New Haven Independent

We began the walk at the sundial in Edgewood Park, near the corner of Chapel Street and Ella Grasso Boulevard. We proceeded along the river guided by Dave Reher, the River Keeper of West River and Gabe Benoit, director of the Center for Coastal & Watershed Systems.

Gabe described research that is being conducted on the West River to analyze the continuously changing conditions in the River and what is affecting those changes.

We continued along the River coming to a catchment basin that had been put in to collect runoff debris from storm sewers that empty into the River and the area wetlands. We observed that this catchment basin had long been overfull with sand, stone and other materials and was doing very little to protect the area it had been built to maintain.

From there we continued out of the Edgewood Park area, across Whalley Avenue, where we began walking along a cement Walkway behind the Westville Commercial area. Here we saw two tributaries of West River, which run on either side of West Rock, join in a channel that was built after the flood in the early ’80s.

We came out on Blake Street near the old Geometric Tool Factory, where we were met by George Uihlein, a local senior citizen who grew up in the New Haven area. George shared stories of growing up in a house on Valley Street, remembering a time when there were still factories operating along the River for the hydraulic power available in the area, and there were dams across the River that captured that power. We learned that at its height the River was the home to over 60 factories. One of these factories made the best blotting paper produced in the world at that time.

From there we headed along a trail at the base of West Rock Ridge eventually coming out on Ramsdell Avenue. We got wonderful views of the River all along the way. Be sure to click this link to the photo album to see pictures of all of this.

After crossing Ramsdell we entered the Pond Lily Land Trust area and began bush-whacking through an area with no real paths and where very few people seem to walk. At this point we were walking along the River behind the Walgreen’s shopping plaza on Whalley Avenue. We eventually came to the Fish Ladder, where herring make their way up the River.

Our guides, Dave Reher, Gabe Benoit, George Uihlein and Roger Uihlein, were full of information, told wonderful stories, and heightened our awareness of both the beauty and problems of this wonderful rich area of New Haven.

For more information of Gabe Benoit’s work and his book one link is here.

It’s useful for individual homeowners, but can also be recommended to town inland wetlands or conservation commissions as well. It could also serve as the basis for recommending environmental measures to be taken by developers of small, large residential developments, and the like.