Grant Improves Habitat at Trail Wood

Most the the habitat work at Trail Wood is being done near the Teale House and Teale’s writing cabin, below. Photo by Peter Vertefeuille.

From 1959 until his death in 1980, Edwin Way Teale, who won the Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction in 1966, observed the natural world from his home in Hampton, writing down what he saw and heard and turning his observations into two books, including A Naturalist Buys an Old Farm.

Teale’s land and former home is now our Trail Wood sanctuary. In September we began a project to restore the part of the sanctuary near the house to what it was when Teale and his wife, Nellie, lived there.

The work is being funded by a generous grant from the Hollis Declan Leverett Memorial Fund. It got underway in September and is being planned and carried out by Andy Rzeznikiewicz, our northeastern Connecticut land manager. [Read the New London Day’s story about the habitat improvement project here.]

Our goal is to replace invasive plants with native species, and encourage a greater variety of birds to nest and feed at Trail Wood.

Teale himself worked continuously on his land, keeping invasive plants out and allowing native varieties to thrive.

With the Hollis Declan Leverett Memorial Fund grant, we are removing multiflora rose, Japanese barberry, Asian bittersweet and other plants that push out species that are more beneficial for wildlife.

We are replacing those with crabapple, cranberry viburnum, elderberry, shadbush, chokecherry and gray dogwood, which provide nesting areas for breeding birds as well as cover and high-quality food for migrants.

Photo by Richard Telford

With these varieties, we expect to attract more Blue-winged Warblers, Eastern Towhees, Indigo Buntings, Eastern Bluebirds, Veeries, Wood Thrushes, White-eyed Vireos and Cedar Waxwings, among many other species.

Andy will also be convening a group of local birders to monitor birds at the sanctuary on a monthly basis, to judge the success of the restoration.

“As the planting matures, more and more species will be drawn to the area in greater numbers,” he said. “I think we’ll see some results the first year, but it will most likely take about three years to really see results. This area will be a future hotspot for our bird walking tours.”