Landfill to be transformed into environmental education park

An undeveloped 64-acre parcel adjacent to the former UConn landfill that once held chemicals discarded from research labs as well as debris and trash is being transformed into a peaceful learning laboratory and nature sanctuary.

Richard Miller, director of environmental policy, says that by fall 2007 the first phase in transforming the former landfill site - which has been successfully covered and closed - into a passive recreation and preservation area will be complete with trails, educational signage, boardwalks over restored wetlands, and wildlife observation areas.

Plans include public access with visitor parking, he says; and the site of the former dump will become a permit-only parking lot, with more than 600 spaces for students, faculty, and staff.

Known as the Hillside Environmental Education Park, the 64-acre swath of undeveloped land bounded by Hunting Lodge and North Hillside roads is mostly wooded; connects to Shelter Falls Park, a town-owned nature preserve; and includes a large wetlands system, with a great blue heron rookery. Miller says some funding for the project has been made available as part of the landfill remediation project budget.

Other resources, including the University's Green Campus Fund, which is administered by the UConn Foundation, are being explored to cover the costs of phases II and III of the project.

Several teams of students, led by Kristin Schwab, an associate professor of landscape architecture, developed designs for the nature park that included the trails and boardwalks, as well as observation decks and signs describing the diverse ecosystems.

Schwab's students created five landscape designs, and submitted them to the Land Use & Sustainable Development subcommittee of UConn's Environmental Policy Advisory Committee.

Aspects of each were incorporated by the committee into a single design, she says.

Ideally, although probably a decade away, Schwab envisions an indoor environmental center, located nearby on the largely undeveloped North Campus.

She says signage and an "interpretive" program could provide information on three issues: the value of open space; waste, and the ways society has learned to deal with it; and water resources and storm water management innovations.