Bull Hill Needs Your Help
Many of you have supported our efforts over the past six years to protect the spectacular forest on Bull Hill in Thompson and Woodstock. With your help, we’ve accumulated over 1000 acres of woodlands, and many visitors have enjoyed the trails to the stunning view point.
Now we have the opportunity to purchase a critical 91-acre parcel that connects the center of the preserve with our holdings in the more northern part of the forest. With this parcel we can extend our trail system to the north, making Bull Hill an even more wonderful place for you and your family to visit.
The owners have graciously given us first crack to buy this parcel. Using existing funds, we are close, but we need to raise the last $10,000 to make this project a reality.
This is a one-time opportunity to purchase this property on Bull Hill; it may not be available again in our lifetimes. Can you help us bridge the gap in our funding? We appreciate anything you can afford.
To donate, click to give on-line using our Campaign for Bull Hill page on Give Lively. You can publish your name or make your donation anonymous.
Future generations of Quiet Corner residents will be forever grateful.
Alternatively, you may send a check to WLT, PO Box 302, Pomfret Center, CT 06259 with a note that you are giving to the Bull Hill Campaign.
A win for large forest block habitat
Family Partners with Wyndham Land Trust to Expand Nightingale Forest
The Wyndham Land Trust recently acquired 364 acres in Pomfret from the Townshend family. The land—the largest single acquisition by the land trust in its 46-year history—includes a large scenic wetland with open water, marshlands, shrub swamp, and forested swamp that form the headwaters of Nightingale Brook. The woodlands that surround the wetlands support important forest-nesting birds such as Canada Warbler and Black-throated Blue Warbler.
Memorial Stone Fundraising Successful
Out of the Shadows: Honoring Un-Named African Americans of the Randall/Higginbotham Cemetery
We are grateful for the support of the generous individual contributors and for The Last Green Valley, the Community Foundation of Eastern Connecticut, and the Connecticut Land Conservation Council for programming and grants that made this project possible. Thank you!
Places to walk
Explore the nature of Windham County at any of our walkable nature preserves. The following locations offer easy access and parking. Take only pictures; leave only footprints. For all to enjoy; for all to cherish.
A WLT Collaboration
Waking the Dead: Archaeology, Genealogy and Archival Research of Enslaved Africans and Native Americans
This fall the Townshend parcel of WLT’s Nightingale Woods Preserve was backdrop to area resident Donna Dufresne's ongoing research of the Randall family, who were some of its early inhabitants. The Pomfret Historical Society sponsored four workshops that were presented by Donna. They covered an array of topics presented by invited subject experts. Topics included research techniques and burial ground restoration. Featured were the enslaved Africans of early New England, specifically those who worked for Jonathan Randall from 1777 up to the Civil War. The workshops also included tours of the homestead remains of the Higginbothams, whose family members are buried along side members of the Randall family at the cemetery. Demonstrations on repairing and cleaning gravestones were an important highlight.
Out of the Shadows: Commemorating the Enslaved African Americans of the Randall/Higginbotham Cemetery
It is believed that enslaved African Americans are buried at the Randall/Higginbotham family cemetery, but in unmarked graves.
The WLT, with the support of Community Foundation of Eastern Connecticut, the Connecticut Land Conservation Council and The Last Green Valley, is pleased to partner in the effort to help shed light on the past habitation of this land and to commemorate the individuals whose graves were not marked when they died.
The Land We Live On
