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Fall foliage colors were excellent in late October 2022 in this view over Lake Watrous from the Regicides Trail. One of the positives of this and other views from West Rock Ridge is seeing mostly trees, instead of houses, highways, and commercial development, as is often the case from viewpoints along other trails in Connecticut. |
The Hamden Legislative Council voted at its Sept. 23, 2024 meeting to sell the 12.54 acre parcel at 490 Main St. to the state to add to West Rock Ridge State Park for a price of $290,000. The property is located on the west side of Main Street, opposite Benham St.
The measure was approved by a 10 to 1 vote without discussion because the council had already discussed the matter at its Sept. 16, 2024 meeting.
The vote was recorded on page 2 of the minutes:
https://hamden.com/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_09232024-4626
The council discussion at the Sept. 16, 2024 meeting was recorded on pages 1 to 3 of those minutes: https://hamden.com/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_09162024-4612
The minutes did not record the comments from the four residents who spoke, all of whom said they did not want to see the property developed. Written comments from the Hamden Land Conservation Trust and myself supporting the land sale may be viewed by clicking on the designated link within the minutes.
For those who wish to watch the recording of the meeting, click the link at the top of the first page of the minutes.
This is the parcel that Hamden Mayor Lauren Garrett proposed in June 2023 as the location for the Hamden Animal Shelter, a proposal she withdrew in the face of public opposition. Hamden plans to use the money from the sale toward the construction of the animal shelter elsewhere in town. Garrett announced on Oct. 19, 2024 that the shelter would be constructed on 3.4 acres of town-owned land in an industrial section of Hamden at the junction of Putnam Avenue and Gallagher Road.
The Hamden Planning and Zoning Commission voted unanimously in favor of the sale at its July 23, 2024 meeting. Since the P&Z supported the sale, the Legislative Council needed only a simple majority to approve the sale.
Hearing notice: https://www.hamden.com/DocumentCenter/View/10041/Public-Hearing-ORDER-AUTHORIZING-THE-SALE-OF-PROPERTY-AT-490-MAIN-STREET-HAMDEN?bidId=
Property appraisal: https://www.hamden.com/DocumentCenter/View/10288/Real-Estate-Appraisal---490-Main-St-Hamden
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Hamden town-owned land on Main Street, as seen from Benham Street, on July 31, 2023. The white sign to the left of the telephone pole indicates the land was owned by the town. |
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The property being sold to the state is very close to the Red Trail at West Rock, seen as a purple line close to Wintergreen Brook and is opposite Benham Street, Hamden. This screenshot is taken from the Hamden GIS maps: https://hamden.mapxpress.net/ags_map/ |
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The southbound tube of the West Rock Tunnel (Heroes Tunnel) is illuminated by new LED lights on Jan. 13, 2024. This picture clearly shows the new fixtures. |
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The southbound tube of the West Rock Tunnel (Heroes Tunnel) is illuminated by new LED lights on July 10, 2024. The lights were installed in January 2024. The road through the tunnel was repaved in June 2024. |
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| New stonework and fresh pavement graces the entrance to West Rock Ridge State Park on May 13, 2023. The new parking area (not pictured) is to the left of the gate. The state replaced the signs in 2022. |
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| The entry shack is gone in this photo of Regicide Drive, just inside the main entrance to the park, on May 13, 2023. |
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Asphalt has been removed from the parking lot at the South Overlook nearest the stone fall facing south, giving a buffer to people enjoying the view, as seen on May 28, 2023, with work still in progress. This dirt area was planted with grass, creating a buffer between the smaller parking lot and the stone wall. |
Regicides Trail and Sanford Feeder Trail Reblazed in 2022
The Regicides Trail has been reblazed, effective Nov. 8, 2022, a project that started on July 11, 2022. I spent 60 hours on this project with another 15 hours of help from other people. Since the trail is 6.8 miles long, this averages out to slightly more than 10 hours of work per mile of trail.
By comparison, the 0.6 mile long Sanford Feeder Trail pruning back and reblazing only took four hours. Why the difference? The Sanford Feeder is an old road, which has a well defined path. As a result, there is no need to place brush to define the trail. There was little pruning to do, other than the open section by the culvert that gets plenty of sun and heavy growth as a result. This is about the only section of that trail that is affected by invasive plants. There were two blowdowns to clear, tree crowns that were projecting onto the trail.
I reblazed the Regicides Trail between July and October, using one gallon and one pint of paint. The trail was last reblazed in 2017-18. Blazes are an interesting phenomenon. After four to five years, some blazes look as fresh as they day they were painted, while others have almost completely faded away. Blazes on rocks tend to last only about two to three years, while those on trees can easily last five or more years.
As I was working, I painted over the graffiti on the rocks along the trail, and also on the Baldwin Drive guardrails. Regrettably, someone painted trees and rocks on the Regicides Trail in a quarter mile section of the trail south of the West Rock Tunnel. These, too, I painted over.
With regards to the seasonal pruning, along most of the Regicides Trail, the pruning is typically minimal because plants grow slowly in the thin soil at the top of the ridge. With 2022 being a drought year, that slow growth was particularly evident. However, in areas that are impacted by invasive plants, the cutting back is time consuming and requires more frequent attention.
As time allowed, we also placed brush along the Regicides Trail to keep people on the path. As a rocky trail, it can be difficult to see and follow the actual treadway. I had two work events that specifically focused on adding tree limbs along the switchback up to the Quinnipiac Trail, an area that still needs more brush.
