Spring 2023

BRANFORD LAND TRUST

SPRING 2023 • VOLUME 33, NUMBER 1 THE

SIGNS OF SPRING

By Gordon Hutchinson

Spring is the traditional time of renewal, and for the Branford Land Trust (BLT) it means renewing damaged or missing property signposts.

Starting soon after its inception in 1967, the land trust began to acquire parcels of land and to mark these plots with signposts indicating Land Trust ownership. Time went on, parcels were acquired and over time with 1,000 acres in more than 130 parcels signposts were inconsistently added to mark those parcels. Spring is the traditional time of renewal, but before we can renew, we must know what we have. To that end, the Land Trust has started to inventory existing property signage.

The presence of a sign lets you know that you are on Land Trust property; very few properties do not have such signage. (Those parcels

without signs are areas generally not suitable for routine walking but monitored by the trail crew and designated as open space.) You have certainly seen some of these signs if you have walked a trail on the Land Trust properties.

What you may have also noted is that some are easily legible and in good shape. The sign noted below left, from the Gambardella Pines acquisition, is relatively new and in good overall condition. There are also older signs that are not in very good shape. Age, weather and other undue events over time can make the signage all but illegible either due to fading or leaning and/or rotting post — or both.

The second picture, below middle, is of a sign in the tidal salt marsh at the walkway over Jarvis Creek on the Branford Trail. This sign needs some

TLC from the Trails & Fields Crew and possible complete replacement.

Finally, you might also have seen similar, but smaller signs that are boundary markers (below right). These typically are on galvanized stakes, but often look like smaller versions of the land markers with a BLT logo recognizable on top.

Our current project is to survey all 130 parcels, take a photo of each post and note the condition of the sign and post and record its GPS position, the BLT parcel designation and the town plot number and enter it into an Excel document. The Trails Crew in followup will then take on repair and/ or replacement of the signs as needed, or as the case may be to install new signage. A significant undertaking by any measure, but will be accomplished with help from other BLT volunteers.

P.O. Box 254

Branford, CT 06405 (203) 483-5263

branfordlandtrust.org

PRESIDENT

Julie Wagner

VICE PRESIDENT

Gordon Hutchinson

SECRETARY

Ellen C. Skinner

TREASURER

Robert Olejarczyk

CORRESPONDING SECRETARY

Louisa C de Cossy

DIRECTORS

Andy Bromage

Jennifer Broom

Lauren Brown

Bill Chapin

Terry Elton

Bob Hull

Jonathan Katz

Jeff Page

Gaile Ramey

Peter Raymond

Martha Rice

Marcia Wheeler

BRANFORD LAND TRUST NEWS

EDITORS:

Connie Drysdale

Jen Payne

Ellen C. Skinner

UPCOMING EVENTS

April 15

EARTH DAY FAIR & BRANFORD CLEAN-UP DAY

Saturday, 10:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.

Visit our tent at the Earth Day Fair on the Branford Green, sponsored by the Town of Branford and Living Wisely & Well on Planet Earth. There will be exhibits, swaps and giveaways, activities for kids and more. There will be collection dumpsters for those participating in Branford Clean-up Day.

ADVISORY BOARD

John Anderson

Robert Babcock

Amos Barnes

Chet Blomquist

Tom Cleveland

Christopher Cheney

Chris Collins

Beth Dock

Gunther (Bud) Dannheim

William Donaruma

Connie Drysdale

Ted Ells

Gary Garnet

Karyl Lee Hall

Maryanne Hall

Karen Hannon

Ainsley Highman

Bill Horne

Barbara Johnson

Paul Kazmercyk

Meg Kilgore

Todd Konnik

Louise LaMontagne

Bill Leece

Carol Lemmon

Pat McGlashan

Michael McGuinness

Steve Mentz

Harry Merrick

Joan Merrick

Ellen Page

Jen Payne

Stephanie Peck

Jim Perito

Lynn Perone

Elizabeth Possidente

Matt Reed

Bill Reynolds

Richard Shanahan

Heather Smiarowski

John Watson

Larry Wheeler

Stephen Weinstein

Christopher Woerner

May 13 & 14

ANNUAL MOTHER’S DAY WEEKEND BIRD WALKS

Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m

Local birder Chris Woerner will lead these popular walks along the Stony Creek Trolley Trail and into the BLT’s Vedder property to help identify birds by sight and by call. We’ll meet in Stony Creek at the end of West Point Road across from Willoughby Wallace Library. Families are welcome, but no dogs please.

