Cornwall Easements - Northeast Wilderness Trust

Cornwall, CT 811 acres Download Map

Northeast Wilderness Trust (NEWT) holds forever-wild easements on five Cornwall Conservation Trust (CCT) preserves totaling 811 acres.

In northwest Connecticut, Cornwall Conservation Trust’s forever-wild preserves include river headwaters, airy ridgelines, and old pine forests. CCT and NEWT have worked together since 2022 through the Wildlands Partnership. Funds provided to CCT via the Partnership have facilitated the protection of hundreds of acres and a growing inventory of wildlands in the state’s Litchfield County.

Greyledge, Nancy Nauts Dobbs, and Red Mountain Conservation Easements

CCT and NEWT finalized the first forever-wild easement on CCT land in 2022. The easement covers three properties and 375 acres.

The lands abut Mohawk State Forest and are just four miles from the Appalachian Trail. Headwaters of the Hollenbeck River originate here, and eight rare species have been catalogued on or near the Easements. Approximately one mile of a spur trail of the Mohawk Trail runs through the properties, offering landscape views from a rocky outcrop on Red Mountain.

“Cornwall Conservation Trust took this action in recognition of the environmental challenges of climate change and extinction of species through loss of habitat. NEWT’s Wildlands Partnership offers us an opportunity to ensure that Cornwall Conservation Trust’s protected forestland will never again be logged and will still allow people to enjoy nature.” Barton Jones, Board President, Cornwall Conservation Trust

Cathedral Pines and Trinity Forest Conservation Easements

The second and third forever-wild easements on CCT lands were completed in late 2024. At 74 and 362 acres, respectively, the Cathedral Pines and Trinity Forest Easements brought CCT’s forever-wild acreage to more than 800, and NEWT’s protected land in Connecticut to more than 1,500 acres.

The two Easements host a suite of vibrant habitats, some well on their way to the ecological complexity of old-growth forest. Cathedral Pines gets its name from a white pine forest with trees between 120 and 140 feet tall. Passive management of the property over the years has allowed coarse woody debris and other old-forest characteristics to accumulate, boosting the property’s wildlife value and carbon sequestration.

Meanwhile, on the Trinity Forest Easement, 1.6 miles of streams and a 10-acre beaver pond provide habitat for the Northern Saw-Whet Owl, a Connecticut species of special concern, as well as other plants and wildlife that rely on intact wetlands and aquatic environments. The Easement also showcases the power of conservation in context: It shares a border with the 700-acre Housatonic State Forest to the southwest, creating a block of more than 1,000 acres of conserved land.

To learn more, visit cornwallconservationtrust.org/dobbs-preserve or www.newildernesstrust.org/wildlandspartnership

Preserve photos by Harry White; hikers on Mohawk Trail by Sophie Ehrhardt