How to protect an ailing Housatonic River

CORNWALL — The Housatonic Valley Association (HVA) paid tribute to state Rep. Roberta Willis (D-64) at its annual meeting on Friday, Sept. 16, for her life-long environmental advocacy and legislative efforts.

Willis has served for eight terms (16 years) as state representative for the 64th District, which includes Torrington, Cornwall, Sharon, Salisbury, Goshen, Kent, Norfolk, Canaan (Falls Village) and North Canaan. She will retire at the end of this year.

After a buzzing cocktail hour at HVA’s Cornwall Bridge headquarters, the organization met for a semi-formal meeting.

The event marked HVA’s 75th year, and Executive Director Lynn Werner took the opportunity to highlight their environmental accomplishments and future challenges.

The Housatonic River valley watershed, she said, is “one of the most extraordinary places in the country.” It is nationally recognized for its valuable forests, rich wildlife and cultural heritage — but it faces multiple threats.

She listed polluted water runoff that enters streams, rivers, ponds and lakes as HVA’s primary concern in the years to come. She also discussed the impact of climate change on the Housatonic River; the Housatonic River, Werner said, is at the lowest level ever recorded.

But the emphasis of the evening was on paying tribute to Roberta Willis.

Tony Zunino, president of HVA’s Board of Directors, presented Willis with the organization’s first Lifetime Environmental Leadership Award. 

Zunino highlighted Willis’ involvement with the Community Investment Act, signed into law in 2005, which ensured stabilized funding for open space protection, agricultural viability, farmland protection and affordable housing amid a fluctuating state budget.

He also cited her co-founding (with actress and Salisbury resident Meryl Streep) of the group called Mothers and Others for Pesticide Limits, an advocacy group that sought to limit the use of pesticides in agricultural food production.  That group was renamed Mothers and Others for a Livable Planet.

Bill Tingley, chairman of the Housatonic River Commission, thanked Willis for her legislative contribution to this year’s federal Wild and Scenic designation of the Northwest Corner’s portion of the Housatonic River. This change creates more opportunities for state funding for and protection of conservation efforts in the Housatonic River valley.

“This has been a long struggle,” Tingley said. “I don’t think it could have happened without Roberta.”

Willis, he added, was “consistently a force for the environment in the state of Connecticut.”

Margaret Miner, executive director of the Rivers Alliance of Connecticut, and Lori Brown, executive director of the Connecticut  League of Conservation Voters, added their praises.

Brown discussed this year’s progress in Senate Joint Resolution 36, a bill that many hope will lead to a constitutional amendment that protects open state lands from being sold without public referendum.

“There isn’t a legislator who doesn’t say they’re for the environment,” Miner said. “But when it comes down to a vote? Not so many.”

Willis gave a short speech in which she recalled memories from her career as a state representative, as well as her environmental advocacy work dating back to the early 1970s.

“I’m no spring chicken. I’ve been doing this for a while,” Willis said with a laugh. She commemorated the work of local environmental groups—HVA, the Housatonic River Commission, the land trusts, the zoning commissions — and called for future action.

She told the audience, “I need you to carry on and keep up the good fight.”