June 2009 The Great Outdoors Month

Thank you to everyone that joined us for the Prospect Land Trust Trials Day Hike “Take In the Outdoors”. The hike was held at our College Farms Hiking Trail on Sunday June 7th at 1:00pm. It was a day for us to reconnect with old hiking buddies and to establish new friendships. We had a small but nice turn out and I think I can speak for everyone that it was a very enjoyable day. With the heat of the day at the trail head it was refreshing to be in the shade of the mature forest. The group had the opportunity to see interesting landforms and vegetation types. From a distance we were able to see the properties Vernal Pool which is a rare and fragile ecosystem. A vernal pool is important for wood frogs, treefrogs, salamanders, and many other animals/creatures of the forest. It is important for sustaining many threatened or endangered animal species. We also saw evidence of a Pileated Woodpecker who left a row of oblong feeding channels the full length of a tree. At the hikes end once again we found ourselves in the heat of the day sharing freeze-pop’s and exchanging information. PLT’s College Farms property is an asset to the Town of Prospect and its residents because it
provides protected open space in the middle of a residential neighborhood so people have a place to enjoy passive recreation activities such as hiking and bird watching. Prospect Land Trust will be holding different seasonal hikes throughout the year, so keep an eye out for future articles.