In mid-April, I installed a small kiosk with a map at the junction of the Quinnipiac and Regicides Trails. This helps clarify the potentially confusing intersection, as it is rare for two Blue-Blazed Trails to intersect.
In summer 2022, the state cut open the two overlooks by the pull-offs on Regicide Drive approaching the South Overlook. I do not view this as a positive change because better views are available at the South Overlook and at the overlook off the trail just north of the pavilion. Those areas that have been cleared are really hot from the sun in the summer. The noise from the streets below the ridge is even louder.
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This picture is taken from the southernmost pull-off along Regicide Drive, en route to the South Overlook, which has a much wider view of the same area, as seen in August 2022. |
On a puzzling note, someone has been making arrangements of river rounds on rocks in at least four places on the Regicides Trail. It seems very odd that someone would carry hundreds of pounds of rocks up the ridge, but clearly they are because such rocks are not found on top of a trap rock ridge.
Related to the above project, I reblazed the Sanford Feeder Trail, which was last done in 2016. I also pruned back this trail, which mostly needs to be cut back at the midpoint of the trail where it crosses a culvert in an open area that is prone to overgrowth from invasive plants.
I know about the 15-inch diameter oak tree that fell across the White Trail at the junction with Purple-White. I hope to get a volunteer with a chainsaw to clear it in the near future. In the meantime, it is easy to slide over or walk around.
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River rounds are arranged on a rock along the Regicides Trail near the Lake Dawson overlook in December 2022. |
West Shepard Avenue Junkyard Clean-Up is Complete
Satisfaction at seeing an improved West Rock is a definite motivator for me regarding trail work. With that in mind, the cleanup of the junk pile off West Shepard Avenue is essentially complete, effective Jan. 1, 2023. I started work on this project in 2018 and worked at it over time, sometimes with help from others, but mostly by myself.
The former homeowner for the house beyond the gate on West Shepard Avenue had been using state land for his own purposes. He had a pile of junk off the road that I have been cleaning up over the years.
Among the items we removed from the pile were 150 gallon sized planter pots, about 10 long white PVC pipes, about 100 bricks (and another 100 had been taken by some unknown person), lots of rotted wood, cut up parts of a telephone pole, a plastic barrel, and foam insulation that he had laid down on the ground to keep things from growing. I also removed 16 buckets of assorted pieces of trash.
The final item removed was a large metal tank, rolled out by another volunteer, with some help from me. The only left to do is rake the ground to get up the last bits of insulation and small pieces of trash.
From the rest of the park besides these two junkyards, in 2022, I removed 20 five-gallon plastic buckets of trash, plus assorted other junk, including two car tires, a bicycle seat, a metal shovel head, and a metal refrigerator drawer.
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A metal tank, bricks, PVC pipes and assorted other junk were placed in the woods off West Shepard Avenue by the nearby homeowner. This view from July 2018 does not show the full extent of the problem as the picture was taken when the cleanup was partially underway. |
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The woods off West Shepard Avenue are clear of junk as seen in December 2022. The metal tank to the left of the tree was rolled out on Jan. 1, 2023. |
I cannot write a trail report without discussing the work being done to target invasive plants. One area we targeted this year was at the southern end of the park in the Judges Cave area. This included the woods north of the cave and between Regicide Drive and the Regicides Trail, south of the cave. Another area was the gravel road section of the Red Trail between Mountain Road and the Red-White Trail where we cut many autumn olive.
A new volunteer started helping out in 2022 and among the tools he uses is the Extractigator, essentially a clamp with a long handle that he used to uproot many medium-sized invasives, mostly privet and winged euonymus. Part of this work was needed to open up the Regicides Trail, which was very narrow due to the growth. We saw signs of hope in the growing native plants, including ash and oak trees.
On my own, I cleared two good sized patches of winged euonymus (burning bush) from along Regicides Drive south of Judges Cave. There is still much more to clear further into the woods.
We have cut back various patches of invasives along Baldwin Drive, including a large patch of winged euonymus near the Lake Watrous overlook. Again, there is plenty more to cut. This pesky invasive has completely taken over the east shoulder of Baldwin Drive in that area, marching some 100 feet down the slope. Some of the shrubs had a three-inch diameter base and were up to 15 feet tall. Little native trees and shrubs remain in the area. We will certainly need to return to this area in the future.
We have been cutting the invasive tree of heaven wherever we find it: along the Westville Feeder near the ballfields, along Baldwin Drive, and at the turn on Mountain Road near the Yellow Trail.
As an after-work project, I have continued to work on the invasive plants along the Teal Trail in Westville. Since most of the original growth has been cut, the focus has shifted to cutting what has resprouted with the hope that through continued cutting, the plants will die, leaving room for native shrubs and trees to grow in these areas. One big project to tackle is cutting and pulling all the Japanese honeysuckle plants that are smothering and strangling anything around them.
The Teal Trail parallels the Westville Feeder Trail for a short distance north of the ballfields. People have created paths along the steep slope between the two trails, path which are eroded. I pile brush on these shortcuts to discourage people from using them, but the irresponsible users often just move the brush to the side, so I move it back onto the shortcuts.
The White Trail north of Lake Wintergreen has several places where the trail has been relocated upslope of the original path of the water company woods road that it follows. The relocations were necessary because water collects on the original path at the base of the slope, so it is muddy year-round.
