Andrew Yuang

NCHS Science Team ID’s High Phosphorus Levels in Bristow

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Members of the New Canaan High School Science Team identified unusually high levels of phosphorus in Bristow Bird Sanctuary based on samples collected this past summer, according to a presentation the students gave last week. Natural levels of the chemical element should come in around .1 mg/L for streams with no reservoirs, yet tests conducted by a lab in June following a sample at Bristow came back at more than six times that amount, according to Andrew Yuang, a NCHS student who joined Science Team Co-Captain Kira Titova at the Dec. 8 Conservation Commission meeting, held in Town Hall and via videoconference. 

Asked by Commission Chair what negative impact of high phosphorus could be, Yuang said that, similarly to nitrogen, high phosphorus that comes into a waterway—typically, from fertilizer—could lead to an overgrowth in algae which, in turn, reduces the amount of dissolved oxygen that aquatic life needs to breathe, an environmental condition called hypoxia. Schipper said, “It makes sense we are doing this test, because we are concerned about what is happening in our freshwater streams and ponds, but we’re also concerned about the downstream effect on Long Island Sound, and I would say i’m not surprised that there might be a very high reading because, as a regular visitor to Bristow and Bristow Pond, I’ve noticed the pond is often so heavy with plant life it feels like a snapping turtle could walk across the top of it, as opposed to swim underneath it. And so we actually have that kind of Petri dish of plant growth that you can see going up high and then fall off—it helps that the stream continually flushes water through there.

Conservation Commission

‘A Quiet Community’: Conservation Commission Recommends New Restrictions on Gas-Powered Leaf Blowers

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Members of a town-appointed body that advises on the protection and conservation of New Canaan’s natural resources are seeking to further restrict the use of gas-powered leaf blowers here, saying the machines are bad for residents, wildlife and the environment. 

The Conservation Commission at its most recent meeting voted unanimously in favor of recommendations to only allow gas-powered leaf blowers or “GLBs” October through Dec. 15 and then again from mid-March through April. 

In a set of recommendations that’s being forwarded to a committee of the town’s legislative body that oversees ordinances, the Commission also is recommending some limits on the number of GLBs per property (such as one for properties under three acres and two for properties over three acres), and limiting hours of use to 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and allow only one leaf blower per property (gas or electric) on Saturdays. The GLBs would be allowed for use following natural emergencies such as hurricanes, and also allowed for Department of Public Works use on public properties while pursing “transitional plan to electric powered machines,” under the Commission’s recommendations. “Consider allowing electric leaf blowers year-around that operate within the time and property guidelines specified above,” the Commission’s recommendations said. “Ensure that their decibel levels don’t exceed 65dB.

Government

Officials: ‘Swap Shop’ Proposed for Transfer Station Waiting on Salt Storage Plans

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Longstanding plans to install a volunteer-run “swap shop” at the Transfer Station are on hold pending a separate capital project at the site for a storage family for road salt, officials say. The fiscal year 2023 budget now under discussion includes $50,000 for a site and construction study of a planned “salt dome” at the Transfer Station, officials said during the Feb. 17 meeting of the New Canaan Conservation Commission. Pegged at $500,000 last year, the construction costs may well have increased since that time, Commission Chair Chris Schipper said during the group’s meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. 

Effortrs to put in a swap shop based on Darien’s successful model are “getting harder,” Schipper said. “Until they get the salt cellar, we’re not going to get anything,” he said.

Government

Conservation Officials Consider 10K Running or Walking Event to Spotlight New Canaan’s ‘Greenlink’

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Citing a successful model from Darien, local conservation officials say they’re thinking of launching a 10K running or walking event in New Canaan that would spotlight the town’s “green link” connecting public parks and the downtown via trails and sidewalks. 

Robin Bates-Mason, a Town Council member who sits on the legislative body’s Land Use and Parks & Recreation Committee, and also volunteers with local nonprofit organizations such as Planet New Canaan and the New Canaan Beautification League, said the Darien Land Trust uses an event to bring awareness to its properties around Darien. “It’s quite popular,” Bates-Mason said during last week’s meeting of the Conservation Commission, where she was a guest. Participants pay a $15 fee, she said. The appointed body’s chair, Chris Schipper, said it could be “an interesting project.”

“I like the idea of people walking and riding,” Schipper said during the Oct. 14 meeting, held via videoconference. 

Referring to his request on behalf of open space advocates to allocate a portion of a $6 million windfall in federal funds through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, Schipper added, “And I have, in the course of discussing ARPA funds and allocations of funds, I’ve said we really have to promote walk-ability and bike-ability here in New Canaan and I think we have some support from [the Department of Public Works], we just have to get around some of these state road restrictions.”

“And I can tell you it drives me crazy I come up 106, regularly coming back from Greenwich, and I see young moms with a stroller walking alongside [Route] 106.

Ban on Bird Feeders Lifted

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New Canaan residents can bring their bird feeders back outdoors again now that the  mysterious bird die-off that started in July has subsided. During the Conservation Commission’s Sept. 9 virtual meeting, Newell Cotton, a member of Friends of Bristow Bird Sanctuary and Wildwood Preserve, provided an update on the strange disease that resulted in a ban on bird feeding. Cotton said the mysterious affliction “was a concern during the summer—you probably saw the Connecticut Audubon’s communications regarding taking down feeders—but now they say feeders can go back up.”

Cotton said although the alarming trend of birds suddenly dying “did make its way to Connecticut, it was in very small numbers.”

“It was more of a Mid-Atlantic occurrence—around Washington D.C., Virginia and Maryland,” he said. “I don’t think the root cause has been identified.