voting stage, it will ensure there is a public hearing before a bill can be voted on to convey land, have a two-thirds vote behind it and it will be an individual bill on that particular piece of land that is being proposed,” Hammerling said.

Hammerling stressed the importance of friends groups such as FALPS in driving change in state parks and forests. “There are only 24 friends of the forest groups in the state, including FALPS,” he said. “I can tell you for a fact, where those friends groups are active, those are the places of land that are getting attention.”

Later on in his speech, Hammerling delved into a brief overview of some of the DEEP budget constraints throughout the last decade. He said that seasonal work in state parks has been cut this year by 45 percent, leaving only 550 seasonal workers to maintain the parks. Staff for DEEP was 1,012 people 10 years ago, with one-third of them funded by the general fund. Today, the DEEP portion alone contains 809 workers, a cut of over 200 people from 10 years ago, with two-thirds of those people funded by the general fund.

Budget cuts forced American Legion campgrounds to close up early this season, as they would normally be open through October. “The only two campgrounds open now are Hammonasset and Rocky Neck,” President of FALPS Ralph Scarpino said. “My understanding is that next year they will be closed by Labor Day as well. People want to spend their time in Connecticut and plan camping trips, and now they have to go to Vermont, and they won’t be back. We need to think about how this funding is being used.” 

Rep. Miner said he is hoping to discuss issues facing state parks with representatives of DEEP in the upcoming months prior to the next legislative cycle.

“Commissioner Rob Klee will have an opportunity to sit down with the Environment Committee and the Sportsmen’s Caucus and talk about what other opportunities there are,” Miner said. “There are opportunities to raise revenue, keep that revenue confined to the forests, parks and beaches. and to have shared responsibility. There are a lot of volunteers that really do not like seeing these great opportunities fall apart.”

Rep. Case said, “We have a lot of things to work out in this upcoming legislative session and the Sportsmen’s Caucus. Closing the campgrounds early was nothing that the legislature was consulted on. It was done through the governor’s office, so we wish there was a dialogue about it so we could’ve brought some ideas forward, and made things work. The parks in the past year or two years, have been filled to capacity. If you see that all these facilities are full, why are we closing early? We have the natural resources, let’s leave them open to the people, we’ve got to make a change.”