By: Stuart Green
The White Trail in the Brinckerhoff was renamed Ross Ramble in honor of Jane and her late husband Jere Ross. With Jane as Secretary of the Land Trust and Jere a member of the Conservation Commission for decades it was the perfect tribute for their contribution to open space preservation, conservation and our trails!
On August 26th, be a part of Redding’s 250th Anniversary Celebration by joining the Redding Land Trust at a gala feast on the historic 300-acre Warrup’s Farm named in honor of Redding’s original, indigenous resident. Guests will tour this landmark farm estate with signature cocktails and celebrate with a colonial dinner inspired by the natural abundance of the land. Enjoy a unique meal while Manuel Lizarralde, Ph.D, links the menu to 1767. Remarks by Bill Hill and colonial entertainment.
We think a visit to Redding’s colonial past in celebration of its founding, and in support of the Redding Land Trust’s mission, will surely be “a night to remember,” and we recommend reserving seats now.
When:
Saturday, August 26th
4:30-8pm
Rain or shine.
Where:
Warrup’s Farm, John Read Road, Redding, CT (enter from route 107)
Cost: $125 per person
Update- A Night to Remember is SOLD OUT. Please call or text Mary Ann Carman 203-312-4545 or Laurie Heiss 203-940-6644 if you have questions.
*Would you like to be an Event Sponsor? You will receive promotional visibility for your organization, and gratitude from a community of committed conservationists! Please email warrups1767@gmail.com to receive sponsor information.
By Jane Ross, June 2017
Barlow Principal Dr. Gina Pin, Nicholas Nonnenmacher and Redding Land Trust Treasurer Sean McNamara.
At the Joel Barlow High School Awards ceremony on Thursday, June 1st, Nicholas Andreas Nonnenmacher was awarded the Redding Land Trust Scholarship Award. An outstanding scholar and swimmer, Nick has played many leadership roles at JBHS, including member of the Barlow Leadership Team and Integrity Club, and as guide for incoming freshmen, among other roles. He graduates with a Diploma of Distinction.
Awarded to a graduating senior who is interested in pursuing studies in the field of conservation, environmental studies, forestry or ecology, the Redding Land Trust recognition will help Nick explore options in all these fields at Middlebury College in Vermont.
Redding Land Trust is excited to be hosting these events in honor of Redding’s Sestercentennial:
May 13, 2017
Joan D. Ensor Memorial Hike
9 am at Scott Preserve
Meet at the trailhead, located at the intersection
of Seventy Acre Road and Mine Hill Road.
July 1, 2017
National Butterfly Count
with Victor DeMasi and the Butterfly Team
10 am at Crossfield
Parking at 105‐107 Cross Highway, Redding CT
Involves an optional walk through meadow grasses.
Protective clothing recommended. Kids welcome.
August 26, 2017
A Night to Remember...
Dinner at Warrup’s Farm, 1767
4:30 pm ‐ 8 pm
11 John Read Road, Redding CT
Cocktails, tour and dinner.
Limited capacity. Sign up now!
Mark your calendars, we hope to see you there!
By: Jane Ross
The Long Lots wall from the time of Redding's very earliest settlers, that are saved in perpetuity by RLT. Picture by David Heald
Almost 100 supporters crowded the 52nd Annual Meeting of the Redding Land Trust on Sunday, April 2, at the Community Center to hear of the Trust’s progress over the last year and to enjoy the featured program on “Saving Land – Saving History. A special treat was a video greeting from Trust conservation leader and founding member, former President and current Chairman Mary Anne Guitar.
Co-President Silvia Erskine, reporting on the achievements of the 2016 year, noted the re-accreditation of the Redding Land Trust by the national accrediting authority, the Land Trust Alliance – no small feat for an all-volunteer organization. She also highlighted that, thanks to cooperation with the Town and Aquarion, the Land Trust was able to purchase and preserve a choice 30-acre property at the heart of Redding. Co-President Gordon Loery, who sits on the Finance Committee, reported a change in the Trust’s endowment manager while Treasurer Sean McNamara reviewed the fiscal health of the RLT and noted the availability of the Trust’s 2016 Financial Statements to the public.
