Exploring The Simsbury Land Trust Trails

By Carl Wiser

Staff Writer

Sure, you can hike to Heublein Tower, but everyone does that. Instead, try the nearby Tanager Hill trail, where you'll find vernal pools, a farm pond, and a wide variety of bird-friendly habitats before reaching the top of Talcott Mountain.

It's one of 14 trails owned by the Simsbury Land Trust, a nonprofit with a team of vigilant and knowledgeable volunteers who maintain the trails and advocate for land conservation. Some of the trails even cut through working farms, including Tulmeadow.

We did some exploring with SLT Executive Director Amanda Thompson to find out how the Land Trust works and discover the hidden gems among their properties.

Simsbury Land Trust Executive Director Amanda Thompson on the Owen-Mortimer trail.

What's the most popular trail among the Land Trust properties?

West Mountain Trails starting at 60 Westledge Road. West Mountain offers a blue trail along the ravine or the red trail along the ridge line and you can combine the two for a rigorous five-mile loop with a waterfall where the two trails connect.

Fun fact: West Mountain represents the oldest exposed bedrock in Simsbury at approximately 400 to 500 million years old.

What are the hidden gems at the Land Trust - the places many people don't know about?

The Bog. It is located about a quarter of a mile down North Saddle Road. It is only a one-mile walk out and back but it brings you along an esker (large deposit of glacial gravel left behind by the Ice Age 10,000 years ago) to a boardwalk that stretches out over the bog. It is magical and every kid and adult should visit it.

What's your origin story? Please tell me about your background and how you came to be Executive Director at the Simsbury Land Trust.

My land trust work started 16 years ago when I joined the Board of Traprock Ridge Land Conservancy, formerly the East Granby Land Trust.

I am originally from northern Minnesota where I was fortunate enough to grow up near the Boundary Waters Canoe and Wilderness Area and an abundance of forested land. I was pleasantly surprised to see how much preserved land there was in Connecticut when we moved here and wanted to help protect it. It is impressive to see how many town and regional land trusts are working toward a common goal of land preservation.

Over the years, I have served in various roles within the organization, including Education Committee Chair, Acquisitions Committee Member, Property Steward, and currently, President of Traprock Ridge Land Conservancy.

I then had the pleasure of working with Amy Zeiner, former Executive Director of the Simsbury Land Trust. Our shared vision for conservation goes beyond town lines, and I'm proud to now support efforts to protect Farmington Valley's natural landscapes in Simsbury.

We live in such an amazing area with local access to longer trails like the Metacomet Trail, Tunxis Trail, and Appalachian Trail. Plus the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail for walking and biking and federally designated wild and scenic Salmon Brook and Farmington River for kayaking and canoeing. I feel very lucky to have all of these beautiful natural places at my fingertips. Protecting our natural environment for the benefit of the people, plants, and animals in our region is my goal.

What are your favorite places to hike?

Is it bad if I say Tulmeadow because I can get an ice cream sandwich after my hike?

Second, only because it doesn't have ice cream, would be Wagner Woods, 153 Great Pond Road. I like this property because it has both fields and forests and offers connections to Great Pond State Forest if I want an extended hike. Wagner Woods also has a lot of wildlife because of its location between Simsbury Farms, George Hall Farm and Great Pond State Forest. It is an important property that keeps this green corridor connected for animal habitat.

 Bridge repair by the SLT stewardship committee. Pictured are David Kozak, Chuck Brody and Mike Rodgers.

What's the most popular event the Land Trust puts on?

We hold many educational programs and a wonderful Annual Dinner but our most popular outside event is probably the Over the Mountain Hike we hold annually in the fall, co-sponsored by Simsbury Land Trust and Traprock Ridge Land Conservancy. We alternate each year starting in Simsbury or Bloomfield and hike over the ridge. It is an opportunity to take in the view from the pinnacle in Penwood State Park and highlights the SLT Tanager Hill property as we walk through meadows, along bog bridges and pine forest.

Please explain the process of acquiring land.

SLT accepts donations of land or conservation easements and we also purchase land usually with the help of community donations and grants like Open Space and Watershed Land Acquisition Grants.

When we are looking at properties to acquire we are often looking for connectivity because it is beneficial to the wildlife to have corridors to travel peacefully. We also look at what is impactful on the town and the environment. Protecting the ridgelines, forests, waterways, wetlands and farms all matter.

What's the most recent property that was acquired?

Michael Donlin Property in 2018. It is a 14 acre parcel in West Simsbury that is one of several properties that make up the West Mountain Trails. It was generously donated by two sisters, Gail Pease and Deborah Reynolds. They received it from the estate of their father, Kenneth Sparrell, and they asked that it be named after their late nephew Michael F. Donlin.

Some of the trails go through working farms, Tulmeadow Farm for instance. Why did the farms agree to donate that part of their property?

Tulmeadow Farm is still owned by the Tuller Family today and Simsbury Land Trust purchased the development rights on 270 acres of its farmland and woodlot. This farm is the oldest continuously running small business in Simsbury. It has been owned and farmed by generations of the Tuller family since 1768. However it faced immense development pressure to break the 270 acres into housing lots. Funding for the purchase of the conservation easement was provided by the National Resource Conservation Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Town of Simsbury, Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, the Ensign-Bickford Foundation, the Tuller family and many friends and members of the Simsbury Land Trust.

It was truly an effort by many people and organizations to preserve our town's history.

What are the biggest challenges for the Land Trust?

Raising awareness and building support. Communicating our mission and the value of our work to people outside the organization is so important. We want to retain our current members but also work to engage the next generation of conservationists. It takes a community to continue this conservation legacy.

Find maps, parking information and more information about the Simsbury Land Trust trails at simsburylandtrust.org.

 Youth Conservation Corps

Last year, Thompson worked with Jonah Lipar, a member of the Simsbury High School Earth Advocates Club, to establish the Simsbury Land Trust Youth Conservation Corps. The five students in the group work with Land Trust members on projects like trail building and invasive plant removal. They also set up guided teen hikes so more kids can get to know about the great trails right in their town.

Upcoming events they're organizing include a nature walk, water study, and scavenger hunt. "They are all great ways to engage kids with their parents, grandparents, or favorite adult having fun outdoors," Thompson says.

Simsbury Land Trust Youth Corps members Addy Escamilla and Ella Capozzi release trout at Stratton Brook State Park as a part of a youth event.

The Youth Corp is supported by Earth Advocates, a Simsbury High School club focused on making their school and the town more environmentally friendly. They set up a "green closet" at school where kids donate gently used clothes that sell for $1 per item.

"They are taking clothes out of the waste stream and then donating the proceeds to SLT, promoting conservation locally," Thompson says. "It is pretty impressive."

All five Simsbury Youth Corps members, Ella Capozzi, Addy Escamilla, Clare Lepak, Charlotte Roberts and Jonah Lipar.