Shoreline residents have heard the words "high-biomass," "vernal pool," "bio-diversity," and, thanks to state Rep. Phil Miller D-Essex, have tried to imagine homes built on a “giant, wet, rocky sponge.” These terms and phrases were passionately used during the 15-year struggle against River Sound Development LLC’s plans for the 1,000 acre forest known as The Preserve.
Private ownership has limited the public’s opportunity to experience the Preserve on a personal level and “get lost in the woods awhile,” as Chris Cryder of Save the Sound puts it. Only a few people have had the chance to lose themselves on the Preserve’s trails, see bobcat tracks in the snow, vernal pools fill in the spring, hear a wood frog chorus, or look out across Pequot Swamp from a rock ledge after the leaves have turned and fallen - until now.
Recently The Trust for Public Land (TPL) and the state DEEP reached an agreement with current owner, River Sound Development LLC, a division of Lehman Brothers, to purchase the property for conservation. According to Kate Brown, project manager for the TPL, $10 to $12 million needs to be raised by June 2014 from federal, state, town and private sources to complete the purchase.
To share access permitted by the agreement with the public, the TPL will host hikes on the Preserve Nov. 16 and Dec. 15, 10 a.m. and noon each day. Parking and shuttle service is provided from the M&J bus lot, 130 Ingham Hill Road (across from Pasta Vita), Old Saybrook.
Members of the TPL, local land trusts and naturalists will lead the family-friendly 90-minute hikes. Sturdy shoes and water are recommended. For information or to RSVP, contact Kate Brown, 203-777-7367 extension 5 or kate.brown@tpl.org.
Cryder will be among the hike leaders. He first experienced the Preserve when the Lyons family who owned the property in the 1980s allowed him to commute to work by bike over the unpaved section of Ingham Hill Road that connected Old Saybrook to Essex.
The forest, untouched for 150 years, soon became more than a shortcut to work when he followed a “cacophony” of sound through blooming mountain laurel to an outcropping 50 feet above the Pequot Swamp. He described the sound created by huge numbers of migrating birds joined by croaking frogs and peepers as “raucous and joyful.”
His experiences in the Preserve led him to advocate for its preservation, and to his job as special projects coordinator with Save the Sound, part of the Connecticut Fund for the Environment.
He has mapped 95 percent of the Preserve’s trails, most of which began as colonial cart paths in the 1700s when Ebenezer Ingham the first, and the second, built homes and logged the forest. Remnants of their farms are still there, as are an estimated 30 miles of stone walls.
Cryder says a walk in the woods allows him to “get to a place of great solitude and quietness. A place to recharge your batteries away from the sound of I-95, where all you hear is the forest.” He sees connections throughout the forest to the town’s past, to the water, to the plants and animals growing in the varied habitats, and to the town’s future through children spending time in the forest.
If the purchase is successful, the land will be permanently preserved and protected and TPL will turn the property over to local entities. Brown said she and others from the TPL are working with local groups to fundraise for the purchase, and to develop a vision plan for post-purchase land use and stewardship.
If the purchase is not successful, Brown believes, “sooner or later it’s going to get developed. It’s just not realistic to think it’s going to sit there forever.”
Photo: State Rep. Phil Miller D-Essex, has long been a proponent of protecting the Preserve. Folks are encouraged to take part in organized hikes. Photo by Bob Lorenz.
This article was published Nov. 7, 2013, ShoreLine Times