by Vito J. Leo

Even for the usually busy executive director of The Last Green Valley (TLGV) environmental group, June 13th was an unusually hectic day. Charlene Perkins-Cutler spent that Saturday afternoon at the UConn Avery Point campus, hosting a three-hour social event. It was attended by many participants of the successful series of boat rides along local rivers, Source to Sea.

A few hours later, Charlene was in Norwich at the Slater Museum, welcoming members to The Last Green Valley’s annual board of directors meeting. “It’s days like this that make my job so rewarding,” she said. “I get to meet so many people through their involvement in our organization.”

Charlene introduced the officers for the coming year: Ken Mahler, chairman, Lisbon, Bill Jobaggy, vice chairman, Coventry, Melissa Phillips, secretary, Killingly, and  Peg Babbitt, treasurer, Thompson.

Ken said his primary focus during the coming year would be to prepare TLGV for the eventual loss of about $700,000 in annual federal funding which is scheduled to end in 2015. “We will have to forge new alliances, try to increase our membership and contributions,” Ken said, adding that Congress was penny wise and pound foolish in opting to discontinue its longtime funding of this agency designed to protect and promote one of the remaining green areas between Boston and New York City, the only large area that when viewed from satellite is unlit within this populated corridor. “Congress forgets it’s often less expensive to have a non-profit do some of these things,” Ken said.

“These things” include innovative approaches to publicizing the wealth of nature found in Eastern CT by staging the Source to Sea experiment this spring, wherein people paddled in kayaks and canoes from the headwaters of local rivers originating in South-Central Massachusetts and followed their course all the way to Long Island Sound.

“We wanted to draw attention to the fresh water that feeds through the area, emphasizing the Quinebaug and Shetucket rivers as they flow into the Thames River [in Norwich] and eventually flow into the sea,” said Paul Mills, outgoing board chairman, Sturbridge, MA.

Charlene said hundreds of people took part in 90 separate events that happeneded over the past few weeks, with the paddlers collectively covering the 164 miles of waterways encompassed by TLGV which stretches from Charlton, MA, south to Norwich. “We never expected this to draw such interest from people wanting to take part,” Charlene said. “They were coming out of the woodwork, so much so, unfortunately during some of the events we had to turn people away” because of safety considerations, she said.

Carol and Gary Weed, Lyme, were among the participants. “We enjoyed it very much, doing things we’d never done before,” said Gary, a retired postal worker.

“It was a great experience, a lot of fun with a great bunch of people,” said Tom Brennan, Killingly.

For more information visit www.thelastgreenvalley.org.