In the fall, I noticed someone had moved cleared all the brush from the original path just south of the Purple-White Trail and was using it as a trail. I placed extensive brush on this original path to allow the area to heal and regenerate and have another one to block off as well. Returning later in the fall, I saw that someone had again cleared it.
In 2022, I volunteered 205 hours, which included 64 hours just for the Regicides Trail, and 11 hours for the Red Trail junkyard project. Others contributed another 116 hours of work in 2022.
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Invasive tree of heaven trees along Baldwin Drive that were cut in a previous year resprouted and were cut again in August 2022. Tree of heaven closely resembles the native and desirable staghorn sumac. The easiest way to tell them apart is that the tree of heaven leaf edges are smooth, while those of the sumac are serrated. |
Rain Fuels Plant Growth in 2021; Storms Cause Minimal Tree Damage
Despite torrential rains that fell on West Rock during 2021, the park suffered minimal tree damage, a welcome change from the tropical storms and tornado that knocked down tree crowns and full-sized trees in 2020. The heavy rains did result in noticeable erosion on steep trail segments, including the Red Trail up to the South Overlook, the Blue-White Trail near the water tank, the Westville Feeder Trail, and West Shepard Avenue.
The rains also fueled heavy plant growth, particularly among the invasive plants. All trails had been pruned back by the end of the year and all blowdowns had been cleared. We also moved the loose rocks of the Red Trail and the Westville Feeder Trail. West Shepard Avenue is a safety hazard because there are sections where the ground near the broken pavement is a six inch or more drop. I reported this to the town of Hamden to fix, but nothing has been done as of this writing.
As the covid-19 situation eased a bit in Connecticut, businesses fully reopened, and there were definitely fewer people using West Rock than during the peak times in 2020, and the sight of cars lined up and down Main Street near the Lake Wintergreen parking lot was less common.
The only trail blazing that took place was along the Teal and Teal-White Trails, which I reblazed for the first time since I did the initial blazing in 2012. The blazes held up an impressively long time. I think that Teal (or aqua) is the most visible trail color.
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West Shepard Avenue between the gate and the berm for Baldwin Drive has a gully that is a safety problem for someone bicycling down the hill who may be unaware of the wash out, as seen in September 2021. |
Bootleg Trails Became a Problem in 2021
One challenge in 2021 was people who created illegal and unauthorized trails, which we blocked off. With any bootleg trail, the result is destruction of plants and an increase in erosion, and the risk of introducing invasive plants where they do not currently exist.
A runner created a trail off the White Trail near its northern end, connecting up to Baldwin Drive, and was advertising it on Strava. When told it was illegal to build trails without permission, the person removed the Strava link. I went out there and covered the trail with brush to make sure no one else used it, and also scattered the cairns he put at turns. Even though the trail had been in existence only a short time, it was already eroded. This is not surprising because the slope up the ridge is about 20 percent in that area. I recognize that between the Purple Trail and the Yellow Trail, there is a long stretch of the park where there is no connecting trail from the lowlands to the top of the ridge. The reason for the lack of a trail is that the terrain is too rugged to build a sustainable trail.
There were also two bootleg trails that were parallel to the north section of the Regicides Trail, between the Lake Watrous overlook and the Sanford Feeder. One bootleg trail was about a third of a mile long, and the other was half a mile long. We blocked this off, which took several hours of work.
I also blocked off an illegal trail on York Mountain that someone made to cut across the switchbacks on the Regicides Trail as it neared its junction with the Quinnipiac Trail. The final bootleg trail was parallel to the Blue-White Trail from midway up the ridge extending to Baldwin Drive, which I blocked off twice.
Few Trees Needed to Be Cleared
Storm Elsa dropped about five inches of rain on Hamden when it passed through the area in early July, Storm Ida added another six inches on Sept. 2, and Storm Henri left about 2.5 inches on Aug. 22. By comparison, Hamden's yearly rainfall total is between 40 and 52 inches on average, as measured at Lockwood Farm on Evergreen Avenue. https://portal.ct.gov/CAES/Weather-Data/Weather/Weather-Data
There were only a few large trees that needed to be cleared from trails, which is expected in any given year. A volunteer and his chainsaw did the clearing of the larger trees. Trails that were affected were the steps from the Red Trail to Baldwin Drive and the Purple-Orange Trail. With help from another volunteer, I cleared a large oak tree on the Red Trail near Farm Brook Reservoir, which was the only blowdown to completely block a trail. The chainsaw volunteer cuts down a number of invasive larger tree of heaven trees. I cut my share of smaller blowdowns and trees of heaven with my handsaw as well.
White Trail Section Relocated to Higher and Drier Ground
We relocated a 380-foot long section of the White Trail a bit south of the Purple-White Trail where the White Trail was wide due to having low, muddy sections. We moved brush out of the way, raked it, pruned it back and arranged limbs and rocks at both ends of the relocation.
This is the second relocation of a section of White Trail out of low, muddy ground. In 2018, we moved a 1,000-foot long section north of the Purple Trail higher, dry ground.
The remaining problematic section of the White Trail is about a third of a mile north of Lake Wintergreen where it crosses a rock slab that is slippery when wet. Due to the slope in the area, it would be difficult to relocate around this spot. An informal foot path has appeared as people seek to stay off the rock slab, which seems to be working pretty well.
One task that we did along various trails in 2021 was arranging limbs and brush to keep people on the trail, particularly at turns where there is the tendency to continue straight ahead. The Regicides Trail has many rocky sections where it is a challenge to define a footpath.