May 27

MAY MOUNTAIN LAUREL WALK

Saturday, 10:30 a.m

Join us for a stroll to enjoy and learn about Connecticut’s state flower with professor and garden designer Dr. Joseph Inguanti. Please meet at the entrance of the Stony Creek Quarry Trail on Quarry Road (off of Leetes Island Road/Route 146).

June 17

BRANFORD FESTIVAL

Saturday, all day

Come visit the Branford Land Trust booth on the Branford green during the Branford Festival!

Ongoing SATURDAY WORK PARTIES

The BLT welcomes local residents to volunteer for its Saturday Work Parties. This is a great opportunity to meet new people, learn about the BLT and local open space properties, and put in some good work on behalf of the community. Please email info@ branfordlandtrust.org to be included on the SWP email list or for questions.

PRESIDENT’S LETTER

Our members know that the Branford Land Trust takes good care of the land that we protect. But you may not realize that we also have a building under our care. Many people drive right by the historic Land Trust House on School Street and never realize that it’s our headquarters!

The Branford Land Trust was very fortunate to receive the complex of three connected buildings from the Town in 1983. We conduct meetings there, work on projects, and keep up with accreditation standards. In close proximity to a public parking lot, we have held small gatherings like art shows, poetry readings, and celebrations for the BLT community.

The Land Trust House also provides safe storage for our files, maps and equipment. Other small land trusts struggle without dedicated space and resort to conducting their business at places like a public library or a coffee shop, and they may have to keep trail equipment in board members’ garages. They may have to rent storage space for documents or run the risk of important documents getting buried in someone’s attic, or never getting passed on from one officer to the next. We are very lucky to have the Land Trust House and luckier still that it’s a beautiful complex full of local history. It is a critical support to our work and a historical treasure for the community that should be preserved.

Yet, whereas the Branford Land Trust strives to be a leader in environmental responsibility, these buildings that date from the 19th and mid-20th centuries are in fact woefully energy inefficient. Therefore, a building committee was formed in early 2022 to assess the Land Trust House and explore state-

of-the-art efficiencies appropriate for a historic building in a designated historic district. Those of us who live in old houses will not be surprised that, while taking stock of the buildings, we discovered other needs that must be met to ensure structural integrity and safety.

We are currently conducting a thorough review to make sure that we protect this valuable infrastructure that allows us to carry out our mission of preserving open space in Branford. Our beloved Land Trust House – 26 School Street — is where Land Conservation Meets Historic Preservation.

Do you have a photo, story, or memory of these buildings? We would love to know about it! Please call us at (203) 483-5263 or email us at info@branfordlandtrust.org

The Branford Land Trust House at 26 School Street in Stony Creek. The building consists of three sections (R to L): an 1865 one-room schoolhouse, a 1901 firehouse, and an early 1950s garage. Note the two separate doors on the schoolhouse, one for boys and one for girls, and the hose-drying tower in the rear of the firehouse!

Julie Wagner, President

TRAILS & FIELDS CREW

By Matt Reed, Chairperson

The Trails & Fields Crew keeps to a regular, weekly schedule of property maintenance work thanks to the efforts of its regular group of volunteers — David Andrews, Bob Baker, Greg Cox, Bob Hull, Gordon Hutchinson, Lisa Loprinzo, Matt Reed, and John Ruckes — and others who arrive ready for a morning of hard work and camaraderie.

Recent work, as seen in this collection of photos, has included:

• Thirty-five weekday morning work parties on the 24-acre Todds Hill preserve completed the task of clearing and piling invasive shrubs (autumn olive) and mutiflora rose. The crew has had great help cutting the meadows from tractor drivers John Haug and neighbor Kevin Conte.

• An enormous 100+ year old live fir tree was blown down at Hammer Woodlands, which the crew has milled with an Alaskan chainsaw mill into 10 foot long lumber for our many trail boardwalks. At 2” thick and 14 -18” wide these boards mounted on cedar sleepers are magnificent!

• The crew regularly hikes and clears many blazed trails throughout town, as well as carving monitoring paths through heavy brush and wild rose for access by stewards responsible for reports on our properties.

