Join us at this invasive plant workshop to get hands-on experience clearing invasive plants and help us in the effort to replace invasives with native species in our community.
Stout Family Fields is one of our most visited preserves; if you haven’t been yet, spring is a great time to check it out. Over the past three years, TRLC volunteers spent more than 100 hours clearing invasives from around the wetland copse (The Island) in the southern field. In 2024, we planted native species there and in 2025, we hired a contractor to remove invasives from the banks of the brook between the two fields. Last year, we also planted sycamore seedlings from the Pinchot Sycamore on The Island.
On this day, we will be removing the remaining invasives left between the fields before our contractor plants more native species there this spring. Bring water, loppers and work gloves, and wear long pants, long-sleeved shirts, bug spray and sunscreen. Park at the end of Stone Hill Road.
RSVP to conservation@trlandconservancy.org if you are interested in helping so that you can be contacted in case of changes or cancellations.
You are invited to join master naturalist and TRLC member, Brad Robinson, for a hike at Wilcox Park in honor of Earth Day.
We will ascend to the ridgeline where we join the Metacomet Trail and hike in a loop back to the parking lot. There are nice views along a lesser-traveled area of the Metacomet ridge. The hike should take about two hours and will involve some hilly terrain.
The park is on Hoskins Road one mile south of Tariffville Road and a half mile north of Adams Road. Meet at the Wilcox Park parking lot at 10 a.m.
Rain date is Sunday April 19 at 2 p.m.
As an early Earth Day celebration, we will be picking up accumulated trash from Privilege Preserve in Bloomfield. Parking is on the road apron across from 68 East Dudley Town Road. Trash bags will be provided.
Note: Bloomfield will not be holding their official trash cleanup day this year, so this an opportunity to participate in a community cleanup event in town.
RSVP to conservation@trlandconservancy.org if you are interested in helping so that you can be contacted in case of changes or cancellations.
Featuring a Presentation on Automated Mapping of Beaver Activity and Its Environmental Impacts in CT
Members and guests are invited to our Annual Meeting featuring a presentation by Evan Zocco, a Ph.D. student at the University of Connecticut’s Department of Natural Resources and the Environment.
Evan will talk about the ways in which beavers change the landscape, and his development of advanced computer methods for environmental monitoring using drone imagery. The results of his research have valuable implications for wetland mapping, ecosystem monitoring, and decision-making in land and water resource management.
After the presentation, we invite you to stay to learn more about the work of protecting the environment, preserving local farms and connecting people with nature. You will also be able to meet the board of directors who will report on activities and finances and answer your questions. Current TRLC members will elect directors to the board for the next term. Light refreshments will be served.
In honor of Earth Day, we will be working with Environmental Science Professor Dr. Kirsten Martin and her students to remove invasive Callery and Bradford pear trees from the grassland habitat there and weed the pollinator garden.
Bring loppers and hand saws, and dress for poison ivy and ticks.
Park in the lot on the west side of campus closest to Trout Brook Drive.
RSVP to conservation@trlandconservancy.org if you are interested in helping so that you can be contacted in case of changes or cancellations.
Also visit the TRLC table at St Joseph’s Earth Day Fair, April 22 from 11am – 2pm. The fair will be held in front of McDonough Hall (inside McDonough if it rains).
In honor of Arbor Day, we will be clearing brush and small trees from around the trees along the Notable Tree Trail at Hawk Hill Farm.
The trail, introduced in Spring 2025, features 9 trees including 5 notable trees, along with educational signage.
Bring water and loppers, hand saws (and chain saws if you have them), and dress for the woods with long pants, long sleeves, boots, work gloves.
RSVP to conservation@trlandconservancy.org if you are interested in helping so that you can be contacted in case of changes or cancellations.
Please join us for this hike through Ethel Walker Woods, led by Traprock Ridge member, Susan Klotz, along with TRLC volunteer Dave Mogul. The planned hike is a loop of about 2½ miles, and it’s expected to take 1.5–2 hours, depending on our group’s pace.
We will hike along mostly easy bridle paths with some hills and more moderate ups and downs. Some trails can be quite wet so wear appropriate footwear. There are many options if you want a shorter hike. Please bring snacks and water. Dogs on leashes are welcome.
We’ll depart at 10:00 a.m. from the parking lot in Town Forest Park.
Alternate date of May 20 if we need to reschedule. Contact Dave Mogul at hikes@trlandconservancy.org with any questions.
Old Forest or Young Meadow – The Marvel of Seeds A New England Forests film, directed by naturalist, local nature documentary filmmaker, Ray Asselin.
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Ray Asselin and Trinity College Professor and Hartford County’s Old Growth Forest Network Coordinator, Susan A. Masino.
Have you ever thought about how, almost magically, a brown, bulldozed piece of land turns green with plants again? How do all those plants get there so quickly? Where did they come from? It’s amazing that nature has developed this process of having new plants always ready to go, in tiny embryonic packages.
Seeds allow us to readily raise crops. They replenish the forests we take down. They make burned habitat or lava-covered ground productive again.
Plants, like all life forms, do not live forever, so they must reproduce. They cast themselves into the future via the seeds they produce, which can wait out poor or impossible growth conditions until such time as conditions become favorable. That could be days, weeks, years, even millennia.
Since the parent plant can’t move around to place seeds here and there, it has to have some other way to get the seeds dispersed. And that’s the subject of the new film, Old Forest or Young Meadow – the Marvel of Seeds.
Plants have evolved over many millions of years. In that time, nature has devised some fascinating methods for them to colonize new sites. Some are rather mundane, but others are intriguing; some are surprising and quite entertaining.
This film describes the evolution of plants on Earth, and features many of the fascinating ways seeds are dispersed. Some are curious, some are downright delightful. Some, we guarantee, you have never witnessed.
Co-sponsored by: Traprock Ridge Land Conservancy and Sustainable West Hartford Commission
This family-friendly hike, led by Larry Zemel and Gisele Nee, will loop through Auer Farm and MDC property for 3 miles. We will do tree and plant identification, and several mindfulness activities along the way (hence the term “forest bathing”).
There is a short rocky scramble so sturdy shoes are advised. This will be deer tick season; spray lower legs with DEET-containing spray.
Children have the option of visiting farm animals at the hike’s conclusion.
Park at the end of the cul-de-sac, or along Cary Lane.
There are 15 spots available. Register at: https://trailsday.org/events/forest-bathing-family-hike/
POSTPONED – STAY TUNED FOR NEW DATE
By Zellene Sandler, DEEP Master Wildlife Conservationist
May is the month when many birds arrive back to their nesting territories, some flying thousands of miles. We will learn about what causes birds to migrate in spring and fall, how latest technology is used to track them, and dangers to migrating birds. We will discuss the Bobolinks of Bloomfield and the issues they face here and will view a video on warblers, the little gems of the bird world.
Zellene, a past president of the Hartford Audubon Society, leads hikes and naturalist walks for the Appalachian Mountain Club. She is a dedicated birder and occasional wild plant and mushroom forager who writes occasional articles for local papers and environmental groups, and book reviews for the Horticultural Society and the Audubon.
Co-sponsored by: Bloomfield Parks, Recreation and Leisure Services