Rocks Improve Trail Conditions
Along the Red Trail at the northern end of Mountain Road, Scott Howland and I lined the trailhead with rocks to help define the trail and push back the plants that crowd the trail. Thanks to Scott for doing all the heavy lifting, moving rocks too large for me to handle. I would like to add more rocks to this area to help keep the trail open, as the invasives threaten to close it off each summer.
Volunteers from Quinnipiac University’s Big Event helped for one morning in April with a focus on bringing in process (a gravel and stone dust mixture) to the Red-White Trail off Hill Street to firm up soggy trail sections. The area could use one more load of process, which they can hopefully put into place in 2022. The students also helped with invasive plant clearing in that area.
Trash Removal Is Ongoing
We continue to collect trash in the park, both new and old. I still find beer cans in the woods off Baldwin Drive that have the old-style pop tops. There is old broken glass on the Regicides Trail at the Lake Dawson overlook and Baldwin Drive at the Glen Lake overlook, despite about six visits to pick it up. I spent some time in 2021 with needle nose pliers picking up the small pieces because that was the best way to collect it.
One interesting find was 14 metal and wooden milk crates that clearly dated from the 1970s that we came across while blocking off a bootleg trail off the northern end of Baldwin Drive. This type of dumping is a head scratcher. Why would someone have driven four miles up Baldwin Drive, and then dumped them about 100 feet into the woods? Why not drive up a short distance and then leave them by the side of the road? Not that is an acceptable alternative, but at least it makes sense.
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Invasive winged euonymus shrubs line the guardrail of Baldwin Drive at the junction with the Purple-Orange Trail in November 2021. Their bright red color makes them popular for landscaping, but they choke out all other native plants in the woods. Their small red seeds are not suitable for human consumption. |
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Native huckleberry shrubs provide a tinge of red to the Purple-Orange Trail in November 2021. The honeysuckle co-exists with native shrubs, such as low bush blueberry. Huckleberries and blueberries make for a delicious snack for people, and also are good food for wildlife. |
Invasive Plant Clearing Continues to be Major Focus
A number of areas received heavy focus on cutting back invasive plants, including the quarry section along the Teal Trail, the South Overlook, near Judges Cave, along Regicides Drive and Baldwin Drive, along the gravel road section of the Red Trail north of Mountain Road, and in the narrow section of the Red Trail between the two Mountain Road crossings. Without this work, the narrow trail sections would become completely overgrown and impassable from the invasive plants. This work takes time. The 0.2 mile section of Red Trail took me eight hours of work over three visits to cut back the invasive plants, including the thorny multi-flora rose. If this trail section had only native plants, I could have pruned it back in 15 minutes.
A dedicated group of volunteers has been working steadily on the Teal Trail near the old quarry for two years. Since late 2019, we have spent 223 hours cutting through the various invasives with the most common one being privet, used as a hedge in landscaping. The privet was often eight to ten feet tall with stems up to 1.5 inches in diameter. With all the rain in 2021, the privet aggressively resprouted and is now about three feet tall with stems about the diameter of a pencil. With continued cutting, the privet will eventually exhaust its root energy and die.
In the areas where we cut back the privet, there was noticeably more wineberry, which is an invasive raspberry with red, hairy stems. This is not especially a concern because wineberry is shallow rooted and is easy enough to uproot.
One invasive plant has become a serious threat to the native flora at West Rock is the Japanese honeysuckle vine. When small, it resembles thread, and when it gets older, it looks like twine, and it has long, narrow leaves all year long. This vine will blanket an area, smothering and strangling other plants. Parts of the Teal Trail are absolutely covered with the honeysuckle vine. It is difficult to control because it can cover a wide area, breaks easily when uprooted, and grows back aggressively. By comparison, the Asiatic bittersweet vine grows much larger and grows in a more confined area, making it easier to uproot, cut, and kill.
We cleared invasive plants along the Regicides Trail in various places with a particular focus on the area north of Judges Cave. These include the usual suspects: winged euonymus, multi-flora rose, bittersweet vines, and tree of heaven. The Sanford Feeder in the section that crosses the culvert gets overgrown every year from invasive plants and I cut that back. The lower portion of the Westville Feeder is heavily affected by invasive plants, particularly winged euonymus and Japanese honeysuckle vines. With all these areas, we cut and pulled what we had time to do, but more invasive plants remain.
I saw more barberry this year than I have ever seen, uprooting when I could, and cutting what was too large to uproot. At times I also pulled the berries off the bushes and put them in the trash to slow down the spread. Unlike other hiking areas, West Rock does not have a large barberry problem, which is fortunate because the more barberry an area has, the larger its deer tick population.
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The Sanford Feeder Trail crosses a culvert midway up the ridge from Brooks Road to Baldwin Drive. This open area is plagued by invasive plants that choked off the trail in Aug. 2021.
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Improved Trail Planned Off Paradise Avenue
A Trail Scout is undertaking a project to improve an existing woods road off Paradise Avenue, which will include relocating muddy and steep sections, installing two to three bridges over areas where water crosses the woods road, and blazing the woods road. This project has state approval and is one that I have provided guidance and support because it involves improving an existing trail.
This is a beautiful, peaceful area of the park with thankfully no invasive plants. The only nearby trail is the Quinnipiac Trail. In the spring, the scout and his father organized a cleanup of trash from the woods road and Paradise Avenue, the details of which are noted below.
