News

Letter: New Canaan’s Help in the Land Trust’s ‘Fowler’ Property Purchase Would Benefit All

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Dear Editor:

I would like to express my support of the acquisition of the Fowler Property by the New Canaan Land Trust. By adding this parcel to adjoining nature preserve, residents on the east side of our town can enjoy passive recreation and active appreciation of the beautiful nature in our area. Preserving open space in New Canaan adds to everyone’s property values. Improving opportunities for walking in the natural world makes our town more attractive to future residents. In addition, preserving open space retains habitat for wildlife, assists with wetlands and watershed preservation and helps with carbon capturing so essential in our changing climate.

Government

Selectmen Signal Support for New Canaan Land Trust’s Purchase of Fowler Property

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Town officials on Tuesday morning voiced support for a special appropriation to help a local organization dedicated to land conservation acquire a wooded 6-acre parcel now available for purchase. Though the three-person Board of Selectmen stopped short of an official vote—the discussion of the Silvermine Road property came before the trio as a non-voting, informational item—the group spoke in favor of helping the New Canaan Land Trust buy it. At the time of the selectmen’s regular meeting, the Land Trust was seeking $320,000 from the town to close the $1,070,000 purchase (overall, $1.3 million is needed). Selectman Nick Williams said that he was “generally supportive” of the Land Trust’s efforts to acquire what’s called the “Fowler property,” named for its owner, award-winning zoologist and longtime New Canaanite Jim Fowler. “These opportunities do not come along that often,” Williams said at the meeting, held in Town Hall.

News

Letter from NCHS Student: Protecting Pond and Entire Fowler Property Would Benefit Whole Community

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Hello. My name is Christy McGough. I am fifteen years old and I attend New Canaan High School. In the summer of 2016 I was a summer steward for the New Canaan Land Trust where I was educated about the environment with a group of other high schoolers my age who love nature. I learned how to identify different species of trees, plants, and ferns, and I was taught the correct way to properly interact with the environment.

News

Letter: Town Must Act Quickly To Help Land Trust Acquire Fowler Property

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We’re writing to support a special appropriation for the New Canaan Land Trust’s acquisition of the six-acre Fowler property in Silvermine. The town would fund a relatively small share of the overall cost. But if it fails to act quickly, other commitments would lapse, and the deal could collapse. The main concern of some town officials is setting an unwanted precedent for the budget process. But wouldn’t it be an even worse precedent to allow the deal to die?

Government

‘A Lane To a Beautiful Nature Park’: Finance Officials Hear Land Trust Request for Funds To Acquire Fowler Property

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Saying it would preserve unique natural habitat and expand an important open space greenway, members of a nonprofit organization dedicated to land conservation in New Canaan on Tuesday night urged town officials to help their group with the timely purchase of a 6.35-acre property. The would-be “Silvermine Fowler” preserve—a private property long owned by award-winning zoologist Jim Fowler and available to the New Canaan Land Trust right now in a $1.3 million deal—is accessible from Silvermine Road just below the intersection with Route 106. An east-west oriented parcel that climbs a wooded hill toward a natural pond, the property is contiguous to a 41-acre sanctuary that the Land Trust already owns (see map below). Among privately raised funds, pledges and grants, the New Canaan Land Trust and Trust for Public Land—a national nonprofit organization headquartered in San Francisco—already have secured all but $365,000 needed to acquire the property. At this time, the organization has first right of refusal, though the offer is to expire in the first quarter of 2017, according to Land Trust officials.