5/7/10

The Refuge made its first purchase in 2009 of 270 acres in the 2,550 acre Salmon River Division, in the Haddam, Connecticut area. The area includes an extensive freshwater tidal marsh important for thousands of migrating black ducks, wood ducks, green winged teal, and mallards and hundreds of wintering black ducks. It is also an important site for spawning alewives and for nesting forest birds including Wood Thrush.

Last month you learned that $6,000,000 in funding through the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) for the Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge was included in President Obama's FY 2011 budget. We have recently learned that our two senators have also put in requests for LWCF funding for the Conte. Please take a moment to contact your senators and representative and thank them for their support of the Conte Refuge and please request that they continue their support at the $6M level to insure that Connecticut receives the money needed to protect land at the mouth of the Salmon River.

$6M is needed to protect 106 acres of forest in the Salmon River Division in Connecticut, 497 acres of prime grassland and floodplain forest in the Fort River and Westfield River Divisions in Massachusetts, 1,035 acres of prime forest and wetlands in the Pondicherry and Mohawk River Divisions in New Hampshire and 606 acres of boreal bird habitat at the Nulhegan Basin in Vermont.

Go to VoteSmart.org to find contact information for your congressional representative.