About us all
Preserve Remington Woods
The vibrant Forest Community of Remington Woods, in the heart of Connecticut’s most populous city, is threatened with destruction. It’s 422 acres, with 347 acres in Bridgeport, 75 in Stratford.
Forest, wetlands, meadows, vernal pools, and a sparkling 23 acre lake, is home to diverse wildlife. Over 70 species of birds, mammals, others, from fish, fox, frogs, ducks, deer, wood turtles, nesting eagles, sparrow hawks, night heron, raccoons, raptors and more, all depend on and contribute to the forest community.
The Woods is an oasis and lifeline to our human community as well as to the diverse wildlife it supports. It supplies crucial life sustaining services to us all.
The Woods Protects Us
The Woods cleans polluted air, protects against flooding, heat, storms, illness, stress, and more. It helps protect against the worst effects of pandemic, lessens environmental injustice, and helps fight global climate crisis.
The Woods Delights Us
An oasis for walking, jogging, photography, painting, yoga, birding, observing other animals and plants, benches for relaxation, experiencing Nature, and just being. We could enjoy learning about the Woods, and how we are all connected. Informational signage, could tell the story of the community of plants, animals, their connections to each other and our connections to them, could inform us of our shared story. offering a profound experience, a chance to reconnect with Nature.
Preserving the Woods would foster Bridgeport’s goals of valuing Nature, environmental education, and a healthy and livable city.
The area of the Woods has an ancient past and was honored by indigenous inhabitants who erected 10 fit high stone megaliths along the River. It was renowned for its beauty by settlers. Today it is up to us to save it from destruction.
The Woods Protects Us We Need to Protect the Woods.
THREAT
This vibrant forest community is threatened with destruction. It is owned by Dow/ DuPont / Corteva, and has been closed for a pollution cleanup mandated by the EPA. A large complex of buildings is planned, that would destroy the forest community. It is also threatened by proposals to destroy the woods to use it for special interests. We advocate that the woods be preserved in it’s entirety as the living life giving entity that it is, that gives so many life sustaining benefits to Fairfield county.
6
32 +
17.7%
19,000
?
6 Months left to prevent destruction of Remington Woods.
32+ Acres of unneeded buildings planned in 17 different locations in the Woods, not including roads, a parking garage, walkways, infrastructure. 1,404,000 sq ft, that is 1.4 million sq ft. of buildings.
17.7% Amount of vacant commercial buildings in Bridgeport that should be used for new commerce, instead of destroying the woods.
19,000 Trees killed. There could be many more.
? Unknown amount of increased illness in people if the Woods is destroyed. Unknown amount of wildlife killed or displaced. Unknown degree of damage to the life systems we rely on.
WIN WIN
is to use existing vacant commercial buildings for increased commerce, existing vacant lots for community gardens and landscaping, and existing parks for sports fields etc. This would enhance Bridgeport’s image and not destroy the precious and unique to Bridgeport vibrant living Forest Community that supplies so many life giving services to the surrounding community. Remington Woods would be preserved in it’s entirety as a Wildlife Nature Preserve, with walking paths, no development, or any other use.
4 reasons to preserve the woods
1. Good For Us
We are all affected by the pandemic. As of this writing Bridgeport is the hardest hit city in CT. If Remington Woods was destroyed the effects of the pandemic would be even worse. Air pollution which causes illness would be increased. Trees clean the air. Even without the pandemic Fairfield County would have increased illness if the Woods were destroyed.
It’s been proven that a walk in the woods is healing both physically and mentally. It increases concentration and reduces crime. It encourages exercise and can be a profound experience. Trees not only clean the air, they give us oxygen which we need to live, and cool the air in the summer heat.
The Woods protects our homes from flooding.
Remington Woods is the last large forest in southern CT. It is large enough to support a diversity of wildlife that a smaller forest cannot. The Woods would provide the experience of wildlife watching to local people and tourists. That is one of the most popular outdoor activities.
There are many crucial life sustaining services the Woods gives us. See here.
People could walk, run, photograph, do exercises like tai chi and yoga, paint, bird watch, wildlife watch, de stress, learn about Nature and just be.
We could have a healing oasis a place of inspiration and beauty, a much needed refuge from urban stress.