Karraker Field, a site used by Revolutionary War soldiers, and featured in the book, My Brother Sam is Dead. Picture by David Heald
Memorial plaques were presented to three outstanding supporters of the Redding Land Trust: Rosamond Mikkelsen who gave the RLT its first gift in 1966 of 4 acres and was a constant lifetime benefactor; Joan Ensor , a RLT leader who served as President for ten years during her long tenure as a Trustee and who helped create Redding’s envied system of trails; (A RLT-sponsored Joan D. Ensor Trail Hike will be at 9 a.m. on May 13 at Scott Preserve); and, Bob Rosenman whose generosity helped save Crossfield at the bottom of Cross Highway and other unspoiled adjacent lands for posterity. (A RLT-sponsored butterfly count walk led by expert Victor DeMasi will take place on Crossfield at 10 a.m. on July 1.) The plaques will be posted on appropriate, accessible trees.
Three long-time, admired Redding historians – Newtown expert Dan Cruson, Redding history webmaster and current Sharon First Selectman Brent Colley, and Redding Historical Society leader Charles Couch - headlined the video program presentation of landscapes and maps of properties which played a significant role in the Town’s 250-year history and which are now owned by the Land Trust, They focused on the Long Lots, the John Read estate and land which is now New Pond Farm where the RLT holds an easement.
A field at Warrup’s Farm, where the Land Trust will hold its event “A Night to Remember: A Visit to Warrup’s Farm 1767." Picture by David Heald
Assembled and introduced by RLT Trustee Kevin Tschudi, the video was also explained by Trustees Sherry Karraker, Laurie Heiss, Sean McNamara and Mary Ann Carman who narrated the stories of other lands – Karraker’s Field, Gallows Hill and Warrup’s Farm, another easement holding and the site of the Land Trust’s “A Night to Remember,” a special evening of cocktails, tour and dinner from 4:30 to 8 p.m. on August 26. Reservations are being accepted now at info@reddinglandtrust.org
With a show of appreciation for a great learning experience on how Redding came to be the unique community of natural open space that it is today, RLT supporters then enjoyed refreshments and socializing with neighbors and friends.
The video presentation of “Saving Land – Saving History” may be viewed on the website of Bob Moran at Redding79.org.
As one of our valued supporters, you are invited to join with friends and neighbors at the Annual Meeting of the Redding Land Trust. We will celebrate another year of land saving and enjoy a program presentation on some of our historically significant properties in recognition of the 250th anniversary of Redding's founding.
Raise a glass with us to celebrate the start of our 6th decade of land saving and stewardship. You help make it all possible!
Redding Land Trust's "Great Ledge" is featured in this years Redding Ornament!
Ornaments are $15 and can be purchased at the Mark Twain Library and Redding Town Hall. They can also be purchased online at www.reddingneighborsandnewcomers.org.
By Jane Ross, September 2016
Standing: Mike Proctor town atty, First Selectman Julia Pemberton, Mary Biehn Enos, Gordon Loery & Laurie Heiss of Redding Land Trust, Dave Pattee of Redding Conservation Commission, Attorney Elizabeth Edwards.
Sitting: John Curran atty for seller, Jane Ross of Redding Land Trust, Amy Paterson Exec Director of Ct Land Conservation Council
A choice 30-acre property at the heart of Redding has been preserved as an oasis of unspoiled nature through a purchase made possible by a State grant to the Town and to the Redding Land Trust – and with matching funds from the Trust as well as support from the Aquarion Water Company. The process of winning a grant supported by the Open Space and Watershed Land Acquisition Grant Program from the Department of Energyand Environmental Protection, initiated in 2014, reached a successful conclusion at the closing celebrated on Friday, September 9 at Redding Town Hall.
Under the State grant, the Town and the Trust each received $85,000, the Land Trust matched the grant with $170,000 and Aquarion contributed $60,000 in order to meet the seller’s $400,000 purchase price. The State and Aquarion will hold an easement over the property. “Aquarion Water Company is pleased to support this land purchase by the Town of Redding and the Redding Land Trust,” said Charles V. Firlotte, President and CEO of Aquarion Water Company. “This acquisition illustrates the importance of drinking water protection, while providing a quality outdoor experience for the community."
The important property, lying in the center of lower Redding, east of the Saugatuck River, will allow eastern and western Town trails to connect. Historically the site of Old Stagecoach Road, the parcel was on the Town's "list" of valued open space.
Standing: State Senator Toni Boucher, Laurie Heiss, Amy Paterson of CLCC, Gordon Loery.
Sitting: Jane Ross, Atty Elizabeth Edwards
On the occasion of its 50th Anniversary, the Redding Land Trust decided to make this $255,000 gift to the community and its residents in tribute to Redding’s longtime commitment to land conservation.. “I am so pleased and proud that the Redding Land Trust is able to contribute funds to help secure a prime property near the center of Town, fulfilling our more than fifty-year old mission to preserve the open space and natural landscapes of Redding,” said Mary Anne Guitar, Trust Chairman and original founding member.
