Newman Poses Nature Preserve Opens
Aspetuck Land Trust has helped preserve 39 acres of land in Westport which will be known as the Newman Poses Nature Preserve. This nature preserve is the only public memorial approved by the family of the late Paul Newman as a way to honor the actor and philanthropist.
Paul Newman swimming in Aspetuck River Over the past year and a half, the Land Trust worked closely with the town of Westport and the Newman family to ensure that this land will remain open space for the public and not be developed. The Land Trust has made improvements to the property for public access (driveway and parking lot, trails, bridges, signage) and will manage the nature preserve for the town.
Mr. Newman lived near the property and donated a large portion of the land to the town. The parcel also includes land sold to the town by Lillian Poses, a neighbor and friend of Mr. Newman’s who worked on the New Deal in Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration and who was one of the first women to graduate from NYU Law School.
Thanks to the Newman family and to the town of Westport, this beautiful parcel of land will remain in its natural state. Thanks also to the following for donations of time and/or services: Westport Boy Scout Troup 100, Hatch and Bailey Lumber, Petrow Gardens Landscape Design, DLTC Landscaping, University of Bridgeport, and the law firm of Halloran and Sage.
The preserve opens to the public on May 1st and can be accessed off Bayberry Lane (north of Easton Road/Rte 136). For a detailed map of the trails, please visit the Newman Poses Preserve map.
The entrance to the preserve is located between 307 and 313 Bayberry Lane. There is a small 3 car parking lot. If the lot is full, you can park at the turn off at the intersection of Easton Road/Route 136 and Bayberry Lane and walk 500 feet north to the entrance.
 Lillian & Jack Poses Newman Poses Preserve
By Lissy Newman
I believed, from the time I was about seven, that all of this land was mine. I treated it like it was mine. I went crazy wild here with dogs every day after school, indeed, I thought I was a dog. I seemed to experience nature here the way a dog does, face first, running through thorns, snuffling in the mud, tracking deer...
Later I built entire miniature farm communities with sticks and stones and mud, tiny rows of moss laid out like gardens, and stone walls and country lanes, stretching down the river, periodically washed away by spring rains. I could spend hours lying with my cheek on the wet ground, peering through the tiny doorways, half expecting tiny farmers to peer back at me, waving tiny shotguns, and threatening to chase me off their land...
But nobody did ever chase me, not Lillian Poses, or Mary Warburg, not even Dominic, the gardener, who stoically endured our constant filching from the garden shed. When my little sister was three, she and her friend went running through Mary's tea party wearing nothing but ribbons, (or maybe it was me,) but none of these neighbors, who kept such glorious woods, ever kept us from them...
As teenagers, we were all, no doubt, dreadful, but the woods never judged, and managed, I feel, to keep us safe. The Warburgs and the Poses turned a politely blind eye to my sisters and I, generous when others might not have been. We all would careen down the hill and into the woods with our friends, chased out sometimes by the deer flies and mosquitoes. I remember after seeing Hitchcock's “The Birds" spooking myself home on a dusky evening over some suddenly menacing looking crows.
I built my last elaborate twig fort when I was twenty, to impress a boy. Several woody igloos stood, intertwined, a piece of art. Twenty years of building forts gets you a pretty nice fort, and I got the boy as I recall. It stood for many years, in the middle of the wood, and I showed the remnants of it to the man I would later marry, and the spot where it had been, later, to my children...
I frequently walked these fields with my father, and the ubiquitous pack of dogs, and we fretted together about what would eventually happen here. He stopped short of buying it outright, and turning it into a preserve, a decision I think he sometimes regretted. He did, eventually facilitate the first steps in its preservation, which brought us to this point. It seemed to me, that, on his passing, I wanted to hold on to something that was dear to us both. And so with the help of many kind and devoted people both at Town Hall and at the Aspetuck Land Trust which has agreed to monitor and maintain it, here we are.
So now it belongs to everyone, as I always felt it should. Its wonderful microcosmic diversity lives on to muddy up another several generations. My desire to push for its preservation came not from any desire to own it, or keep it to myself, but straight up from the mud and moss and grass. I want to thank it all for raising me, and teaching me and protecting me. I want to return the favor.
The important thing to remember is that we are all responsible for making sure that happens. We are all responsible for falling in love with it, for enjoying it, and sharing it, so that if a time ever comes when we need to protect it again we will be there, with children, and grandchildren in tow. It is pretty near perfect as it is in my opinion, and I hope you all think so too.
Lissy Newman
2011
Mr. Newman with grandsons Peter and Henry (background)
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