WESTON, Ct. --- With help from members and volunteer professional landscapers, Aspetuck Land Trust announced it plans to clear a seven-acre space in its Trout Brook Valley Conservation Area in order create a more inviting meadow habitat for birds, box turtles and pollinating insects that help enhance wildflower and other plant growth.
The area, which begins near the Bradley Road entrance at marker #1 on the white trail in the 1,009-acre conservation area spanning Weston and Easton, is described by biologists as an "early successional habitat" that needed to be disturbed in some fashion to prevent it from rapidly becoming forest. These areas are characterized by weedy areas, shrub thickets and young forest.
"If these habitats are not mowed, brush hogged, burned, cut, grazed or disturbed in some other fashion, they will eventually become forest over time. Think about all the old farmland in the Connecticut landscape that grew into mature forest. As this happens, field, orchards and young forest and the wildlife that is supported there are lost," said David Brant, Executive Director of Aspetuck Land Trust.
Aspetuck Land Trust (ALT) is a local non-profit land conservation organization founded in 1966 to preserve open space in the towns of Westport, Weston, Fairfield and Easton. ALT preserves provide passive recreation and educational opportunities for people to learn about and enjoy nature, while preserving the flora and fauna and rural characteristics of local communities. ALT maintains 44 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. For more information visit www.aspetucklandtrust.org