Great Hollow Lake Buffer Improvements

"The project is among the inaugural restoration efforts of the Pequonnock River Initiative, a collaboration of Monroe, Trumbull and Bridgeport to improve water quality and to protect the Pequonnock River Watershed," said Gwen Macdonald, director of habitat restoration for Save the Sound. "It is thanks to the efforts of the Pequonnock River Initiative that this project is possible. We hope to implement two other projects on the Pequonnock identified by the PRI in the next year: a fish passage project in Bridgeport and a streamside buffer and stormwater upgrade system on Great Hollow Lake in Monroe."

 

Great Hollow Lake takes up one side of Wolfe Park, with its own entrance off Purdy Hill Road. Visitors enjoy relaxing and sunbathing on the sandy, 700-foot beach and swimming in the 16-acre lake, which was constructed and excavated from 1972 to 1976 as a welcome addition to William E. Wolfe Park.

 

Aside from swimming, the body of water is used for rowboats and fishing. It is recognized as a trout park and is stocked by the state of Connecticut. Hikers can walk a three-quarter-mile path around Great Hollow Lake, and the beach area has a concession stand with lunch food, snacks and cold drinks.

ARTICLES

Grant Awarded to Improve
Monroe Lake’s Water Quality

"This kind of community outreach makes Monroe strong," Vavrek said, "and it will  help  enhance our recreational resources and the quality of life here in Monroe."

Between the Upper Pequonnock River, West Branch Pequonnock River and the headwaters near the Newtown border, the Pequonnock watershed covers one-third of Monroe’s land mass and flows south through Stepney Pond and Great Hollow Lake, through Trumbull and Bridgeport and into Long Island Sound. 

What’s in Monroe water-wise, doesn’t stay in Monroe. The Monroe flow affects every community south of its border.

 

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Pequonnock watershed focus of second $40,000 award

 

"This latest grant follows an earlier $40,000 award - directly to Monroe - by Connecticut DEEP for remediating the stream-side buffer where the same Pequonnock River flows southward into Great Hollow Lake in Wolfe Park."