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Partnership Protects 45 Acres in Plainfield

Creates New Wyndham Land Trust Preserve Protecting Valuable Wetland

Plainfield—08 January 2004-- Working together, the Wyndham Land Trust and The Nature Conservancy have created a new 45-acre nature preserve in Plainfield.

The two organizations collaborated to purchase two parcels of 27 and 18 acres from John and Margery Oates of Plainfield for the bargain sale price of $3,500.  The land lies west of Interstate 395 and north of Canterbury Road.  The two pieces are about 1,000 feet from each other, with the Oates family property between them.  In addition, the Wyndham Land Trust has received a two-acre parcel as a gift from members of the Lathrop family.

The two properties make up almost a quarter of Plainfield's Cedar Swamp Conservation Area.  The swamp makes up the headwaters of a tributary that runs north into the Quinebaug River.  The area is a good example of an Atlantic white cedar swamp, a habitat type that is still recovering from 200 years of logging.

"White cedar swamps are fragile and interesting habitats and places of great beauty," said Wyndham Land Trust President Dr. Richard A. Booth.  "There are very few of them in the state, and I ma delighted that our two organizations can work together to preserve this one."

"We're very happy to have been able to help protect this land, and are grateful to the hard work of the Wyndham Land Trust,and the generosity of the Oates, without which this would not have been possible," said Nature Conservancy Pawcatuck Borderlands Program Director Kevin Essington.  "Atlantic white cedars were probably never an abundant tree here in southern New England, but because it doesn't rot, it was prized for construction, and today environments like this are rare."

Since its founding in 1975, the Wyndham Land Trust has protected more than 750 acres in 8 towns in Windham County.

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