Green Movement Recognizes Needs of Economic Progress

The Norwalk Land Trust has been told the conservation movement has evolved to take more into account a balance needs to be achieved between preserving natural resources and commercial concerns that meet today’s needs of people and progress.

The speaker was Reggie Hall, conservation acquisition representative for Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island for The Conservation Fund, an Arlington, VA-based nonprofit that has preserved 7.8 million acres of land and water in all 50 states since 1985.

He told the annual meeting of the land trust at Norwalk’s City Hall Monday night (April 9) that “environmental solutions today need to make economic sense” and a new approach has been adopted that recognizes “human needs for food and energy are essential to a nation’s prosperity.”

At the meeting, Julian Henkin, Bill Nightingale and Margaret Shanahan were added to the board of directors of the land trust for three-year terms and Connie Bennett, D. Seeley Hubbard, Tammis Lazarus and Mary Verel were re-elected to the board, also for three years.  

Hall has worked with the Norwalk Land Trust in providing the financial underpinning for acquiring the Farm Creek Preserve and the White Barn Property and he lauded the nonprofit for “punching far above its weight” among the 1,500 land trusts across the U.S. that preserve 2 million acres of open space and forestland annually.

In terms of “social capital,” he noted that research has demonstrated that for young people diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder, “a 20-minute walk in the woods is as (beneficial) as a dose of medication.”

Since it was established in 1973, the Norwalk Land Trust has assumed stewardship of 31 properties totaling nearly 100 acres of open space. A campaign is currently under way to raise $5 million to purchase the White Barn Property and preserve the 15.4-acres as open space on the Norwalk/Westport line. Towards the objective, the Fieber family has already committed $1 million.

Donations, tax deductible to the extent permitted by law, may be made via PayPal at norwalklandtrust.org or by mail to the Norwalk Land Trust, PO Box 34, Norwalk, CT 06851.

Reggie Hall, second from right, with members of the Fieber family who donated $1 million towards the acquisition of the White Barn Property, left to right, Jeff, Sarah and Bill.

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Submitted by Norwalk, CT

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