Chapter 1 - Introduction

Summary

I grew up in Orange, Connecticut—a fairly rural suburb in southern Connecticut that is home to about 14,000 people and encompasses about 17 square miles. Orange is about two hours north of New York City and about five miles inland from the Atlantic coast and the Long Island Sound. The Long Island Sound watershed includes many cities and towns along the New York and Connecticut coastlines. Countless rivers and streams flow through these small towns and eventually discharge into the Sound, making for scenic drives and rest stops along the way. But the Wepawaug River, Indian River, and Oyster River, all of which flow through the town, do far more than serve as scenic rest stops, property markers, and fishing spots for local residents and visitors. A look at the popular eBird app, for instance, reveals 118 songbird, seabird, and waterfowl sightings along the Oyster River alone, which runs through Orange and empties into Long Island Sound. Species including Ring-billed Gulls, Great Egrets, Piping Plovers, and Belted Kingfishers depend on these streams and rivers for sustenance and safe habitat.

The house I grew up in is just up the street from a section of the Indian River that still runs behind some of the homes in the neighborhood. In high school, I’d often walk down the street and hike into the wooded area along that small portion of the Indian River. There, I’d sometimes come across White-tailed Deer drinking from the river as they would pass through the neighborhood and box turtles who lived along the stream but who would, for some reason, often lay their eggs closer to the street. At the time, I did not have the language to describe the Indian River or the Long Island Sound as “ecologically significant areas.” Nor did I think of these local streams and rivers as “wildlife corridors,” per se; however, it is clear now that, as I watched those deer, turtles, and local foxes traverse the Indian River and make their way through portions of neighbors’ fencing to continue their travels through local green spaces and state forest areas, that they were creating their own corridors and paths of connectivity through now-developed areas that offer only partially contiguous landscapes.