This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.
09/21/2016 08:30 AMTom ODell of Westbrook is a patient man. A goal that seemed unattainable nearly 50 years ago when he first joined the town’s Conservation Commission has finally been achieved: the acquisition of enough land in the watershed of the Menunketesuck River to create the Menunketesuck Greenway, a continuous swath of protected open space along the river.
“Because of patience, we were able to complete the Menunketesuck Greenway. We started working on the project in 2000. We got guidance at first from the Trust for Public Land staff about how to go about acquiring land, and then when Meg Parulis arrived as the new town planner, her capabilities and enthusiasm for open space helped us to achieve success,” says Tom. “Water is the overriding thing, to protect watersheds and water quality. That’s been the goal of the Conservation Commission’s actions over time.”
Always humble and eager to share the spotlight and credit for his achievements with others, Tom has been a transformational champion of land and water conservation for half a century. Tom first joined the town’s Conservation Commission in 1968, one year after it formed. Two years later, he became Conservation Commission chairman, a post he’s continued to hold for the past 46 years.
“I consider myself a facilitator. I like to put together grants,” says Tom. “Also, my mother was a teacher, so I got the education gene.”
For 35 to 40 years and until recently, Tom also served on the Board of the Connecticut Association of Conservation and Inland Wetlands Commissions, serving as editor of the organization’s quarterly newsletter, The Habitat. In this role, he found experts to write articles to inform and educate volunteers on topics of interest for members of conservation and inland wetlands commissions throughout the State of Connecticut.
Though Tom is a hard-working leader and motivator who prefers to remain behind the scenes, on Thursday, Oct. 13, his admirers and colleagues will ask him to be the center of attention just this once. The event to honor Tom’s lifetime of public service to advance land and water conservation will be at Water’s Edge from 6 to 8 p.m. Light hors d’oeuvres are planned and a cash bar.
In lieu of buying a ticket, event attendees are asked to send a donation in Tom’s honor to the non-profit Westbrook Foundation (P.O. Box 528, Westbrook, Connecticut, 06498) for deposit in the new Tom ODell Scholarship Fund. Future ODell scholarship recipients will be students who plan to pursue studies in environmental or conservation disciplines.
In addition to local leaders and volunteers with whom he’s worked, representatives from the state, regional and federal government agencies with whom he worked on land and water conservation efforts also will be there to honor his service. His contributions there have been significant, too. He has served on the board of the Connecticut River Coast Conservation District for more than 40 year, on the Eastern Connecticut Resource Conservation & Development Council, and on the Working Lands Alliance Steering Committee. He also served on the State of Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection’s Landscape Stewardship Advisory Committee and on the state-wide Connecticut Land Conservation Council Steering Committee.
He also was chosen as the Town of Westbrook’s representative on the Ad Hoc Preserve Committee in Old Saybrook and service until recently for many years as chairman of the Rockfall Foundation’s Awards Committee. His interest in youth and youth education spurred the foundation to create the Youth Award Program to honor youth working in conservation.
Perhaps the most easily measured achievements are the acres of land now protected as open space, a success many credit to Tom’s leadership and hard work.
Since 2001, the Town of Westbrook has acquired, with support from a $2.3 million town bonding authorization passed in 2002 and $2.3 million in state and federal grants, a total of 409.3 acres of protected open space: 9.3 acres of critical watershed in the Menunketesuck Greenway: Horsehill Woods (24 acres) acquired in 2001; Chapman Mill Pond (83 acres) in 2003; Horse Hill Gorge (Kehlringer—36.3 acres) in 2004; Salt Island Overlook (7 acres) in 2004; Horse Hill Woods II (Russo—124 acres) in 2013; Horse Hill Woods III (Miele—43 acres); Horse Hill Woods IV (St. John—8 acres); and finally, Toby Hill Woods (84 acres) in 2015.
As of this year, 20 percent of the land within the boundaries of the Town of Westbrook is now designated as Conservation Land.
As important to Tom, however, has been ensuring that open space land, once acquired, has good stewardship, so paired with the land acquisition plan was a Conservation Commission request for budgeted funds each year to hire summer interns. The interns’ job was to remove invasive plant species and to clear and maintain the trails. Their efforts were supplemented over the years with volunteers from the Conservation Commission and their friends and neighbors. Tom also sought grants to improve public access to the protected open space for passive recreation. One example of this is the recently completed parking area on Route 145 for hikers access to Horse Hill Woods.
A technical staffer from the Connecticut River Coast Conservation District, the body on whose Board he has sat for years, developed the GIS maps and management plan for the open space parcels the town acquired. Using this technical information, Tom and the district staff member designed trail routes to take advantage of interesting features and vistas while protecting sensitive environmental areas.
Tom continues to serve on this Conservation District Board whose role is to prevent soil erosion, perform water sampling in cooperation with local jurisdictions to identify the source of waterway pollution, and to educate farmers in farm management techniques that avoid soil erosion and contamination of stream-beds and waterways.
For 36 years, Tom worked for the U.S. Forest Services, much of that time working at a lab in Connecticut. Trained in forestry with a minor in entomology, Tom admits that it was the gypsy moth that paid his salary over many years. He retired from the Forest Service in 1986. Perhaps his greatest contributions is the achievements of his decades of volunteer service: a Menunketesuck Greenway of more than 400 acres protected in perpetuity for future generations to enjoy.,