If you think there’s plenty of places to launch a kayak or canoe into the Naugatuck River, talk to Robert Natusch.
The Seymour resident once got pulled over by police as he walked along an on-ramp to Route 8 with his canoe, looking for a suitable place to set it into the river.
After people complained for years about foul smells and pollution in the river, the more common complaint today is getting access to the Naugatuck. That’s why the Ansonia Nature and Recreation Center hosted a lecture and kayak ride last week to get more people informed about the river and how they can use it.
On June 19, the nature center hosted Laura Wildman, an ecological restoration engineer at Princeton Hydro in Glastonbury, to talk about her work taking dams out of the Naugatuck. And June 20, the center took about 20 people on a kayak ride along the Naugatuck, with kayaks provided for free from Connecticut Outdoors in Oakville. (Click play to see photos and hear about the two events.)
Historically, “the communities around the river have turned their back on it,” Wildman said in her lecture.
“I think the Naugatuck will be the Farmington River of the future,” Wildman said. “It could be a really neat boating river and recreation river.”
But for years the river was polluted by the factories that lined its banks. And even today, trash is prevalent among the waters.
Even as community groups continue to hold river clean up days, garbage continues to wash up along the shores.
But the biggest issue with the Naugatuck River, Wildman and nature center director Donna Lindgren, said, is access.
Flood control canals leave the river blocked from view along large stretches of Ansonia. And even in areas where the river is well seen, it’s hard to boaters to use it because of dams or lack of boat launches. Natusch, a Seymour resident, said his friend’s canoe was stolen the other day while he went to get his car from his launch point.
Lindgren said walkways are a good start to making people more aware of the river’s value.
Click here for a calendar of events at the Ansonia Nature and Recreation Center.
