It’s Time to Take A Walk in the Woods

Though it may only be the beginning of the summer, it appears that Christmas came early this year for the members of the Branford Land Trust, who recently showed off their newest parcel of land – 29 pristine acres in the Red Hill Woods – to an active audience of 20 people and three dogs.

The walk on July 2 not only marked the area’s official opening to the public, it also celebrated a brand new trail, which will provide hikers with better access to the interior of the property, as well as direct access to the area’s wetlands and reputed Native American rock shelter. (See top photo)

“It fits into the corner of the big protected open space, but it has some special things in it that can’t be found in the rest of the open space,” said Bill Horne (pictured), regarding the newest plot of land, which borders an existing tract of over 950 acres of environmentally sensitive coastal forest in the Hoadley Creek Watershed that is currently protected by the Branford Land Trust, the Guilford Land Conservation Trust, and the Town of Branford.

Horne is a member of the Land Trust’s acquisitions committee, as well as its advisory board. He has been looking at this property on behalf of the Land Trust for many years now.

“It’s been on our wish-list for a while,” he said, as he started down the path, following the familiar white blazes of the Branford Trail system.

Though the property has been privately owned for decades, it is nonetheless host to an existing network of trails that connect to popular walking sites in the Branford Trail system, as well as the Stony Creek Quarry Preserve trails and the Westwoods Trails in Guilford.

Now that the Land Trust controls the area, these trails will continue to be available to the public in the years to come. In this sense, noted Horne, ​“this acquisition fills a gap in the ​‘protected trail system’ on either side of the town line,” he said of the Guilford border connection. 

This walk marks the first of a series of walks around the property that the Land Trust will host in order to introduce people to the property and encourage them to donate money to support its purchase. The walks begin at the end of Red Hill Road, and will all follow the same loop. For more information on the dates of these tours, visit the land trust’s webpage. 

A Unique Natural Habitat

“This may be the only really big example [of this kind of wetland] in Branford,” announced Horne to the crowd of walkers, who had paused in front of the aforementioned wetlands to hear him talk. ​“I’m not familiar with a wetland area in Branford that is quite like this. It’s really quite unique.”

For those who were unfamiliar with the Red Hill Woods, moments like these provided an opportunity to learn more about what makes the Red Hill Woods property stand out from its neighbors, such as its historic display of Selectman’s stones as well as the area’s well-known Native American rock shelter.

At one point Horne said, ​“I think we have some flying squirrels here.” He had stopped in the middle of the trail to inspect a nearby tree. He knocked on the wood and nodded, his suspicions at least partially confirmed. The tree is clearly hollow,” he explained, ​“and there are a couple of places where there was a branch that died and the tree started to heal over and something has sort of kept the opening from closing up.”

In between the more formal intermissions, Horne and his colleagues folded back into the crowd to enjoy the scenery and field questions from curious guests, many of whom had observations of their own to contribute.

“This must have been beautiful a few weeks ago,” sighed one walker, as the route wound through a now-bare patch of azaleas.

“It was in full bloom,” replied another, her eyes lighting up. ​“The time to visit this property is in June,” she added knowingly.

In addition to providing plenty of visual interest, the Red Hill Woods also fills a crucial ecological niche in the space it occupies. The area alone is home to at least seven state-listed plant species (five Special Concern, one Threatened, one Endangered), as well as three state-listed animal species, including the spotted turtle (Special Concern), eastern box turtle (Special Concern), and northern long-eared bat (State endangered, Federal Threatened).

Looking ahead

One of the more subtle benefits of securing ownership of the Red Hill Woods is that it will allow the Land Trust to ensure that the area remains not just available, but also hospitable to both natural residents and human visitors alike.

The trust has already begun work in pursuit of the latter goal in the form of several newly installed wooden foot bridges designed to ease hikers’ passages over the wetlands’ chronically soggy terrain. These, along with the new trails, will make the trail easier to access in the months and years to come.

If the acquisition moves along as planned, the trust will also be able to bolster its conservation efforts by addressing the issue of invasive species, which they can remove and control, if they have the tools.

In order for this to happen, though, the Land Trust will need to raise more money. Though they may have a down payment and a deed on the property, they will need additional funds to pay off the rest of the amount they owe, as well as for maintenance.

Currently, the Land Trust’s fundraising goal is about $200,000, which would cover the costs of the Red Hill Woods property, as well as Spectacle Island, a bare granite outcrop island located just off the coast of Indian Neck. The Land Trust also hopes to set up an investment fund that they hope will grow big enough to cover the costs of the stewardship efforts that go into maintaining the property. 

This is part of the goal of the walk: to introduce visitors to the beauty of the area and hope they are inspired to help the Land Trust in their efforts to preserve it. In this sense, the tour is as much a show-and-sell as it is a show-and-tell.

Many of those at the Land Trust appear to already be sold.

Beth Dock, a veteran of the acquisitions committee who remains involved in the Trust, recalled how she used hike out to the property with friends and colleagues –“drooling, really,” she joked – but they had never been able to reach an agreement with the owners.

Having seen the property now, she only appreciated it more. ​“I don’t think we realized how stunning it was,” she concluded after the tour was over.

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