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06/30/2015 03:00 PMFor the Esty siblings—Richard, Susan, and Janis—the world outside their family’s Old Saybrook house was the playpen where they learned to be curious, to observe, and to be awed by the natural world and its processes. That respect for the environment has translated into their service to their hometown, which in turn has led to the town honoring the family.
Two years ago, the Esty siblings flew to Alaska to travel the wild country together in the early spring in an RV. They drove from Anchorage to Haines in the early spring because they wanted to see grizzlies, the geology of the area (Janis studied geology in college), and the wild natural world of Alaska. Now the three siblings will share another moment. On June 25, each was awarded the Baldoni Spirit of Saybrook award for their long years of volunteer service to the Town of Old Saybrook.
Old Saybrook was the perfect place for the Esty family’s early nature lessons.
“If we were old enough to walk, we were out in the woods with our mom and dad,” said Susan Esty, owner of Esty’s Lamp Shop on Main Street and a member of the Parks & Recreation Commission for more than five years.
Her dad, Irving Esty, was a wildlife photographer whose photos were featured on Old Saybrook’s bicentential commemorative plate. As an avid naturalist and birder, he also was a co-founder of the shoreline’s Potopaug Chapter of the Connecticut Audubon Society.
To the Esty siblings, however, he was their teacher and guide to understanding the natural world around them.
“My father was a born naturalist. As kids, you never knew what he would come home with in his pockets. One time it was a snake. Another time, he came home and told us he had something in the back of his truck. It turned out to be a giant snapping turtle that he had saved from the middle of the road. My mother was none too pleased after we all ran out to the truck to see,” said Janis Esty, a member of the Planning Commission for 14 years and currently the commission chairman.
“It was huge. I remember it filled the truck’s rear bed. Maybe it was nearly three feet across,” said Janis Esty.
Her dad decided to use it as a teachable moment.
“Dad picked up a stick that was about two inches around and placed one end next to the snapping turtle; it went for it. He then proceeded to lift up the turtle up and out of the truck,” relying solely on the snapping turtle’s jaw-hold on the stick. For Janis Esty and her siblings, this demonstration proved the power of a snapping turtle’s jaw.
“He went fishing later that day and released it back to the wild,” she noted.
Today all three siblings are avid naturalists themselves who, having absorbed the lessons of their father, work as dedicated volunteers on town boards sharing a mission of protecting Old Saybrook’s natural resources, wildlife, and habitats and supporting opportunities to explore and learn about them.
Richard Esty, the third sibling, serves on the Conservation Commission and has been instrumental in re-starting the town’s efforts to inventory and monitor and town’s vernal pools. Vernal pools are those wet ponds and waterways that are most visible in the spring and may dry up completely later in the season.
He’s also taken high school students out to the vernal pools to collect and record data to monitor the habitat’s health. In another project recently completed, he designed and, with volunteers, installed a new butterfly garden at Fort Saybrook at Saybrook Point.
Susan Esty as a member of the Parks & Recreation Commission says she helps to champion initiatives to preserve natural features of town parks and initiatives that support migratory bird species.
And Janis Esty, as chairman of the Planning Commission, considers issues like wildlife habitats, open space, and scenic roads in the commission’s work weighing project applications. Similarly, when she also considers these issues when weighing whether or not a proposal before the commission is consistent with the town’s approved Plan of Conservation and Development.