Autumn

Fall is for walking, and among the many attractions in the lower Connecticut River Valley are the numerous and varied trails in the 1,000-acre Preserve, which one
can enter from the north via Ingham Hill Road in Essex, where there is public parking.

Deerfield River

With a largely undeveloped watershed stretching from the Green Mountains of Vermont to the Berkshire Hills and Pioneer Valley in western Massachusetts, the Deerfield River is one of New England’s most picturesque and historically significant waterways.

A Man’s Home is His Castle

From the deck of the Aunt Polly, William Gillette watched the passing green hills of the lower Connecticut River. It was 1913, he was sixty years old, and he had been thinking about retirement.

The Battle for Fenwick’s Shoreline

Surrounded by water on three sides -most dramatically by the Connecticut River to the north and east and by Long Island Sound to the south—the Borough of Fenwick is on the front lines of climate change.

Tales of a Connecticut River Ferryman’s Son

I put my hand out in front of me like I’m offering to shake and say: “How do you do, sir. I’m called JJ, just like my father, and his father, and his father before him. We’re all ferrymen here in Old Saybrook, and we’re all called JJ.”

Connecticut Waters

To those fond of the aqueous parts of the Constitution State, Connecticut Waters is a deep treat for the eyes and mind.

What’s For Dinner?

Plump and ripe with sweetness, the apples and gourds are ready to tease the palate with new flavors and aromas—a genuine departure from summer fare.

The Marsh Wren

How to photograph this flirt-tailed gremlin of the reeds?

Where Science and Faith Intersect

Faith and science should meet more often…when they do, good things can happen. The Episcopal Church of Connecticut and the Connecticut River Conservancy co-sponsored an event this summer along the banks of the Connecticut River.

Japanese Barberry

By now, knowledge that invasive plants are bad news is pretty widespread. Numerous articles and agencies cite “billions of dollars” in damages annually to agriculture and fisheries; they are the “leading cause” of population decline and extinction in animals.

My Forest Romance With Nyssa

Nyssa was a Greek nymph, and sylvatica means “of the forest.” So I will use feminine pronouns in this arboreal essay.

Dam Removals

It seemed like just another spring day when we stopped at the Salmon River, a tidewater tributary of the Connecticut River that splits the towns of Haddam and East Haddam, Connecticut.

Mabel Osgood Wright

Three miles from the Connecticut River, we stood in a circle under a tree in the garden of Emily Dickinson’s home, reading poems, passing a book around, no more than two or three feet from each other. The 1813 Amherst home built for her grandparents stood proudly in the sunshine, and the voices of another tour group filtered out.

The Beaver

It’s hard to believe that a furry rodent could drive exploration of an entire continent, but that is the case with the beaver.