The Monroe Sun by Bill Bittar
MONROE, CT — A gap in a stonewall along 35 Old Newtown Road opens up to 65-acres of farmland that has been in the Benedict family for over 100 years. Rebecca Benedict Bottomley, who now lives in Massachusetts, remembers training and riding horses, and playing on the property with her brothers as children, roaming in the fields, and sledding down a steep hill in the wintertime.
(HARTFORD, CT) – Governor Ned Lamont today announced that his administration is awarding $14.5 million in state grants to aid in the purchase and protection of more than 2,626 acres of open space through 17 projects in 18 municipalities across Connecticut. Additionally, $343,015 in state grants are being awarded to create two new urban community green spaces in Stratford and Thomaston.
These funds are being provided through the state’s Open Space and Watershed Land Acquisition Grant Program and the Urban Green and Community Gardens Grant Program, both of which are administered by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP). They mark the largest round of open space protection awards – both by acreage protected and by dollars awarded – in more than a decade.
Aspetuck Land Trust 's socially distanced native plant sale at Gilbertie’s Farm in Easton was a big hit. Nearly 200 people purchased 700 native plants, shrubs and trees, creating " a great opportunity to get people excited about native plants that they can plant in their own yards that help us to promote biodiversity in the landscape..." as Executive Director, David Brant noted.
Aspetuck Land Trust will use a recently awarded state grant to expand its Poindexter Preserve and is hoping to also purchase an adjacent lot that will in effect double the size of the preserve.
Gov. Ned Lamont announced on July 15 that the state will provide $14.3 million to a number of municipalities that will preserve a total of 2,270 acres of land statewide. Those grants include $182,250 to the land trust that will be used to purchase 3.57 acres at 398 Judd Road.
(HARTFORD, CT) – Governor Ned Lamont today announced that his administration is awarding $14.3 million in state funding to aid in the purchase and protection of more than 2,270 acres of open space through 25 properties in 22 towns and cities across Connecticut. Additionally, $725,353 is being awarded to support the creation of six new community green spaces.
Aspetuck Land Trust (ALT), in collaboration with Highstead and the Northeast Seed Collective/ The Ecotype Project, is at the forefront of this work. Supported by a Climate Smart Agriculture and Forestry grant from the Connecticut Department of Agriculture, the team is piloting a seed-to-plant pipeline: collecting wild native seeds on land trust properties, amplifying them on local farms, and reintroducing them into restoration projects across both natural and urban landscapes.
The Cultural Easton
by Jonathan J Webster
Easton is known for its open spaces—but mostly in Upper Easton. Lower Easton, however, has its own little gem. The Wheeler Wildflower Preserve is one of the Aspetuck Land Trust’s newest properties. Located on Sport Hill Road, near the blinking light at Beers Road, it was preserved just last year in 2024. At just under an acre, it’s one of the smaller open spaces in town, so you won’t need a map to navigate. But that doesn’t make it any less worthy of your attention—or your presence.
Just over three and half miles as the crow flies from the Merritt Parkway, sits Randall’s Farm Preserve. A short hike on a well-maintained path leads to the back meadow. Back here, just seven hundred or so feet from Sport Hill Rd, you can lose yourself in the serene beauty of the preserved terrain.
If you’re lucky and the traffic cooperates, you’ll hear nothing. If you close your eyes for a moment, and then look at the sky, it suddenly seems much bigger, especially in the winter. This is Easton’s “Big Sky” country.
BRIDGEPORT — Three years ago city planners approved a new land use policy allowing construction of an office park at Remington Woods, 419 acres of forested property with a large lake.
That arrangement was less permissive than the then-existing regulation and also encouraged setting aside open space. Proponents deemed it a "compromise" in the face of calls for the entire site to be saved from redevelopment.
But this month the property's owner, Sporting Goods Properties Inc., a subsidiary of Corteva Agriscience of Delaware, gave the preservationists hope by announcing a new "reuse vision."
The Monroe Sun by Bill Bittar
MONROE, CT — A gap in a stonewall along 35 Old Newtown Road opens up to 65-acres of farmland that has been in the Benedict family for over 100 years. Rebecca Benedict Bottomley, who now lives in Massachusetts, remembers training and riding horses, and playing on the property with her brothers as children, roaming in the fields, and sledding down a steep hill in the wintertime.
(HARTFORD, CT) – Governor Ned Lamont today announced that his administration is awarding $14.5 million in state grants to aid in the purchase and protection of more than 2,626 acres of open space through 17 projects in 18 municipalities across Connecticut. Additionally, $343,015 in state grants are being awarded to create two new urban community green spaces in Stratford and Thomaston.