Not tallied in these hours is the volunteer efforts required to construct the single-track trail extending 1.6 miles from Lake Wintergreen to the Red Trail, east of the Red Trail. This trail was constructed by volunteers from the New England Mountain Biking Association (NEMBA) with approval from the state. I did not support this concept because I feel there are already enough trails at West Rock and would have preferred these volunteers help with the existing trails.
Structures Demolished
The state demolished two structures at West Rock during summer 2021. The first was the red house on Wintergreen Avenue near Main Street, and the other was the red brick building on Wintergreen Avenue by the sharp curve south of Lake Wintergreen. The house had been occupied many years ago by an environmental conservation officer, but it had been vacant for years.
This is a good example of demolition by neglect with the state letting the house fall apart, and then demolishing it. The better solution would have been to maintain the house and have a park employee live there to keep eyes and ears on the park.
The state has installed a gate by the road and plans to use the area as a parking lot. In order for that to happen, the state needs to line the parking area with wooden posts. There is an existing woods road that loops down to a gate, providing access to the Red Trail near Lake Wintergreen.
The red brick building once housed pipes for Lake Wintergreen. I have been told this is where chlorine was added to the water by the former New Haven Water Company. I have also been told that the shut off valve for the pipe from the lake into the public water supply was located here. When the Clean Water Act passed in the early 1970s, Lake Wintergreen was no longer a viable source of water, since the lake was too small to justify filtration, and was taken out of service.
West Rock Trash and Hours Tallied
Trash removal (as measured by five-gallon plastic buckets): Baldwin Drive, 10; Teal Trail/climbing wall, 16; all other locations, 39.
Sample junk items removed from all areas: arrows, sneakers, shoes, boots, metal kitchen chair, blankets, iPhone, bicycle kickstand, metal fan, sleeping bag, jumper cables, and sound bar. From the Paradise Avenue cleanup, there were multiple plastic trash bags, a car hood, 15 tires, and other junk.
This was my second highest year for hours of trail work, putting in 305 hours. I worked 325 hours on the trails in 2020, which is the most I have ever volunteered in one year. The next closest time I came to these figures was in 2018 when I worked 240 hours on the trail. If anyone would like to compete against me to see if they can get more hours, I would welcome that challenge and the benefit to the park that would result.
The various volunteers who worked with me contributed a total of 303 cumulative hours to benefit the park.
Cumulative hours of projects at West Rock that I managed since I became a volunteer in 2007 were 2,260 hours from me and 1,551 hours from others.
Oak trees were cleared in late December 2020 from the "steps" trail that connects the Red Trail to Baldwin Drive.
Storms and Invasive Clearing Defines 2020 Trail Work Season
Storm damage and invasive plants were the defining features of trail work in 2020. Two major storms ripped through West Rock in August with Tropical Storm Isaias downing tree crowns and branches, mostly in the southern end of the park. A tornado tore across the northern end of West Rock, leaving rows of downed large oak trees that blocked Baldwin Drive, the Regicides Trail and West Shepard Avenue.
While not a feature of trail work, the covid-19 pandemic drove park attendance to noticeably higher levels, higher even than from May 2018 to June 2019 when Sleeping Giant State Park was closed for 13 months to clear tornado damage. Although I do not have any visitor counts, I definitely saw more people using the park, and the Lake Wintergreen parking lot was frequently at capacity with cars lining Main Street.
Most of the year was quiet and that provided a good opportunity to continue the ongoing battle against the invasive plants that are trying to take over the native woodlands. During one of those sessions on Baldwin Drive in June, we spotted a black bear running up the road, the first time I have seen one of these ursine creatures at West Rock.
Clearing the Old Quarry and the Teal Trail
At the south end of the park, just beyond Amrhyn Field in Westville, between the Teal Trail and the climbing wall is an area of about two acres that was completely choked off with invasive plants. The area toward the apartments and Springside Avenue was equally choked off. The three worst offenders were the privet and winged euonymus shrubs, and the bittersweet and honeysuckle vines. There were also occasional sharp-thorned multi-flora rose bushes.
The shrubs created an impenetrable wall of stems and branches, while the vines tightened their grip around anything growing there, strangling and killing many native trees. There were also assorted patches of Japanese wineberry, an invasive form of raspberry, recognizable by the fine hairs on the stems. These shrubs crowd the Teal Trail, which has been narrowed to only 18 inches wide in sections.
People grow privet as a hedge in their yard, while winged euonymus, commonly known as burning bush, is a popular shrub used in shopping centers due to its durability and leaves that turn bright red in the fall. Left uncontrolled in the woods, each can grow to more than 10 feet tall with a center stem that can grow to two or more inches in diameter. From the hundreds of berries they grow, new plants blanket the ground underneath them.
Asiatic bittersweet vine has rough, tan bark and can grow up to three to four inches in diameter, although most vines are typically one to two inches in diameter. The Japanese honeysuckle vine has a thread-like appearance when young and resembles twine as it ages. The honeysuckle has long, narrow green leaves that it retains year round.
I began working on this area in November 2019, making regular visits, often during the week after I was done teaching. I estimated that in a given two hour visit that I could clear an area roughly the size of a two-car garage.