2. Good for the State, County, City
We are vulnerable
Connecticut State has a Goal of 21% of land to be conserved in CT by 2023. It is nowhere near meeting that goal. Fairfield County has some of the dirtiest air in the country. It also has the least amount of forests in the State. At the time of this writing Bridgeport had the most coronavirus cases in the State. Bridgeport would have to supply infrastructure for a project that would destroy the woods. All of these problems would be made worse, or added to by destroying Remington Woods. All would be improved or be eliminated by Preserving Remington Woods.
Bridgeport was not spared by the pandemic, it won’t be spared by Global climate crisis. It is predicted that parts of Bridgeport will be under water, that will cause environmental refugees in Bridgeport. Our essentials like food are brought in through transportation by the coast, that is vulnerable to flooding. We could be cut off from getting food. Preserving the Woods would be one step toward preventing the worst effects, it helps to lessen climate change.
CT has tens of thousands of contaminated sites. Bridgeport has 600 contaminated sites. Flooding could spread the contaminants. The Woods absorbs water and lessons flooding.
The Way Forward
Bridgeport has goals of valuing Nature, of a healthy and livable city. Destroying Remington Woods would go against all of these goals. Preserving it would further these goals. It would help the State and city to live up to their own ideals
Inequity
Destroying the Woods would increase environmental racism in Bridgeport, which is poor with a large population of people of color. It often gets misused and denied benefits that more affluent whiter communities enjoy. We take in other cities sewage which overflows into our waters, gas and coal plants are built here, our people and land are polluted for short term profits for the few. Natural land is destroyed for commercial buildings which are too often contaminated and abandoned, causing blight and leaving pollution. Preserving Remington Woods as a wildlife Nature preserve would be a move to reverse that inequity. It would show that Bridgeport’s people are respected.
Bridgeport’s image
Preserving Remington Woods would enhance Bridgeport’s image, by using vacant buildings for commerce. That would clean up blight and supply jobs. The wildlife preserve would be a tourist attraction and show that Bridgeport is part of the solution.
Bridgeport and CT could step up to enlightened thinking, and join the many other cities and countries worldwide that are responding appropriately to the Global crisis by planting native forests and conserving wildlife diversity.
Lesson from the Pandemic
A lesson from the pandemic is that our response to crisis has an effect on the outcome of the crisis, and bold actions are possible. We are in the crisis of Global life collapse, if we respond appropriately now, it will have an effect on lessening the worst effects of the crisis. Preserving Remington Woods is clearly the choice for a needed, appropriate, responsible response.
3. Good for the Planet
In five years we could pass a dangerous threshold in global heating. Some of the many life services the Forest provides that help lessen global heating are removing carbon from the air, cooling air lessening the intense heat and saving on energy bills, calming the severity of storms, providing shelter and food for imperiled. wildlife, and a place for us to de stress and heal from the stress of climate crisis.
We are in an ongoing planetary crisis, that is causing the destruction of Earth’s life systems that enable all life on Earth to live.
Aside from the Forest providing many physical benefits, it provides an opportunity for people to experience Nature directly. We make decisions that worsen climate crisis because we feel separated from Nature. People protect what they love. You cannot love Nature if you never experience it. You cannot experience it if it is not available.
We need to preserve Remington Woods so people can reconnect with and value Nature and make decisions that will make a livable sustainable future.
Our culture devalues Nature. Natural land is destroyed, which ends up as polluted sites, putting us at risk of illness, depriving us of Nature’s services that the natural land provided, and contributing to global warming. We need an enlightened approach that realizes we are part of Nature and that we rely on it for our survival.
In five years the planet could reach dangerous
4. Good For The Future
The future of life on the planet is in jeopardy. We are in the middle of an unprecedented global life system breakdown, deforestation, pollution, mass extinction that is destroying the plant and animal diversity that planetary life depends on.
We could offer our children the crucial life skill they will need to create a livable future, experiencing and valuing Nature cannot be learned if there is no Nature to value. That can only be done if people have the opportunity to experience Nature directly. Teaching about Nature can be done in schools, but the direct experience of Nature is needed to make proper decisions.
We depend upon Nature for our survival and Nature needs a place. In Bridgeport that place is Remington Woods.
In a future where Nature is valued, we realize we are a part of it and depend upon it. We construct a society where all life is valued and we share the miracle of life so all can thrive. In the middle of a pandemic, global life collapse societal unrest economic breakdown Preserving Remington Woods is a crucial step toward a livable future.
Remington Woods needs to be preserved as a refuge and oasis for wildlife and people alike. We need to leave a legacy of Life.
