The department held a ceremony Friday announcing its purchase of the a 450-acre parcel for $3 million. The acquisition preserves and protects a large portion of the river, the only natural brown and brook trout waterway in the Connecticut River basin, department officials said.

A 38-acre mountaintop wilderness and a 73-acre forest will be preserved thanks, in part, to two grants from the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving. A third grant will improve water quality monitoring in towns along the lower Farmington River.

The Wallingford P&ZC has amended zoning regulations to bring the town’s watershed maps into compliance with the state’s Conservation and Development Policies Plan.

“Unseen and often forgotten by many, the North Branch of the Park River flows along the boundaries of Hartford’s West End, Asylum Hill and Blue Hills neighborhoods,” according to a recent report on the Park River watershed. The Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (CTDEP) with Fuss & O’Neill, th eFarmington River Watershed Association, the Park
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