Save the Wetlands Committee.

The Save the Wetlands Committee was formed in 1966 to establish a program for the preservation and protection of Connecticut's coastal and inland wetlands. Through educational publications and meetings, the committee worked to garner public support for legislation protecting Connecticut's marshes from dredging, landfill, and commercial development. The committee also monitored implementation of Public Act 695 in October, 1969. The committee, having been successful in achieving its goals, disbanded in 1976.

SAVE THE WETLANDS COMMITTEE, INC. OF CONNECTICUT

The Save the Wetlands Committee was formed in 1966, at the instigation of Allan F. Kitchel, Jr., and was incorporated in 1967. Its stated purpose was to establish a program for the preservation and protection of Connecticut's coastal and inland wetlands. Through its educational program of publications and meetings it worked to garner public support for legislation protecting Connecticut's marshes from dredging, land fill, and commercial development.

The Committee was advised and supported by the National Areas Council and the National Audobon Society and received major grants from the Avalon Foundation, the Old Dominion Foundation, and the American Conservation Association to finance its program. The citizens' committee was led by Freeborn Jewett as its president and Frederick Pope, Jr. as its treasurer and employed Walter S. Boardman as a consultant; Peter H. Borgemeister as executive secretary; and Martin Wright and Associates to perform public relations work. The Committee had its office at 103 Bingham Laboratory on the Yale campus.

From 1967 to 1969 the committee was engaged in intense activity to educate the public to the need for wetlands protection and to prepare the way for passage of a Connecticut "Save the Wetlands" act. The committee sponsored a large Save the Wetlands Conference at Yale in December 1968 and circulated copies of a report to the committee by Russell L. Brenneman on public regulation of coastal wetlands in Connecticut. Committee members worked with state officials, such as Senator Joseph B. Buckley, Senator J. W. Jackson, Senator George Gunther, Representative Mary B. Griswold, and Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources Commissioner Joseph Gil, to draft adequate legislation.

The "Save the Wetlands" act became effective on October 1, 1969, as Public Act 695. Following the successful campaign for its passage the committee turned its attention to monitoring the act's implementation and followed various law suits stemming from changes brought by the new law. By 1976 committee members felt that their goals had been achieved and that the law was being suitably enforced. They, therefore, voted to dissolve the Save the Wetlands Committee, Inc. of Connecticut.