In 2016 Hunter Brawley of BCG began serving as a stewardship circuit-rider for the Connecticut Land Conservation Council (CLCC), providing one-on-one mentoring to land trusts in New London and Wyndham County. The goal of the CLCC's New London CountyLand Trust Advancement Initiative is to strengthen participating land trust’s individual and collective capacity to conserve the region's natural heritage and land and water resources through sound land stewardship, conservation defense and strategic conservation planning. This multi-year project is being generously funded by The Community Foundation of Eastern Connecticut.
As a circuit-rider, Mr. Brawley provides assistance with record-keeping, development and implementation of management plans, preparation of Baseline Documentation Reports and GIS mapping of all land trust fee holdings and conservation easements within the service area. Participating land trusts include Old Lyme Land Trust, East Lyme Land Trust, Waterford Land Trust, Colchester Land Trust, Groton Open Space Association, Avalonia Land Conservancy and Wyndham Land Trust.
Management Plan, Trolley Bed Preserve, Woodbury, CT
In 2017, BCG returned to the Pomperaug River Valley (Where Mr. Brawley was formerly the Executive Director of the Pomperaug River Watershed Coalition) to assist the Town of Woodbury with the development of a management plan for their newly acquired Trolley Bed Preserve. This 245-acre Preserve encompasses the former Woodbury reservoir property which was subsequently acquired by Aquarion Water Company. The purchase was funded in part by a Connecticut Open Space and Watershed Acquisition Program grant and the Preserve is subject to a State Conservation and Public Recreation Easement which requires public recreational access.
Working with a Town Committee and other stakeholders, BCG made recommendations to address management issues including parking/public access, trail improvements (including potential for mountain-biking and other mixed uses) and appropriate public recreational uses.
Southbury Training School, Southbury, CT
BCG was chosen to prepare a Baseline Documentation Report (BDR) for an agricultural conservation easement being granted from the Connecticut Department of Agriculture (DoAg) to the Southbury Land Trust on the 920-acre Southbury Training School. The Southbury Training School was built in the 1930’s as a large state-funded and state-operated residential and rehabilitative facility for adults with intellectual disabilities. The campus includes extensive agricultural fields which the Southbury Land Trust and other conservation groups had been trying to conserve for many years. In 2014 the property was transferred from the Connecticut Department of Developmental Services (DDR) to DoAG. This project was the first time DoAg granted a conservation easement to a local land trust.
Wimisink Wetland Restoration, Sherman, CT
Naromi Land Trust began a large- scale wetland restoration project at its Wimisink Preserve in Sherman after receiving a $16,000 Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program (WHIP) Grant from the NRCS in 2005. During the 7-year WHIP contract, BCG worked with local contractors to restore wildlife habitat by eradicating invasive non-native woody vegetation and infestations of Phragmites australis and purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria). One of the restoration partners in this project was a local Boy Scout troop which cultivated and released Galerucella beetles during the spring of 2006 as a biological control for purple loosestrife. In 2010 BCG submitted and was awarded a $124,000 Housatonic River Natural Resources Damage (NRD) grant to construct a new wetland boardwalk and parking area at the Wimisink Preserve. BCG contracted Peter Jensen & Associates and Beatty Construction to do the work and in the spring of 2103 boardwalk was completed. The opening ceremony for the boardwalk on Earth Day was attended by several State politicians, the NRCS and numerous Sherman residents.