Around Town

‘They Are Such Lovable, Amazing Animals’: Donkeys Move In at New Canaan Nature Center

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Bill Flynn, executive director of the New Canaan Nature Center, has watched these past five days as visitors to the beloved 13-acre property have gravitated toward a newly installed barn near its well-known “sugar shack.”

There, in a paddock flanked by chickens and goats, four rescued donkeys that have lived for years on a private property New Canaan have taken up residence. “People are just flocking to them,” Flynn said on a cool, overcast morning as preschoolers from the Nature Center’s program as well as First Presbyterian next door gazed on Poppy, Charlie, Tilly and Chipper. 

“It was a struggle for a year and the little bit to get through all of the red tape of them coming here, but people have been really excited and will have a great relationship with them because they are such approachable animals and so social,” he said. “It’s easy to have a connection with them.”

It’s been nearly one year since Flynn and the Nature Center applied to the town to install a new barn for the donkeys, whose longtime owner on North Wilton Road made arrangements for the animals (and still visits them twice daily) as she downsized to a different home within New Canaan. Plans for a single new structure that would house chickens and goats as well as the donkeys gave way, over time, to physically relocating the donkeys’ own original barn on North Wilton Road to the Nature Center itself. 

They moved in last Thursday. 

“The most exciting part is that it feels like this is just what it should be,” Flynn said. “The barn looks exactly the way it should be, it looks great, it fits in with the rest of the farm with the chickens and the goats and we’ve got the Sugar Shack, and groups just gravitate toward them.

Around Town

New Barn for Donkeys at Nature Center Delayed

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The New Canaan Nature Center’s construction of a barn for donated donkeys has been delayed due to pending approval from various town bodies, officials said, but is expected to break ground in the fall. Because the land is owned by the town, more approvals are needed before construction can begin, according to New Canaan Nature Center Executive Director Bill Flynn. “It’s a town-owned property so it’s a lot more complicated than just getting the normal planning and zoning permits,” Flynn told NewCanaanite.com. “It requires another level of approval.”

The Board of Selectmen in May unanimously approved an initial request to begin planning construction. However, the Nature Center must gain approval from municipal bodies including Inland Wetlands, Health and Planning & Zoning, he said.

Around Town

‘Fantastic’ GreenLink Trail Attracts Athletes, Nature Lovers

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It has been a little less than three months since the grand opening of New Canaan’s “GreenLink” trail and “greenway,” a walkable loop that includes, Irwin Park and the Nature Center. It traverses three New Canaan Land Trust properties, allowing citizens to take full advantage of their bounty. Some say that you can’t take the GreenLink path without seeing at least one fellow resident taking a stroll, so we took it upon ourselves to peruse around and find out how people are feeling about it. Jogging down the trail, New Canaan resident Katherine Mettler said the quality path for her knees helped with running. “At some trails, like Waveny, running on the pavement can be really hard on your knees,” she said.

Animal 411

‘They Are Very Fancy Donkeys’: Nature Center Plans New Barn for Donated Animals

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Town officials on Tuesday unanimously approved two items related to a proposed new barn at New Canaan Nature Center whose occupants will include four donkeys. The Board of Selectmen voted 3-0 on a pair of proposals, for the construction of the barn itself in Bliss Park as well as the merger of two parcels there into a single lot—a technical land use concern since the new structure will straddle them. Bill Flynn, the Nature Center’s executive director, said the Oenoke Ridge Road organization has been offered four donkeys by a local woman, “but we do not have the facilities currently to house them.”

Asked by the selectmen whether the animals currently live in a similar structure, Flynn said yes. “They are very fancy donkeys,” he said at the meeting, held in Town Hall. “They have a barn.

Around Town

‘A Magnificent Piece of our Town’: New Nature Center Executive Director Looks to Past, Future

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The New Canaan Nature Center—a place where generations of local families have learned about animals, attended preschool, hiked trails and studied nature—began in 1960 for purposes of “an arboretum, bird sanctuary, nature center, horticulture, and for passive recreation,” according to a deed given to the town by Susan D. Bliss, the property’s prior owner. The deed also specified that the Nature Center would serve as “a museum site,”  newly appointed Executive Director Bill Flynn told a group of visitors this week. For Flynn, the first permanent director at the Oenoke Ridge Road facility in more than one year, part of what the Nature Center strives to do is “prove that we’re worthy of [Bliss’s] generosity.”

“This is a gift” and a “magnificent piece of our town,” Flynn said during a meet-and-greet and tour on Tuesday morning that included a talk at the Visitor’s Center and hike around the campus. A staff member at the Nature Center for seven years, Flynn is in a unique position to both appreciate the organization’s rich history while also eyeing immediate and future needs, including for its several buildings. Priorities now for Flynn include maintaining and building on a strong relationship with the town, he said, as well restoring certain buildings on campus.