Branford Land Trust Library Project

The library project began in 1998 with the goal of purchasing books on nature and wildlife for the town's libraries. It was established that the purchases should fulfill one the three following objectives:

• Relate to Branford's environment and wildlife
• Replace out of date guidebooks
• Consider books by local (Northeast US) authors when the topic fits the above criteria.

The group receives a small allocation from the BLT budget each year and members occasionally have contributed to this program allowing the committee to purchase additional books. In addition to purchasing books for both Blackstone and Willoughby Wallace libraries, in recent years, the group has been able to add some nature books to the school libraries. To date we have purchased nearly 175 books, CDs and DVDs for the town libraries!

Please add to your enjoyment of our beautiful town by checking out books that will help you identify flowers and trees or learn more about osprey or eagles. You might want to bring home a DVD purchased this year entitled "Crash" to learn more about horseshoe crabs and their relationship to red knot birds. Or if you want to read wonderful book about marshes, check out William Burt's book entitled Marshes: the Disappearing Eden's. Mr Burt lives in Old Lime and has been exploring marshes since his childhood.

The list of books purchased for libraries this past year is listed using the link below. And if you would like to suggest a book for us to consider purchasing for one of our libraries, please send that suggestion to us at info@branfordlandtrust.org.

Books Purchased in 2008/09
Our focus this year was on horseshoe crabs, ospreys, eagles and enjoyment of the land around us. This resulted in discovering many great books that will give us all helpful information to better understand these wonderful creatures and our environment in general.

BOOKS FOR ADULTS
Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Gardens by Douglas W Tallmay
Guide to Night-Singing Insects of the Northeast, the newest book by John Himmelman also includes a CD for listening to these insect sounds!
Return of the Osprey: A Season of Flight and Wonder by David Gessner
Eagles, from the DEP Bookstore
Crash: A Tale of Two Species a DVD about horseshoe crabs and shorebirds

BOOKS FOR CHILDREN
Crab Moon by Ruth Horowitz
Awesome Ospreys Fishing Birds of the World by Donna Love
Horseshoe Crabs and Shorebirds: The Store of a Food Web by Victoria Crenson

In addition, we met with the librarian of Branford High School, who made the following selections for that school:

This Fine Piece of Water: An Environmental History of Long Island Sound by Tom Anderson
The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America by David Sibley
Connecticut Butterfly Atlas

And finally, Walsh Intermediate School received 3 new books as well:

Awesome Ospreys Fishing Birds of the World
Horseshoe Crabs and Shorebirds: The Store of a Food Web
101 Facts about Eagles - Gareth