Science-Based Conservation Management Projects Underway in Norwalk and Orange
Hoyt’s Island in early spring. Photo by Scott Kruitbosch/Copyright Connecticut Audubon Society
Fresh off the completion of a major conservation and management plan for Aspetuck Land Trust’s Trout Brook Valley preserve, Connecticut Audubon Society’s conservation biologists have embarked on similar projects for the Norwalk Land Trust and the town of Orange.
In Norwalk, our Conservation Services staff is working on Hoyt Island, which covers 2.5 acres and lies in a cove near the mouth of Norwalk Harbor, not far from the Norwalk Islands component of the Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge.
In Orange, the staff is working at the Turkey Hill Preserve, 376 acres of forest and old field habitat that remains largely undisturbed.
The projects are good examples of the range and scale of our Conservation Services program, through which we work with landowners on science-based conservation management and planning. Conservation Services is one of the chief ways we pursue our goals of conserving Connecticut’s birds and their habitats.
The plan we completed late last year for Trout Brook Valley, on the Weston-Easton border, became the basis of changes in recreational use adopted by Aspetuck Land Trust to better protect the 1007-acre preserve’s sensitive vernal pools, woodland swamps and other habitats.
For the Norwalk and Orange projects, our staff – Director of Conservation Services Anthony Zemba and our two first-rate field biologists, Scott Kruitbosch and Sean Graessner – will prepare conservation and management plans by the end of the year, based on field visits throughout the spring, summer and fall.
To learn more about how our program can improve the habitat value of your land, contact Anthony Zemba: azemba@ctaudubon.org or 203 259 6305, Ext. 114.
The Norwalk Land Trust and the Town of Orange will then use the plans and recommendations for habitat management and restoration decisions, as well as decisions about public use of the properties.
Although small, Hoyt Island is important because of its location in an ecologically rich but heavily used coastal-estuarine environment.
It is surrounded by a fringe of Spartina grass and mudflats; about half the island’s upland area is thick with invasive plants, including multiflora rose, barberry and euonymous, interspersed with native catbriar. A number of conservation concern species can be found in the area, including American Oystercatchers, Snowy Egrets and Yellow-Crowned Night Herons.
Connecticut Audubon Society’s management plan will make recommendations for dealing with the invasives and restoring the island so it is a more productive part of the mosaic of habitats in that part of Long Island Sound.
At Turkey Hill, the town of Orange hired Connecticut Audubon to survey the property and prepare a management plan to guide its decisions about what kind of recreational activities are appropriate on the preserve and whether parts of the preserve should be off-limits because of their ecological sensitivity.
Among the areas of interest are a scrub-shrub field covering about three acres, and streams and wetlands supporting 22 species of amphibians, including Dusky Salamander, an indicator of high quality habitat.
