Candlewood Ridge
Posted By auntie on August 15, 2015
.65 miles; groton, ct
wow, just realized that it’s been ages since i last posted. it’s not that i haven’t been hiking… okay, it’s partly that. i hate hate hate the “3-h’s” weather we’ve been getting lately (hazy, hot, and humid). but also i just haven’t been posting. bad auntie.
so this hike wasn’t really much of a hike, per se, it was more of a botanical lecture which included an actual botanist and several ardent conservationists. the groton open space association (gosa) acquired this property in june 2013 with the help of the north stonington garden club, of which i am a member, and today’s hike was a garden-club-sponsored tour of the property, along with a detailed explanation of the recent clearing and plantings. candlewood ridge is being transformed into “rabbitat,” or habitat for the endangered new england cottontail rabbit. any hiker who’s been hiking in southeastern new england in the past year or two knows what this looks like—it looks awful to us. they basically cut all the trees on a property and leave the brush piles, because early transitional forest is the new england cottontail’s preferred place to live, and brush piles are their next favorite spot.
anyway, this was an informative and interesting lecture, and included information on (sustainably) collecting seeds of wildflowers, trees, and shrubs, and information on how to grow them.
wildlife!
rabbits are not, apparently, the only wildlife that appreciates all the changes gosa has made.
black eyed susans and anise hyssop
these are some of the wildflowers gosa has planted on candlewood ridge.
mallow
and more wildflowers.
candlewood ridge has an old farm road that passes for a trail system, but while open now as i type this, there are plans to close the area to the public while contractors do more clearing. check back with gosa for updates on this trail system.
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