East Haddam Land Trust - Celebrating 40 Years of Land Conservation
More than four decades ago a group of visionaries set out to form an organization to preserve the natural beauty of East Haddam. Their idea became East Haddam Land Trust.
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Incorporated in 1979 to engage in and promote, for the general public, the preservation of natural, historic, and scenic sites of East Haddam and contiguous towns.
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The Land Trust received its first preserve, Hammond Mill, in 1980 as a donation from John and Barbara Kashanski. It was at the Kashanski's dining room table where East Haddam Land Trust's founding members first developed the groundwork for the Land Trust.
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Forty years later, East Haddam Land Trust oversees 700 acres of woodlands, fields, and wetlands critical to the health of our region and the lower Connecticut River Valley. We preserve acres where you can wander moss-blanketed paths, hear leaves rustling in the wind, and follow wildlife tracks in newly-fallen snow. We preserve areas so you and future generations can rub the bark of an oak tree, see a hawk flying overhead, or find salamander eggs in a vernal pool.
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Your investment in East Haddam Land Trust keeps such places alive so the natural beauty of our region is not lost to future generations.
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Celebrate our forty years of land conservation. Invest in East Haddam Land Trust.
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Donate today.
All donations make you a member of the East Haddam Land Trust.
The Miller Farm Story
Bordering Tater Hill and AP Gates Roads in eastern East Haddam lies the Miller Farm. For generations, it was sustainably logged and farmed. As is common with old New England farms, the farmers aged, passed on, and left their farm with heirs whom they hoped would continue to cherish the land.
For years, the current owners, Larry and Peggy Nichols followed in the footsteps of Peggy’s family … they sustainably logged the woods, hayed the fields, and coaxed vegetables and berries from the farm’s soil.
But time changes desires and abilities.
So, the Nichols sold some of their acreage to another generation of farmers who now work Four Root Farm on Tater Hill Road. East Haddam Land Trust purchased another 87 acres of their cherished, mostly wooded property.
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The land sits in East Haddam’s section of Audubon Connecticut’s Lyme Forest Block Important Bird Area, acreage of forest critical to our woodland birds. Its wooded wetlands and undisturbed soils protect and recharge the aquifers we tap for drinking and the Roaring Brook and Eightmile River watersheds. Its proximity to other large blocks of undisturbed land enlarge the green corridors needed by wildlife.
The land is simply beautiful. It abounds with oak, beech, and tulip trees; spicebush, winterberry, and blueberry shrubs; ferns, mosses, and wildflowers and the mammals, amphibians, birds, and other wildlife that thrive in undisturbed woodlands.
Royal Fern at Miller Farm
The Miller Farm Forest