Dozens of students, faculty members and residents protested at the University of Connecticut on Wednesday, speaking out against the potential environmental impacts of a new golf facility the university is hoping to build in Mansfield.
The facility would be built at the top of a hill on the corner of Storrs Road and East Road, a site that’s currently home to a collection of dwarf conifer trees once studied by researchers at UConn.
Protestors said removing the trees could lead to stormwater and pesticide runoff into residential wells and local waterways like the Fenton River.
“All of our faculty who teach on environmental science can tell you, once you cut the trees down, you create mudslides. You create runoff. We see that over and over again,” said Phoebe Godfrey, a professor-in-residence at UConn who took part in the protest.
“We’re getting heavier rains, they’re coming in these massive deluges, flooding, that’ll go into people’s wells. It’ll have soil runoff. It'll take the chemicals from the grass and put it into the streams. There's no way that it makes sense,” Godfrey said.
UConn said the project would involve “selective tree clearing, earthwork sensitive to subsurface hydrology and bedrock", "no clear-cutting or bulldozing of forests” and would not impact surrounding wells. The proposed site would not be a golf course, which requires 50 to 200 acres of land, but rather a 7-acre practice area for the university’s men’s golf team.
Quin Harper, a resident of East Road, said he’s still opposed to the development. He said his parents’ home suffered constant water damage after trees were removed from a nearby property in 2001.
“It destroyed our septic system, our tanks and our leaching field. Our well was silted in completely and we had to drill an entire new one,” Harper said.
“The only thing that is keeping our absolutely constant water issues from getting worse are the root systems of the trees that we have here,” he said.
Colin Hamilton, a freshman at UConn who wrote an op-ed against the facility for the college newspaper, said students aren’t opposed to the practice area itself, just its location.
“Best case scenario, this golf location moves,” Hamilton said.
“We love our golf team, we love our school,” he said, “we absolutely welcome this facility being built in a place that is more environmentally conscious.”
What is UConn proposing?
The area would include a narrow driving range, two putting greens, a building and parking area. The facility would not be open to the public and any use of herbicides or pesticides would be subject to review.
The golf team currently practices inside the Gampel Pavilion on the university’s main campus, but the space is expected to become unavailable due to a renovation project.
Other locations for the facility were considered, including UConn’s Depot campus, but those “posed environmental constraints or could not easily accommodate the proposed practice facility’s program and budget,” according to the university.
What happens next?
UConn is expected to release a decision this spring about whether it’ll move forward with the project and if an environmental impact evaluation is needed. A spokesperson for the university said a specific date for the decision has not been set.
“People are a little frustrated because we don't have jurisdiction over this,” said Jennifer Kaufman, director of Planning and Development for the Town of Mansfield.
“I think that makes it scary for people, but they have to be patient with the process,” she said.
A petition against the facility has generated more than 2,000 signatures.
Áine Pennello is a Report for America corps member, covering the environment and climate change for Connecticut Public
