From pre-colonial virgin forest to copper ore discovery in 1789 by farmer John Taylor, to over 150 years of commercial copper extraction, to abandonment and toxic spoils leached into the Ompompanoosuc River (a tributary of the Connecticut River), to complete reclamation, the mine has undergone profoundly transformative changes.
President Lincoln’s 1862 call for 300,000 fresh volunteers to serve in the Union Army for three years was met with less enthusiasm than the original call for three months of service that JJ and so many other Connecticut men answered with enthusiasm.
To some of us, the best birds going are those famous for their speed and predatory punch (the falcons, goshawks, eagles, and the like), while others are most taken by those with the brightest colors (warblers, finches), or the most beguiling songs (the thrushes and some wrens, some sparrows). And to others still—the “listers,” generally—the only birds worth seeing are the rarities.
It all started over a glass of raw milk. Baylee Drown, then working and studying at Green Mountain College in Vermont, offered one to Ryan Quinn (who goes by Quinn). Quinn, an Old Lyme, Connecticut, native, had tasted raw milk before. He liked it, and he liked Baylee even better.
Crayfish, crawdad, mud bug—what’s your preference?
The Connecticut River is one of the cleanest major rivers on the East Coast, mostly free of untreated sewage.
Oysters—one of nature’s many gifts, and so many choices! Oyster lovers have their favorites, each with its own distinctive characteristics derived from its species and its environment
News from our River Partners
Mark your calendars: Spring 2026. That is when we celebrate the next biennial World Fish Migration Day (WFMD).
Estuary Magazine and The Watershed Fund are pleased to announce the winner of the 2024 Early Career Achievement Award, Riley Doherty.
We were deeply saddened to learn of the death of David Holahan, an important, prize-winning contributor to Estuary magazine, who died June 11, 2024.
The New England National Scenic Trail (NET), a 235-mile-long hiking trail stretching from Long Island Sound in Connecticut to the New Hampshire-Massachusetts border, is a close-to-home trail for millions of New Englanders.
The New England National Scenic Trail (NET), a 235-mile-long hiking trail stretching from Long Island Sound in Connecticut to the New Hampshire-Massachusetts border, is a close-to-home trail for millions of New Englanders.
The Connecticut River watershed has no governor. It has no regent, no ambassador, no prince or princess…
“You can observe a lot just by watching,” noted the great 20th-century thinker, Yogi Berra; and he might have said with equal perspicacity that you can hear a lot by listening.
On the afternoon of Essex’s Groundhog Day parade, figures walk through the misty streets, past clapboard houses and American flags, and gather in The Griswold Inn’s Wine Bar.
Fly anglers are dyed-in-the-wool optimists, forever believing the next cast or the next bend in the river holds the fish of a lifetime. It is a creed we live by, and in no place does it spring more eternal than on a blue-ribbon trout stream such as Connecticut’s Farmington River.
My little cousin, Ben, broadcast the news as he left my side and ran into his house, “JJ’s home! JJ’s home!”
As our days grow longer in the Connecticut River watershed, many a young fish’s fancy turns to love. These spawning fish have unique ways of reproducing.
One of the many species of beetles that live in the Connecticut River watershed is the Puritan tiger beetle.