After staring at a computer screen all day, clearing invasives was the perfect antidote and an excellent digital detox. By the time I put a seasonal stop to this project in June 2020, out of fear of disturbing a yellow jacket nest, I estimated that I had cleared through about three quarters of the invasives between the Teal Trail and the quarry wall. I also cleared a portion of the invasives between the Teal Trail and the apartment building, plus some of the invasives along the upper climbing wall. I also discovered about six elm trees that were about 15 feet tall and 4 inches in diameter. Somehow these have managed to evade the Dutch elm disease.
When I returned in December 2020, I was pleased to see the cleared area was still relatively clear with minimal resprouting from the privet, probably hindered by the drought. The multi-flora rose had sprouted plenty though, and the Japanese honeysuckle vines seemed to be smothering more plants than ever. There were also several large patches of Japanese wineberry that I had skipped over to focus on the privet.
I hope that by June 2021, I can have the entire area between the Teal Trail and the quarry wall completely cleared of invasive plants. This will still leave a large patch of privet extending out toward Springside Avenue, plus privet, honeysuckle, winged euonymus and multi-flora rose along the steep slope by the apartment buildings, a slope that makes clearing work difficult.
Clearing the old quarry and along the Teal Trail was primarily a solo effort. From the time I started in Nov. 2019 to Dec. 28, I spent 173 hours on this project alone.
Opening Up Baldwin Drive and the South Overlook
A series of other work parties removed invasive plants lining Baldwin Drive, primarily the lower section from the entrance up to the final switchback. As a result of this work, the road is noticeably more open and wider have many fewer invasive shrubs projecting out into where people are bicycling and walking.
As part of this process, I learned to identify another invasive plant, tree of heaven, which has long, narrow leaves that end in a point, similar to the native staghorn sumac trees. Unlike the serrated sumac leaves, the tree of heaven leaves have a notch like a thumb near the base, and are otherwise smooth edged. In the fall, native sumac leaves turn bright red, while the tree of heaven leaves are yellow. Tree of heaven has a bumpy bark that resembles cantaloupe in both color and texture. Regrettably, when cutting tree of heaven, it gives off a horrible smell that can kindly be described as burnt peanut butter. We cleared most of a patch at the curve near the tunnel airshaft, and another patch at a straightaway along the road not far from the Orange Trail.
In March and again in November, we cleared invasive plants from along the fence line at the wide spot on Baldwin Drive slightly north of the Yellow Trail, and also picked up lots of old bottles and cans from the east-facing slope. While we have made good progress, there is still so much invasive growth along the road and slope, and still more trash from 50 years ago. I will schedule a future work party for this project.
Several work parties spent a portion of their time picking up the broken glass on the Regicides Trail near the Lake Dawson overlook. Every time we return more glass works its way to the surface, but the area is much cleaner.
We cleared a large swath of privet from the South Overlook in January, which crowds the Red Trail below the stone wall. State workers cut down native trees in the area to provide people a view, but the negative side effect of this cutting is that the invasives then have more light in which to grow. We collected much trash during this event, but could not remove it all. Where cars go, trash follows…
The April work party focused on pruning back the Red Trail and the Regicides Trail at the south end of the park, along with cutting more invasive plants along and near the trails.
In February, the work party lined the Regicides Trail switchback with branches as it climbs York Mountain to the junction with the Quinnipiac Trail. This better defined the trail corridor in a rocky area where the path is not always obvious. We added more brush to the sides in August when clearing tree crowns from the tornado. Some sections could still use additional brush to keep people on the trail.
Discovering and Clearing the Woods Road off Route 69
The other area for invasive work was a woods road off Route 69, just south of Bishop Drive in Woodbridge. I saw the gray line on the state map indicating a road that led from the road to near Konolds Pond and decided to follow it in August 2020 to see if the road actually existed.
It does exist and extends about three quarters of a mile to the border of the West Rock Materials property, which is about halfway down the widest section of Konolds Pond. The map shows a break in the gray line, but that is an error as the road is continuous.
However, certain parts are hard to follow because they have been choked off by invasives, including multi-flora rose, barberry, autumn olive, privet, and bittersweet vines. Due to the drought, the West River was low and I was able to cross it on a series of rocks someone had put in place. Along the way, I cut many bittersweet vines along the way, including one that was about four inches in diameter near Route 69.
I made two visits to the area in late fall, cutting massive amounts of invasives, particularly bittersweet vines that were wrapping themselves around trees along both sides of the road. There were also barberry plants that were four feet high, lots of sharp-thorned multi-flora rose, and shrubs in the form of autumn olive, winged euonymus, and privet. I removed a tire that I found and a metal car bumper that someone else had carried to the road. Midway back on the road is an abandoned trailer from an 18-wheel truck that certainly will remain there.
This project is definitely not a priority, as this area gets little use, but I don’t want it to become a nursery for invasives that will infect other areas of the park.
Summer Storms Take Their Toll on Trees
August 2020 delivered two punches to West Rock in the form of storms. Tropical Storm Isaias on Aug. 4 caused storm damage, primarily in the lower half of the park, and mostly in the form of tree crowns and branches. I was able to clear these using a handsaw in a few visits.
An Aug 27 thunderstorm yielded a tornado that cut across the northern part of West Rock, toppling large oak trees that completely blocked the Regicides Trail, the Sanford Feeder Trail, Baldwin Drive, and West Shepard Avenue.
A series of work parties cleared the trails and West Shepard Avenue with state workers helping along Baldwin Drive. Other clearing took place for the blowdowns on the steps trail between two switchback curves on Baldwin Drive.
