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Branford's
Flora & Fauna | Archives
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Habitat Enhancement
The general
property management policy of the Branford Land Trust is to
leave land in its natural state, allowing natural processes
to take place undisturbed. However, intervention may be allowed
to encourage natural diversity, to prevent the degradation
of natural systems, or to allow for appropriate human use.
All interventions are recommended by the Land Trust's Natural
Resources Committee and approved by the Board of Trustees. |
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the years, the Land Trust has carried out several specific
programs, supported by many Land Trust members, aimed
at enhancing the habitat value of selected properties.
Initially, these programs focused on providing nesting
boxes or platforms for birds that were once common in
Branford but whose numbers had diminished as a result
of loss of habitat or, in the case of the osprey, the
impact of predation and the presence of man-made chemicals
in the environment.
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The
erection of osprey nesting platforms by the Land Trust and others
in Branford has been a resounding success. As in many other
shoreline communities, nesting osprey can now be seen in several
places in salt marshes on Long Island Sound and along the Branford
River. The last several years have seen between ten and twenty
young fledged each year, and the osprey population is clearly
on the road to recovery. |
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recently, wood duck houses that were erected in ponds
and swamps throughout the town have shown evidence of
heavy use. Nesting boxes for the American kestrel (previously
called the sparrow hawk) have been built. One house
has been installed on the Stony Creek Partnership property,
and others will be installed in our other fields in
the future.
In
2002, The Town of Branford and the Branford River Project
began planning to build a fishway over the dam at the
Branford Supply Ponds. This fishway will allow alewives,
blue back herring, brown trout, American eels and other
anadromous fish to migrate over the dam and to spawn
throughout the upstream drainage areas of Queach Brook
and Pisgah Brook. |
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The
presence of bluebirds at the Van Wie meadow prompted a member
to donate and install four bluebird houses there in 1999,
and we were rewarded with the first observed nesting of bluebirds
in Branford in many years. (Some of the boxes were also used
by tree swallows and possibly chickadees and wrens.) Three
more donated bluebird boxes were placed in the Van Wie meadow
in preparation for the 2000 nesting season, and we hope eventually
to have houses throughout the field.
In addition
to assisting specific species, the Land Trust has begun to
enhance and maintain transitory biological communities. Grasslands
(pastures and meadows) and early succession brushy areas are
vanishing from Connecticut as farms are abandoned or developed.
The Land Trust is actively working to keep and improve the
fields and meadows that we own (Hammer, Medlyn, Partnership,
and Van Wie). With the support of the Natural Resource Conservation
Service and the Connecticut Butterfly Association, the Land
Trust has initiated a program of regular mowing and removal
of woody invasive plants from our fields. In addition, we
will be restoring an old cedar meadow on the Van Wie Preserve
that has become largely wooded, and planting native grasses
and wild flowers in this area and the existing meadow. |
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You
can assist these efforts to improve the habitat that
we provide by joining our work parties or by making
a donation. Please indicate that the donation is to
support the Habitat Enhancement Program.
For
more information on specific programs, please see our
Flora & Fauna Archives. |
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