Joe Ruggiero is the current President of the Southbury Land Trust and has been since 2019. He was the 2025 Winner of the Pomperaug River Watershed Coalition’s Marc Taylor Award and the 2016 Housatonic Valley Association’s River Hero Award in 2016. He is an avid hiker, land steward, kayaker, and resident of Southbury, CT for the last 31 years. While he has been intimately involved with working on Dog Policy’s for local land trusts, he does not currently own a dog.