Tim's Life: Branford, Connecticut USA -The Town I used to live in. 100 Years of Parks and Recreation, Frank Twohill, Bobby Baker

Parker Memorial Park
About 100 years the Parker family gave the people of Branford 12 acres of shorefront property for their pleasure and enjoyment forever. The park was modeled after an English Garden and has changed little since it first opened to the public. Some areas were left with naturally occurring trees and shrubs while others were planted with a grassy lawn. One large curving beach and a smaller, rock sculpted beach were filled with sand. A playground with swing sets, seesaws, a slide and spring mounted animals was built for children. Picnic tables dotted the grassy lawns that curved around rocky outcrops and over a broad hill. Fireplaces and outdoor metal grills accompanied each picnic table. A large, graveled parking area accommodated about 100 cars. Outdoor showers, enclosed bathhouses with changing rooms and flush toilets added extra convenience. Thousands of Branford residents visit Parker Memorial Park every year for family picnics, sunbathing, swimming and fishing. The park is well maintained, has ample trash cans and is almost always spotlessly clean.

Parker Memorial Park at Branford Point.

Parker Memorial Park is a creation of man working with Mother Nature. Man added sand to the beach and built the seawall to prevent the salt water waves from washing away the broad, grassy lawn. Nature created the rocky hill, outcroppings and massive oak trees. It was man who trimmed away the underbrush, cut down the weed trees and thus allowed the century old oaks to reach towering heights with fully formed crowns. It was man who built the picnic tables, the fireplaces, the children's playground and park benches that made the park pleasant and useful for people. The idea behind an English garden is that man can work with nature to create something more beautiful, practical and functional than either could on their own. Tens of thousands of visitors draw pleasure yearly from this particular garden called Parker Memorial Park in Branford, Connecticut.

Old Trolley Trail
Around the turn of the 19th century trolleys connected New Haven with shoreline towns. Tracks ran down the center of Main street in Branford and along the shore. After World War II the trolleys fell into disuse and the tracks were abandoned. In the 1970's local Boy Scouts, including Bob Baker and Frank Twohill, built a trail along the old trolley right of way from Pine Orchard to Stony Creek. They cleared the track bed, spread fine gravel on it and built bridges and walkways with the old trolley rails and donated steel mesh, rock sorting grids, from the local trap rock quarry.
In 1998 the Town of Branford and local volunteers revitalized the old trolley trail. Seed money came from the state Department of Motor Vehicles. A structural engineer was called in, heavy construction companies followed and pre stressed concrete sections were ordered. A new, Pirates of the Caribbean nautical style bridge with plastic park benches at is peak, was constructed over the old trolley bridge footings. Billboards were placed at either end to inform all visitors of the volunteers responsible for this whimsical and entertaining structure.

A post modern foot bridge on the old Trolley Trail.
A commuter train is in the background.

Graffiti Art decorates part of the Trolley Trail

The trolley Trail is often used by walkers, runners and dog owners although it is nowhere near as popular a place as Parker Memorial Park. Children are rarely seen here. Dogs are allowed to run free and their owners do not always clean up after them so you have to watch where you walk. There are no picnic tables, bathrooms, wide grassy lawns or pleasantly groomed areas around grand oak trees. Parking is limited to spots that are often wet and muddy. Graffiti covers bridge abutments, rocks and electrical boxes. Poison Ivy wraps its vines around many of the overgrown shrubs and prickly wild rose bushes. Trash often litters the ground as no refuse containers or collection is provided. Swimming is not allowed and the only spots to rest are the two plastic park benches on top of the whimsical bridge.

Mans place in nature
The main and defining feature of the Trolley Trail is not the movie set bridge but rather what you can see from it. From the sole park benches on top of the bridge you can see a rickety pole and platform rising from the salt marsh with an Osprey's nest perched on top. It is possible to sit on the park bench, focus solely on the nest and contemplate about how beautiful, how pristine this area must have been before man built the railroad, the trolley, invented planes that fly overhead, cars that can be heard in the distance and ships visible on Long Island Sound. How lovely it must have been. So peaceful and quiet. Why did man have to ruin such virgin beauty one might muse. Many Post Modern writers feel the same way. America, they say, was a Garden of Eden, until the white man came. Capitalism, developers and greed destroyed the garden. Some environmentalists agree and believe that man is on the verge of destroying the entire planet via pollution and global warming. Perhaps earth would be better off if man did not exist the most radical environmentalists postulate. The Trolley Trail park appears to be the ideal stage set where one can observe nature and contemplate mans relationship to Mother Earth.

