Land Trust to celebrate 50 years; Guitar tells how it all began

By Mary Anne Guitar, February, 2015

The Redding Land Trust began in 1965 with Sam Hill’s idea to encourage the formation of a private land-save organization which could accept gift of land and manage these tracts for public pleasure.

Mr. Hill was the first chairman of the Conservation Commission and he had laid out an ambitious open space plan for the town. However, he also realized that the town could not afford to buy all the open space needed to preserve Redding’s unique natural resources.

In the spring of 1965, Mr. Hill sprang his idea of a local land trust on the town fathers. Then, he started looking around for volunteers to start one. To his surprise, those who offered to help had improbably credentials for the job. Jo Polseno was an illustrator, Bill Miller, a historian, Helene O’Neill wrote a column for The Redding Pilot, June Gordon had been a dancer, and I was a free-lance writer.

The five of us who took on the task of researching and, finally, incorporating a local land-trust cared about the town and conservation but we were not deeply involved in town affairs. Perhaps it was just as well because we had high expectations and no fear that we couldn’t succeed. All through the summer of ’65, we met at Ms. Gordon’s house and, with the help of a young lawyer, Walther Andrew, drew up the incorporation papers and bylaws. It was slow going and I grew used to the weekly call from Mr. Hill, which invariable began, “Well, Mary Anne….”.

Finally, we were ready to apply to the state for a certificate of incorporation. Once that was granted we were legally empowered to start a Land Trust and we did in March 1966 with our organizational meeting. We sent a town-wide mailing which read in part: “We, the incorporators listed below, invite you to help conserve the natural beauty in Redding before it is too late. Join the Redding Land Trust and help maintain rolling hills, wild-flower bogs, bird sanctuaries, streams and ponds. Support the land trust and help keep the unusual range of animal and plant life presently enriching our town,”

The response was gratifying. Christ Church Parish Hall was filled with well wishers, new members and volunteers. We elected Ben Deming the first president of the Land Trust and our first Board of Trustees included Ben, William Cram, Dr. Theodore Dayton, Michael Erlanger, Robert Knapp, Alan Stackpole, and the five incorporators.

We were solvent, more so than we had dreamed. One day I opened the mail and a $1,000 check was dropped off from a member who, to this day, wants to remain anonymous. This windfall enabled us to put together and print a handsome mailing piece, which was created by Gordon Page, a retired advertising copywriter, and artist Arthur Shilstone. The captivating title — “How the Redding Land Trust, Inc. Can Help You Protect Your Home Town Investment” — brought many inquiries from prospective donors of land.

We had already received our first gift — the Mikklesen 4-acre gift off Wayside Lane. Then, just in time for Redding’s Bicentennial in 1980, the Brinkerhoff family gave the Trust 50 spectacular acres off Beeholm Road. It was followed by other gifts from Cressey, Wyman and Bakeland to create some 100 acres of field and forest.

Stuart Udall, then Secretary of the Interior, wrote to congratulate the Trust: “Those of us at the federal level who are fighting the battle to acquire land and to save it from the seeming inexorable march of the bulldozer and concrete mixer obviously cannot do the whole job. The real work, and most meaningful in the long run to the citizen where he lives, must be done at the local level by people with imagination and vision.”

A Milestone Anniversary

By Emily d’Aulaire, December 2014

2015 is a milestone year for Redding Land Trust as we celebrate our 50th anniversary. The goal of the founders a half century ago was a simple one: preserve the natural resources of our town and acquire the land needed to do so. It started small--a gift of four acres. And it grew. Today the Land Trust is the steward of more than 1700 acres of prime open space, all kept safe for generations to come. It's an extraordinary accomplishment and one to celebrate. But we cannot rest on our laurels. There is far less land available to us today than there was when we first set out to preserve Redding's open space. Donations to the Land Trust are more vital than ever to allow us to follow the dream that began back then. We hope you will join us in celebrating our success and assuring that we can keep Redding the green oasis that it is with a special Anniversary Gift to the Land Trust. 

Says Redding's First Selectman Julia Pemberton, "The Land Trust's contributions to Redding are immeasurable. It is not by accident that Redding is a clean, green, breath of fresh air; a respite from an increasingly crowded Fairfield County. It is the result of the Land Trust's visionary founders who recognized early on the importance of open space preservation as being essential to the environmental and economic well being of the Town. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Thanks to the Redding Land Trust, this will forever be true of Redding."