By: Jane Ross
What was more perfect – the clear blue summer sky or the unspoiled beauty of the landscape at the Wine Talk/Meadow Walk benefit party sponsored by the Redding Land Trust on Saturday, August 27, at the Jones Meadow off Poverty Hollow Road? Some 80 guests at the inaugural event were met with a glass of the evening’s signature drink, a Meadow Mocktail, before ascending on the mown paths and circles of the 4.6 acre property, where hors d’oeuvres and drinks were served midway and at the summit of the rise. Given the warmth of the August afternoon, guests settled in the shade of a nearby grove to hear the featured speakers and to socialize.
In welcoming the crowd, Mary Ann Carman, RLT trustee and benefit chairman, mentioned two recent items of Trust news – its national re-accreditation and its financial help in securing with the Town a prime Redding property as open space. Next sommelier Codey Foster described the Spanish Roija wines being served to guests by Ancona’s Wines and Liquors, one of the event’s sponsors.
Following the brief wine talk, landscape architect Silvia Erskine and field biologist Laurie Heiss, both RLT trustees, described the plants and animals sustained by meadow environments – lands which are increasingly under siege from development and forestation. Offering samples from Jones Meadow, they noted that it is mowed only once a year, thus allowing for floral rebirth.
Bob Morton, author, editor and publisher who has lived beside Jones Meadow for the last 45 years, next recounted the history of the area, from the days when miners panned the nearby Aspetuck River (hence the name Poverty Hollow) to the gift of the meadow by its late philanthropic landowners Mary Carter Jones and Alfred Jones, the latter known as founder of the hedge fund. The house behind his home, Mr. Morton told the assembled gathering, was at one time rented by the chief art critic of the New York Times, John Russell, who described Jones Meadow and its inspiration with unmatched eloquence. Stating that he and his wife seldom went out, Russell wrote, “…whatever we want, we can see it from our window” – it is “a yearlong source of wonder and delight. Sloping upward, bordered by maples that stand out against the skyline, it is the very paragon and epitome of New England fields.” And the perfect site for a Redding Land Trust celebration.
By Trevor Lilly, June 2016
This article was originally featured in the Redding Pilot
Having learned so much about the many hiking trails in Redding after reading this town’s famous Book of Trails, I became curious as to what was so awe-inspiring about them. So I recently set out on an expedition to one of the more well-known areas, the Great Ledge.
For a trail system that is so revered for its beauty, it was certainly hard to find. I actually had to set out on two separate trips until I finally came across the opening. Although, that could be saying more about my limited navigating skills than anything else.
In order to get to the Great Ledge trail, you have to hike the Pinchbeck trail in Devil’s Den Preserve for a mile or two. And the trail head for that is hiding at the start of someone’s driveway (you have a lovely house, by the way).
Whatever the case, I finally came across the trail head and my journey had begun.
As far as hikes go, it was certainly a pleasant one. It’s just a short trek through relatively even (although somewhat muddy) terrain crossing bridges and rock walls, hiking up hills, over rivers and through woods.
After a while, I finally came to the start of the Great Ledge trail, where a little handmade sign with the words GREAT LEDGE and an arrow pointing in either direction greeted me.
So I picked a direction and was off once again.
The actual trail for Great Ledge is nothing fancy. It only runs for about a half a mile in a loop. But people don’t come there for the hike, as I soon came to realize.
About halfway in, the trail became very narrow. Ferns brushed up against me from either side, pretty much guaranteeing the necessity for a tick check later that day. Then suddenly, the trail opened up and stopped altogether.
To my right was a small hill with some rocks that acted as natural steps for me to climb up. After a short climb and a short walk, I came across a little bench looking over a small clearing to what is quite possibly one of the most beautiful views in all of Redding.
A view off the Great Ledge
A good 200 feet below me stood the Saugatuck reservoir in all its glory. The view stretched on for miles, over rolling wooded hills and dotted islands. But the most amazing thing was, aside from a church steeple way off in the distance, there was absolutely no sign of human influence.
When explaining the difference between the Redding and Weston “Great Ledge” system, the book of Trails said it best.
“Alas, folks down [in Weston] have historically called their part of the ‘scarp “The Great Ledge” too. An impartial observer, however, would have to concede that, based on the quality of the view, Redding’s half is by far the greater. Therefor, with apologies to our neighbors South of the Border, we have arranged our signs and maps to celebrate this territorial superiority. Ours is The Great Ledge. Theirs is the Ledge. Go in peace.”
