A capacity crowd filled the meeting room at the Weston Public Library tonight listening to early plans outlined by two local land trusts who are collaborating to save more than 350 acres of unprotected forestland spanning Weston and Wilton.
The Weston-Wilton Forest Block, as it is being described by the Aspetuck Land Trust and the Wilton Land Conservation Trust, is adjacent to more than 2,100 acres of land that is already protected.
The Weston-Wilton Forest Block lands are considered rare and resilient habitat, critical to the long-term survival of native Connecticut species threatened by the effects of climate change and fragmentation from residential and commercial development, according to David Brant, executive director of Aspetuck Land Trust.
“We want to preserve this critical habitat by protecting and connecting more land and involving individual landowners in the effort,” Brant said.
The evening program also included speakers discussing ways landowners could protect and improve the environment through stewardship measures like organic land care, waterside buffers and pollinator gardens.
“Tonight is our first meeting. This is where we start the fundraising and public education effort that will be necessary over the years ahead to protect this land,“ said Don Hyman, President of Aspetuck Land Trust. He urged meeting attendees to join and support both Aspetuck Land Trust and Wilton Land Conservation Trust in a fundraising and land acquisition effort that will gradually roll out.
“As has been said before by land conservation activists in the past, land like this is forever yours or forever gone,” Hyman concluded.
N