NRWA's Restoration Sites
NRWA works to restore seven sites in the watershed and since 2029 has added over 500 trees, 1500 shrubs and thousands of wildflowers to these sites. To volunteer with us, check our events page and sign up to receive our emails.
Norwalk
The Gardens and Riverbank at Oyster Shell Park in South Norwalk
We are working to restore the gardens and riverbank at Oyster Shell Park in South Norwalk by removing invasive plants and planting native plants for wildlife and to protect water quality. The park, a former landfill for the city, is along Norwalk Harbor between the Maritime Aquarium and the SoNo Collection mall. Join us every Wednesday and Saturday 9:30am -11:30, weather permitting, to volunteer. For more information and to register, email outreachcoordinator@norwalkriver.org
Take a Self-Guided Tour of the Native Pollinator-Friendly Plantings at Oyster Shell Park in Norwalk.
Download the guide here.
Visit the pollinator gardens at Fodor Farm in Norwalk. Download the guide here.
To support our habitat restoration work at Oyster Shell Park, please join the new Friends of Oyster Shell Park group here.
When donating, please add Friends of OSP under “Special instructions for seller.”
Miyawaki Micro-Forest in South Norwalk
NRWA received the largest grant in our history in 2024, $150,000 from the CT Dept. of Energy and Environmental Protection, for planting a Myawoki Micro-Forest in South Norwalk to help cool and clean the air, filter storm water, and provide habitat for wildlife.
Email outreachcoordinator@norwalkriver.org for volunteer opportunities and potential internships for 2026.
The Tree Canopy and Wetland Edges at Woodward Avenue Park in South Norwalk
Partnering with the city of Norwalk and through grants from FactSet, REI, GE Vernova, Allbourne, the Nature Conservancy’s Community Resilience Building program, and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, NRWA has added over 250 trees and hundreds of shrubs to the park. We are also working with the Norwalk Tree Alliance and the City to add street trees to the Woodward Avenue neighborhood. Let us know if you want a free tree! We work with volunteers to
restore a wetland area overrun with Australian phragmites to it native spartina grasses, seaside goldenrod, and shrubs, such as groundsel, bayberry, and high tide bush. We use no chemicals, just tarps. And its working. Come take a look!
Along the Norwalk River Valley Trail (NRVT) between Broad Street & Route 123
This part of the NRVT passes by the Kellogg and Deering Ponds and is one of the most beautiful parts of the river. The Eversource substation looms on the bank near Rt 123, but views of the river and the wildlife present at the ponds make it worth a visit. Because of the construction of the substation and the Route 7 Connector, this area has been badly disturbed and is overgrown with invasive Japanese knotweed. NRWA has been working since 2018 to restore the riverbank.
This part of the NRVT passes by the Kellogg and Deering Ponds and is one of the most beautiful parts of the river. The Eversource substation looms on the bank near Rt 123, but views of the river and the wildlife present at the ponds make it worth a visit. Because of the construction of the substation and the Route 7 Connector, this area has been badly disturbed and is overgrown with invasive Japanese knotweed. NRWA has been working since 2018 to restore the riverbank.
We have covered 32,000 square feet of the banks with recycled billboards, which serve as thick, black tarps. In 2025 we are beginning to take up the tarps and replant the riverbank with native shrubs, grasses and wildflowers. This site presents an ongoing battle with invasives, though.
Wilton
Along the Norwalk River Valley Trail (NRVT) at Sharp Hill and Autumn Ridge Road in Wilton
As new sections of trail go in, land is disturbed—much of it along the Norwalk River or tributaries. NRWA helps to plant these areas before the invasives take root AND to restore older sections, like the parking area at Sharp Hill in Wilton, where we are also collecting data on returning pollinators.
Allen's Meadow
NRWA and other Wilton Pollinator Pathway partners, led by Wilton resident Joe Bear, are replacing one acre of invasive mugwort with a pollinator meadow at Allen’s Meadow, a park that houses playing fields, community gardens, walking trails, and is an Audubon birding hotspot.
Grants from the Connecticut Ornithological Association, Hartford Audubon Society, and Sustainable CT support the project. Joe avoided all pesticides and used tarps to smother sections of invasive mugwort for 7 months, 11 months, and 18 months, testing the optimal length of time for eradicating roots systems. Here is Joe's in-depth, step-by-step plan. A timeline in photographs here.
Today the meadow is thriving. We still need volunteers to help pull out mugwort and probably always will, but the transformation is astounding! To visit, stay left as you enter Allens Meadow in Wilton, just past the high school on Route 7. The meadow is behind the community gardens. You are sure to spot pollinators and birds through the seasons.
Ridgefield
Ridgefield Rec Center Riverbank Restoration
We are starting work to restore the riverbank along Ridgefield Brook, the start of the Norwalk River, at the Parks and Recreation Center (195 Danbury Road) in Ridgefield by removing invasive plants. The location hosts a popular walking trail that follows along the river as it circles the property. Join us monthly on Saturday mornings to volunteer. For more information, to get updates, and to join this project, sign up here. Park: At the large gravel parking lot along Route 35 across from Fox Hill Condos.
We thank The Ridgefield Parks and Recreation Department for supporting this project.
The Ridgefield McKeon Farm Meadow Restoration and Pollinator Population Study Project & Toolkit
Watch a talk about this project here.
Beginning in 2020, NRWA teamed up with the Ridgefield Conservation Commission to work in close collaboration with landscape designer Evan Abramson, Principal of Landscape Interactions, to transform McKeon Farm in Ridgefield into a regional biodiversity hotspot for pollinator
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species. Abramson, Pollinator Systems Designer, worked with Ridgefield Conservation Commissioner and NRWA board member, Kitsey Snow, to design and install two pollinator meadows--an upland area and a wet meadow--created specifically to benefit rare and specialist pollinators from our region. These are the bees and butterflies that require certain plants to survive, plants that have in many cases become more and more rare in our landscape. Baseline pollinator populations were counted by entomologists at Landscape Interactions before planting and counts will continue for two years after, in order to track any hoped for increases in pollinator diversity and population sizes.
Gardeners, farmers, landscape designers, conservation organizations, and local governments all play a vital role in strengthening, expanding and enhancing regional biodiversity, ecological health, and climate change resilience. On conservation properties, residential landscapes, farms, roadsides, schools, and solar projects, functionally diverse native pollinator habitats can serve as building blocks for linking intact natural areas across a fragmented landscape.
But what to plant, when to mow, where to focus first and how to measure the results? Abramson of Landscape Interactions created a design, mowing plan, and overall strategy for McKeon farm that is now available here for everyone in our watershed to use.
We thank the Anne S. Richardson Fund for supporting this project.