Jonah Center

Jonah Center News

On September 17, the City of Middletown was officially awarded a grant of $50,000 for the “North End Peninsula Hiking Trail and Car-top Boat Launch.” The Jonah Center designed the project and wrote this proposal on behalf of the city in February 2006. We hope to do some preliminary work, such as flagging the trail, this fall and to undertake actual construction next spring and summer. Details will be worked out with the city.

The Middletown Biodiversity Database, a joint project of the Jonah Center and Wesleyan’s Environmental Studies Program, is now available to the public through the Jonah Center website www.thejonahcenter.org . We are looking for more photos and sightings of animals, plants, and fungi in Middletown to make this resource more useful for local schools and residents. We are also building a professional database for scientific research to track changes in Middletown’s flora and fauna for purposes of planning and environmental stewardship. This mature bald eagle was photographed on the Mattabesset River by John Turley.

The Jonah Center played an important role in providing Middletown voters a chance to approve a $2 million bond authorization for farm and open space preservation that will appear as a referendum on the November 6, 2007 ballot. These city funds will be matched by up to $4 million in state and federal open space grants, so that our community can secure up to $6 in land or development rights. Encourage your friends and neighbors to vote in favor of this referendum to preserve Middletown’s farms and rural landscape.

In September 2007, the Jonah Center received a $3000 grant from Pratt & Whitney – Middletown and was awarded a $5000 grant from the Liberty Bank Foundation. Both of these grants are for Jonah Center operating expenses and will give us the organizational capacity to complete current projects and continue our environmental leadership in Middletown.