Find Your Local Land Trust
Downriver from Gillette Castle, Tom Gezo
Interested in Land Conservation?
Owners of scenic or prominent land within the Zone can protect their properties for future generations, and possibly gain a financial benefit from doing so.
Your local land trust can explain how to do so. Options include donations of land, now or upon a donor’s passing; land protection agreements, deed restrictions, and sales.
Private Land Conservation
Each of the eight towns in the Zone has a land trust committed to land preservation.
Land trusts are generally non-profit organizations or corporations dedicated to conserving land and water resources for perpetuity within their towns or regions. They often rely on donations and membership contributions for funding and are governed by volunteer boards of trustees or directors.
Land owned by trusts is usually private, so public access may be restricted to protect vulnerable habitat or for other local reasons.
Land Trusts in the Eight Zone Towns:
Chester Land Trust
P.O. Box 82
Chester, CT 06412
email »
Deep River Land Trust
P.O. Box 101
Deep River, CT 06417
email »
tel: 860-543-2198
East Haddam Land Trust
P.O. Box 122
East Haddam, CT 06423
email »
tel: 860-484-3458
Essex Land Trust
P.O. Box 373
Essex, CT 06426
Haddam Land Trust
946 Station Hill Rd
Haddam, CT 06438
tel: 860-575-5968
Lyme Land Trust
P.O. Box 1002
Lyme CT 06371
email »
tel: 860-434-5051
Middlesex Land Trust*
27 Washington St.
Middletown, CT 06457
tel: 860-343-7537
Old Lyme Land Trust
P.O. Box 163
Old Lyme CT 06371
Old Saybrook Land Trust
P.O. Box 109
Old Saybrook, CT 06475
*The Middlesex Land Trust is active in Haddam, as well as six other towns outside the Zone.
Regional and Other Conservation Organizations
Lower Connecticut River Land Trust
The Lower Connecticut River Land Trust conserves, studies, stewards, and promotes the natural and working lands, and historic, ecologic, cultural, and scenic resources of 17 communities in the region.
145 Dennison Road
Essex, CT 06426
tel: 860-581-8554
Connecticut Land Conservation Council
The Connecticut Land Conservation Council works with land trusts across the state to strengthen their conservation efforts and provide equitable access to open space.
deKoven House
27 Washington Street
Middletown, CT 06457
tel: 860-852-5512
The Nature Conservancy is a national and global environmental organization that works to conserve land and healthy water, and address climate change. TNC holds land protection agreements throughout the Zone. Its Connecticut office is in New Haven.
55 Church Street
New Haven, CT 06510
email »
tel: 203-568-6270
Land Trust Tip...
Visit a land trust’s website or social media pages for the most current contact information. While there, learn about your town’s preserves, find trail maps and see how you can support your local land trust.
LOOKING FOR ADDITIONAL OPTIONS FOR CONSERVING LAND?
Your town has a municipal commission that can explain the various benefits and vehicles for preserving your land.
How long did you say?
In the 1970s, a bridge was proposed that would extend from Old Saybrook to Long Island. That would be roughly ten times as long as the Golden Gate Bridge. Residents and officials in eight river-front towns decided that the Connecticut River Gateway Commission and the Zone were needed as protection against unbridled development.