You gotta love the jolly old yo-ho-ho State of Connecticut.
Seems that there was all kinds of after-hours nonsense, vandalism, law-breaking and other nefarious acts involving human waste going on this summer, at and near the parking area on Comstock Bridge Road in Colchester. The lot happens to be a popular access point for anglers on the Salmon River. The neighbors were unhappy, and justifiably so. The State DEEP Parks Division — this is taking place in Salmon River State Forest — decided to take action.
Did they dispatch ENCON officers to arrest the perps at the next sign of trouble? Did they plan a stakeout to catch the offenders in the act? Were the scofflaws arrested and prosecuted to the full extent of the law? No, no, and no.
In its infinite wisdom and sagacity, the state decided to — wait for it — punish the innocent! Yes, by jove, we’ve got it! Let’s block off the entire parking area so no one can access it. Law-abiding anglers be damned. License-buying anglers be damned. Tax-paying public be damned. Up went some gleaming new guardrails, because, you know, shiny aluminum is a known deterrent to criminals and people who play with their poo. Nature abhors a vacuum. The Connecticut State DEEP Parks Division shares a similar aversion to fair-minded thinking.
I asked Connecticut Fish and Wildlife via their Facebook page for a reason behind their decision. Their response was, and I quote: “The DEEP Parks Division determined that steps needed to be taken to address ongoing issues involving illegal parking, littering, noise, illegal camping, groundfires, and after hours use. During summer months daily complaints have been received from neighbors and Parks Division staff had to visit the site daily to pick up and remove large amounts trash, including human waste.”
So, let’s get this straight: you have the time and the resources to visit the site daily to clean up after the slobs — but not to be there nightly — presumably when this ruckus is going on — to arrest them? There must be a well-known witticism about enabling, but at the moment it escapes me. I’ll have to settle for Schiller’s classic, “Against stupidity, even the gods contend in vain.”
As you can tell, I’m a wee bit pissed off. The Salmon River is sacred water to me. My father taught me to trout fish there. I’ve been fishing it for over a half-century. Putting on our cooler heads, I think we can all agree that the crimes against nature and disrespect for residents and users of state land are appalling. But there has to be a better solution than punishing the innocent.
How about it, Connecticut?
currentseams.com 
Every fisherman who has ever fished up there (I have) should be outraged over this. I would suggest every fishing club in Connecticut write to Hartford and insist they remove these guardrails and get ECON or state enforcement officers up there. There use to be solar toilets up there no excuse not to use them.
To be clear, DEEP Parks is the party responsible. I would encourage everyone to muster their inner squeaky wheel.
Though I don’t think it was the best solution, I’m not mad that this particular spot will see less traffic now. Anglers will find a way in, but it will certainly be harder for a group of kids to drag a hard cooler in the dark with no easy access and a path. Did they close off other access on this road too?
I don’t know about other access. I think it means a walk of a few hundred yards.
There is a compromise and I’ve discussed with other fellow Salmon River Anglers. Yes, timely patrols will help as most of the sin is a result of swimmer infestation! The warmer months July-August see the greatest influx. Let’s suggest a swinging Bar way similar to the Bar way used at the upper end of the Fly area on River Rd. The Bar way would be opened during the better months of fishing on the river BUT locked during the warm water summer months. Most years the water during that time period is much to warm and low for fish to survive. We, as conservationists, must lobby to have our voices, and ideas, heard!
That sounds like a really good idea that makes a lot of sense. Which is why the State will likely not do it.
Well said Steve( as always) unfortunately we live in CT where our government doesn’t get anything done correctly, this is just another example.more of the tail wagging the dog.
The device has yet to be invented that can measure how bad this solution is.
Popular spot and One of my favorite spots to fish. Like you, grew up fishing the Salmon.
Now you may have to park above and hike in, something those vandals won’t be willing to do.
No. They’ll just do it somewhere else. And the Mobius strip cycle of punishing anglers will continue…
Hi Steve, I’m going to bring this up with the Fisheries Advisory Committee.
George
Thanks, George. Fisheries is aware of what happened; they had nothing to do with the decision and were surprised and disappointed to hear about it. I’ve emailed Peter Aarrestad about it, but more voices would probably be helpful!
It’s all about enforcement. Arrest some of these idiots and the word will get out!
Bill
I couldn’t agree with you more, Bill.
First off – bummer. But before we torch the DEEP…
To be fair, the resources required to pickup trash and crap (literally) are far different than those required to patrol, enforce, arrest etc. We know that… It is the difference between sending a seasonal parks employee with a trash bag, and sending a man with a badge and a gun…. As we also know, DEEP employees of the badge and gun variety are tragically far too few for the many thousands of acres requiring patrol. Comparatively speaking, hooligans parking at the Salmon River probably doesn’t rank high enough on their to-do list to stage any elaborate stake-out. Keep in mind, this is a day and age in which ENCON officers are currently being tasked with busting serious narcotics distribution rings that use our state forests as refuge.
While, nevertheless upsetting, let us take a step back and also consider how the adjacent property owner feels. That guy has had “THIS IS NOT YOUR TOILET” signs up for years, suggesting he has been at constant odds with this bologna. Now, if I were that property owner, I wouldn’t care who has fished that spot for x-amount of decades, I would just want to do anything possible to stop folks from defacing the land outside my window.
Maybe the silver lining here is that this move will make the Salmon feel less welcoming to the summertime-redneck-fiesta-gang. Not to mention, I know burning a few extra calories walking wouldn’t hurt me any…
Yes, by all means, let’s be fair.
The adjacent property owner is a vast minority stakeholder. Their wants and desires are not more important than mine or yours or any other citizen who wants to legally use the resource. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few…or the one.
What’s more, the decision lets the vandals escape with no consequences. We, the law-abiding, license buying, tax paying anglers are punished instead, for something we didn’t do.
There’s nothing remotely fair about that.
Points taken. Regardless, I can see why Parks did what they did and I do sympathize with the neighbors.
Ultimately, none of us know for sure what was attempted enforcement wise over the years. We are simply speculating as to all of that.
Consider reaching out to the Friends of the Salmon River State Forest. The various Friends groups have a significant amount of information and sometimes influence on various park/forest matters.
Best
Pat