On Aug. 13, state, federal, and local officials joined with members of the public to celebrate the opening of The Preserve as public open space with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Ingham Hill Road entrance.

The picture-perfect afternoon was capped off with a hike led by longtime Preserve activist Chris Cryder and State Representative Phil Miller.

While the day was full of speeches honoring the many years of efforts to acquire and now manage the property, The Preserve is still a bit of a work in progress.

To date, volunteers working with the Trust for Public Land, the Old Saybrook Ad Hoc Preserve Management Committee, the Essex Land Trust, and the Old Saybrook Land Trust have installed about two-thirds of the signs that identify the official boundaries of the thousand-acre Preserve land. The signs are spaced about 60 feet apart along the 65,000 linear feet of the open space’s perimeter.

The property is criss-crossed with multiple old roads and trails dating to different eras when the land was logged or used for farming. No official walking trails have been marked yet. As a result, walkers and hikers who want to explore the property could easily trace paths that end or that cross others; walkers can easily become lost or disoriented, if they do not know the trail patterns.

As a result, the committee urges any member of the public who enters the property to bring a compass and/or a GPS device and plan to use it to navigate the paths and return to the starting point safely.