Natalie Ketcham, First Selectman of Redding for 14 years is a long-time supporter of the Trust and its work. "Appreciation for the environment is a common denominator among the varied ages and backgrounds of Redding residents, past and present," she claims. "Nowhere is this more evident than in the thousands of acres of preserved open space that exist thanks to the Land Trust. It is what drew many of us here, keeps many of us here, and why we should celebrate and support the Redding Land Trust in their important anniversary year." 

We on the Land Trust board are celebrating our special anniversary with the launch of a new web site. A committee of five Trustees has been working with HainesDesign in Essex, CT, since the spring of 2014 to create the new site. We hope you will find it engaging and informative-- and one more reason to make a special 50th Anniversary contribution to the Land Trust.

New Acquisitions

2014 was an exceptionally good year for the Land Trust as we continued to add to our holdings. In the fall, the Trust received an easement on a 2-acre open meadow off Meeker Hill that provides an uninterrupted view south to Long Island Sound. The property, which was a gift from Eugene Connolly in honor of his late wife Virginia, abuts other land protected by Redding Land Trust as well as connecting to Centennial Watershed State Forest land. Henry Sanford also added to our open space off Meeker Hill in the fall of 2014 with a gift of 1.7 acres just south of the Connolly field. In December the Trust received a gift of 21.83 acres on George Hull Hill Road from the estate of Lotte Fields. This beautiful piece of land, covered by hardwood forest, is one of the last places in Redding where the Saugatuck River passes through privately held banks on both sides.

State Grant

In October 2014, First Selectman Julia Pemberton announced that the Town of Redding will receive $170,000 to help fund the acquisition of the Biehn property as permanently protected open space. Said Ms. Pemberton at the time, "Support from the Redding Land Trust was instrumental to the grant's success." The support has not ended. The Land Trust has pledged to match the state grant in order to finance the purchase of the 30.7 acres of pristine open space and watershed land at the bottom of Hill Road, an area often referred to as the Gateway to Redding. The mostly wooded property has over 1600 feet of frontage on Hill Road (Route 107) and about 300 feet on Mail Coach Road. The Town has a year to complete the acquisition of this important piece of Redding property. The Land Trust is working hard to raise the matching funds to make this a special 50th anniversary gift to Redding.

Land Trust Receives 21-Acre Gift

By Kaitlin Bradshaw on December 22, 2014

Lotte Fields, a former Redding and New York resident, died in 2013 but made headlines last spring when $6 million was endowed to the New York Public Library in addition to several other beneficiaries, including the Redding Land Trust.

In her will, Mrs. Fields left the 21.83 acres of her George Hull Hill Road estate to the land trust to preserve forever as open space. The Redding Land Trust accepted the endowment and will now call the land the Lotte and Henry Fields Preserve.

The land consists of two adjacent parcels, 28 George Hull Hill Road and 48 George Hull Hill Road. The land is in a secluded, northwestern portion of Redding along an infrequently traveled dirt road, according to Sean McNamara of the land trust. The home and five acres of land have been sold.

In 1961, Mrs. Fields and her late husband, Henry, bought 17 acres on George Hull Hill Road. They built a house in the woods on the edge of a bluff overlooking the Saugatuck River, and in 1971 they purchased nine more acres. On weekends and in the summer the two would escape the hustle and bustle of Manhattan to their home in the woods — all on land where a dairy farm once stood

Mrs. Fields came to the United States in 1939 from Germany to escape the Holocaust. She finished high school in New York and attended Wellesley College on a full scholarship. Soon after graduation she became an economic affairs officer at the United Nations. She then went on to be a financial expert for the Girl Scouts of America and ultimately a skilled arbitrator in major financial disputes as well as an accomplished ceramic artist.

She married Henry Fields, a leader in the international wood industry, and they resided in New York and Redding.

It was in both Mrs. and Mr. Fields’ wills that nearly all of their land on George Hull Hill Road extending down to the Saugatuck River and beyond was to be given to the Redding Land Trust after both died.

Lotte Fields walks with Gustav Olsen on her property in Redding. Mrs. Fields died in 2013 but left 21 acres of her land to the Redding Land Trust to keep as open space.

Mr. Fields died in 1991 and Mrs. Fields lived for many years after.

Mrs. Fields’ close friend and Redding neighbor Marion Grebow, along with other friends, said they were pleased to know that Henry and Lotte’s legacy is now safely in the hands of the Redding Land Trust.

Ms. Grebow and her family moved to Redding in 1991. During their first Thanksgiving in town, Ms. Grebow and her family went on a hike behind their home.