Indeed, the Great Ledge had much to offer. And it is only one trail of over 60 miles of trail systems in an expanse of over 1700 acres. Whether you are a hiker, biker, horseback rider, fisher, baker, candlestick maker, and yes, even birdwatcher, the trails have something for you.
And what’s more, each trail system has a rich and unique history behind it, revealing its own story of Redding’s past.
One such system, Gallows Hill, has a story particularly worth mentioning. It had received its name due to an event that occurred on February 16, 1779.
According to one account, General Israel Putnam of the Continental Army had been experiencing an ongoing problem of British spies breaking through his ranks and relaying confidential information to the enemy. In an attempt to solve the problem, he decided to make an example of the next spies they caught.
Soon enough, two such alleged spies, Edward Jones and John Smith, were indeed captured. They were imprisoned in a saltbox house on Umpawaug Hill until their execution.
When the fateful day arrived, Jones was taken about a mile-and-a-half from the campsite where he was captured. There stood a 20-foot ladder leading to a noose.
General Putnam ordered for him to climb the ladder, and when he was in position, for it to be kicked down.
Smith faced a different fate. He was dragged about 20 yards from where Jones was hanging, where a firing squad unloaded 23 musket balls into him from nearly point-blank range. The shooting was so intense that as he lay on the ground, his clothes caught on fire.
Both bodies were left out on display for soldiers to view as they walked by, acting as a reminder of what could happen if they chose to betray their fellow men.
On the lighter side of history, Redding has such reserves as Stormfield, where renowned writer and humorist Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) settled down in an Italian-style villa designed for him by the son of his lifelong friend. It would be the last place he called home before his death in 1910.
Clemens chose Redding specifically for its remoteness. He admired the fact that it had maintained its original rural splendor despite being so close to New York.
Upon his arrival in 1908, he was asked by the New York Times his thoughts on his new home in Stromfield.
“It is the most out of the world and peaceful and tranquil and in every way satisfactory home I have had experience of in my life,” he said. “It is charmingly quiet here. The house stands alone, with nothing in sight but woodsy hills and rolling country.”
However, just three months after he arrived, Clemens’ home was robbed. Charles Hoffman and Henry Williams entered the house through an unlocked kitchen window one night and escaped with an English serving table filled with silverware.
A search party led by Deputy Sheriff George Banks began tracking the men, noting their distinct footprints. They eventually found the serving table, but the silverware was still missing.
Continuing their hunt, they came to the Bethel train depot, where they found two men who met the description.
When they realized they were caught, one of the men jumped out of the moving train while the other tried to fight back. Luckily, both were apprehended and put on trial, and the silverware was returned.
After the encounter, Clemens put this notice up on his front door for anyone planning to follow in Hoffman’s and Williams’ footsteps:
“There is nothing but plated ware in the house now and henceforth. You will find it in that brass thing in the dining room over in the corner by the basket of kittens. If you want the basket, put the kittens in the brass thing. Do not make any noise, it disturbs the family. You will find rubbers in the front hall by that thing that has the umbrellas in it. Chiffonier I think they call it, a pegola, or something like that. Please close the door. -Yours truly, S.L. Clemens.”
Today, the original house no longer stands, as it had burned down several years after Clemens’ death. But Stormfield still remains as a preserved area with over 160 acres and 4 miles of hiking trails, each named after a different book that Mark Twain had written.
Stay tuned next week for part two of a look at Redding’s trail systems, where Pilot Intern Trevor Lilly will let you know how to get involved in the trails system, and why you should.
By Imogen Howe, June 2016
Joan D. Ensor — a lifelong resident of Redding, whose impeccable journalism, prolific and skillful letter-writing, and tireless activism were instrumental in guiding Redding through the twentieth century to become the town it is today — died on June 9, 2016, at an assisted-living facility in South Burlington, VT. She was 103.
“Joan lived the life she wanted in a town she loved. Her example will live on in the significant contributions she made to the Land Trust,” says Joan’s friend and colleague Mary Anne Guitar, a former first selectman and the current chairman of the Redding Land Trust. Indeed, of all the causes Joan championed, and the many boards and commissions of which she was a hard-working member, none was more important to her than the Land Trust. She was involved with it from its beginning, in 1965. Her older brother Benton Deming was its first president, and she herself was president from 1977 to 1987. She remained on its Board of Directors for years after that.
