This week on 0684-Radi0, our free weekly podcast (subscribe here in the iTunes Store), we talk to Chris Schipper, chairman of the New Canaan Conservation Commission. The appointed body this year will unveil a master plan for the restoration of a 17-acre bird sanctuary and wildwood preserve—one of the very first in the United States—that’s been largely forgotten by locals. The plan, which is expected to start in earnest next fiscal year, will culminate with the centennial anniversary of the town-owned Bristow sanctuary. This week’s podcast is sponsored by Pet Pantry Warehouse, your local, family-owned, community-based pet specialty retailer. Here are recent episodes of 0684-Radi0:
The New Canaan Conservation Commission and Wildlife in Crisis are delighted to announce the planned release of four Bluebirds and a Cedar Waxwing at the Bristow Nature Park next to Mead Park at 5pm this Saturday, May 11th. The release will take place by the small pond near the Old Stamford Road entrance t0 the 16.8-acre Bristow Preserve. Those arriving by car should park by the Mead Park baseball fields and follow the signs to the Bristow entrance. The 4 orphaned bluebirds were brought to Wildlife in Crisis last summer, raised andspent the winter in a flight cage. The cedar waxwing was brought in suffering from a wing fracture and starvation.
Town officials say they’re hoping by the end of June to have the wetlands marked within a little-known bird sanctuary that adjoins Mead Park, the early stages of a larger effort to develop a “master plan” for the 17-acre parcel. With pedestrian entrances from Old Stamford Road to the south and Mead Park to the north, the 1924-created Bristow Bird Sanctuary and Wildwood Preserve is “a little hidden gem” of New Canaan, Conservation Commission Chairman Chris Schipper said during the group’s most recent regular meeting. The town has engaged local landscape architecture firm Keith Simpson Associates to develop a master plan and bid packages have gone out for wetlands marking as well as topographical surveying that will include trails, trees and “any noted spots” within Bristow, Schipper said during the April 11 meeting, held at Town Hall. “We have gotten our first returns on bids, but more importantly we have been fortunate in reaching out to some local foundations to say, ‘Hey would you support us with some seed money so we can develop a master plan for the Bristow preserve?’ And the thinking is that with a master plan developed we would start a process of rehabilitation, with a goal of having it done by 2024, which would be the centennial, the 100th anniversary of Bristow. So we have given ourselves a little time in how we would improve or rehabilitate this 16.8 acres at that point.
Test results show that New Canaan’s waterways rank among the cleanest in the region, officials say. At seven E. coli data-testing sites located on New Canaan’s stretches of the Noroton and Rippowam Rivers—sites each tested at least 10 times from May to September last summer—officials found that just one location had a bacteria level that failed state criteria. And that one location—along Ponus Ridge, just below Collins Pond—was only “marginally failing” and within the margin of error, according to marine ecologist Dr. Sarah Crosby, director of Harbor Watch. “I am not overly concerned about there being an acute problem,” Crosby told members of the Conservation Commission during their regular meeting, held April 11 at Town Hall. Asked why New Canaan appears to have cleaner waterways than other towns in Fairfield County, Crosby said “a lot of it has to do with keeping infrastructure up-to-date.”
“A lot has to do with public understanding of things like septic maintenance, and the town regulations around septic systems can have a big impact, and then land use is a big part of it as well,” she said.
Bruce Willis—star of Christmas season film favorite “Die Hard”—dropped into Zumbach’s Gourmet Coffee on Pine Street on Monday morning for a cup of brew. ***
A sign posted Wednesday on the door at Hamptonite, a women’s fashion boutique that opened on Elm Street in May 2016, says “no sales can be transacted” there due to a sales and use tax permit issue. ***
The man who was arrested earlier this year after filming a woman in a bathroom at Grace Farms while he worked as a chef at the Lukes Wood Road organization, pleaded guilty to four counts of voyeurism, according to Connecticut Judicial Branch records. ***
The Board of Education opened its meeting Monday with a moment of silence for former President George H.W. Bush. ***
Farmers Table on Nov.
