One Friday in June, 10 families gathered on the Wilton Land Trust’s newest preserve, Chestnut Meadows, for the organization’s final event of the spring. Tucked in the shade of an old tree, attendees of the Trust’s Books and a Blanket program were welcomed and introduced to the new location at 183 Ridgefield Rd. Organizers said it was the first time Chestnut Meadows was used for an event and they were excited to showcase the preserve and introduce the public to its offerings.
“The ‘Books and a Blanket’ event invites our youngest community members to enjoy captivating stories and creative crafts in nature. This vibrant collaboration between the Wilton Library, Wilton Go Green (WGG), and the Wilton Land Trust is cultivating a generation that values both the written word and the world around them, fostering a sense of community and environmental stewardship that will last a lifetime,” Wilton Land Trust Trustee Lori Fusco said.
Originally a Wilton Land Trust Program, Books and a Blanket has been a partnership with the library and WGG for the past two years. The free program is geared towards children ages five and under and is hosted about four times a year, aiming for an immersive, educational opportunity for families and their little ones to experience learning in the great outdoors.
“Through our in-house programs and collaborations with community partners, we are excited to provide a wide range of educational and enriching experiences, about 30 a year, such as our ‘Books and a Blanket’ initiative, to nurture a deeper appreciation for the natural world,” Wilton Land Trust Executive Director David McCarthy said.
Books and a Blanket offers three activities: an interactive story time presented by the Wilton Library, an up-cycled craft brought by Wilton Go Green, and a hands-on walk through a meadow led by the Wilton Land Trust.
Amy Lilien-Harper, head of Children’s Services at Wilton Library, opened with a reading of The Very Lazy Ladybug by Isobel Finn and Jack Tickle, accompanied by a puppet performance of different animals. She often included the children, allowing them to connect and fully experience the story by getting up or making sounds an animal would make. She followed up with Sitting in My Box by Dee Lillegard, and some interactive songs to close.
“Books and a Blanket provides such a great opportunity for us to reach and connect with families in our community. We’re so happy that everyone enjoys spending time with us in the Wilton Land Trust’s lovely open spaces,” Lilien-Harper said.
Wilton Go Green volunteer Denise Reznik brought a recycled craft for the children to do, with the intent to show families how to find joy in things one already has, exercise creativity, and reduce waste as much as possible. Reznik presented attendees with focus finders — frames cut out from cereal boxes — that the kids could color to help them find things they like. They were told to think of them as a live picture frame, moving about to focus on one small thing. Reznik explained that in a world that appears so big to young children, they often struggle with zeroing in on one subject, and the frames would help focus their attention on a primary subject.
“Reflecting on our partnership with Books and a Blanket reminds us of a quote from David Sobel, environmental educator, and author: ‘Give children a chance to love the Earth before we ask them to save it,'” WGG President Tammy Thornton said. “Wilton Go Green’s mission is to engage, educate, and inspire green living in all areas of our lives, including the lives of children. Books and a Blanket gives WGG the opportunity to interact with children and families in a way that we hope allows them to love our Earth through simple upcycled crafts that can inspire them to look at items differently and think about reuse even before recycling.”
Real World Example of Climate Change
That Friday also happened to be one of the hottest days of a heatwave, which Land Trust officials said was likely a side effect of climate change and rising carbon emissions — presenting another reason why environmental education is fundamental humans and all other living beings.
According to the Land Trust, understanding how human actions are creating massive disturbances in the delicate balance of the earth’s systems is essential for a habitable world. Although 2023 was the hottest year on record, according to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administrtation’s (NOAA) National Centers for Environmental Information, 2024 is already on track to break that record.
Just a few of the effects from the overall increases in global temperatures are greater weather extremes, including increased flooding and hurricanes, hotter summer temperatures, rising sea levels and temperatures, fluctuations in snowfall, and changing habitable zones for humans and wildlife.
Caelah Kennedy, a University of Vermont environmental studies major who is interning with the Wilton Land Trust, said she’s learned that climate change is inevitable — but what matters is how well we can reduce the impact.
“There are things to be done as a community that can lower individual impacts, like lowering overall consumption, buying local and supporting farmers, creating green architecture, implementing reusable resources, carpooling and using public transit, and voting for government officials who will make the necessary changes,” she said. “Awareness and understanding are key for the right kind of change.”
WLT’s New Meadow a Big Environmental Contribution
The Chestnut Meadows preserve is one of the WLT’s special sites as it is an active effort to restore the American chestnut tree. In pre-colonial times, the American chestnut served as a key ecological feature in North America. It became a popular species for human use as it provided consistent mast years and the wood was straight-grained and rot-resistant.
A foreign blight from Southeast Asia wiped out the American chestnut, but fortunately a portion of former root systems continued to sprout. In partnership with the American Chestnut Foundation, the WLT has planted 80 trees of a planned 100-tree grove so far and is excited to partake in the restoration of this great species.
Land Trust officials say that maintaining wild spaces like Chestnut Meadows is critical, as they provide natural aesthetic rural vistas and vital habitats for many species that do not live in forests. Meadows like these in New England have to undergo annual or bi-annual mowing so they don’t eventually turn into forest. A part of WLT’s environmental stewardship and education is the conservation of threatened natural spaces and their ecological benefits.
Those efforts are part of the Wilton Land Trust’s mission to protect Wilton’s distinctive natural, scenic, and historical landscapes through dedicated conservation and stewardship.
“As a community-focused land trust committed to preserving open spaces, we greatly benefit from our partnerships, which help protect biodiversity and promote environmental awareness and education,” McCarthy said. “Collaborating with our amazing community partners has strengthened our conviction that the future depends on cultivating a strong connection between children and nature. Together, we are planting the seeds of environmentalism, nurturing a brighter tomorrow, and advancing the mission of the WLT.”
Visit the Wilton Land Trust website for more information about the organization.