Ct Forest and Parks Assocation Award to Shelton

On Sep6, the Connecticut Forest and Parks Association presented an Award of Merit to the Shelton Conservation Commission and the Trails Committee in recognition of the work they have done over the years.

Specifically for “their vision and perseverance in developing a town-wide trail system for passive recreation. The Shelton Lakes Greenway – 450-plus acres of contiguous open space and ten miles of hiking trails – is a direct result of their foresight, planning, and collaboration with the Shelton Land Trust, the City of Shelton, Aquarion, and DEP, and innumerable hours of volunteer work over more than a decade. As part of this project they have created an open space corridor to link CFPA’s Blue-Blazed Paugussett Trail to the Shelton Lakes Greenway, and continue their invaluable effort to restore and extend the Paugussett Trail from Indian Well to the Stratford town line.”

CFPA maintains the 800-mile blue-blazed trail system in CT and is the oldest conservation organization in the state (http://www.ctwoodlands.org/).

The Paugussett Trail is a blue-blazed (sometimes referred to as blue-dot) trail in Shelton. At one time it connected from Monroe to Stratford, but development fragmented it to the current state of Monroe (the trail runs thru Web Mountain) connecting thru the "poets" section of town to the Indian Well State Park. You can check out it's local routing via the www.sheltontrails.org website.

The City's accumulation of land in a corridor format of the Shelton Lakes Greenway area (by following our Open Space Plan document) has allowed the creation of a trails network that can be utilized by the Paugussett trail to reconnect from Indian Well State Park toward Stratford's Roosevelt Forest.

The CFPA gave a single Award of Merit this year, and speaking as the Chairman of the Conservation Commission, I thank them for the recognition, however it has been a team effort to reach the accomplishments achieved. The Board of Alderman, Planning & Zoning Commission, and Inland Wetlands Commission have been supportive of our goals and I thank them for that.

The Board of Alderman were made award of this award during their Sep11 mtg and gave a standing ovation in recognition to the Conservation Commission and especially the Trails Volunteers for all their hard work. Above is a scanned image of the recognition.