Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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Chef Luis Lopez, known locally for his eponymous restaurant on Elm Street, has been seen cooking in the open kitchen at Spiga on Main. ***

After school Wednesday, a man was seen trying to enter cars in a New Canaan High School parking lot, according to a communication from NCHS Principal Bill Egan. “We do not believe he was successful, nor do we anticipate his return,” Egan said in an email. “However, please make sure you lock your cars on campus. I would keep them locked before and after school.

Around Town

‘Stay Connected with the Natural World’: New Canaan Land Trust Opens ‘Silvermine-Fowler Preserve’ [PHOTOS]

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Jim Fowler describes himself as the type of person who promotes the natural world as important. An award-winning zoologist and New Canaanite for more than three decades, Fowler doesn’t mean saving animals alone by that, but also preserving open space and wilderness. “We need, in a community like this, to stay connected with the natural world,” Fowler said on a warm, sunny Saturday afternoon, seated in a foldout camping chair in the middle of the woods off of Silvermine Road as more than 200 locals gathered on the 6.35-acre property he purchased in 1984, arriving by shuttle bus or by way of leafy footpaths he knows intimately. “And that is why it gives me great pleasure. Look at this original forest around here.

Around Town

‘It Means So Much’: New Canaan Land Trust’s Acquisition of Fowler Property Fulfills Family’s Wishes

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A local organization dedicated to preserving land and open space in New Canaan has acquired a large property in Silvermine, protecting it from future development and closing the loop on a closely followed conservation effort. The New Canaan Land Trust last month purchased 763 Silvermine Road—a 6.35-acre parcel that will help form the Silvermine Fowler Preserve—from Jim and Betsey Fowler. It’s adjacent to the 41-acre Hicks Meadows-Kelley Uplands Audubon Sanctuary, and plans for the now 48-acre property include creating trails where residents can hike, view wildlife and experience nature, officials say. “It means so much to have the land preserved, to bring it back,” said Mark Fowler, son of Jim and Betsey and now the nature initiative director at Grace Farms. “The old house will come down and it will be a beautiful piece of property with wetlands and small fields and a beautiful forest and a nice hiking trail, so for me, this is what the Fowler legacy is all about and it’s what the town needs.”

His dad, Jim Fowler, is an award-winning zoologist who gained fame as host of TV’s “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom.”

“My father was a famous falconer, and we had a falconer that lived with us, so there was always some amazing wildlife experience going on there, and therefore we always were outdoors,” Fowler recalled. “We were always hiking around in these back properties.”

Mark Fowler said that preserving the land is important, in part, because it gives locals a place to unplug and explore—a snapshot of the 1992 New Canaan High School graduate’s own upbringing.

Government

Selectmen, Finance Board Approve $267,000 for Land Trust To Acquire ‘Fowler’ Property in Silvermine

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A local organization dedicated to the preservation of open space took a big step Tuesday toward acquiring a closely watched 6-acre parcel in Silvermine. The Boards of Selectmen and Finance in their regular meetings both voted unanimously in favor of a $267,000 special appropriation for the New Canaan Land Trust—funds that are expected to help the organization complete the $1,070,000 purchase of the “Fowler” property. Owned by award-winning zoologist Jim Fowler, the parcel abuts a 41-acre property already owned by the Land Trust and, together, they will form the “Silvermine Fowler preserve.”

“This is something we need to do as a town,” Selectman Nick Williams said during a meeting held in Town Hall in the morning, moments before the group voted 3-0 in favor of the appropriation. “These opportunities do not come around that often so we need to capitalize.”

The finance board followed with a unanimous ‘Yes’ vote at its evening meeting. The Town Council is expected to take up the matter for a final vote at its Jan.

News

Letter: NCHS Student Supports Town Helping Land Trust with Fowler Property Purchase

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I am Will Santora and a current senior at New Canaan High School. Over the past three years, I have worked closely with the New Canaan Land Trust as a steward to land preservation. The work that I have done involved my time as an intern as well as a club leader in the high school. The close contact and relationships that I have built within the Land Trust community have helped me grow as an individual and provided me with an education that is normally not provided in high school education. Because the Land Trust has provided me with education in land stewardship, I have learned that any possibility to preserve even more open space is incredibly important in a town like New Canaan.