“We went up the wrong path and emerged onto someone’s driveway just as the homeowner was driving up to her house. We were mortified to be trespassing on private land, apologized and introduced ourselves to the driver, Lotte Fields, who was quite taken aback by our sudden appearance but was none the less gracious,” said Ms. Grebow.

Over the next couple of months Ms. Grebow and her family would run into Mrs. Fields while out on walks and they would stop and chat.

“Within the year we would spend time together every weekend. Lotte became a beloved friend and a member of our family,” she said.

“Lotte, a Wellesley graduate, was very intelligent and well read. She loved art, traveled the world and found great joy in observing nature. She was blessed with an avid curiosity for life, taking classes and attending lectures in the city up to the last few years of her life,” said Ms. Grewbow. “Lotte was a very loved and cherished friend. Our lives were enriched by the time we spent together. Her wisdom, curiosity and love of beauty as well as her generous spirit were treasures we were fortunate to have known. It is true to her nature that she has left this world a bit better for heaving been in it.”

 About the Land

The Saugatuck River runs through Mrs. Fields’ property at 28 and 48 George Hull Hill Road in Redding.

According to Mr. McNamara, the most significant feature of the land is that the Saugatuck River passes through the northern section of the land. It is one of the last places in Redding where the river passes through privately held land on both banks. The river then flows for about 900 feet before entering Aquarion and state of Connecticut land to the east.

The land is covered by hardwood forest, primarily white and red oak, sugar and red maple, black birch and some hemlock, said Mr. McNamara. Several stone walls remain and mark the border between the two parcels as well as the location of the border with the state land to the east.

Because the river flows between the two parcels and the land is low and flat, the land trust believes it would make a nice area for a hiking path along the wide and rapid river.

To the south of the property, the land features rugged terrain. The land rises to a rocky ledge with an impressive view, according to Mr. McNamara. There are several vernal pools, and springs lead downhill and feed the bog to the east where the Saugatuck River flows. Preservation of this land protects the Saugatuck Reservoir watershed. The western part of the land is mired by invasive barberry, he said.

The management plan for the property is to create a trail that follows the river at 48 George Hull Hill Road and then crosses to an upland climb to the ledges at 28 George Hull Hill Road, according to Mr. McNamara. The land trust would make sure the use of the land was sensitive to the watershed, but it also want to remove some of the invasive barberry from the property to make it less attractive to ticks.

Land Trust Hosts Lunch with a View

By Jane Ross, Redding Land Trust on October 25, 2014

Some 83 hikers, assisted by 30 Boy Scouts, climbed the gently rising trail to Redding Land Trust’s Great Ledge property last Saturday to enjoy the spectacular fall vista stretching with nary a house or steeple in sight all the way to Long Island Sound.

“You might guess you were in the Adirondacks and not the center of Fairfield County,” said Sean McNamara, who welcomed the crowd at the top on behalf of the land trust. He thanked town leaders — First Selectman Julia Pememberton, Selectman Leon Karvalis and Conservation Commission head David Pattee — who had joined the hikers at the summit, for the close partnership the trust has always enjoyed with the town of Redding — a community devoted to open space. The ledge property was purchased by the trust in 1988 with support from many donors.

Mr. McNamara, who organized the event, then thanked two members of the Trail Tenders, a group sponsored jointly by the trust and the town, Stuart Green and Kevin Tschudi. He also offered thanks to the Scouts of Troop 15 and especially Wyatt Hoover for building the new kiosk at the trail head.

David Brant, executive director of the Aspetuck Land Trust, then talked to those taking in the inspiring view about the important work that land trusts accomplish for their communities. They acquire land so that it may be preserved in its natural state forever, they act as stewards of the land protecting it from development, and they engage people in appreciating and exploring the treasurers of the land — a purpose perfectly fulfilled by Saturday’s event, he said.

Gathered in groups of friends and families, hikers enjoyed brown bag lunches prepared by the Redding Ridge Market while hearing from Mr. McNamara and Mr. Brant and taking photos of the viewscape. When asked if this was the first time they had visited the Great Ledge, more than half of the group raised their hands.

Mary Anne Guitar, Redding Land Trust president, who greeted hikers as they picked up their lunches before hitting the trail, said, “This is a wonderful event for the Redding Land Trust and a great way to launch the celebration of the trust’s 50th anniversary in 2015.”

