Naromi Land Trust
November, 2010 - Vol 1, Issue 9
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Volunteer!
| | Are you looking for something to do outdoors before the snow flies? There are always opportunities for Community Service at Naromi Land Trust. High schoolers and others can earn Community Service. Please call the office if you are interested! The office phone number is 860-354-0260. |
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| Dear Friend of Naromi, |
Season's Greetings from all of us at Naromi Land Trust!
This year has been productive for Naromi. We have focused on education and on projects to protect our existing land holdings in Sherman. Naromi Land Trust owns 850 acres and holds conservation easements on an additional 350 acres, so we are always busy! A summary highlighting our year's activities is on our website. We have two new acquisitions and several projects planned for 2011 detailed below.
Please support Naromi in 2010-2011 by renewing your membership or becoming a new member. Your membership helps us to protect the scenic and natural resources in Sherman, and to preserve the rural character of our community. Please be as generous as you can.
The Naromi Land Trust Board and staff wish you a joy-filled holiday season. Our heartfelt thanks to all who volunteered their valuable time to make this year so successful. With your support 2011 will be a banner year for Naromi!
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New Acquisitions
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Naromi has just finished two acquisition projects, one conservation easement and one property held in fee, protecting another 14 acres in Sherman. Expanding conserved properties by protecting land that is contiguous or close to other protected land is increasingly vital to protect wildlife habitat and other conservation values. As land is divided into smaller pieces and communities spread out, large tracts of conservation land ensures that wildlife from red eft salamanders to squirrels to bobcats to deer can continue to thrive alongside us with as little interaction as possible.
The conservation easement is 4-acres within the
 | | Cardinal Flower blooming on DeWind property summer of 2010. |
DeWind estate on Briggs Hill Road. Adrian (Bill) DeWind was one of the founders of Naromi and a Director emeritus until his death in 2009. Naromi's Preservation Committee has been working with the heirs of the estate to protect this glorious property in a manner fitting with Bill's legacy of conservation. Naromi already holds a conservation easement on 144-acres on that property and hopes to continue to work with the family to conserve as much of the remaining acreage as possible.A group of conservation minded individuals came together to take ownership of 9.7 acres on Spring Lake Road, and have subsequently donated it to Naromi. This new property is just north of Valley Brook, a 41-acre wildlife sanctuary already owned by Naromi.
Naromi is grateful to the donors of these properties for their generosity and foresight. If you are interested in donating property to Naromi, please visit our website for more information and click on Conservation Options or contact us.
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Plans for 2011
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We have many projects planned for 2011--some are ongoing, others brand new. Among them will be:
- Clearing trees and eradicating invasive plants at the Strauss Preserve as a part of the Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program (WHIP), a federal conservation program.
- Continuing the restoration of the stream bank at Babbling Brook Farm (also a WHIP project).
- Using funds awarded from the Housatonic River Basin Natural Resources Restoration Project to construct a handicapped-accessible boardwalk along the edge of the Wimisink Swamp Preserve.
- Working with both private and public partners to pursue the preservation of additional notable tracts of open space and farmland in Sherman.
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Naromi in the Community
| On October 30th a group of seven people spent several hours planting native plants at Babbling Brook Farm, including Elderberry, Speckled Alder, Summersweet, Silky Dogwood, and Swamp Rose. This project was part of Naromi's ongoing revitalization of Babbling Brook Farm and was made possible by a grant from the Iroquois Pipeline and Gas Co.
 On Halloween night, community organizations manned booths along the walking path at Veteran's Field and offered games, information, tricks, and mostly importantly, treats. Chris Jellen, in full farmer regalia, and Stephanie Warren manned the Naromi booth. There was a display of photographs taken by Dennis Larkin of local wildlife, sunflower heads from Babbling Brook Farm full of ripe seeds, and a bat toss (of the small plastic variety) for homemade candied apples (by Linda & Chris Jellen).
 On November 7, Marge Josephson led a group of eleven hikers (and one dog) up the new loop trail at Towner Hill.
Thanks to everyone who has participated and volunteered to make these events so much fun!
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CT Barns Survey
| The Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation is sponsoring a statewide barn survey. Janet Hopkins and Tom Joyner are the principal coordinators/photographers of the project in Sherman. They are collecting as much information that they can on all the barns and other agricultural buildings (but not garages) to document significant barns in Connecticut. The results are to be published on the organization's website www.connecticutbarns.org This will be the central repository for barn surveys, research and general information, accessible to all. Click here for more information on the project posted on the Naromi website.
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Please share this Naromi newsletter with your friends by using the forward button below. We welcome comments from you about what you would like to see discussed here and what you think we are doing right, or wrong! We look forward to hearing from you!
Sincerely,
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