Two Ingham Hill Road projects in Old Saybrook approved for funding last summer are awaiting recommendations from the Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection (DEEP) as to whether site-specific ecological assessments of each area will be required.

The first is a parking lot that will provide a dozen spaces for access to the Old Saybrook trailhead into The Preserve; the existing lot has space for only five cars. The trailhead is one of four main ones leading into the nearly 1,000-acre open space. The Preserve’s principal entrance is in Westbrook, at 1278 Essex Road (Route 153), where a parking lot offers 30 spaces. Two trailheads with limited parking are located off Ingham Hill Road in Essex, accessing separate but ultimately connecting trails.

A second project aims to rectify the difficulty of many large vehicles, such as school buses, to turn around in the cul-de-sac at the end of Ingham Hill Road in Old Saybrook. Despite there being no outlet, it is very common for vehicles to continue to the end, said Christine Nelson, Old Saybrook’s town planner.

“Maybe GPS shows them that they can get through and [once they get there] there’s nowhere for them to turn around,” Nelson said. “There are 18-wheelers turning around in people’s front yards—there’s no way to back them up.”

Just before the end of the road, a sign warns motorists that the road ends ahead and urges them to turn around “here.” There’s a short, graveled driveway provided for that purpose, but the road is narrow and a very large truck or bus would still likely have difficulty making the turn in that designated area.

The Study

Bill Moorhead is the consulting botanist/plant community ecologist hired by the town to survey The Preserve for rare plant species and identify critical habitats, which are often indicators of the presence of rare animal species, as well. Moorhead looks for what are called rare assemblages of plants, natural communities in which plants are grouped together.

“Certain combinations of plants tell us that we have a critical habitat” for animals, Moorhead explained.

“The plants are indicators” of the existence of wildlife, he continued. “There are some animals that are rare that don’t occur in a place that can be recognized as special habitat because of the plants” but those are the exceptions, he said. “Usually [a critical habitat] includes a lot of uncommon and rare plants.”

Moorhead’s work continues, but he has already submitted findings from his surveys to DEEP, which will ultimately make recommendations to the town regarding the two Ingham Hill Road projects.

Judy Preston, who serves on The Preserve Ad Hoc Committee, wrote the grant for funding from the Trust for Public Land (TPL), a national non-profit working to help communities preserve open space, which is funding the ecological study.

“We’re trying to get as much information as we can about the biology of [The Preserve] to inform management,” said Preston. She hopes also to conduct a bird census, and she is contemplating a bio blitz, a “means of engaging the public in one 24-hour period of going out with experts to see how many species we can catalog.”

A bio blitz, she said, is “not only an opportunity for scientists to go out and use a confined period of time to find and catalog species, but it’s a way for them to lead groups of people who are just interested to go out and help with that effort.

“You end up at the end of the period with a huge list of species and it helps the public understand how much diversity there is and how many plants and animals live in places like” The Preserve, Preston said.

Balancing public use with conservation is an ongoing concern of the ad hoc committee, and Preston hopes the new Old Saybrook parking lot will help funnel recreational users to the four official entrances, despite the existence of other trails and entrances.

“We’re trying to focus on one major entrance from Westbrook and one major entrance from Old Saybrook and have those be the only sanctioned entrances,” she explained. “We really do have an issue of too many trails up there.”

The work Moorhead is doing will help determine areas of The Preserve that are too sensitive for trails, she said.

Being able to purchase the land was an “incredible opportunity,” said Preston. The thousand-acre tract is important not only “because there are some plants and animals that have taken refuge there, but with the changing climate we’re going to need places like that, so there’s a lot at stake.”