At the mouth of the Connecticut River, Great Island can't be missed. It is low to the water line and flat and carved with natural and man-made channels that fill and empty with the tide. It has been used as a source of hay by local farmers, but has long resisted any permanent development. Its muddy banks make the island hard to access.

Its location at the mouth of the river, where the fresh water from northern New England meets the salt water of Long Island Sound, makes it a perfect place for birds, fish and other wildlife to thrive, mostly undisturbed.

To kayak through the estuary, surrounded by high banks and tall grasses; observed by ospreys, heron, willets, and godwits; and to be tossed by the brackish waters where the river meets the ocean, is to experience wilderness within sight of civilization.

It is possible for man to spoil the wild here, but natural barriers make it hard to do. Several decades ago pollution nearly erased the osprey population on Great Island, but efforts to clean the river and save the wildlife worked. It can be done.

The 410 miles of the Connecticut River that come to an end adjacent to Great Island are a testament to the common sense of protecting the environment as a way of life.

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© Dean Pagani 2021