Miller Farm Preserve​
The 87-acre Miller Farm Preserve has an abundance of oak, beech, and tulip trees; spicebush, winterberry, and blueberry shrubs; and ferns, mosses, and wildflowers. It is a wonderful place for a quiet hike and birdwatching.
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The Preserve was once managed as a woodlot by the family of Peggy Nichols. The Land Trust purchased the acreage from Peggy and her husband Larry, who continue to reside on adjacent family land.
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East Haddam Land Trust identified the Miller Farm as a conservation priority because it is an ideal habitat for woodland creatures. It contains streams and wooded wetlands for amphibians, and ample native berries, insects, and nesting spots for woodland birds.
The Preserve rests within Audubon Connecticut’s Lyme Forest Block Important Bird Area, acreage critical to overwintering and migratory birds. It is in the Roaring Brook and Eightmile River Watersheds and thereby protects upland streams in the Connecticut River watershed. The Preserve is also close to the Land Trust's Sheepskin Hollow Preserve and the Town of East Haddam’s Lena Preserve, making it part of a larger greenway area so critical for the continued vitality of native plants and animals.
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The Land Trust relied on multiple sources to complete this purchase. Grants from the Bafflin Foundation and the State of Connecticut Open Space and Watershed program covered a bit more than half the cost, with the remaining dollars coming from Audubon Connecticut, the Eightmile River Wild & Scenic Watershed, individual donations to the Miller Farm Capital Campaign as well as from the Land Trust’s land acquisition fund.
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The Preserve has marked trails and signage at the two trailheads. Parking is available in two locations, near the Tater Hill Road trailhead for 2-3 vehicles and at the AP Gates Road entrance for 3-4 vehicles. Overflow parking is available on the grassy knoll at the Tater Hill Cemetery at the intersection of Tater Hill and AP Gates Roads. The Tater Hill trailhead is a short walk northeast on the left side of Tater Hill Road.
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Counting steps as part of your exercise routine?
Preserve-like terrain averages about 2080 steps per mile. The length of each trail is listed on the printed maps for each preserve available at the trailheads and downloadable from the interactive trail map and from each preserve webpage.
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Color Blind Trail Blazing
We are testing a new trailblazing method to enable those with color blindness, or color vision deficiency (CVD), to better follow our trails. About 1 in 12 men (8%) and 1 in 200 women (0.5%) have CVD.
The blue trail at our Miller Farm Preserve is now blazed with a white "B" to signify it is the blue trail. If this proves helpful, we will continue to add letter markings (B for blue, R for red, Y for yellow, and so forth) below existing color blazes.
Please share your impression of this change by emailing trail.monitor@ehlt.org. We welcome your feedback.
Download our Miller Farm Preserve trail map with trails, driving directions, and more.
Miller Farm Forest Management Project
What are you doing!?
And why are you doing it?
East Haddam Land Trust is committed to active forest management as a tool to improve the health of the woodlands within its preserves and to create optimal habitats for a diverse population of birds and other wildlife.
The woodlands in this preserve have shown various signs of decline - for example, dead and dying beech trees, diseased birch trees, and trees of poor quality generally due to selective logging in the past. In addition, saplings of desirable tree species have not been thriving in the preserve’s understory, due to limited light reaching the forest floor through the dense upper canopy and, in certain areas, due also to excessive growth of ferns at ground level. The weakness of existing trees on site, coupled with the sparsity of smaller trees and shrubs, make for a forest that would not be well-positioned to survive a major weather event or other challenges posed by changing climatic conditions. These conditions also limit the species of birds and other wildlife present here.
The project currently being implemented, with funds from the Connecticut Land Conservation Council’s Climate Smart Grant Program, begins with three years of invasive species and fern control, followed by the felling of trees in three blocks within the preserve, comprising some 10 ½ acres in total. Those areas will be patch cut, with many but not all trees being removed. Most but not all of the trees removed will be diseased and dying ones or trees whose removal will enable other trees to grow more vigorously.
The purpose of this project, generally speaking, is to improve the overall health of the remaining trees on site and to open the forest canopy to allow more light to reach the forest floor, thereby promoting the growth of younger trees and shrubs, making for a more diverse landscape. A further objective is to encourage desirable tree species, including oaks (oaks being a primary component in Connecticut woodland ecosystems), to take root in the cleared areas. The changes effected should not only attract a much wider range of birds and other wildlife than are currently present here but should also make the preserve more resilient and more capable of withstanding significant disturbances in an era of rapid climate change.
Questions? Please feel free to contact us at stewardship@ehlt.org.