Connecticut Rivers Community

A Collaborative Resource for Information on Connecticut's Major Waterways

Created by and for students, educators, experts and interested members of the general public

What is the Connecticut Rivers Wiki?

The Connecticut Rivers Wiki is a comprehensive, collaborative resource for anyone interested in Connecticut's waterways. This site is comprehensive because it can provide physical characteristics, ?, flora, fauna, history, pollution threats, recreational use, educational activities and other valuable information on every one of Connecticut's 100+ rivers. The site is collaborative because all of the information is input by caring individuals like you. The Connecticut Rivers Wiki is monitored by the ? ?. This website is not for profit.

Why use (and what is) a Wetpaint wiki?

The topic of Connecticut rivers is broad and diverse, and different visitors will be interested in different features. >http://www.wetpaint.com/>_blank" href="/xwiki/bin/edit/Main/?parent=Main.WebHome">? helps people with a common interest come together on a free, ad-free online forum to share information. Slowly, and with the care of our members, we will build an invaluable online tool for anyone interested in Connecticut rivers.

Who is part of the Connecticut Rivers Wiki community? Who can contribute? How does it work?

This is a site for you and by you. You are a teacher, fisherman, grad student, historian, kayaker, college professor, elementary school student, scientist, writer, hiker or local land owner. This community will thrive on the meaningful contributions (informational, not monetary) of our community members. Anyone can join and anyone can add, remove or edit existing info. The exact information you post must be input in our standard format and it must conform to a few scientific and journalistic rules>http://ctrivers.wetpaint.com/page/Rules+&+Guidelines" href="/xwiki/bin/edit/Main/%3C%2Fspan?parent=Main.WebHome&editor=wysiwyg">?, such as photo credits. And due to the sensitivity of some information, specifically pollution threats, we reserve the right to lock certain areas and ban those with offensive postings or malicious intent.

Is this site accurate?
The Connecticut Rivers Wiki is as accurate as its members will allow. We are all experts at different things, and we will complement each other as fact-checkers and inspirators. It is important for contributors to support their postings with peer-reviewed sources, when appropriate. Parts of this site will rely on first-hand accounts of our experiences, making our senses the "fact-checkers." Due to the nature of this forum, we recommend anyone wishing to write a scholarly paper on rivers in Connecticut consult peer-reviewed sources for greatest accuracy.

How is the Connecticut Rivers Wiki organized?
This wiki is organized much like the terrain in Connecticut: within larger drainage basins or watersheds are the rivers and streams. You will find a page for each Connecticut river in its respective watershed region. To find a specific river or rivers within a specific geographic region, use the search tool. Each river page will be cross-referenced to note the towns in which a watershed resides, above or under ground.

where those For the purposes of integrated water resource management, The Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection has divided the state into six major drainage basins, or watershed areas, with two additional regions overlapping from New York and Rhode Island. All
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Each graduate student in the >http://www.southernct.edu/sciedu/programs/graduate/>_blank" href="/xwiki/bin/edit/Main/10px%3B+color%3A?parent=Main.WebHome">? program's Water and the Environment class undertakes a detailed multidisciplinary study of one of Connecticut's numerous streams. Each student prepares a stream biography which includes a physical description from headwaters to mouth (including photos), channel and basin geology and their impacts on stream course and hydrology, hydrologic characteristics such as maximum and average discharge, runoff coefficient, and basin precipitation, land use history including historical industrial use, contemporary uses such as water supply or hydroelectric power generation, current environmental issues such as water quality and channel or flow alteration, and characteristic stream and riparian biota. In addition to direct observation, student research relies extensively on existing sources of information.

Each student becomes an expert on a local stream and publishes her/his results in an online database accessible to the public for educational and community resource purposes. Salient environmental issues that are identified by the students include engineered reduction of flow to a unique freshwater tidal wetland on the >http://ctrivers.wetpaint.com/page/Mill+River" href="/xwiki/bin/edit/Main/10px%3B+color%3A?parent=Main.WebHome">?, an small chemical plant on the pristine >http://ctrivers.wetpaint.com/page/Hammonassett+River" href="/xwiki/bin/edit/Main/10px%3B+color%3A?parent=Main.WebHome">? that is currently awaiting potential listing as a national superfund site, and degradation of New Haven's historical wetlands via installation of tidal gates and extensive channel alteration (>http://ctrivers.wetpaint.com/page/West+River" href="/xwiki/bin/edit/Main/10px%3B+color%3A?parent=Main.WebHome">?).