Osprey nest on a man made platform

When trash cans are removed, some people leave their trash on the ground.

Supply Ponds Park
In the late 1960's the Town of Branford, with help from the Federal Government, purchased about 300 acres of forest and 30 acres of adjoining ponds from the New Haven Water Company. It was named Supply Ponds Park but it was never developed like the other parks in town. Some folks wanted a beach but that idea was dismissed when people realized that because federal taxpayer funds were used to purchase the land, the waters would be open to everyone; not just Branford residents. Others wanted picnic tables, spots for day camping, toilets and a parking area but those ideas went nowhere too. Eventually the Boy Scouts, lead by Frank Twohill and Bob Baker, marked and developed an extensive trail system and built several small bridges across streams. Then, over the course of 25 years, the park fell into neglect. The bridges rotted and were removed or washed away. The well used trails eroded quickly and often grew to 10 feet wide as people walked around puddles and muddy spots. Curiously the response from environmentalists in town government was to take away the trash cans and then admonish people to "Leave No Trace" when they visited the park. A large, 50 car parking lot that used to be the Police shooting range, is securely locked and remains unused. On street parking is limited to about 20 automobiles in six small turnouts.

Changing times in Branford
In 2004 and 2005 almost one million dollars was spent on the much neglected Supply Ponds park in Branford. The Branford Land Trust, a powerful local organization that believes in preservation as opposed to conservation, spearheaded the project by securing funding from a list of taxpayer supported organizations. At stake was the lowly alewives, a migratory fish that drew its name from its resemblance to corpulent female tavern keeper ("ale-wife") according to Wikipedia. Local lobster men often used alewives for bait. In the 1950's alewives invaded the Great Lakes from the sea via the newly opened Welland canal and aggressively spread and caused the decline of many native fish species. Occasionally they would die off in great numbers and their rotting carcasses would wash up on the lake's shores.
Alewives are now part of the Supply Ponds ecosystem and the Branford Land Trust routinely leads groups of school children to the fish ladder while gleefully explaining how they are restoring the ponds to their "natural" environment. Two huge, 10 foot billboards, one at either end of the trail leading to the fish ladder, proudly list the actors and their accomplishments for all to see.

Some folks wished for picnic tables when almost one million dollars was spent to build a fish ladder at the Supply Ponds dam.

One of the many beautiful places deep within Supply Ponds Park and inaccessible to most people.

Conclusion
Parker Memorial Park, The Trolley Trail and Supply Ponds Park represent changing attitudes towards man and his relationship with his natural surroundings in the town of Branford, Connecticut. The traditional English Garden style park clearly appeals to the greatest number of Branford residents as evidenced by their visits. Ample facilities and hospitality at Parker Memorial Park welcome the visitor and makes it difficult for them to leave when the sun sets. The Trolley Trail is a post modern park that utilizes stage props to set up a tension between what is and what once was. Adult visitors are given opportunities to briefly reflect upon their surroundings and then are quietly urged to leave by the lack of amenities. The Supply Ponds Park places the needs of lowly predatory, bait fish over the needs of people. Visitors are made to feel unwelcome with signs that admonish their presence with phrases like "Leave No Trace". Facilities and amenities are non-existent and parking is intentionally scarce.
The differences in Branford's parks highlights the change from traditional conservation which believed that nature should be protected and managed so people may enjoy its benefits for all time, to the post modern and radical environmentalists view, that man is destroying nature. The radicals believe that nature can only be protected by preservation, which inhibits or outright bans man, from interacting with his natural environment. Perhaps the next park in Branford will have a tall gate less fence around it, billboards with actor's credits hung at appropriate viewing spots where people can stand for a few moments and passively watch the beauty inside the fence like a movie on their television.


Dogs are allowed to run wild in this park but owners are provided free poop bags to clean up after them.	Eight foot billboards list like movie credits, all the folks who made this production possible.	Visitors are reminded not to collect or eat the shellfish from the polluted water and muds of Long Island Sound.


Children jumping into the tidal river on hot summer days is now just a memory of a bygone time.	Litter is common as trash cans are not provided.	"Nasty" graffiti art adorns ancient, moss covered boulders.


A billboard in the distance lists the names of the actors who are responsible for the latest Supply Ponds Park production while a locked display case advises visitors of proper behavior.	Effort and expense are not spared for rules and regulations while simple spray paint is good enough to mark trails.