Phone +1 203-268-7200 | Area 121 ha | |
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Similar Devil's Den Preserve, Collis P Huntington State Park, Brainard Homestead State Park, Saugatuck Reservoir, Mohegan State Forest | ||
Trout Brook Valley State Park Reserve is a public recreation area covering 300 acres (120 ha) in the New England town of Easton, Connecticut. The state park offers opportunities for hiking and hunting and is managed by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
The 300 acres (120 ha) acres owned by the state of Connecticut are a part of the larger 1,009-acre (408 ha) contiguous Trout Brook Valley Preserve (also known as the Trout Brook Valley Conservation Area) parcel in the towns of Easton and Weston, Connecticut, bordering the southeast corner of the Saugatuck Reservoir and managed by the Aspetuck Land Trust.
HistoryEdit
In 1994 the Bridgeport Hydraulic Company (BHC) began to entertain the notion of selling the 730 acres of undeveloped property it owned which bordered the southeast corner of the Saugatuck Reservoir. In 1997, Aquarion (BHC's parent company), BHC and a developer signed a contract to develop 130 luxury residences and a golf course on the property. In 1998 the Aspetuck Land Trust and the Coalition to Preserve Trout Brook Valley spearheaded an initiative to save the parcel from development. They were joined in the effort by Connecticut Fund for the Environment (CFE), Citizens for Easton, the Easton garden club, hiking and mountain biking groups, birding enthusiasts, naturalists and others including actor/philanthropist Paul Newman and his family. In September 1999 685 acres of the Trout Brook Valley land was purchased from BHC/Aquarion with $5.3 million raised by the Aspetuck Land Trust and the Nature Conservancy and $6 million from the State of Connecticut. 45 acres in neighboring Weston Connecticut were purchased by the municipal government.