Sanctuaries

From the May 2010 Issue of The Crest

Perhaps the hottest topic being discussed around Hartford Audubon this year has been the disposition of the Niederwerfer house. Since the house has expenses even though it is empty there is some urgency to the discussion. Unfortunately, many times the discussion lumps the house with the three acres of land it sits on and the adjoining 17 acre Idlenot Farm Sanctuary. A common thread of thought is that because a birding visit to Idlenot will likely discover few birds and it certainly is not a place to have a Hartford Audubon scheduled trip we might as well get rid of the twenty acres of land when we get rid of the house.

That argument takes the current situation and assumes it will continue.

Hartford Audubon is 100 years old and we have owned Idlenot Farm for 36 years. It is a pretty big assumption to believe the current Idlenot Farm situation will continue for 100 years. We need to consider those 100 years before we make any decision on Idlenot Farm.

One point to keep in the back of our minds is that getting rid of land is largely a non-reversible act for HAS today. Most of the lands we own were tied to the tax deduction we provided as a nonprofit. Most

towns did not have Land Trusts and we did not have much competition. Today Land Trusts aggressively seek new lands. Perhaps a member may someday give us land, but that may be our only opportunity.

Another point is that good things happen to land in Connecticut when it is left alone. Pretty much any piece of dry land will go through a successional process that ends up with a mature forest.

We can do this at Idlenot Farm simply by stopping the summer mowing of the field for hay. It is a small step to convert a maturing forest into a sanctuary for birds, mammals and reptiles. If we forbid hunting, trapping, and vehicles we are pretty much done.

The Purpose of the Hartford Audubon Society was written and established in 1949. It says we will own and operate sanctuaries for the preservation and protection of wildlife. Idlenot qualifies. Idlenot Farm, like all our sanctuaries, has been largely risk and problem free. We have done work at sanctuaries, including Idlenot, but that is mostly voluntary.

Should we choose, there are opportunities to enhance the successional process at Idlenot Farm. For instance, we may hold the successional process at the early successional shrub-land habitat stage which the Connecticut DEP is promoting because it is declining in Connecticut. This would require removing very small trees to keep the place looking like a power line cut. Fortunately, the first stage after the hayfield would be the shrub-land. We would see what birds we get before we had to choose between maintaining the shrubland habitat or letting it go to mature forest.

We can do no work at Idlenot Farm and help satisfy our Purpose. That is a pretty good deal. The place has value to Hartford Audubon.