At a special ceremony held today, officials from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Town of Bennington dedicated the Bradford-Putnam wetlands, restored as part of the Bennington Landfill Superfund Site settlement agreement. The restored wetlands will provide improved habitat for wildlife, an outdoor sanctuary for the town, and enhanced educational opportunities for area school children.
According to Stuart Hurd, Town Manager for Bennington, the Town has also provided a conservation easement conservation easement
A conservation easement is a voluntary legal agreement between a landowner and a government agency or qualified conservation organization that restricts the type and amount of development that may take place on a property in the future. Conservation easements aim to protect habitat for birds, fish and other wildlife by limiting residential, industrial or commercial development. Contracts may prohibit alteration of the natural topography, conversion of native grassland to cropland, drainage of wetland and establishment of game farms. Easement land remains in private ownership.
Learn more about conservation easement to permanently protect the wetlands and 14 acres of surrounding wetland and upland habitat. The property will be managed by the Mount Anthony Preservation Society, a local conservation organization.
As part of the landfills natural resource damage settlement, the Town agreed in 1997 to restore the Bradford-Putnam wetlands to replace similar wildlife habitat contaminated by toxic materials at the Bennington Landfill, according to Ronald E. Lambertson, Regional Director for the Service in the Northeast.
"The cooperation, enthusiasm and commitment of the Bennington community to restoring these wetlands have been exceptional," said Lambertson. "We all will benefit from their efforts."
Shortly after the settlement agreement was reached, Town employees began removing antiquated cisterns and underground pipes to reestablish natural water flow patterns in the wetlands, which were formerly part of the communitys water supply system. A committee of town residents oversaw the work and created nature trails on the property. The committee also plans to introduce the project into social and biological science curricula at local schools.
"Bennington embraced the project and the work has been done economically and in an unusually short period of time," said Hurd. "The wetlands are now an outdoor sanctuary for all of us to enjoy."
From 1969 to 1987, toxic materials, including paint thinner, inks, glues, solvents and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), were dumped at the Bennington Landfill. Harmful concentrations of the contaminants continued to build up in nearby wetlands, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declared the landfill a Superfund Site in 1989.
Natural resource damage provisions of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, the federal law known as Superfund, allow natural resource trustees, such as federal and state government agencies and Native American tribes, to assess the environmental effects of contaminants, seek compensation for any damages and carry out restoration activities. When biologists with the Service and the State of Vermont determined that contaminants at the landfill harmed habitat for migratory birds, they negotiated a natural resource damage settlement with town officials.
The Service has been involved in natural resource contamination issues for over 50 years. Its Environmental Contaminants Program is the only federal program dedicated to identifying and preventing harm to fish and wildlife from contaminants.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal Federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting, and enhancing fish and wildlife and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the 93-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System comprised of more than 500 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands, and other special management areas. It also operates 66 national fish hatcheries, 64 fish and wildlife management offices, and 78 ecological services field stations. The agency enforces Federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Aid program that distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies.
