This facility features a football field and stadium, a track, and regulation
baseball field, all used by two city high schools. The park also includes
lagoons and trails in its nature areas.
Nature is constantly changing through a process called succession, and
Beaver Ponds Park is no exception. The ponds here were originally created
by the beavers, who dammed portions of Beaver Brook until it overflowed.
The vegetation was flooded and much of it died, allowing pioneer plants
adapted to aquatic conditions to take over. As these plants died and decayed,
they released nutrients that allowed other plants to establish themselves.
If the ponds are left undisturbed, they may gradually fill up with sediment
and decayed plants, and then marshy ground will take their place. But this
may take tens to hundreds of years. At present, the two ponds, north and
south of Fournier Street, look different because they are in different stages
of succession.
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Plants are as important in a pond environment as they are in a terrestrial
one. The oxygen plants produce when they make food helps replenish the low
levels of oxygen often found in stagnant water. Pond animals use plants
for food, for shade, or for protection from predators. After they decay,
plant matter also provides pond organisms with needed nutrients. Beaver
Ponds is home to a wide variety of vegetation. The low-growing plants, called
the understory, include the common reed, bull briar, and multiflora rose.
Native poison ivy – let the allergic be forewarned - is also abundant
in these parts! Many kinds of trees abound as well, such as Black Locust,
Red Oak, Sugar and Red Maple, Wild Black Cherry, and Willow.
Ponds play an important role in the lives of many birds. Nearly all birds
must visit fresh water regularly to drink and bathe. Some obtain most of
their food from ponds by eating either plants or small fish. Others depend
on ponds for nesting sties. Because birds are very mibile, they are important
agents of distribution of both plant and aminal life from ond pond to another.
Over thirty different species of birds have been sighted in Beaver Ponds,
among them swans, robins, sparrows, herring gulls, cormorants, mallards,
herons and ospreys.
The fish are a resilient bunch, and some can survive extremely foul-water
conditions, while others can live for awhile on land. They are thrifty
scavengers, some feeding on sifting through mud for organic content. Still
other types
of fish feed on dead carcasses or fellow fish who are diseased, injured
or dying.
For centuries, humans have viewed wetlands as sinister and foreboding.
Yet these environments are not only breathtaking, like Beaver Ponds, but
they are among the most important ecosystems on Earth. They are sometimes
described as the "kidneys of the landscape" because of their ability
to filter and store a wide variety of wastes from both natural and human
sources. They provide a unique habitat for a wide variety of plants and
animals, and they help to control flooding by absorbing excess water.
Clean water is a resource that is often taken for granted, but it is vital
for maintaining healthy communities. We need clean water for growing food,
manufacturing goods, and drinking. Uncontaminated water also maintains ecosystems.
Though wetlands have the ability to filter many wastes, the ponds are still
vulnerable to excess pollution. One of the biggest sources of pollutants
for Beaver Ponds is called nonpolnt source pollution - the combination of
all the small amounts of pollution present in a typical urban environment.
These pollution sources include animal wastes, salt, lawn fertilizer, motor
oils, and overflows from failing septic systems. Pollutants from the atmosphere
are also present in the form of rain. Often, the Earth's soil absorbs rainfall
and filters out metals which may be present. But asphalt and concrete are
not able to absorb water, and the rain runs along these impervious surfaces,
picking up pollutants as it goes, until it reaches a pond or a stream. Because
stormwater drains are the major source of water for Beaver Ponds, nonpoint
source pollution from runoff represents the major source of pollution for
the ponds.
Runoff affects not just the Beaver Ponds, but other bodies of water, as
well. The water from Beaver Ponds drains into Winter-green Brook, which
drains into the West River. The West River, in turn, drains into the Long
Island Sound. Beaver Ponds, therefore, is part of the West River and the
Long Island Sound watershed.
By moderating
our use of water, fertilizer, and automobiles, we can all help keep Beaver
Ponds, the West River, and the Long Island Sound clean.
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Beaver Ponds, like many wetlands, was long considered useless. Before the
nineteenth century, the park area was common grazing land, dotted with ponds
created by busy beavers. In the early 1800s, ownership of the swampy land
was ceded to ten farmers who begged the government to install a drainage
system. A century later, the Parks Department continued in this tradition,
purchasing, filling, and grading the acreage in the hopes of creating "picturesque
lakes and islands, with verdant uplands and wooded banks." Beaver Ponds
Park, proclaimed the Park Commissioner's report, would become "one
of the chief ornaments of New Haven."
Development activities began in what is now Degale Field, in the southernmost
section of the park, and crept northward as the century progressed. The
Department created ball fields, playgrounds, elevated walks, and swimming
holes; and the lower portion of the park became a popular gathering place
for the old and the young. Baseball and football were the most popular pastimes,
and in 1947, the City built its first stadium, Bowen Field. Some ten years
later, Hillhouse High School was erected on park land, and today, Wilbur
Cross High School uses Bowen Field for football, soccer, and baseball. In
1997, the Parks Department created a new field for the Pop Smith Little
League.
The Parks Department has also focused recent attention on the ponds of
Beaver Ponds. North of Bowen Field along Crescent Street, the Department
removed the rusted chain link fence and dense vegetation which for many
years hid the ponds from view. Residents from the three neighborhoods surrounding
the park—Newhallville, Dixwell, and Beaver Hills—are rediscovering
the wonder of the northern section of the park, as they fish, watch for
wildlife, and jog along the edge of the ponds.
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This facility features a football field and stadium, a track, and regulation
baseball field, all used by two city high schools. The park also includes
lagoons and trails in its nature areas.
Bowen Field Baseball Diamond
Bowen Field Football Stadium and Track
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To find out more about activities at Beaver Ponds Park, please contact
the Parks Department for the City of New Haven:
946-8027
To find out more about neighborhood restoration efforts, please contact:
Urban Resources Initiative, 432-6570
To find out more about the West River watershed, please contact: Center
for Coastal Watershed Studies, 432-3026.
To find out more about when to eat fish caught in Connecticut's water bodies,
contact the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, at 860-424-3474.
A pamphlet entitled "If I Catch It, Can I Eat It?" also provides
more information, and is available at the New Haven Parks Department.
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