New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
City looks at ecological sustainability on shoreline
WEST HAVEN — City officials want to invest in the shoreline, they just need to know how to do it first.
The city has posted a request for proposals seeking a firm that can assess the ecological needs of roughly 1.5 acres of shoreline near Old Grove Park.
Parks and Recreation Director Mark Paine said the city is looking for grant funding to accomplish some projects in the area, but the city’s lack of a design for the area has hindered those efforts.
Paine said the city will prioritize designs that demonstrate environmental yield, aesthetics and resiliency.
During heavy storms two years ago, the city removed several fallen trees in the area of the Old Grove Park shoreline because they no longer were safe; what then happened, Paine said, is that seeds of non-native invasive plants under the roots of those trees had germinated and spread in the area.
Sustainability advocates decided they wanted to turn the area into a habitat with native plants as well as promoting ecological resiliency.
Marilyn Wilkes, vice president of the Land Trust of West Haven, said the services being sought by the city are merely to establish a design — to bring in outside expertise to determine how the area can be sustainable.
“These two parcels are highly visible because of how used that Old Grove Park is. People are very interested to see what’s going to happen there, and I think it’s something we can use as a springboard to look at the rest of West Haven’s coastline in terms of what best practices need to be put in place,” she said.