Lunch on the Ledge Celebrates Redding’s Open Space

By Jane Ross, Redding Land Trust on October 4, 2014

More than 25 years ago, Redding neighbors united to help the Redding Land Trust save a natural treasure in a town already renowned for the beauty of its open spaces of meadows, woods and watercourses.

In December 1987, the 9.8 acre property containing Redding’s Great Ledge was up for sale on the open market. The owners accepted an option from the Land Trust to give the Trust one year to try to raise the money for the purchase price. A group of potential donors to the Trust’s fund-raising campaign launched in 1988 to raise the required $225,000 visited the site. This is what they saw.

“Along the way they crossed a brook rippling over moss-covered rocks, marveled at a trout lily that had amazingly escaped the tread of many boots, and admired a few shy anemones and violets. Those who were seeing the view from the Great Ledge for the first time drew in their breath as they approached the top of the 200-foot cliff and gazed at the panorama below them. The Saugatuck Reservoir, dotted with islands, surrounded by miles of unbroken forest land as far as the eye could see, lay serene below, a single distant church spire the only touch of man’s handiwork.” These are the words of Joan Ensor, accomplished writer, reporter, historian, conservationist, Land Trust President and leading Redding citizen.

The Redding Land Trust, buoyed by a pledge of $50,000 from Redding Open Lands, Inc. once $100,000 in private donations was raised, formed a committee headed by Eugene Connolly and Constance Pharr-Bereton.  Community appeals for support began. A special fund-raising concert at Warrups Farm, organized by Mary Travers in July where she also spoke featured three well-known bands. “The Greatest Show for Earth” was staged at Joel Barlow High School in November. Produced by June April, the event helped raise the final dollars with ticket sales and a raffle of goods and services.

Now, to celebrate the Redding Land Trust’s 50th anniversary, the group is hosting a lunch on the ledge on Saturday, Oct. 18, from 11 to 1.

Lunch from the Redding Ridge Market is $12. Participants may pick up their bag lunch at the Dayton Road trailhead and then hike an easy half-mile to the Great Ledge. 

Registrants will be contacted by email regarding luncheon choices.

Dogs are not invited to this hike, and a rain date of Oct. 19 has been set.

Parking will be at the trailhead at 84 Dayton Road.

Land Trust Members Meet at Highstead

By Susan Wolf on April 20, 2013

Members of the Redding Land Trust gathered at Highstead on Sunday for their annual meeting, which included a special presentation and speaker Milan Bull, senior director of science and conservation at the Connecticut Audubon Society.

Mary Anne Guitar, Land Trust president, noted that in two years the trust would be 50 years old. The first donors were Gewndolyn and Rosamund Mikklesen, who gave the trust four acres on Wayside Lane. At Sunday’s meeting, Ms. Guitar announced that the Jean Adler Estate has donated “a small but strategic 3.106 acres” that are surrounded by 28 acres of Aquarion open space and 25 acres of state-owned watershed land.

Ms. Guitar also said a partnership with John Read Middle School has resulted in helping a team of fifth grade teachers lead students into the Saugatuck Falls Natural Area; and the trust contributed to the rebuilding of the bridge there that leads to this outdoor classroom.

Bonnie Spies, an middle school integrated language arts teacher, was recognized with the trust’s first-ever Redding Land Trust Leadership in Conservation Award. She suggested students create interpretative trail signs. The first was  placed last year and this year a new class of fifth graders has a sign ready to go. The sign represents the work of students incorporated into the project by artist Martha LaMarche.

And Ms. Guitar noted that board member David Heald, a renowned photographer, will do a photo workshop later this year with Barlow students. The trust’s video documents the effort of Ms. Honey and her elementary school students using Lonetown Marsh as an outdoor lab, she said.

During  his slide show presentation, titled “Where is the next generation of conservationists coming from?” Mr. Bull talked about the 2012 Connecticut State of the Birds Report by the Connecticut Audubon Society. 

He observed that kids don’t go outside and play in the fields and meadows like they used to do, but rather are involved in social media and electronics.

Conservation depends on amateurs, including people like Mabel Osgood Wright, who founded the Connecticut Audubon Society, said Mr. Bull.

“The key to conservation is getting the public’s support through someone’s experience with nature,” he added.

Recent studies show that one in 10 kids are “pathological gamers,” Mr. Bull said. Among other statistics, he said more than 60% in a state Audubon Society survey agree that “over programming” of after school activities, electronic distractions and safety concerns are among the causes for children today not being outside as much.

