Paderewski Park, CT Trout stocking

Clean-up at Tomasso Park

• PLAINVILLE -- Earth Day comes but once a year, and this year it arrived on April 22. Towns and communities across the country recognized this holiday with nature walks, celebrations and clean-ups of local open spaces.
• On Sunday afternoon the local Conservation Commission carried this spirit of environmental benevolence into Tomasso Nature Park, located off of Granger Lane. For the entire afternoon commission volunteers turned out in force to help ensure that this piece of nature retains its spirit and vitality.
• Eight volunteers showed up for the event, the entire Conservation Commission as it currently stands, some with families in tow.
• The group worked over the course of the day at two concurrent projects, according to comission member Lawson Taylor, who headed the afternoon’s activities.
• Primarily, the volunteers worked on a cleanup effort, clearing out both man-made and natural clutter from as much of the park’s grounds as they could tend to in the time allowed. In addition members of the commission gave guided tours through the park, explaining the history behind one of Plainville’s treasured open spaces, and describing the nature of wildlife encountered on the trip.
• "It’s a whole commission effort when we come out here and do anything like this," Taylor said. "We’re trying to promote Earth Day. Ruth Hummel, she’s taking a couple of people around, she’s the town naturalist."
• The park encompasses 11 acres of land, with approximately four of these labeled as wetlands.
• The town constructed the park in 1987 with cooperation from Tilcon, according to David Niedzwiecki, commission chair.
• Tilcon wanted to extend the runway for its local landing strips at Robertson Airport, he explained.
• Officials therefore created Tomasso Park as a preserved habitat for migration sites for animals dislocated by this construction project.
• According to Taylor, this wildlife is at the heart of what makes a space like this worthwhile.
• "There’s so much to see in this park," he said.
• "There’s things you don’t normally see in your back yard."
• While the commission is able to tend to Tomasso only once or twice a year, its membership remains very active in other projects throughout the town.
• Taylor described two upcoming projects which will take place on May 1 and May 8.
• "Next week we’re doing a trout stocking," he said.
• "We have 250 fish coming to town to put into Paderewski Pond.
• "The Sunday after that, we have a river cleanup ..We average anywhere from 60 to about 100 people at that."
• The river cleanup, which will clean a section of the Quinnipiac River which runs behind the local Dick’s and Lowe’s stores, tends to provide some interesting discoveries, Taylor explained.
• One year, he said, the volunteers pulled an engine block from the water.
• Another once netted a fully legible driver’s license from the 1970’s.
• "It’s always interesting to see what you’re going to pull out of the river," Taylor said.