ither live in wetlands or depend on them in some way. Mammals, reptiles, and amphibians thrive in the flood plain marshes of the Mill River. Racoon, skunks, and oppossum live year round in the park. Muskrat, snakes, snapping turtles, and salamanders live in the river or along the river banks in the marshes. Red fox, bats,and flying squirrel are the more elusive residents of the park. The type of fish depend of the salinity of the water. Upriver where the water is fresh, sticklebacks, goldfish, carp, pumpkin seeds, banded killifish, and more recently, large mouthed bass thrive. Farther downstream towards the mouth of the river are found, among other species, mummichop which can stand the pollution and saltiness of the river.
Industrial waste, sewage, and thermal pollution has taken its toll on the Mill River. Just above State Street are old tide gates reaching across the river which have the enormous job of keeping polluted water from flowing upstream during the influx of high tide. There have been hundeds of acres of marsh land around the Mill River and New Haven Harbor that have been destroyed, drained and filled in for houses , roads, and other developments. Plans are in place to clean up the Mill River and to further protect this beautiful resource. Funding and time seem to be the continuing factors in actualizing these plans. Right now the city of New Haven is in the process of installing a sewage separation system in parts of the city. This will mean cleaner water in the surrounding rivers and in Long Island Sound. Heavy rains often force sewage to overflow into the Sound and into local rivers. With this new system fresh storm water will be routed into the Sound while human waste will be enclosed and routed to a sewage treatment plant.
East Rock Park
(figure available in print form)
To understand the geology of Lighthouse Point in relation to the rest of New Haven we have to go back about 250 million years. At that time there was a melding of continents, a collision which formed a single land mass. This collision closed an ancient ocean called Iapetos, sandwiched in a group of minicontinents called Avalonia and formed a supercontinent referred to by geologists as Pangaea from the Greek meaning “all-lands”. Connecticut is one area where these large continents were welded together. As this supercontinent started to pull apart separating North America , Europe, and Africa, the remnants of this welding stuck to the edges of these new continents. Much of Connecticut is the remnant of the welding of these continents. A small portion of Connecticut is what was once the small continents of Avalonia which were sandwiched during the collision. This portion reaches along the eastern shoreline of Connecticut westward and stops at Lighthouse Point. The geology we find at Lighthouse Point is very different from what we find elsewhere in New Haven. The granite formations at Lighthouse Point are much older than the basalt outcrops we find across Morris Cove at Nathan Hale Park or across New Haven Harbor to the volcanic rock west of New Haven. Since the rock we find is so different in type, age, and formation, the beaches and ecology we would find would also differ.
Lighthouse Point Park is now an 84 acre park which lies on the east side of New Haven harbor reaching out into Long Island Sound. Lighthouse Point was formed out of high temperatures and pressure and landscaped by glacier activity. The bedrock is billion year old granite. The Eastern Border Fault otherwise known as the Great Fault runs between Lighthouse point and the rest of New Haven. The point is flatland and saltmarsh which proves to be a natural draw for migrating birds following the coastline on the Atlantic flyway. A large area of the park in the northeast corner is designated as a bird sanctuary to give protection to these birds. While East Rock Park is known for its migrating warbler population, Lighthouse Point is just as well known for its coastal migrating hawk population. Throughout the fall, thousands of hawks of different varieties, falcons, osprey, and oc