Case Studies > Case Studies by Watershed > Eightmile River > Eightmile River Conservation Compact

Eightmile River Conservation Compact

The Eightmile River Watershed Conservation Compact was conceived as a voluntary, watershed wide, cooperative effort. The Compact states that member Towns recognize the Eightmile River and its Watershed as an important natural resource and pledge to work together to ensure its long-term social, economic and environmental health.

View the Compact (PDF 150 KB)

The Eightmile River Watershed Conservation Compact was developed, based on historical precedent, with the intent of presenting the least threatening, most time honored approach to voluntary community involvement on an important issue. The Compact is also based on the belief that local officials know best how and when to address local issues. Any decisions regarding watershed activities, public expenditures, and local programs or policies will be determined at the local level, by local officials, by using existing procedures.

The idea of a compact goes back to the first agreement signed by the English settlers in our country. The Puritans, while still aboard the Mayflower, pledged to work together to form a new settlement in the new world. That settlement was named Plymouth, and the agreement became known as the Mayflower Compact. In that same cooperative spirit, Salem, East Haddam and Lyme will decide the best ways to address balancing conservation and development within the Watershed. How that balance is ultimately achieved will be determined by local decisions and procedures as other issues are presently handled. While the Compact speaks of voluntary regional cooperation, it is founded on the principles of local autonomy and home rule stressing education and planning rather than regulation.

After presentations in each town this past summer, and Selectmen's meetings approving the Conservation Compact throughout the fall, the towns of Lyme, Salem, and East Haddam signed the Eightmile River Conservation Compacts December 23, 1997 at Chapman Falls in the Devil's Hopyard State Park.

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