Today schools are heavily focused on student scores on standardized examinations but environmental and conservation programs are not part of the science curriculum, said Mr. Bull. He said teachers make the difference.

He praised the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts for their continued interest in conservation, The Nature Conservancy’s programs for youth and the National Environmental Education Act of 1990 that provides money to bring in outside teachers to help with environmental education. 

He also mentioned the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection’s No Child Left Inside program, which was started by then DEEP Commissioner Gina McCarthy, who is now assistant administrator for the federal EPA Office of Air and Radiation. She helped author the most recent State of the Birds report.

Mr. Bull said the Connecticut Audubon Society has established Conservation Centers in key communities around the sate, the most recent the Grassland Bird Conservation Center in Pomfret. It is also working to expand educational school and outreach programs and has hired a new education director to focus on schools.

On a legislative level, he said the society can encourage lawmakers to support the National Environmental Education Act and the No Child Left Inside Act.

A broad array of solutions is required, aid Mr. Bull, such as parents encouraging kids to go outside.

“There are enough ideas to make us cautiously  optimistic that there are solutions,” he said.

Mrs. Bull said he  is pleased the Redding Land Trust is working with the middle school. “I know of no Connecticut Land Trust that has taken the giant steps this land trust has taken,” he said.

Mary Anne Guitar to Remain President of RLT

By Jane Ross, Redding Land Trust on April 19, 2014

The full house rose to its feet and clapped resoundingly when the original founder of the Redding Land Trust and its current president, Mary Anne Guitar, was re-nominated for another term in office at the trust’s annual meeting at Highstead on April 6.

“It has been said that heroes are people who never get recognized in their lifetimes because they work for future generations,” said Laurie Heiss, trustee, in leading the chorus of thanks and admiration from others “for a visionary dedicated to open space in an era of development who was true to that vision for 50 years.”

Noting in her president’s report that the Redding Land Trust is on the cusp of its historic 50th anniversary year of land saving in 2015, Ms. Guitar reported that 1,735 acres of open space had been preserved to date by the land trust, quoting legendary conservationist Sam Hill, who said years ago, “I had no idea how successful it would be when I suggested it.”

Among the land gifts during the past year, Ms. Guitar reported one from longtime trust supporter Jack Stephenson, who gave 130 acres of land just across the border in Bethel, where the trust hopes to blaze trails and to find linkage to Putnam Park in Redding. Ms. Guitar also thanked Brian Mahoney for his continuing gift of acreage to a growing parcel of land off Ledgewood Road.

After the business meeting, the featured speaker was Redding native Brent Colley, who has long been an expert on Redding history, was  creator of a website depicting its events and people, and was recently elected first selectman of Sharon. 

Mr. Colley talked about how Redding has fared since the mid-20th Century and how the town has fought successfully to maintain its green and open spaces, helped in large part by the efforts of the Redding Land Trust.

Connecticut Land Conservation Council Presents Mary Anne Guitar with Award

By Susan Wolf on March 30, 2013

Mary Anne Guitar, Redding Land Trust president, will be headed to Wesleyan University this Saturday to receive the Connecticut Land Conservation Council’s Excellence in Conservation Award.

“The awards committee was very impressed by the depth and duration of Ms. Guitar’s commitment to conservation in our state. She truly serves as a model of what one committed individual can do to make a difference in the community. Thank you for taking the time to nominate her for this award!” wrote Virginia Gwynn, Greenwich Land Trust’s executive director, in an email announcing Ms. Guitar’s award.

“I’m happy to get the award from my fellow land savers. The Redding Land Trust has been preserving open space for nearly 50 years, and this award belongs (as well) to all the donors and workers who have made it a success,” said Ms. Guitar.

“I was lucky to land in Redding and get to know Sam Hill and Stuart Chase. They were my mentors and Redding’s pioneers in land preservation. They never retired from their mission and neither will I. As long as there’s land to save, I’m here to help. Nothing beats looking out on an unspoiled field or forest and knowing it will be there in perpetuity.”

In its nomination of Ms. Guitar for the award, the Redding Land Trust described her as one of Connecticut’s “earliest pioneers in the conservation of open space.”

In 1965, Ms. Guitar helped found the Redding Land Trust with other conservation-minded leaders of the day, including noted economist and historian Stuart Chase. Ms. Guitar, an author, wrote Property Power: How to Keep the Bulldozer, the Highwaymen and the Power Lines Away From Your Door.

“Mary Anne has spent a lifetime motivating friends and neighbors, indeed the whole Redding community, to become passionate preservers of open space,” the trust wrote.