• In addition to trail work, the crew removes trees, branches, and invasives from nine of our open space fields. This both allows the tractors to cut most of that acreage as well as keeping the surrounding invasives at bay. n

SPRINGTIME WALKING

Compiled by Jen Payne, Publicity Co-Chair

In his journal, writer and naturalist Henry David Thoreau noted: “We must go out and re-ally ourselves to Nature every day. We must make root, send out some little fibre at least, even every winter day. I am sensible that I am imbibing health when I open my mouth to the wind. Staying in the house breeds a sort of insanity always.” Insanity. Cabin fever. Spring fever. Call it what you will…nothing soothes a winter-weary soul like a walk in the woods. And lucky for us, the Branford Land Trust maintains many hiking trails throughout town, as do the Town’s Parks and Open Space Commission and others. Here are some of our favorites…

Beacon Hill Preserve

Beacon Hill is a 100-foot-high traprock ridge overlooking the Farm River marshes and Long Island Sound, skirted on the south by the tracks of the Shoreline Trolley Museum.

Short Beach Preserve

This is a 40-acre parcel with rugged rock outcroppings, tall oaks, beeches, extensive groves of mountain laurel, wetlands, and a magnificent bluff offering views of Talmadge Pond.

Lucy T. Hammer Woodlands

Lucy Hammer cherished this land for the ponds, the wildflowers, and the space for contemplation. The property includes an open meadow, Gurd’s Pond, and traprock ridges.

Supply Ponds & Pisgah Brook Preserve

Starting in 1969, the Town and BLT have protected 1,050 acres in the Pisgah Brook/Supply Ponds watershed. An outstanding trail system makes it possible to walk from the Supply Ponds to the North Branford border.

Young’s Pond and Bob’s Woods

Young’s Pond Park and Bob’s Woods contain a small pond, woods, and a baseball field. Old carriage roads and stands of rhododendrons give this property its distinctive feel.

The Trolley Trail, Goss & Vedder

The Trolley Trail offers an intimate view of the tidal wetlands and a chance to observe nesting osprey. It is complemented by the wooded Goss Preserve (west) and the Vedder Preserve (east) with its views of Long Island Sound, the salt marsh, and the Thimble Islands.

Stony Creek Quarry & Hoadley Creek Preserves

The Stony Creek Quarry Preserve, Hoadley Creek Preserve, Van Wie Woods, and the Brooks R. Kelley Preserve form a large preserve in one of the wildest natural areas in town, offering some of the more rugged and remote hikes.

The Stony Creek Partnership, Washburn Preserve & Weil Property

This waterfront preserve includes remnants of an old quarry, a hidden pond, extensive marsh views, and an expanse of open field. The main trail continues east across a boardwalk to an enchanting rocky knoll, and crosses Jarvis Creek. n

See the EXPLORE section of www.branfordlandtrust.org for a collection of trails maps for the properties listed below and many more!

Calling All Creatives!

Are you a writer, poet, artist, or photographer? Do you take videos? Enjoy reading books or visiting local museums and trails?

WE NEED YOU!

In addition to this biannual newsletter, the BLT maintains a soon-to-be updated website, Facebook page, and YouTube channel.

To keep all of that current AND interesting, we need your help.

Please email Jen Payne (wordsbyjen@ gmail.com) if you would like to be part of a team of creative content contributors for our print and online publications.

BRANFORD POETS, ARTISTS CELEBRATE THE LAND

Article and Photos by Amelia Stefanovics, Arts Paper, Arts Council of Greater New Haven

“It was natural to set up a union between BACA and the BLT to make sure that the message of environmental protection reaches everyone,” said BACA President Frank Carrano, who  helped pull the reception off without a hitch. “We offer all residents of Branford quality art so that everyone can enjoy it.”

During the reception, Peterson read a selection of poetry from the book, the words springing vividly to life as visitors took in the multimedia images of marine life, quieting marshes and velvet-black waterways, flowers bursting into bloom, delicate woodland birds and sprawling grasslands captured in every season.

Laurel Peterson’s voice sailed through the Branford Arts and Cultural Alliance’s main street building, her words describing the Beacon Hill Preserve. On all sides, images of marshlands and grasses peeked out, as if they were listening.

Five together we wander carefully six feet apart, boot toes covered in ice crystals, exploring the marsh, the lock, the overlook.

Dozens gathered Sunday, November 13, at 1004 Main St. in Branford, as the Branford Arts and Cultural Alliance (BACA) and Branford Land Trust (BLT) gathered to celebrate Writing the Land: Windblown I with an afternoon of art, music, and poetry. The book, now available through the BLT and participating land trusts, includes the voices of 25 poets from across the country writing on a total of 11 protected lands.

