Lyme Land Trust Creates 100 Acre Preserve

This article originally appeared in the Lyme Land Trust Newsletter. It is reprinted here with permission. 

During the last week of March, the Lyme Land Trust purchased a 100 acre tract in Hadlyme that it plans to call The Banningwood Preserve and maintain as a forested refuge open to the public for recreation.

The Banningwood acquisition is one of three important land purchases —largely underwritten by grants from the State of Connecticut — along Roaring Brook in the Whalebone Creek Watershed that will provide protection to the Whalebone Cove tidal marsh in Hadlyme that’s fed by Roaring Brook.

The Connecticut Nature Conservancy, which has made restoration and protection of the Connecticut River watershed one of its three long-term top priorities, calls the 25-acre Whalebone Cove “one of the most undisturbed and biologically significant freshwater tidal marshes on the Connecticut River.” Taken together, the three new preserves will total 437 acres and will protect almost 2.5 miles of stream frontage on Roaring Brook.

The stream winds three-quarters of a mile through the Banningwood Preserve, which is located along Rt. 82 just northeast of the Hadlyme four corners.

The other two parcels are upstream in the Town of East Haddam. The 238-acre Pages property has 1,500 feet frontage on the west bank of Roaring Brook, and the 98-acre Zeiller property has 4,000 feet on the east bank of the stream.

East Haddam voters approved purchase of the two new preserves by the Town in a referendum in early April. When matched by the Land Trust, the State of Connecticut will provide half of the funding for Banningwood, whose purchase price is payable in five annual installments. The Land Trust must raise $327,000 to match the state grant. It has already received $120,000 in anonymous pledges and plans to launch a fund raising campaign to come up with the remaining $207,000.

“The early commitments of $120,000 in gifts for the Banningwood acquisition proves yet again how generous members of our community can be,” said Lyme Land Trust President John Pritchard in announcing the fund-raising drive. “We hope many others will help with this purchase that is perfectly designed for multi-year pledges.”

The property is made up of floodplain forest, wetlands, gravel deposits, fields, upland forest, rocky ledges and scenic vistas. Pritchard said the Land Trust plans to develop hiking trails in the preserve. 

“The importance to the community of maintaining Banningwood and Roaring Brook as they are cannot be overstated,” said Pritchard. “It will provide habitat for dozens of species, a flood plain to absorb storm runoff, and a place where neighbors and visitors can be at one with nature.” 

The property was given its name by Diana and Parker Lord, who sold it to the Land Trust, based on Banning Road that ran through it in the early 19th Century.