These funds are being provided through the state’s Open Space and Watershed Land Acquisition Grant Program and the Urban Green and Community Gardens Grant Program, both of which are administered by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP). They mark the largest round of open space protection awards – both by acreage protected and by dollars awarded – in more than a decade.
Paul Newman’s family was front and center last week, when Aspetuck Land Trust celebrated the 25th acquisition of Trout Brook Valley, at the Pequot Library.
Purchasing the 730 acre preserve in Easton for $11.3 million — and saving it in perpetuity — was an enormous effort, involving hundreds of people.
But, ALT says, during the long saga “there was no moment more pivotal than when 3 (Newman) daughters, Lissy, Clea, and Nell, discovered that the beautiful property they knew so well was going to become a luxury home development with an 18-hole golf course.”
Aspetuck Land Trust was proud to present the 2023 Haskins Lecture, an event that drew a crowd of 355 eager attendees on the evening of October 26th in the Trefz Forum at The Westport Library, featuring award-winning author Leila Philip, renowned for her bestseller, BEAVERLAND. The lecture, in partnership with The Westport Library and funded by the Caryl and Edna Haskins Fund, showcased the captivating history and ecological significance of beavers in shaping American history and preserving our environmental future.
BRIDGEPORT, CT. – Today, local community members, climate activists, and elected officials gathered to show love for Remington Woods, an urban forest in Fairfield County. Over 2,300 people have signed a Sierra Club Connecticut petition supporting protections for the much-loved nature site right in the heart of Bridgeport. Together, activists, local decision-makers, and other neighbors — including Aspetuck Land Trust, City of Bridgeport Office of Sustainability, Save the Sound and State Representative Joe Gresko — delivered the signatures to the office of Corteva, Remington Wood’s owner.
Michelle Fracasso owns and operates Wells Hill Farm, the last working farm with livestock in Weston, a town famous for its farms. She said those farms, with those barns and silos you found so enticing when you first decided to move to Weston, aren't likely coming back.
"The problem in southern Fairfield County is that we've lost so much farmland because of the valuable real estate," Fracasso said.
But there's hope. Organizations like Aspetuck Land Trust, known for preserving local woodlands, are stepping up to help preserve farmlands as well.
A 11.5-acre parcel near Honey Hill Rd. was sold by Fratelli Zeta, LLC, to the Aspetuck Land Trust for $120,600. The Trust already owns significant property in the area, on both sides of the Wilton-Weston border.
The purchase is part of the Trust’s broader plan “to help preserve… one of the last significant forest block expanses in Fairfield County,” according to documents received by the Town of Wilton during the Trust’s efforts to pursue grant funding for a 10-acre purchase in 2021.
WESTPORT — Back in the 1700s colonists would travel the now wooded area known as the Bill Kutik Honey Hill Preserve along the Weston, Wilton line.
The open fields and livestock that filled the landscape there, possibly as late as the 1870s, are long gone but some signs of the agrarian past remain with stone walls peppered throughout the now 119-acre preserve overseen by the Aspetuck Land Trust.
Bob Kreitler’s decade-long volunteer effort to remove invasive species that threaten Aspetuck Land Trust properties has earned him an Aspetuck Land Trust Volunteer of the Year award.
Bob Kreitler is Aspetuck Land Trust’s Volunteer of the Year.
Kreitler formed a volunteer team of 89, known as the “accelerated invasive species control group,” that meets regularly for invasive species removal work sessions. The group has made noticeable progress on Trout Brook Valley trails previously overwhelmed by non-native species, according to the land trust.
Aspetuck Land Trust’s mission to preserve Connecticut’s green spaces is turning its focus toward Bridgeport with the help of a state grant.
The land trust is one of 12 recipients to receive the Connecticut Department of Agriculture’s Climate Smart Agriculture and Forestry Grant program grant to implement climate smart practices. Early this year, the state agencies awarded nearly $7 million in Climate Smart Agriculture & Forestry grants.
On Wednesday, March 29, Lt. Governor Susan Bysiewicz, Agriculture Commissioner Bryan P. Hurlburt, and DEEP Deputy Commissioner Mason Trumble concluded Climate Action Week with the announcement of grant recipients receiving nearly $7 million in funding through the Climate Smart Agriculture and Forestry Grant program to implement climate smart practices. The announcement was made at Grower Direct Farms, Inc. in Somers, a subrecipient of the Connecticut Greenhouse Growers Association award totaling $1.75 million to reduce water consumption across six greenhouse operations in Connecticut.
