It’s all about riparian zones – from the Latin word for river: RIPA or RIPARIUS (Et tu, Riparius?). But a riparian zone, at least to those of us west of the Rubicon, is actually the area on the sides of the river – a buffer that, if preserved and managed properly, goes a long way toward keeping the river clean and keeping whatever the river, or stream, flows into clean as well. Critical stuff, really. So critical, in fact, that that the Connecticut legislature passed Public Act 21-19 creating new environmental responsibility and authority for local governments to protect and restore riparian zones. Under the new statute, all “navigable waterways” flowing into Long Island Sound now need to be protected – which affects almost all the municipalities in the state. We were joined by some heavy-hitters on this topic: Charles Vidich, Senior Project Manager in charge of the Regional Plan of Conservation & Development at the Western Council of Governments; Sam Gold, Executive Director of the Lower Connecticut River Valley Council of Governments; and Francis Pickering, Executive Director of Western COG. Together they facilitated a conversation on next steps toward more sustainable riparian protection and development.
It’s all about riparian zones – from the Latin word for river: RIPA or RIPARIUS (Et tu, Riparius?). But a riparian zone, at least to those of us west of the Rubicon, is actually the area on the sides of the river – a buffer that, if preserved and managed properly, goes a long way toward keeping the river clean and keeping whatever the river, or stream, flows into clean as well. Critical stuff, really. So critical, in fact, that that the Connecticut legislature passed Public Act 21-19 creating new environmental responsibility and authority for local governments to protect and restore riparian zones. Under the new statute, all “navigable waterways” flowing into Long Island Sound now need to be protected – which affects almost all the municipalities in the state. We were joined by some heavy-hitters on this topic: Charles Vidich, Senior Project Manager in charge of the Regional Plan of Conservation & Development at the Western Council of Governments; Sam Gold, Executive Director of the Lower Connecticut River Valley Council of Governments; and Francis Pickering, Executive Director of Western COG. Together they facilitated a conversation on next steps toward more sustainable riparian protection and development.