Blue-White Replaces Gold on Water Tank Trail
The only trail blazing I did in 2020 was to change the blaze color on the water tank trail from the White Trail near Lake Wintergreen to the Blue-Blazed Regicides Trail. This changed to Blue-White from Gold on Aug. 18, 2020. I placed signs at the junction with the Regicides Trail and the White Trail to explain the change. I had permission from the state to make the change. This new color is reflected on the 2023 map.
I originally I chose Gold in 2010 for the initial blazing of this trail because it seemed distinct enough from other colors and was not being used at the park. Over the years, I heard enough people refer to the trail as Yellow that I knew I had to make a change. There is already a Yellow Trail at the park, which connects Mountain Road to Baldwin Drive and the Regicides Trail. For someone hiking on Baldwin Drive or the Regicides Trail, this creates potential confusion.
Why Blue-White? It's simple. The water tank trail connects the Blue-Blazed Regicides Trail to the White Trail at the base of the ridge. The Blue-White Trail is the most direct connection to the Regicides Trail and Baldwin Drive from Lake Wintergreen, which is the main parking area at West Rock.
This trail was reblazed on Oct. 22, 2024.
West Rock Trash and Hours Tallied
There is also much less trash at West Rock, as documented by what we removed. I count trash based on the five-gallon size plastic buckets we use to carry it out of the park. Climbing wall trash from 2020: 26.5 buckets, plus these items: cement block, metal chair, metal pan, two metal pipes, one metal pipe connector, metal ring for a car wheel, one baseball bat, one broken metal baseball bat, pair of boots, and a kids’ metal cap gun.
Baldwin Drive trash from 2020: 17 buckets, plus a drum brake shoe, mattress springs, metal pole, and a metal pipe.
All other West Rock trash: 29 buckets, plus a metal car bumper, five tires, hubcap, plastic tub lid, and a rusted one gallon paint can.
This was a record year for me with regard to hours of trail work, a combination of working in nearby Wallingford, along with the extra time I had due to the covid-related shutdowns. I worked 325 hours on the trails in 2020. The closest I came to that figure was in 2018 when I worked 240 hours on the trail. If anyone would like to compete against me to see if they can get more hours, I would welcome that challenge and the benefit to the park that would result.
I appreciate all who volunteered their time to get dirty and risk getting scratched by plants and bitten by bugs. Every hour counts toward making the park a better place. Other helpers contributed 160 hours of work.
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| This is the start of the White Trail relocation, slightly north of Purple. The well-worn former trail is to the right. Given some rain, that trail quickly becomes muddy, and portions are heavily eroded. The new trail is intentionally overblazed to allow people to follow it. As the trail becomes established, some of those blazes will be allowed to fade when others are repainted. |
A spruced up Orange Trail and a relocated section of the White Trail are the highlight of trail maintenance at West Rock in 2019, along with the continued battle against invasive plant species. With the reopening of Sleeping Giant State Park in June 2019, after being closed for 13 months due to storm damage, there are fewer people using West Rock.
In any year, part of trail work consists of cutting back plants growing over the trail, and clearing branches and trees that fall across the trail. We removed the following items of trash from West Rock in 2019: 31 buckets’ worth of trash, chrome trim from a car, a hubcap, one tire on a rim, and four tires not on a rim, the post to an old-style car bumper jack, and part of a porcelain sink.
I spent 140 hours improving the trails at West Rock, and had assistance from others who donated 178 hours of their time.
Orange Trail Reblazed and Narrowed
I reblaze trails about every five to six years to keep the blazes fresh and visible, and having last been reblazed in October 2013, it was time for an update on the Orange Trail. This certainly was a trail work bargain because I found a sampler of orange paint (tending toward the tangerine hue) on the oops paint shelf at Home Depot that I purchased for 50 cents. I reblazed the entire quarter mile trail in an hour and still had some paint remaining. The current color is more tangerine than orange, but is certainly very visible.
The middle portion of the Orange Trail has gotten way too wide in a rocky sections area with little understory. In some places, the trail had become eight feet wide. In a series of visits, we carried limbs and rocks from off-trail to define the trail path to a width of three to four feet and to block off areas where we do not want people walking. One more visit should complete this project.
Yellow Jackets Cause a Problem
I learned this the hard way about going off-trail to do trail work while cutting resprouting autumn olive along the Red Trail near Mountain Road in late August 2019. As always, I felt searing white-hot sting of the yellow jackets before I saw them, and by the time I ran back to my car with them in pursuit, I received 10 stings. I am not allergic in a deadly way, but the stings are incredibly painful and I could see the venom pooling under my skin in a way that appeared to be a tuberculosis test. This is only the third time I have been stung at West Rock and the previous two times, I got stung in two to three spots
On all three occasions, I was off-trail doing work, so keep this in mind and stay on trail (which people should do anyway) when hiking in late summer to early fall when these pests are most aggressive. Until the hard freeze in late fall 2019, I wore a mesh suit to protect me against bugs while in the woods.
White Trail Portion Relocated to Higher Ground
The other major project was relocating a portion of the White Trail, north of the Purple Trail, to higher, dry ground out of the lower, muddy areas. We moved a 0.2-mile section of the trail. The project required raking leaves to define the path and doing some light trimming to clear branches hanging over the new trail section. I blazed the new section and another volunteer painted out the blazes on the now former trail.
