Gardening for Good: Waste Not, Want Not

Before you turn the page, give me a second. Yes, this is still “Gardening for Good,” and yes, the topic is urine—ours. But it’s also about how we can rethink the way things have always been done in favor of better alternatives for the long run.

The Scourge of Hydrilla

This is the second in a series of stories about hydrilla. For an introduction, see “Hydrilla: The Nine-Headed Serpent in our Estuary Waters,” by Judy Preston, Fall 2020, and at https://www.estuarymagazine.com/2020/11/hydrilla/.

Conte Corner: Let Our Mission Be Our Guide

Major policy changes affecting the irreplaceable network of public lands, which the federal government is charged with protecting unimpaired for future generations, have been implemented by the second Trump administration.

The Cormorant Controversy

Anglers who fish Chatfield Hollow State Park in Killingworth, Connecticut, swear that cormorants have figured out when trout stocking is due. They may be on to something.

Below the Surface: An Ancient Fish, A Modern Mystery

Two species of sturgeon are found in the Connecticut River—the Atlantic and the shortnose. Both are anadromous, at least to a degree, and both are listed as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Rewilding in the Watershed

Project partners from three different organizations wander across fields of goldenrod and burnweed under a perfect September sky. From a boardwalk just a few inches above the wetland soils we inspect alders and cattails, wool grass and smartweed.

Gardening for Good: Gardening for a Changing Climate

In summer 2021, my neighbor sent me a text with a picture of an unusual bird wading in the marsh below his deck. You had to take note, as there are just no big pink birds local to Connecticut. Indeed, that bird—a roseate spoonbill—is typically a resident of Florida and tropics further south. Likely sent off course from a storm that blew it up the coast, it is somehow appropriate to elicit that recollection in a conversation about how our climate is changing in New England.

Conte Corner: Fifty Years with Andrew French

I n November 2024, I sat down with Andrew French, Refuge Manager of the Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge and the Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge and longtime employee of the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), to discuss his career and perspectives on the Connecticut River watershed.