Printer Friendly Version - Preserve Protected in Perpetuity

In this 2014 photo, Bob Nucci, of Old Saybrook listens as Chris Cryder of Save the Sound leads about 75 participants into The Preserve. The ongoing efforts to keep the 1,000-acre wood as open space has paid off, with the April 30 closing on the property by the Town of Old Saybrook, the State of Connecticut, the Trust for Public Land, and the Essex Land Trust

With a click of a button, the Town of Old Saybrook, the Trust for Public Land (TPL), and the Essex Land Trust moved funds to the title company responsible for closing The Preserve land transfer—but it took another week for the closing because all were waiting for the state’s paper check to clear. But finally, on April 30, it was done, and the thousand-acre property known as The Preserve moved from private to public hands.

It was a moment for celebration for the towns of Old Saybrook, Essex, and Westbrook and the many individuals, organizations, agencies, and elected officials that together brought this deal to fruition.

Alicia Sullivan, TPL’s Connecticut state director, said, “This has been a long effort which began 17 years ago, but ultimately, we have been successful. This land will forever remain a natural place for the enjoyment of everyone who lives here and visits. The $10 million campaign was a success due to a large coalition which included the State of Connecticut, the Connecticut congressional delegation, the towns of Old Saybrook, Essex, and Westbrook, many non-profit organizations, and many individual donors.”

TPL in its press release listed the various sources for The Preserve purchase plan. The State of Connecticut provided $3.87 million from the Recreation and Natural Heritage Trust Fund, Stateside Land and Water Conservation Fund, and the Open Space and Watershed Land Acquisition Grant Program. Old Saybrook’s residents in a referendum vote agreed to contribute $3 million while the Town of Essex contributed $200,000 in open space funds.

“This is an exciting day. So many have worked so hard for so long to make this acquisition a reality. The work can now begin to make this open space one of the great places in Connecticut,” said First Selectman Carl Fortuna, Jr.

“We will be adding great environmental and recreational value to the region with this purchase, which the town has been championing for over 15 years. I want to thank all of our partners, including the State of Connecticut and the Trust for Public Land for assisting in the purchase. Most importantly, I want to thank the citizens of Old Saybrook for seeing to it that this piece of land will remain theirs forever,” he said.

The thousand-acre Preserve property straddles three towns, with 926 acres located in Old Saybrook, four acres in Westbrook, and 70 acres in Essex. Within the now-protected open space are dense forests, 38 vernal pools, 25 miles of trails, and more than 3,100 feet of streams, according to TPL. In 2013, TPL successfully negotiated with the land’s owner, River Sound Development, LLC, a unit owned by the former Lehman Brothers, a purchase price for the parcel of $8.09 million for the land. With a price negotiated, the multi-pronged effort by multiple parties to raise the funds needed to buy it, to offset TPL’s costs, and to build a stewardship fund, began.

TPL, through a private fundraising campaign and in partnership with the Essex Land Trust, the Old Saybrook Land Trust, and local volunteers, raised $2.93 million as its contribution to the project.

“Donations to the campaign came from more than 700 individual and institutional donors, including Newman’s Own Foundation and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Acres for America Program. Two thirds of the money came from outside the three towns where The Preserve is located, including more than 20 gifts from donors in other states,” wrote TPL in its release.

Conservation easements held by the State of Connecticut and The Nature Conservancy will protect the land from future development and requires the land to be open to the public for activities like hiking and wildlife viewing.

Suellen McCuin, a resident of Essex, neighbor of The Preserve, and member of the Alliance for Sound Area Planning, stated, “‘Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of smaller things brought together,’ van Gogh once said. Congratulations to all who took part in all the small things that brought this Great thing together. What an amazing gift to this community and the millions of living organisms and critters—finned, furred, and feathered—that will forever have this forest intact.”

Prior to the purchase deal negotiated in 2013 by The Trust for Public Land with River Sound Development, the thousand-acre property had been subject to several development applications, including having secured some permits to allow the developer to put more than 200 homes and a golf course on the site.