The Last Green Valley

I guess it depends on what you mean by "significant," but an organization called The Last Green Valley, based in Danielson, Connecticut, says the 1,085-square-mile watershed of the Quinebaug and Shetucket rivers (which flow into the Thames and then Long Island Sound) is "the only significant stretch of rural and forest land between Boston and Washington, D.C."

Actually it was Judy Benson of the New London Day who made that claim, in this story, but the information on the group's website, here, makes a pretty good case for it being true. They've got a terrific-sounding consciousness-raising program scheduled to start next spring:

”Source to Sea” will take place from April through June throughout the 35-town region and extend southward into the New London County towns that flank the Thames, which is formed by the convergence of the Quinebaug and Shetucket in Norwich and is one of the three major rivers that feeds Long Island Sound.