This fall, we’ll be reading Astonished by Beauty: A Field Guide to the Practice of Paying Attention by Thomas Lowe Fleischner.
We will meet for two evening sessions of sharing and reflection, followed by a Saturday nature “experience.” This will be an opportunity to put the author’s guidance into practice by exploring ways to connect more deeply with nature. TRLC member Kathy Simpson will facilitate.
Dates:
- Thurs, September 24 and October 1, 6:30–8 pm. Hunter Room at Westmoor Park.
- Sat, October 10, 11 am–12:30 pm. Outdoor nature experience at the park.
Space is limited to 12 participants. Registration required.
Co-Hosted by Westmoor Park
Join us in exploring the Mill Brook Open Space, a 95-acre parcel in Windsor that is part of the Mill Brook Greenway. This hike, led by master naturalist Brad Robinson, will follow the woods, meadows, and trails. Stops will be made to note native species and invasives. Many areas are being ‘rewilded’ allowing plants and wildlife to flourish. Birds are abundant.
Moderate terrain with some rolling hills. It is easy to break off at any point and return to the starting point. Leashed dogs permitted. No rain date.
Please meet in the parking lot at 2:00 PM.
This family-friendly hike, led by Larry Zemel and Gisele Nee, will loop through Auer Farm and MDC property for 3 miles. We will do tree and plant identification, and several mindfulness activities along the way (hence the term “forest bathing”).
There is a short rocky scramble so sturdy shoes are advised. This will be deer tick season; spray lower legs with DEET-containing spray.
Children have the option of visiting farm animals at the hike’s conclusion.
Park at the end of the cul-de-sac, or along Cary Lane.
There are 15 spots available.
Bring your binoculars for birding around the woods, meadow, and ponds of Westmoor Park. Led by Brian Kleinman, Riverside Reptiles Education Center owner and Hartford Audubon Society member. Dress in layers and meet in the parking lot.
Join our new book club!
We will begin with an exploration of The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer.
Rooted in the rhythms and cycles of the natural world, this brief, profound book invites us to reconsider reciprocity, generosity, and interdependence in our daily lives and within our community.
We’ll read slowly and reflectively over three consecutive weeks, with ample time for sharing and discussion facilitated by TRLC member Kathy Simpson.
Space is limited to 12 participants. Pre-registration required.
Co-Hosted by Westmoor Park
Old Forest or Young Meadow – The Marvel of Seeds
A New England Forests film, directed by naturalist, local nature documentary filmmaker, Ray Asselin.
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Ray Asselin and Trinity College Professor and Hartford County’s Old Growth Forest Network Coordinator, Susan A. Masino.
Have you ever thought about how, almost magically, a brown, bulldozed piece of land turns green with plants again? How do all those plants get there so quickly? Where did they come from? It’s amazing that nature has developed this process of having new plants always ready to go, in tiny embryonic packages.
Seeds allow us to readily raise crops. They replenish the forests we take down. They make burned habitat or lava-covered ground productive again.
Plants, like all life forms, do not live forever, so they must reproduce. They cast themselves into the future via the seeds they produce, which can wait out poor or impossible growth conditions until such time as conditions become favorable. That could be days, weeks, years, even millennia.
Since the parent plant can’t move around to place seeds here and there, it has to have some other way to get the seeds dispersed. And that’s the subject of the new film, Old Forest or Young Meadow – the Marvel of Seeds.
Plants have evolved over many millions of years. In that time, nature has devised some fascinating methods for them to colonize new sites. Some are rather mundane, but others are intriguing; some are surprising and quite entertaining.
This film describes the evolution of plants on Earth, and features many of the fascinating ways seeds are dispersed. Some are curious, some are downright delightful. Some, we guarantee, you have never witnessed.
All attendees will receive a free packet of seeds donated by the New England Seed Company.
Co-sponsored by: Traprock Ridge Land Conservancy, the Sustainable West Hartford Commission and the New England Seed Company.
Join us at this invasive plant workshop to get hands-on experience clearing invasive plants.
Today we will be working on cutting bittersweet vines out of trees on this 9-acre preserve which boasts a seasonal waterfall.
Bring loppers and water, and dress for the woods with long pants, long sleeves, boots and work gloves.
Park at the lot at 180 Life Church across the street at 180 Still Road.
RSVP to conservation@trlandconservancy.org if you are interested in helping so that you can be contacted in case of changes or cancellations.
Stout Family Fields is one of our most visited preserves; if you haven’t been yet, spring is a great time to check it out. Over the past three years, TRLC volunteers spent more than 100 hours clearing invasives from around the wetland copse (The Island) in the southern field. In 2024, we planted native species there and in 2025, we hired a contractor to remove invasives from the banks of the brook between the two fields. Last year, we also planted sycamore seedlings from the Pinchot Sycamore on The Island.
Today we will be clearing multiflora rose and common buckthorn from within the wetland copse in the southern field.
A small chain saw will help; otherwise, bring loppers and/or clippers. Bring water and dress for the woods with long pants, long sleeves, boots and work gloves.
RSVP to conservation@trlandconservancy.org if you are interested in helping so that you can be contacted in case of changes or cancellations.
In honor of Arbor Day, we will be clearing brush and small trees from around the trees along the Notable Tree Trail at Hawk Hill Farm. The trail, introduced in Spring 2025, features 9 trees including 5 notable trees, along with educational signage.
Bring water and loppers, hand saws (and chain saws if you have them), and dress for the woods with long pants, long sleeves, boots, work gloves.
Please RSVP to conservation@trlandconservancy.org if you are interested in helping so that you can be contacted in case of changes or cancellations.
In honor of Earth Day, we will be working with Environmental Science Professor Dr. Kirsten Martin and her students to remove invasive Callery and Bradford pear trees from the grassland habitat there and weed the pollinator garden. Bring loppers and hand saws, and dress for poison ivy and ticks. Park in the lot on the west side of campus closest to Trout Brook Drive.
Please RSVP to conservation@trlandconservancy.org if you are interested in helping so that you can be contacted in case of changes or cancellations.
Also visit the TRLC table at St Joseph’s Earth Day Fair, April 22 from 11am-2pm. The fair will be held in front of McDonough Hall (inside McDonough if it rains).