Joan Hawthorne Deming Howe Ensor, a great-granddaughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne (and the last of her generation, in her branch of the family), was born on May 5, 1913, in the old farmhouse in West Redding which her parents, Imogen Hawthorne and Dr. William Champion Deming, had bought in 1908. She would live virtually her entire life within a fraction of a square mile of that house. She spent her childhood on the farm. With four older siblings and a gang of cousins and friends, she roamed Redding, riding horseback, swimming in the Saugatuck River, playing tennis, putting on plays, and writing for their Story Club.
Along with siblings and cousins, Joan attended the home school taught by her uncle Henry Hawthorne. Briefly, after her parents’ porce, she attended public school in Hartford, then went on to Spring Hill School, in Litchfield. She graduated from Saint Margaret’s School, in Waterbury, in 1932, and from Vassar College in 1936.
In May, 1937, she married Paul Willard Howe, of Pleasantville, NY, who was a bank executive and jazz musician. After Paul returned from his service in World War II, they installed a furnace in the old farmhouse and settled there permanently. Their children, Imogen and Sally, grew up there.
Joan served as Democratic Deputy Registrar of Voters, and on the Democratic Town Committee. She was a member of the League of Women Voters and the Children’s Services of Connecticut. She also served on the Redding and the Regional Boards of Education, and for 12 years on the Zoning Commission. An avid tennis player, she participated every summer in the Redding Tennis Tournament.
In the early 1960s her marriage ended in porce. Shortly thereafter, Joan began her career as a newspaper reporter.
In 1965, she married W. Clois Ensor, of Redding, a music teacher, flutist, and conductor. They built a house just up the hill from where Joan was born.
Joan was Redding’s reporter to The Danbury News-Times for many years. Her articles appeared also in The Newtown Bee, The Bridgeport Post, and The Norwalk Hour. To The Redding Pilot, she contributed a series of articles called “On the Town,” which tell of early 20th-century life in Redding as she experienced it. Later, she collected the columns into a two-volume chap book, On the Town: Growing Up in Long-Ago Redding, and On the Town: Some Later Years in Long-Ago Redding, both still in print. She and John Mitchell were co-authors of the original Book of Trails, the Land Trust’s guide to its network of public trails, which is in its fourth edition.
In her fight against what she considered the complacency and dishonesty that had allowed overdevelopment to creep into other towns, Joan’s ultimate weapon was her writing. As a journalist she strove to write without bias — “clearly and logically, without false drama or gratuitous editorializing,” she said, in a letter praising another journalist. But in her hundreds of letters to editors of the local and national newspapers and magazines, and to congresspeople, governors, U.S. presidents, and the advice columnist Ann Landers, she used her writing to crack the whip of her passionate partisanship. She wrote to “set the record straight.” She wrote to deplore ineptitude. She wrote to oppose “monstrous power lines marching through Redding” (August, 2001). She wrote in favor of purchasing new open space: “So come on, everybody! Let’s live up to Redding’s tradition of farsighted enlightened self-interest. Let’s all get out tonight and vote to save yet another vital piece of open space, for the sake of the kids — and you and me. We won’t get another chance” (2002).
Joan’s brilliant, many-faceted sense of humor will be fondly remembered. She was a master of ironic repartee; for relaxation, she delighted in pure nonsense. She gave hilarious imitations of animal behavior, and loved a good pun.
For recreation she hiked, played tennis, and gardened. She and Clois, who was known as the Trail Boss, mapped and cut the trails through new open-space property as the Land Trust acquired it. Every summer for about 20 years they took a two-week pack trip in the American West.
Joan speaks for herself about her love of life. In 1997, she gave Ann Landers this advice: “Lighten up. … There’s a wonderful life out here, full of music, art, good books, nature, animals, friends, and fun. And the more you know, the more you’ll enjoy it all.”
Joan is survived by her daughters, Imogen Howe of Redding and Sally Howe of South Burlington, VT; her stepdaughters, Celinda Ensor Roman of Parkland, PA, and Persis Ensor of Exeter, NH; three grandchildren, Katie Foote Haddock of Brooklyn, NY, Seth Deming of Orlando, FL, and Noah Pollak of Washington, D.C.; and three step-grandchildren, Chris Roman of Wrentham, MA, Becky Roman of Brownington, VT, and Aaron Cass of Exeter, NH; three great-grandchildren, and four step-great-grandchildren.
Donations in Joan’s memory may be made to the Redding Land Trust, at PO Box 1076; Redding, CT 06875.
