It is also "drop-dead gorgeous," said Barry Chernoff, Wesleyan University biology professor and president of the Jonah Center for Earth and Art in Middletown.
But it is not that easy to get there.
That is why Chernoff and John Hall, executive director of the center, recently led some 35 kayaks and canoes into the southern end of the 430-acre Cromwell Meadows Wildlife Management Area.
Hall said the paddle tour was a way "to introduce people to the area." If people know its value, that will create the "political will to protect it."
The center has plans to create access to the area from the North End Peninsula, a former landfill; continues work on a project to convert methane gas emissions from the landfill into energy; and has plans to beautify the North End with eco-landscaping and environmental art, as well as other ecological projects.
The Mattabesset and the Coginchaug rivers are on the state's list of impaired waters due to high levels of bacteria indicating possible contamination from human and animal waste, making them unsafe for contact recreation. The Mattabesset is also on the list because it is considered unsafe for aquatic life and other wildlife. The source of pollution is many sources, including roads, lawns, agricultural fields, failing septic systems and leaking sewer pipes. Towns and the state are making efforts to curb those sources.
The kayakers and canoeists put in from Harbor Park, with its large parking lot and restaurant below busy Route 9, the sound of which followed the paddlers as they made their way up the Connecticut River and under the Arrigoni Bridge, turned left, and under Route 9 and into the Mattabesset.
As the group turned off the wide river and away from man-made structures, the atmosphere immediately changed. It was cooler under the shade of vegetation and the pace slowed.
Along the way, Chernoff paused to talk to the paddlers, who gathered around him like a school of fish.
His first stop was a wide bend in the Mattabesset, where a curious, makeshift boat was anchored. In other locations were a couple of tents.
Obviously others had found refuge on the river.
Paddling further, the river flowed into a wide open area - Cromwell Meadows - with flowering pickerel and wild rice on either side. Ospreys sat on a man-made nest and ducks flew though the air.
Chernoff pointed out the forest nearby. Once the landfill was closed, the forest followed. In the 1970s, he said, it was just like the rest of the meadow.
"This whole area is a freshwater estuary (salt water doesn't get up this far)," said Chernoff. "These types of places are the places that really get knocked out by development."
"You don't see this anymore," he said. "This is endangered habitat."
"Does this feel like Middletown?" asked Chernoff. "No," was the group's answer.
In spring, Chernoff said the area turned into a giant lake and that's when the fish come to spawn.
The meadow also "provides free ecological services," said Chernoff, filtering pollutants from the water.
The group turned their boats and headed for the entrance to the Coginchaug, where the waterway narrowed and became shaded once again. Chernoff noted the area was home to invasive, non-native fish, such as carp, undesirable because they eat the eggs of native species and make clear water muddy.
The group stopped for a break, just beyond a barricade of fallen trees and other debris which Hall said he was going to investigate for removal.
Chernoff found freshwater mussels, threatened in the state, which provide food for wildlife. The mussel's life history is really interesting, he said.
The fertilized eggs turn into larvae called glochidia, which attach themselves to fish, and after a week or so, they let go of the fish and sink to the bottom. The larvae are "very susceptible to siltation."
"All the stuff that makes the system work is actually hidden under these rocks," said Chernoff. The juvenile mayflies and caddisflies eat the nutrients on the rocks and, in turn, become food, one link in a chain that eventually leads to larger predators, including humans.
The center, with Wesleyan, has created a biodiversity database, to which citizens can enter species they have seen in Middletown. "It's a way for all of us to appreciate what we have here," said Chernoff, on or off the river.
Barrie Robbins-Pianka of Middletown, who has contributed to the database, said about the trip that she was "impressed with how remote it seemed," especially after she could no longer hear Route 9.
Charlie McNiff of Portland said the guided tour gave him an opportunity to explore the Coginchaug on which he had grown up and had been attracted to because of its significance to Native Americans.
For information, go to www.thejonahcenter.org.
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