The purpose of the New Fairfield Land Trust is to engage in and otherwise promote the preservation of natural resources, principally in but not limited to the Town of New Fairfield.

The natural resources we intend to protect include water resources, wetlands, woodlands and the plant and animal life therein. The trust will also seek to protect local farmlands as well as unique historic and scenic sites. These activities will be done for the benefit of the general public of our local community. We will work with town officials and citizens to maintain the rural New England character of our village.

To accomplish our goals, we will acquire land or conservation easement by gift, trade or purchase in order to hold land as open space in perpetuity. The trust will only acquire lands that are appropriate towards the fulfillment of our goals. We will manage our land and easements in accordance with the purpose for which they were acquired. We will apprise our community of our acquisitions and will make land available for educational and passive recreational purposes where these are consistent with the protection of out natural resourced.

Some of the activities we intend to provide access for will include educational functions for our citizens, student and scouts, leasing of farm lands, environmental research, hiking, birding, cross country skiing, bicycling and picnicking.

The Beginning of the New Fairfield Land Trust dates back to the summer of 1996. First Selectman, at that time, Cheryl Reedy, had mentioned, in her weekly column, that any citizens interested in investigating whether a Land Trust would work in New Fairfield could contact Peggy Day.

Earlier that year two other events took place that lead to that notice. First, a campaign to preserve Pine Hill Road by designating it as a Scenic Road had been voted down at a Town Meeting. Peggy and other area residents had been activists trying to drum up support for this campaign. The Board of Selectmen had also proposed the Town purchase of the Dunham property (50+ acres behind the Grand Union property) but it, too, was voted down.

At a subsequent B.O.S. Meeting, Selectman Vinnie Montesano said that it was a shame that we did not have a private organization like a Land Trust which many other Towns in CT already had.

The First Selectman then contacted Peggy and asked if she would be interested in organizing an independent study group, and she was. So in August of 1996 five New Fairfield residents met and agreed to form a committee for the purpose of researching what a Land Trust was, what one could do for our Town, and whether we felt a Land Trust could be successful in New Fairfield. The five participants were William McCann, Kevin Hicks, Peggy Day, Russell Strilowich, and Gary Hellman. The latter three were Pine Hill area residents and had been supporters of the Scenic Road ordinance campaign.

Kevin Hicks, a banker who had recently moved to town, was interested in becoming active in community service. I owned a local business and had lived in town for 12 years. I had recently been involved in a grassroots opposition to a local development and wanted to become more involved in a wider reaching conservation effort. Peggy, an attorney, headed up and hosted our monthly meetings as we began our research. The individuals would gather information from national and local organizations and report back to the committee.

In talking with Naromi Land Trust's (Sherman) President Dick Donohoe, I found that we were the fourth group from New Fairfield to contact him over the last 15 years. He was very helpful and supportive as were the other organizations. Before very long we had not only decided that a Land Trust could indeed be of great benefit in protecting the character of our town, but that we would be the group to create it.

Over the next few months we wrote our mission statement and by-laws borrowing from other local land trusts, while Peggy drew up our certificate of incorporation. We learned through our research that public support and interest were key factors for the success of a land trust. We created a membership brochure and started plans for a town meeting to introduce ourselves and inform our community of the benefits of preserving open space.

Our efforts drew support from several areas. First our local printer, New Fairfield Printing, offered to print our membership brochures. Then, the Citizen News distributed the brochures at no charge and published articles about our new organization as well. The Board of Selectmen agreed to help us with incorporation fees and to allow us use of the Senior Center to hold our informational meeting.

In July of 1997 we incorporated with the five committee members as the first Board of Directors: William McCann as President, Kevin Hicks as Vice President and Treasurer, and Peggy Day as Secretary. We held our meeting a month later. The Trust for Public Lands put on a presentation on the positive effect Open Space has had in helping to control escalating property taxes. Dick Donohoe spoke about Naromi Land Trust's thirty-year history in Sherman. We signed up many members at the meeting including two future Directors, Karen Huber and Bill Parrilla.

Two future land donors were also at that meeting, Tina Redecha and Dorthea Fox.

All in all it was a very successful launch; all we needed was land. We approached the B.O.S again this time with the request that the Town, who had been so supportive, set the first example with a land donation. The board members Cheryl Reedy, Vinnie Montesano, and Art Azzarito agreed to consider a donation of Open Space lands and asked us to make a proposal.

Russ gathered the information on town-owned open space and he, Kevin and I walked most of them together. We made our recommendation and the B.O.S. called a Town meeting to vote on it. The vote was positive and we ended up with our first 27+ acres.

In less than a year since our incorporation we had received our 501K non-profit status with 33 acres and 60 members. By the end of our 2nd year we had rallied over 200 members and acquired nearly 55 acres of land.