Aspetuck Land Trust

Aspetuck Land Trust
Easton, Weston, Fairfield, & Westport

Aspetuck_Land_Trust_LogoKnowing what I know of Easton and Weston, I would certainly expect there to be a large and organized land trust there. There is pretty much no development in those two towns – which is wholly by writ and design. The archaic bylaws of Weston are part of Connecticut lore for the few goobers like me who find this stuff interesting.

But I’m an even rarer breed: one of those goobers who cares about anti-development town bylaws who at the same time celebrates all the preserved open space such bylaws create and keep! Huzzah!

One doesn’t really think of hiking when one thinks of Westport and Fairfield though, which makes me almost more curious about the Aspetuck properties there. My only difficulty in ripping through all the properties is that they are quite far from my house in West Hartford. The land trust has fantastic maps online and all but one property appears to be small and easily hiked by my young sons. Who knows when we’ll get to them, but since Aspetuck sends me emails all the time, and I plan to go see my friend Mort in Weston soon, I figured I’d get this page up and running.

Let’s let them speak for a second:

Aspetuck Land Trust (ALT) was founded in 1966 to preserve open space in the towns of Westport, Weston, Fairfield and Easton. We provide passive recreation and educational opportunities for people to learn about and enjoy nature, while preserving the flora and fauna and rural characteristics of our towns. ALT maintains 45 trailed nature preserves and other conservation-only properties on over 1,700 acres of land. ALT has over 1,000 local members who support us through annual membership contributions.

Nothing novel there, other than the name. Aspetuck is a parts of Connecticut that includes part of Fairfield and Easton. According to an old New York Times article, “The district gets its name from the Aspetuck Indians, who lived along the river. In 1670, they sold the land to English settlers for cloth, winter wheat and maize valued at $.36.”

I drove by Helen Keller’s former residence in the Aspetuck section of Easton which I only mention because believe it or not, that page gets lots of hits.

(Actually, there is a lot of interesting history of the ALT here. They were one of the first organizations of their kind in Connecticut.)

Aspetuck Land Trust

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In order to view the maps, you have to sign up with them online. Sure, you get a few emails every month as a result, but they are the good kind of emails, trust me. If you live down there, you should join the ALT. I can’t, simply because if I joined one, I’d have a thousand other organizations asking, “why them and not me?” Note: I do belong to a few statewide orgs, but not any local ones.)

Also, I’m not going to include the preserves with no trails/hiking

The Preserves/Hikes:

If linked, I’ve hiked it.

Easton

Pond View Preserve
Island Pond Preserve
Poindexter Nature Preserve -
Crow Hill Preserve -
Jump Hill Preserve
Trout Brook Valley
Randall’s Farm Preserve

Fairfield

Putnam & Rudkin Preserve
Lobdell Calf Pasture Preserve
Ernest Hillman Preserve
Harwood Preserve
Sasqua Wildflower Preserve – Not really to hike, but it’s still interesting to me.
Butkus Pond Preserve
Acorn Lane Upland Preserve
Southport Park
Secret bonus in Bridgeport! – Great Salt Marsh Island

Weston

Honey Hill Preserve
LeGallienne Bird Sanctuary
Stonebridge Waterfowl Preserve
Singing Oaks Nature Preserve
Jennings Woods Preserve
Morton Preserve
Freeborn Walk Trail
Benjamin Wildflower Preserve
Walter Wagner Preserve
Taylor Woods Preserve
Tall Pines Preserve
(Trout Brook Valley Preserve)
Elizabeth Luce Moore Preserve

Westport

Leonard Schine Preserve & Children’s Natural Playground
Guard Hill Preserve
Eno Marsh Preserve
Allen Salt Marsh (not trailed, but interesting)
Hilla Von Rebay Arboretum
Peter’s Gate Preserve
Caryl & Edna Haskins Preserve
Newman-Poses Preserve

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CTMQ’s Land Trust Trails Page
CTMQ’s Non-CFPA Trails page

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