NCLC receives funding for reservoir protection easement

KENT — The Northwest Connecticut Land Conservancy announced in October that it has been approved for the final batch of funding necessary to finalize a multi-year purchasing process to acquire a conservation easement that will protect Colebrook River Lake, the state’s largest untapped drinking water reservoir.

The Connecticut State Bond Commission has allotted up to $725,000 towards the project, enabling the NCLC and its partners to reach the $1 million price tag on the easement. The NCLC expects the deal to close by the year’s end, after which 5,200 acres of water resource and diverse wildlife and plant habitat will be protected across the lake and adjacent land’s four-town expanse in Connecticut and Massachusetts.

The lake, which is located on the West Branch of the Farmington River and is buttressed by a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers-operated dam, is cherished for its recreational capacities, such as boating and fishing. The reservoir is stocked yearly with brook, brown and rainbow trout, and hosts robust populations of largemouth and smallmouth bass, northern pike, chain pickerel, catfish, sunfish and other species. The breadth of Connecticut’s mammalian, reptilian, and avian species have been spotted in its waters and among the dense forest that flanks it, including New England’s largest land animal, the moose.

NCLC has collaborated with a number of other regional and national nonprofits in pursuing the protective easement, including The Metropolitan District Landowners and Partners, Save the Sound, Rivers Alliance of Connecticut, Farmington River Watershed Association, Connecticut Land Conservation Council and Connecticut’s chapter of the Nature Conservancy.

In the Oct. 10 press release, NCLC Executive Director Catherine Rawson expressed her gratitude to the partners in their role in the achievement: “This is one of the largest land protection projects in our state’s history and safeguards our state’s clean water, environmental health, and continued public access to nature.”

State lawmakers on both sides of the aisle expressed their support for the project in the Oct. 10 press release, including Governor Ned Lamont (D), State Sen. Paul Honig (D-8) and State Rep. Jay Case (R-63).

State Rep. Maria Horn (D-64), who also serves on the State Bond Commission, described the purchase as “an investment in our communities, our health and our future”: “By permanently protecting more than 3,800 acres around the Colebrook Reservoir, we are safeguarding clean drinking water, preserving an ecologically rich and climate-resilient landscape, and ensuring public access to open space at a time when protecting our environment has never been more important.”