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On what should have been a beautiful late May morning, a dedicated crowd of local residents, land trust members, and public officials gathered at the Alice Newton Street Memorial Park in Woodbridge for a “Conservation Conversation” hosted by the Woodbridge Park Association (WPA) and the Connecticut Land Conservation Council (CLCC). We were instead greeted with a day that was cold, windy, overcast, and threatening rain. New England weather likes to keep us on our toes, but this didn’t stop people from showing up to hike through the forest and learn about the management project being undertaken in the heart of their town.

Located right in the center of Woodbury, Alice Newton Street Memorial Park is a 105-acre gem of protected open space. It is an understandably beloved local spot featuring mixed hardwood forests, wetlands, streams, and a small meadow. With multiple trailheads and being an easy walking distance from Woodbridge’s Human Services Department, the Town Library, and the regional high school, it serves as an irreplaceable oasis and outdoor classroom.

Incorporated all the way back in 1928, the Woodbridge Park Association is the third-oldest land trust in Connecticut. In their original Articles of Association written nearly 100 years ago,the association’s purpose was to acquire land for the preservation of wildlife and plants, to make trails accessible to the public, and crucially for “the planting and care of trees in accordance with the principles of scientific forestry”. Nearly a century later, WPA is still using the best available “scientific forestry” to protect the health of their forest.

Forest management can sometimes look a bit jarring or destructive to the untrained eye when trees first come down. However, this event proved that transparent communication changes everything. Thanks to thoughtful community outreach, this project has received a remarkably warm and positive public reception. Neighbors aren’t seeing a disrupted forest; they are seeing a living laboratory in action.

The walk focused on an 8-acre project site within the park. While the overstory contains a mix of American beech, smooth bark hickories, red and white oaks, and red maple, the understory tells a different story. It has become heavily dominated by dense, sapling-sized American beech trees that are severely diseased. Compounding the problem, the understory is choked with aggressive invasive species, namely, Japanese barberry, winged euonymus, and multiflora rose. If left alone, the native trees and understory would stand no chance of regenerating.

This project is the first step towards executing Alice Newton Memorial Park’s comprehensive 10-year Forest Management Plan. Formally titled Beech Treatment for Forest Resilience, the project aims to reduce the impacts of invasive species and disease across a total of 19.5 acres, actively working to increase long-term carbon storage, structural complexity, and wildlife habitat value.

Because the forestry world is still actively learning about how to combat the dual threats of Beech Bark Disease and the relatively new Beech Leaf Disease, WPA with the assistance of the CT Agricultural Experiment Station has turned this site into an intentional experiment:

The Control Site (1.4 acres) section utilizes passive management, meaning it will be left entirely alone to let natural processes play out. It serves as the baseline.

At the Active Management Site (6.6 acres), various silvicultural methods have been implemented to see what works best to suppress disease and invite native biodiversity back. In different areas of the project site, diseased beech was felled to create “gap expansions” that let sunlight hit the forest floor. Other sections are utilizing mechanical thinning from above, a shelterwood harvest, and a seed tree harvest designed to protect the genetic stock of potentially resistant beech. 

By comparing these active zones against the untouched control site, the Agriculture Experiment Station hopes to answer critical questions: Is there an effective way to control these rampant beech diseases? Which method works best? Does active intervention truly achieve greater species and structural diversity than leaving nature to take its course?

We were incredibly fortunate to have a panel of experts guiding us through the chilly woods. The walk was organized by WPA Board Members Nate Case, Catherine Wick, and Andrea Urbano (who also bridges the worlds of local government and ecology by serving as a Woodbridge Town Selectman and working professionally for CT DEEP Forestry).

Leading the tour was Private Forester Eric Hanson, who authored the park’s Forest Management Plan and is directly overseeing the active forest stand improvements. We were also joined by Dr. Elizabeth Ward from the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, a leading expert who oversees state forest health and directly monitors the experimental beech treatment plots right here in the park.

As Eric and Andrea led us from one treatment zone to the next, they explained the rationale behind their strategies. Dr. Ward shared insights into the project’s timeline, and how the long-term monitoring of these plots will yield data for years to come.

One of the most impactful components of this project is the educational signage posted throughout. WPA has installed highly descriptive signage at the entrance and at each specific treatment site. As hikers walk the public trails, these signs clearly demystify the forestry work, explaining exactly what is being tested and why. This emphasis on public education is part of what made the project such a great fit for a Climate-Smart Stewardship grant through CLCC. This site isn’t just saving a localized forest in Woodbridge; it is acting as a blueprint.

Forestry is a long game and requires patience, we won’t see the impact of this project overnight or even in a year. But in a few years, the benefits of this vital work will be undeniable as the patchwork of disturbances will rebound into new growth, ushering an abundance of species into the forest.

WPA plans to share more detailed data and host future public informational events as the project progresses. For now, we extend a massive thank you to the Woodbridge Park Association, the dedicated town officials who braved the wind and cold with us, and the passionate volunteers who have dedicated so much time and energy to this project.