Elm City Parks Conservency

About ECPC

Elm City Parks Conservancy (ECPC) is a not-for-profit parks advocacy organization serving the New Haven parks system. Our mission is to strengthen public awareness of and participation in the city’s parks. Our methods include building partnerships with individuals, park friends groups and other community-based organizations, and sharing resources.

ECPC’s scope is as broad as the New Haven Parks System, a network of over 100 parks and green spaces. We work to enhance all of New Haven’s parks and monuments, from the smallest parcels, such as Kimberly Square’s ghost ship monument, to the largest, like East Rock Park’s four hills and 425 acres.

The partnering of ECPC with the New Haven Department of Parks, Recreation & Trees provides many opportunities for new programs, new monies and new ideas, that can positively influence the direction, management and shape of our beloved parks and monuments. ECPC is a regular presence at public hearings and park events. From individual park festivals to city-wide planning meetings, ECPC provides support, information and advocacy assistance for New Haven park users.

A volunteer Board of Directors governs ECPC, and employs one part-time staff member.

The Parks Department graciously provides ECPC with office space at its headquarters:
720 Edgewood Avenue, New Haven, CT 06515

If you’d like to find out more about us, volunteer, or become more involved with New Haven’s parks, please contact us at: 946-5713 or email: elmcityparksconservancy@yahoo.com ecpc@newhavenct.net.

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ECPC Events

Sip into Spring

View the Sip into Spring 2007 flyer | Download the 2007 ticket order form

Early each May, ECPC celebrates the glorious New Haven spring with an elegant wine-tasting and silent auction at the Carousel at Lighthouse Point Park.

• bid for goods and services donated by generous businesses;
• enjoy delicious hors d’oeuvres and desserts;
• dance to live music;
• view the work of respected local artists;
• ride your favorite horse on the historic Carousel; and, of course,
• delight in tasting wines of the world.

July Fourth Picnic

Enjoy the fireworks of New Haven and ALL of the surrounding towns form the summit of East Rock Park. An ECPC members and friends exclusive.

Winter Festival featuring POLAR PLUNGE for PARKS

Each year on January 1st, brave souls around the world start the New Year by stripping to their skivvies and plunging into icy water. Join ECPC at the Carousel at Lighthouse Point Park for our Winter Festival, featuring New Haven’s version of this time-honored and wonderfully wacky tradition. Plungers collect sponsorship pledges in support of ECPC. In return, they get to soak in hot tubs and eat a huge brunch. ECPC also shares part of the pledge money raised by each participant with his favorite local park or open space.

Download the Polar Plunge forms:
2008polarPlungePledge.pdf (2.0MB)2008polarPlundgeFlyer.pdf (1.5MB)

View images of First Day New Haven 2008, featuring photos of Polar Plunge by Charlie Brown

Annual Meeting

Join ECPC as we celebrate New Haven's incredible parks and open spaces, and hear about what we have accomplished over the year. The 2007 meeting - Trail Clearing & BBQ - took place on Saturday, May 5 at Lighthouse Point Park.
Download the flier for details

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ECPC Programs

Parks Presents

Each month from June through October, ECPC holds a community service event in a different New Haven park. Our goals are to organize needed maintenance and beautification – we offer a present to each park – while becoming a greater presence throughout the entire parks system. At these events, all are welcome to help out, meet your neighbors and improve the quality of your environs.

SCA Summer Interns

Each summer, ECPC hires several Student Conservation Association (SCA) interns who seek the opportunity to gain valuable resource conservation work experience. Motivated young men and women from across the United States and around the world apply to SCA for short or long-term positions. Our SCA Resource Assistants assist with our mission, working with the New Haven Park Rangers, local Park Friends Groups, and ECPC staff. They provide manual labor as well as conduct community education and outreach activities to help restore, maintain, and enhance New Haven’s parks.

Experience Your Parks Small Grants

Through the generosity of the Community Foundation of Greater New Haven, ECPC offers grants of up to $250 to Parks Friends and neighborhood groups to offset the expenses of holding events at their local parks.
Click here for information and application.

Public Art in the Parks

ECPC actively supports the ongoing conservation of New Haven's public sculptures through our Monument Medallion Program. Using the momentum from the success of our Save Our Sculpture campaign through which we funded the restoration of the Timothy Ahearn Monument in West River Memorial Park, we have commissioned Woodbury pewter to manufacture a commemorative medallion each year featuring a piece of Parks sculpture.

Fivemile Point Lighthouse at Lighthouse Point Park adorned our first medallion in 2004, followed by the Christopher Columbus statue in Wooster Square in 2005. In conjunction with the office of Mayor John DeStefano, ECPC placed the Angel of Peace atop East Rock Park’s Soldiers and Sailors Monument on the 2006 edition in honor of this statue’s conservation and rededication. The 2007 edition features Defenders' Monument, commemorating a unique Revolutionary War battle fought in New Haven.

Click here for Ornament Order Form.

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ECPC In the News

Volunteers in the Parks:
Kimberly Field Entrance Restored - New Haven Independent

Polar Plunge:
New Haven's Polar Bears Aren't Extinct - New Haven Independent

Advocacy:
Long Wharf Nature Preserve - New Haven Independent
Bird Watching: Don't Move That Trail - New Haven Independent

Public Art in the Parks:
‘Angel of Peace’ statue returns to East Rock today - New Haven Register
Statue to be returned to East Rock - New Haven Register

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ECPC Calendar

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ECPC Newsletters

View our newsletters and see what we've accomplished.

Winter 2004 Fall 2004 Summer 2004	Spring 2006 Fall 2006
Spring 2005 Summer 2005 Fall 2005	Summer 2007 Winter 2007

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Membership

Membership in ECPC benefits New Haven's wonderful park system, ECPC, and members themselves. The parks gain more dedicated advocates; ECPC accrues strength in numbers to more effectively carry out our mission; and members receive first notice about all of our events and programs, and special treats like the members only July Fourth picnic atop East Rock.

1. To download a membership form right-click here.
2. Fill in the form.
3. Mail it with your check to :
        ECPC
        720 Edgewood Avenue
        New Haven, CT 06515
   

Parks Friends

New Haven has more than a dozen Park Friends Groups that contribute time, energy and innovative ideas to keep our parks vibrant and healthy. ECPC has worked to strengthen the parks by providing resources and information to these established and developing neighborhood groups. ECPC also helps with mailings, outreach, fundraising, and event insurance through our partnership with the Parks Department, and will advocate on the groups’ behalves on appropriate issues.

The current Friends Groups include:

Edgerton Park Conservancy
Fort Nathan Hale Restoration Projects, Inc.
Friends of Bayview Park
Friends of Beaver Ponds Park
Friends of Bishop Woods Bird Sanctuary
Friends of East Rock Park
Friends of Edgewood Park
Friends of Jocelyn Square
Friends of Lenzi Memorial Park
Friends of Lighthouse Park Carousel
Friends of Rainbow Park
Friends of West River Memorial Park
Friends of West River Narrows Area
Historic Wooster Square Association
Proprietors of the Common & Undivided Lands (New Haven Green)
West Rock Ridge Park Association

Please contact us if you are interested in joining a park friends group or starting one for your neighborhood park.
Email Elm City Parks Conservency

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