“We never knew this place existed.” “When our daughters come to visit next month, we are planning to take them back to see this.” And so, this is how we began our Water Access program as part of the Borderlands Pilot project in Killingly.
The team was about a year into the process and in our surveys the community was looking for ways to gain access to the waterways, lakes, and ponds in the Borderlands area. Our thought was that if we could begin by organizing events, we could further the access issue. Also, our belief was that if more people had the opportunity to experience the natural surroundings on the water, they would gain in appreciation of these resources.
In our first year, we coordinated two formal events and eight informal paddles. The formal events were on weekends and had between 20 and 25 paddlers. The informal events were smaller groups, mostly on summer evenings. We would gather at a pond or put in point after the work day and paddle for a couple of hours. These events allowed individual paddlers to join a group setting and see a new pond or river section. As the summer paddles continued, the group continued to grow.
What was most interesting, were the comments of long time area residents. In its Industrial past, the rivers in the area suffered from poor disposal practices. However, with the improvements in the last 40 years, the rivers are in much better condition for recreational use. The Pilot Team had the belief that if we could get people to experience the area they would grow in appreciation. Further, as they gained in appreciation, they would want to want to protect and preserve the resources so that others could enjoy these special places. As time passed, we began to hear this message. We began to encounter people we had paddled with in the spring and they would tell us how they had gone back, or tried a new pond in the area. When we ran a river cleanup in September, we had a large number of volunteers on a drizzly Saturday morning. However, we were also contacted by a number of people who couldn’t make this one, but wanted to be included in the future.
What is the future? In Killingly, we have plans for both formal and informal events during this coming paddling season. We hear that one of the local retailers (whose store in on the Five Mile River) is going to sell Kayaks this year. We will have another river cleanup (in a new location) this year.
Most importantly: ‘the more we enjoy the resource, the more we protect it’, seems to be proving itself to be true.