With the arrival of warm weather, a walk in the woods with your dog would seem to be a simple pleasure for human and pooch alike. Local conservation leaders warn, however, that one person’s pleasure can also be a big problem for others and for wildlife.
Several Fairfield County conservation and open space preservation leaders have united to try and educate the public on the risks involved in walking your dog in open areas. The organizations include the Aspetuck Land Trust, Redding Land Trust, Redding Conservation Commission, The Connecticut Audubon Society, Wilton Land Conservation Trust, and The Nature Conservancy.
“While we encourage people to get outside and connect with nature at our conserved open space areas we ask that our visitors also respect each other, the wildlife and the natural resources that make these places special and valuable to our communities,” says David Brant, Executive Director of Aspetuck Land Trust which owns properties in Weston, Easton, Westport and Fairfield. “The seasonally high volume of visitors at our local parks and preserves creates the potential for conflict, particularly when pets are involved.”
To enjoy the outdoors with your pet responsibly, dog walkers must first understand the different regulations in place for the parks and open space preserves they visit. Some towns enforce specific ordinances pertaining to dogs. The town of Weston recently passed an ordinance requiring owners to pick up their dog waste under penalty of a $50 fine and requires dogs to be leashed in areas of Trout Brook Valley in Weston under penalty of a $75 fine. Local lands managed by The Nature Conservancy do not allow dogs at all. This includes Devil’s Den, Katharine Ordway Preserve and Centennial Watershed State Forest. The Aspetuck Land Trust, Redding Land Trust, Wilton Land Conservation Trust and the town of Redding allow off leash dogs on some trails but on other trails they are prohibited or must be leashed. Dogs must be under control at all times.
According to Stuart Green of the Redding Conservation Commission, "We are fortunate to have so many opportunities to get outside, and our pets are too, but sharing the trail requires an understanding of the permitted uses in the natural areas and preserves our communities share. It’s a good idea to visit your local town or land trust’s website to familiarize yourself with the rules.”
Milan Bull, Senior Director of Science and Research for Connecticut Audubon Society, said warm weather poses particular risks to wildlife by curious dogs driven by natural instincts to hunt whether they capture an animal or not. The problem is made worse when areas are visited by hundreds of well-intentioned pet owners and their dogs over the course of one weekend.
“Ground nesting birds can be chased from their nests by free-running dogs either on purpose or inadvertently. If it happens often, the birds won’t return to the nest and reproduction cycles are interrupted, reducing wildlife,” said Bull.
“Dogs looking to refresh themselves with a seemingly harmless jump into a forest vernal pool actually can silt up the pool and destroy egg larvae from salamanders and frogs, especially after numerous dogs do the same thing on a hot weekend. If the eggs don’t hatch, we have a reduced salamander and frog population and the interconnected web of life suffers,” added Bull.
Dog trainer Jason Hofmann, owner of 203 Pet Service is a collaborator with Milan Bull and Aspetuck Land Trust in a series of “Tails and Trails” dog owner education hikes. With Bull’s guidance, the partnering organizations offer these tips to help dog owners and their dogs enjoy the outdoors responsibly and avoid conflict:
Know and follow the regulations posted at the open spaces you plan to visit. Call ahead or visit the web sites of the respective preserves in advance of your visit to find out specific regulations. Aspetuck Land Trust offers a collection of resources on its web site for this purpose: www.aspetucklandtrust.org
If you walk your dog off leash but can’t depend on the dog to always come to you quickly on command, keep your dog on leash until you create a better re-call habit for your dog. “You should always make yourself more entertaining and interesting than any distraction. Training with treats, extra affection, games all can make it fun for the dog to listen and obey,” adds Hoffman.
Avoid situations where an on leash dog interacts with an off leash dog. “There is a tendency for a dog on a leash to be more reactive. If your dog is off leash and is near a leashed dog, the most courteous thing to do is leash your dog until past the distraction,” Hoffman said.
Know your dog’s limitations and behavior triggers. “Be aware of them and use your best judgment before taking your dog off leash,” Hoffman says.
If a dog is in conflict with another dog and aggressive behavior is present or seems possible, it is your responsibility to protect and control your dog.
Leave no trace. Many land trusts have policies which require pet owners to pick up and remove their waste. Regrettably, some visitors leave their pet waste in the woods or on the trail or even in bags left behind in the woods or in the parking areas. The town of Weston recently passed an ordinance requiring owners to pick up their dog waste under penalty of a $50 fine.
