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Volunteers and members will clear the area, which begins near the Bradley Road entrance, in an effort to "create a more inviting meadow habitat for birds, box turtles and pollinating insects that help enhance wildflower and other plant growth," said a press release.
The area, in the 1,009 conservation area spanning Weston and Easton, is described by biologists as an “early successional habitat” that needed to be disturbed in some fashion to prevent it from rapidly becoming forest, according to the release.
The areas are characterized by weedy areas, shrub thickets and young forest.
“If these habitats are not mowed, brush hogged, burned, cut, grazed or disturbed in some other fashion, they will eventually become forest over time," said David Brant, executive director of Aspetuck Land Trust. "Think about all the old farmland in the Connecticut landscape that grew into mature forest. As this happens, field, orchards and young forest and the wildlife that is supported there are lost."
The project will continue through the spring, Brant said in the release.
ALT is a nonprofit land conservation organization founded in 1966 to preserve open space in the towns of Westport, Weston, Fairfield and Easton. For more information, residents can visit the Aspetuck Land Trust website.
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