Residents organize environmental advocacy group in Groton

Groton — A group of Groton residents have started a conservation advocacy organization to bring environmental information to policy makers and notify the public of environmental issues.

The group, Groton Conservation Advocates, was formed in the fall and has a six-member steering committee.

“We view ourselves as a watchdog group,” said Liz Raisbeck, steering committee member of the new group and member of the Groton Open Space Association. Raisbeck served as senior vice president for regional and government affairs at the National Audubon Society for nine years.

“I see us as being willing to take some of the heat that being advocates inevitably brings to an organization,” said Eugenia Villagra, steering committee member and former member of the GOSA board. Other steering committee members include Jim Furlong, a former board member and website editor for GOSA; Zell Steever, who has worked for the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation and U. S. Army Corps of Engineers; Jessie Stratton, former policy director for the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection; and Thomas Tobin, member of the town Boating Advisory Board.

The new advocacy group was needed because GOSA focuses mainly on open space and land management, and can’t endorse political candidates due to its nonprofit status, Villagra said. Groton Conservation Advocates endorsed four candidates in the recent Town Council election: Patrice Granatosky, Conrad Heede, Rachael Franco and David Atwater.

The members attended Groton Zoning Commission meetings for most of last year, when the commission was revising regulations for the Water Resource Protection District to simplify and update them.

The regulations, which protect the town’s drinking water supply, increased from 50 feet to 100 feet the required buffer between commercial development and the water’s edge in the district. Members also attended a hearing last November about a Connecticut Airport Authority plan to cut down trees at Bluff Point State Park and six privately-owned adjacent properties that obstruct airspace leading to runways at Groton-New London Airport.

Raisbeck and Villagra said the group is also concerned about future development of the former Mystic Education Center and ensuring that Groton conserves the portion of the land currently overseen by the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

“The fact is when you have organization, you can have members who will write letters, communicate with public officials, and you can raise money to do your work,” Raisbeck said. “It gives you more credibility” to speak for residents concerned about the environment. Steering committee members have met with Planning Director Jonathan Reiner and the group supports his vision of economic redevelopment along existing corridors like Route 1, she said. “We hope to be the town’s partner. Not their adversary,” she said. “But we hope to be watchdogs as they go forward.”