FEATURED NATIONAL RECREATION TRAIL

Water Trails in Connecticut ‘s “Last Green Valley”

Mansfield, Connecticut’s accessible launch site is smooth and barrier free W

hen canoeist Larry Diamond paddled the Willimantic River in

the early 1990s, he saw other paddlers, but not many. Launches were mostly unim- proved and hard to find, but in-the-know paddlers enjoyed scenery that felt like Maine wilderness, even in the midst of northeastern Connecticut.

Today Larry sees more paddlers thanks to the work of the Willimantic River Alliance (WRA) and The Last Green Valley, a national heritage corri- dor (TLGV). The heritage corridor includes two National Recreation Trail water trails, the “Willi” as locals call it, and the Quinebaug. Acting on an off-hand comment – “Let’s paddle to the Sound!” – in 2009, TLGV organized a six-week-long

18 FALL 2014 AmericanTrails.org

“Source-to-Sea” trip on navigable riv- ers of the watershed. Each weekend put new paddlers on the rivers and raised awareness through educational events and celebrations. As Bill Reid of TLGV recalls, “Most of us knew certain stretches, but almost nobody saw the big picture. As Source-to-Sea logistics came together, we created a forum for individualists with a shared passion: the rivers.” WRA and TLGV have always known that people who enjoy rivers are people who care for rivers. They also recognize two major gaps: little public information about where to paddle and difficult, limited physical access to the river. To bridge these gaps, both groups

built awareness through events, inven- toried the Quinebaug and Willimantic rivers, then compiled that data to pro- duce detailed paddle guides, steward- ship plans and finally designation as

National Recreation Trails.

Others with a stake in the rivers, such as the US Army Corps of Engineers, the CT Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, and riverside towns, developed launches and programming to promote both rivers.

In 2008, the town of Mansfield cut ribbon on a 20-year-old idea to create a launch on the Eagleville Pond impoundment on the Willi. It took a land swap with the University of Connecticut and remediation of an old septic field to create River Park, a 10-acre site with a multipurpose play- ing field, parking, and of critical importance to boaters, a universal- access launch for paddle craft. Jennifer Kaufman of the Town of Mansfield says, “River Park demon- strated to us how important accessibili- ty is for recreation by people of many ages and abilities. Right now we are