The space, formerly a Denali store, has become BACA’s home base and a testament to the breadth of artistry in the town. The anthology, meanwhile, features the work of Branford- and Connecticut-based artists Tricia Bohan, Lauren Brown, Gerry Casanova, Jan Doyle, Silvia Drewery, Barbara Dwyer, Sharon Hart, Lisa Hesselgrave, Carol Cable Hurst, Trish Karter, Jeanette Mobeck, Sylvia Ohlrich, Gaile Ramey, Dierdre Baker Schiffer, Maria Stockmal, Robert Thomas, and Patricia Towle.

Her poetry in the book is dedicated to Branford’s Beacon Hill Preserve, one of several natural sites celebrated in the book, and a treasured place for Branford residents who know and love its trails and wildlife. In her poetry,  Peterson describes the affinity between beauty and nature, and calls to attention the need for the stewardship and respect of these shared lands.

In preparation for writing about Beacon Hill, Peterson walked through different paths and seasons to understand the nature and beauty around her.

“Each time I walked there, I saw something new,” she said. “There is so much there—abundant bird life, grasses, wetlands, and lochs.”

Many of the artworks around the BACA were also a tribute to Branford’s wildlife, and came with inspirational stories.

Sharon M. Hart’s painting of a section of the town’s Trolley Trail and 27-acre Vedder Preserve was inspired by the

story of her father-in-law, she said. Jennie Vedder, who later donated her property to the Branford Land Trust, used to let Hart’s father-in-law clam on her property. In return, he and his family would give her clam chowder.

“I was inspired by Mrs. Vedder’s devotion to family connection, and how much family history is on those lands.” she said. “It is a true treasure.”

Other artists chose to dedicate their pieces to wildlife and animals, like Gerry Cassanova and his osprey sketches.

Cassanova grew up in Branford, but moved to New York in his twenties. He was a true city person, he said—and found coming to Branford fairly sedate.

That changed when he went to see the Trolley Trail and was enraptured by the ospreys and the otherworldly natural surroundings of the marshlands.

“I came down there everyday to watch the rhythm of the ospreys,” Cassanova said. “For a city person like me, who only saw Manhattan pigeons—this was a whole other world.”

Julie Wagner, president of the BLT, said that artists can play an important role in land conservation.

“Many groups do not strictly identify themselves as conservationists,” she said. “Artists aren’t really treehuggers, but their work can help people understand how fragile our ecosystem is, and why we have to protect it.” n

This article was included in the Arts Paper through an extension of YAJI, or the Youth Arts Journalism Initiative (YAJI). YAJI is a program of the Arts Council of Greater New Haven through which New Haven and Hamden high schoolers pitch, edit, and write articles for the Arts Paper. Read more about the program here or by checking out the “YAJI” tag. Amelia Stefanovics is a senior at Hill Regional Career High School.

You Spin Me Right Round

For

Earth Day, by

Jen Payne

From my window all I need to know of Earth this morning: her ombré sky indecisive her sun bold no matter glowing green buds of spring / that flash of red? a cardinal who was singing just a moment ago a duet like a record baby spider spinning another masterpiece as shadows fly across the lawn they bob and weave and somersault punctuated by bee bee bee bee the pond ripples with morning traffic turtles and ducks and frogs

peep peep peep while the trees in unison sing Watch out here I come!

P.O. Box 254

Branford, CT 06405

NATIVE PLANTS & HEALTHY HABITATS

by Gaile Ramey

Are you interesting in fostering healthy natural habitats that support pollinating insects and birds? Then you’ve probably heard about Pollinator Pathways. This is a state-wide effort of individual gardeners and land conservationists who commit to creating native, pesticide-free plantings. There are public and private pesticide-free corridors of native plants that provide nutrition and habitats for pollinators of many types. Even the smallest green spaces, like flower boxes and curb strips, can be part of a pathway! Find out more about how you can do it in your own garden from Pollinator Pathways, a non-profit organization with groups rapidly sprouting up in towns all across the State, www.pollinator-pathway.org.

Grow native pollinator-friendly plants. Growing native flowers, trees, and stewarding healthy soil, benefit our natural pollinators who depend upon specific host plants for their survival. Please visit the BLT website for helpful links for some great resources that can help you get started, including: native plant lists, invasive plants, and informative factsheets. n

Illustration by Alfred Edmund Brehm, 1900