During her successful campaign for first selectman in 1977, Ms. Guitar, who was the first woman to win election to that office in Fairfield County, ran on the theme “Keep Redding Clean and Green.” It is a motto often heard today.

During her six terms in office, the trust said, Ms. Guitar promoted the concept of cooperation with other conservation groups, like the Nature Conservancy, which have shared in the cost of saving and protecting open space in Redding.

Also noted in the nomination was Ms. Guitar’s encouragement for the town’s Conservation Commission to require all property developers of 10 acres or more to set aside 10% of their land for open space.

“Throughout her career, Mary Anne’s environmental activism has dovetailed with her political involvement,” the trust said in its nomination letter.

Ms. Guitar was appointed to head the state’s Siting Council, which oversees the placement of power lines within the state, and served 12 years on the town’s Board of Finance. As land trust president, Ms. Guitar and her board of trustees worked for and received accreditation by the Land Trust Alliance, a national organization that promotes voluntary land conservation.

“Mention her name to anyone in town and the first thing that will come to that person’s mind is open space,” the trust said.

“When recently asked what is the most rewarding aspect of her long involvement with the Redding Land Trust, Mary Anne, who grew up in St. Joseph, Mo., with ‘a nature preserve at my door,’ proclaims: ‘Having those who knew the rural Redding of years ago come back to town and marvel that it hasn’t changed a bit,’” the trust’s nomination letter concluded.

Fifth Graders and Land Trust Collaborate on Signs

By Justin McCabe, Pilot Intern on January 24, 2013

A collaboration between fifth graders at John Read Middle School and the Redding Land Trust continues to enrich a local nature preserve with the upcoming installation of an informational sign in the Saugatuck Falls Natural Area.

The sign, second in an ongoing project by the students of Bonnie Spies and Heather Sam, will educate visitors to the natural preserve on Connecticut’s white oak trees.

Last year’s fifth graders visited the Saugatuck Falls area, located across the street from the middle school, to research the white oak and compile historical and scientific information as well as artwork to be later made into the sign.

This spring, the now sixth graders will be able to enjoy the fruits of their labor when the sign is unveiled at the Redding Land Trust’s annual meeting in April and installed in the preserve in May.

The genesis of the project came two years ago with a partnership between the classes of Ms. Spies and Ms. Sam and Sean McNamara, a member of the town’s land trust and a town tree warden.

“We had been planning other learning activities with Mr. McNamara, and in that collaboration we came up with this idea,” said Ms. Spies, who teaches language arts and social studies.

“We knew we had this incredible resource across the street and we happened to be lucky to have Mr. McNamara’s son in our class. We started visiting the trail and he volunteered his time, and through various conversations we realized that the community had a lot to offer us to help utilize that space,” she explained.

With the help of Mr. McNamara, funding from the land trust and volunteers from the community were found to lead workshops and walks with the students in the Saugatuck Falls Natural Area. These activities were tied in with writing projects assigned in Ms. Spies’ class.

“We were looking for some sort of real-life writing experiences. And we were also looking for ways to encourage other classes to use the trail,” said Ms. Spies.

Mr. McNamara was equally enthusiastic about the opportunity being afforded to the students.

“Instead of reading it in a book or watching it on TV, they’re seeing these things and learning about them in the field,” he said.

The result of this first collaboration was a sign on white pine trees, which was installed last May and can currently be seen near the entrance to the preserve.

This year’s sign on the white oak, the tree depicted on Connecticut’s state quarter and in state lore as the “Charter Oak”, will precede the work of current fifth graders on another sign to be readied for next year, that one on birds found within the Saugatuck Falls Natural Area.

Both Ms. Spies and Mr. McNamara hope to continue the project indefinitely and to make a sort of yearly tradition out of the unveiling and installation of the signs.

“We have to give a big credit to the Redding Land Trust because they are the ones who find the funding for us,” said the teacher, appreciation that is shared by the other half of the partnership as well.

“The Land Trust is really happy with all the work Bonnie Spies has done to get the kids outside to use the resource across the street and get them learning about nature hands on,” said Mr. McNamara.

The unveiling of this year’s white oak sign will be at the trust’s annual meeting, hosted at Highstead on April 7.

“It’s not just for the school, it’s their project but it’s for everybody in the community to come out and see,” said Mr. McNamara. “We encourage everyone to come out and enjoy the signs as they go in and the project progresses, and to learn about what is out there in the nature preserve.”