The challenge will be getting people to abandon the older trail, so the erosion can heal and new growth can establish itself. There is one more section about 0.1 miles long that is south of the Purple Trail that still needs relocating, and hopefully this can be moved some time during 2020.
Yellow Trail Reblazed Along Mountain Road
A minor trail reblazing project involved blazing the telephone poles along Mountain Road. The United Illuminating Company had replaced the telephone poles along the road and with that, took away the blazes I use to guide people from the Yellow Trail to the Red Trail.
A direct connection through the woods is not possible between these two trails because the woods between the two trails have wetlands. It would be an expensive project to build a boardwalk through the wetlands. Since Mountain Road has little traffic and the connection is only a third of mile long, using the road is the practical solution.
Invasive Plant Species Continue to be Removed
During the colder months, different work events focused on invasive species in various locations, including along Baldwin Drive, the Gold Trail, the Westville Feeder Trail, and the Teal Trail near the ballfields by Blake Street. We are successful in uprooting many invasive plant species, but in the never-ending battle, there are always more invasives to sprout in their place. The ones that are too big to pull we cut, and these invasives need repeated recutting as they resprout, and the intent of this recutting is to kill the roots.
Starting in November 2019, I began an ambitious invasive clearing project along and near the Teal Trail approaching the ballfields. Between the Teal Trail and the climbing wall is an area of about two acres that is completely choked off with invasive plants, in particular, privet, which is a shrub with smooth, tan bark, oval-shaped leaves that drop in the cooler weather, and small round black berries that appear in fall.
Other invasive shrubs in this area include prickly multi-flora rose, and winged euonymus with its corky wings along the stems. Also present are the hairy Japanese wineberry, an invasive form of raspberry. There are two vines causing problems: the Asiatic bittersweet vine with the rough, tan bark that twirls around trees and chokes them. The ground and some shrubs are blanketed with Japanese honeysuckle, a vine that has a thread-like appearance when young and resembles twine as it ages. The honeysuckle has long, narrow green leaves that it retains year round.
This project involves cutting away the larger shrubs, which then reveals the smaller ones growing underneath. I uproot the smaller ones, ending their change of growing any longer, along with the wineberry and the honeysuckle vines. I have been making piles of what I cut and pull to make it easier to walk through the area when I return at a later date to cut and pull what has resprouted.
The invasives are also growing out of control along the fence between the Teal Trail and the apartment building, and along the unblazed footpath to the upper climbing wall. Once I complete clearing out the climbing wall area, I will turn my attention to these areas.
If these invasive plants are not removed, eventually there will be no trees in this or native shrubs in this area because the invasives are choking out any seedlings that try to grow. Many of the smaller trees by the climbing wall area dead. On a positive note, I have uncovered a number of seedlings about 18 inches in height, along with native blackberry and black raspberry. As one might expect, I have uncovered and removed trash hidden under the invasive plants.
I have seen rock climbers using the climbing wall every Saturday I have done this work and even some of the weekdays. They appreciate the easier access to the wall. As I work, I will also be opening up even more sections of the wall that may have climbing potential.
Plans are underway to rehabilitate the dams in the Farm Brook Watershed, one of which forms Farm Brook Reservoir at West Rock Ridge State Park. The other two are along either side of Paradise Avenue south of Autumn Ridge Road / Howard Drive and north of Benham St. About 40 residents attended the meeting on Thursday, July 18, 2019, at 6:30 p.m. in the Clarion Hotel and Suites.
The presenters from the USDA and the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) said they are reviewing all possible options for the dams and watershed and will prepare a draft plan by summer 2020. They expect to have public meetings about that draft plan in fall 2020 and complete the plan by winter 2020.
Those in attendance expressed concern that the project has not been well publicized. The USDA sent this letter to neighbors by Farm Brook Dam, and one neighbor shared it with the West Rock Ridge Park Association, which is how it was displayed here. They are concerned about existing flooding conditions and how dam changes might affect them. The website for dams is as follows: https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/national/programs/landscape/wr/
This is the DEEP website for dams. DEEP officials indicated they would post the presentation from the July 18 meeting on the DEEP website, but did not state the exact page, but this seems to be a good starting place:
https://www.ct.gov/deep/cwp/view.asp?a=2720&q=325634&deepNav_GID=1625
Many Trail Improvements in 2018
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| A hemlock tree blocks the Red Trail, just north of the Purple Trail, on March 24, 2018, as a result of the March 7 northeaster. |
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| After 20 minutes of sawing and dragging branches away, the Red Trail is accessible again, March 24, 2018. |
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| The tire rim in the foreground is fairly obvious, but can you spot the tires in the upper left corner and the upper right corner of the photo, as seen downslope from Baldwin Drive, June 2018? |
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| The pile of junk removed from the slope from Baldwin Drive, June 2018. I hauled this away in two trips. |
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| Quinnipiac University hosts its Big Event in April 2018, where students volunteer in the community. About 10 students participate every year at West Rock. Here two students cut a giant autumn olive shrub in the field by the Hill Street parking lot. |
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| The Red Trail north of Lake Wintergreen should be at least eight feet wide, but was about three feet wide midway through this clearing project. The native grape vines are growing on invasive multi-flora rose and autumn olive, and when those shrubs were cut back, the trail was returned to its original width. Invasive phragmites are growing on the right. |
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| The Teal Trail near Westville in July 2017 AFTER an aggressive pruning back of the invasive plants that keep trying to choke off the area. |
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