The Lucy T. Hammer Woodlands: A Gem By Vincent A. De Luca, Jr. and Bill Horne, 2006 The Lucy T. Hammer Woodland is a 26.5 acre preserve with a remarkably varied landscape of woods, meadow and ponds that lies not far from the center of Branford. It provides a fascinating portrait of some of Branford's exciting geologic history and the multiple land uses typical of the history of early New England forest. With its varied terrain and habitat, including remarkable spring wildflowers, this is a gem among the more than 90 tracts of land that the Land Trust owns and manages. The Hammer Woodland's history starts about 230 million years ago when the North American, European and African plates that formed the supercontinent Pangaea began to separate. In the process, many cracks (faults) developed along the boundary between the North American and African plates. One of them, the Triassic Border Fault, extends from Long Island Sound at Light House Point northward to the Massachusetts-Vermont border. As the fault widened and the rock on the west side of the fault sank below the level of the east side, the resulting valley filled with alternating layers of eroded sediment and volcanic lava, which eventually formed the arkose sandstone and traprock (basalt) ridges of Connecticut's central valley. In Branford, the Triassic Fault passes along the eastern edge of the Hammer property. Both sandstone and traprock bedrock are found on the Hammer property, but the traprock is the most prominent. It forms Todd's Hill, the highest feature of the Hammer property and the easternmost of a series of traprock ridges that include Beacon Hill and Saltonstall Ridge, East Rock and West Rock. The other prominent geological feature of the Hammer Woods is a drumlin, a hill formed by sediment (till) left behind when the last glacier melted 10 thousand years ago that is now Cherry Hill. The soils of the Hammer Woodland were formed from the glacial till and the weathering of the basalt and sandstone. The historic land use of the Hammer Woodland typifies what occurred in much of New England. Before European colonization, Quinnipiac Indians lived and hunted here. In 1674, three decades after the settlement of Branford, what is now the Hammer Woodland and other property was deeded to Isaac Bradley. For the next two centuries, the Bradley family cleared the forest for grazing and agriculture, using the trees for building and fire wood. Like most of New England in the first half of the 19th Century, the Hammer Woodland would have been largely cleared of trees. Natural reforestation began in the mid-1800s as people stopped working farms and took up industrial work or migrated to more fertile areas in the Mid-West. For that reason, few trees in the northeast are more than 150 years old. In addition to farming, the Bradleys created three ponds by damming a small stream that ran through the valley between Todd's Hill and Cherry Hill. These ponds, and later the Branford Supply Pond, supplied a flourishing ice business that provided ice to residents until electrical refrigeration became widely available in the first decades of the 20th Century. An ice house foundation can be seen not far from Gurd's Pond, named for Gurdon Bradley, the namesake grandson of the builder of the dam. The original dam was dismantled in 1940 but rebuilt by Thorvald and Lucy Hammer after they purchased the property in 1948. The forestation of the property increased after the Hammers acquired the property, primarily by natural processes and partly by the planting of Douglass fir, white pine and other conifers. The dark traprock on Todd's Hill absorbs heat and forms a warm microclimate that encourages the growth of early spring wildflowers, particularly on the east side of the hill. The ponds are excellent seasonal sites for migrating water fowl, for marsh nesting birds and for turtles, amphibians, pond fish and for observing natural aquatic succession. The Land Trust's involvement with the Hammer Forest started in June 1984 when Thorvald and Lucy donated 23.8 acres of woods and ponds. Eight years later, Lucy donated "The Lea", the meadow between the original donation and Cherry Hill Road, creating the current preserve. Since receiving the land, the Land Trust's stewardship activities have focused on maintaining the trails for recreational use and mowing the Lea to keep it from reverting to woodland as the rest of the property has. But it has not been all work. Peter Borgemeister, a long time member of the Branford Land Trust, remembers the Land Trust throwing skating parties on the largest pond. Lucy Hammer used to join them for hot chocolate and doughnuts. Truly, a Currier and Ives setting. We are now conducting an inventory of the vegetation on the property. A report will be prepared that compares our findings to those in a 1985 study performed by students from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and will describe how the vegetation of the property has changed in the last twenty years. (Much of the information in this article was obtained from the Yale report, which is available for those interested in more details.) The map shows the location and layout of the preserve and the management units and plots used in the current survey. We hope that this brief picture of the Hammer Woodland will entice our readers to explore and enjoy this beautiful preserve. The entrance to the Hammer Woodland is on Cherry Hill Rd., about 0.1 mile north of the intersection of Cherry Hill Rd. and North Main St., across the street from the Montoya condominiums.