Jackson Peck Easement

Sharon, CT 702 acres

In 2025, Sharon Land Trust (SLT) and Northeast Wilderness Trust jointly preserved more than 700 acres in northwestern Connecticut as the Jackson Peck Easement.

The land was transferred to SLT by former shareholders of the Jackson Peck Land Company, which stewarded the property for nearly 100 years before seeking its permanent protection.

The easement was overlaid on the SLT-owned land through the Wildlands Partnership, which protects more than 2,900 acres in Connecticut as of early 2026. Jackson Peck is Northeast Wilderness Trust’s first Wildlands Partnership project with SLT, and the first and only wildland in Sharon, a small but mighty boost to the just 0.8 percent of Connecticut currently conserved as wildlands.

“The preservation and conservation of the land in its natural state was the primary concern of the shareholders of the Jackson Peck Land Company when they made the decision to donate their shares, and thus the acreage on Sharon Mountain, to the Sharon Land Trust,” shared Caroline Herrick, shareholder and Treasurer of the Jackson Peck Land Company, in a press release. “Although much of the property was already under a conservation easement, it was becoming increasingly diﬀicult for the shareholders, a number of whom were descendants of the company’s founders, to give it the attention it deserved.”

The property rests among a matrix of conserved lands. To the Easement’s southeast is Housatonic Meadows State Park, while further east are the Appalachian Trail corridor and the 10,000 acres of Housatonic State Forest. Another SLT property lies directly south of Jackson Peck, while a National Audubon Society preserve sits north of the property. Together with the forever-wild core created by the Easement, the proximity of these lands creates a critical network for roving wildlife.

Plants and animals find plentiful habitat at Jackson Peck. The land offers a variety of forest classes, from young to mid- and late successional. There are multiple beaver ponds and meadows scattered around the property, where vibrant aquatic and semi-aquatic ecosystems give way to forested wetlands. The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection has identified at least six rare, threatened, or endangered species within Jackson Peck’s boundaries, all of which will now be spared under forever-wild protection from logging and development.