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04/17/2024 08:30 AMBy spearheading efforts that include addressing the betterment of Branford’s hiking trails and passive recreation and natural resources to tackling damage and danger created by unauthorized off-road vehicles, Richard Shanahan is helping to make a noticeable difference for residents to enjoy Branford’s great outdoors.
Richard is the chairman of the Town of Branford’s Parks and Open Space Authority. As an appointed board, the authority is responsible for overseeing and managing town-owned, open-space properties which include the Supply Ponds, Pisgah Brook Preserve, Beacon Hill Preserves, Farm River Meadows, and the Branford Quarry Preserves. All told, that adds up to overseeing over 1,500 acres and roughly 35 miles of hiking trails.
In addition to helping to reign in unauthorized ATV activity on trails, Richard has helped to lead an effort to increase passive trail use by hikers and mountain bikers by creating new trail maps, re-blazing hiking trails, erecting informational kiosks, and improving public access by either creating new parking areas or revitalizing others. These changes are notable at locations like the Pisgah Brook, Supply Ponds, and the Branford Quarry.
Since 2019, Richard has led a concerted effort to address and stop egregious, extensive damage to the Pisgah Brook trail system and surrounding areas being caused by the uncontrolled and illegal use of ATVs and off-road vehicles. Due to the vehicles, many trails had become unusable by hikers and mountain bikers. Furthermore, unauthorized trails were being established at random, causing severe erosion and environmental damage, including the damage of wetland areas. Now, ATV and off-road vehicles have been virtually eliminated from using the area, with only some sporadic dirt bike evidenced in a few small areas.
Always a lover of nature and of hiking, after Richard retired from his professional career in the financial services industry in January 2020, he began to funnel even more of his considerable energy into championing Branford’s open spaces.
“I had started a couple of years before I retired. That’s when I realized attention had to be given. It was sort of a forgotten area,” he says.
First, Richard walked and observed every trail, identifying required improvements to make access easier for all users. Richard then took on the extraordinary task of updating and/or developing maps to help guide users, followed by helping to spearhead construction of bridges and ramps throughout the system to make passage easier, helping to supervise the construction of additional parking areas, and bringing about the installation of barriers to limit the unlawful use by motorized vehicles on the trails.
“One of the reasons I’ve been doing this is it’s my way of giving back,” says Richard. “I’ve hiked all my life. In high school, I spent every spare minute I could up in the White Mountains.”
After graduating from college, Richard hiked the Appalachian Trail. He’s also bicycled across the country and has trekked many points of the world map.
Speaking of maps—and many of them—Richard has been working with the South Central Regional Council of Governments, so that all available updated maps and brochures involving Branford trails systems are available online.
“With the maps, we also have QR code, so you can now scan it on your smartphone and have the map on your phone,” says Richard.
The maps can be accessed under the Branford drop-down listing at scrcog.org/regional-planning/regional-trails/. The listing includes trails which are town-owned, as well as those managed by non-profit Branford Land Trust and the Regional Water Authority (Lake Saltonstall).
“There are so many trails in Branford which are being maintained by volunteers,” Richard says. “I just want to help with giving access to the public to that. I’m trying to pull it all together in terms of letting people what we have here.”
Projects of the Parks and Open Space Authority are supported annually by the town budget, which notes that, “...the challenge of the authority is to maintain a delicate balance between providing the public with access to various types of passive outdoor recreation while, at the same time, providing permanent protection and adequate acreage to allow for undisturbed natural habitat for both flora and fauna.”
In the 2022-’23 fiscal year, project work focused on several areas, including repair and improvement to trails previously damaged by off-road vehicle use and upgrading the overall property infrastructure. The authority also initiated a multi-year program to control the severe algae and invasive plant growth at the Supply Ponds. Other projects included building boardwalks on trails over perpetually wet and muddy areas, replacing the previously closed pedestrian bridge over Pine Gutter Brook, developing and initiating an actionable plan to address the long-term erosion problem at Pine Gutter Brook, and rehabilitating the trail system and parking area at the Beacon Hill Preserve and the main entrance trail at the Branford Quarry. Additionally, the authority worked to reclaim several acres of property at the Farm River Meadows Preserve by cutting back the extensive encroachment of invasive plants and trees.
“There are many people involved,” says Richard of the work. “The board is stepping up and, without the cooperation of the RTM, of First Selectman Cosgrove, and others, none of this would get done. I’m just the guy saying, ‘Hey, what about this?’”
If you’re wondering what work is possibly left to be done, just ask Richard.
“Right now, we’ve been trying to upgrade things,” he says. “We’re in the process of building a bridge over the Pisgah Brook just below the dam by the fish ladder. There hasn’t been a bridge there before, and that’s going to allow more people to actually see the migration of the alewives and the eels and everything else.”
A Branford resident of 35 years, Richard has been involved in his community in many other ways, including his extensive involvement with the Branford Land Trust, which he continues to assist as a member of several committees. His community service commitments have also included his involvement with the Columbus House in New Haven and as a member of the Branford Rotary Club.
Richard says he enjoys doing what he can to assist his community. He plans to keep putting his mind toward helping to create the best possible outcomes for Branford as chair of the Parks and Open Space Authority.
“The fact that everyone wants to see these things get done is what’s energized me,” says Richard. “When you see something that can be a positive, and then you see the results, it gives you the energy to keep going.”