Community Profile

Summary

In 2005 Colchester, Connecticut, was named the 57th best place to live in America by Money Magazine. Through its history, Colchester has evolved from an agricultural community to one of early industry and now is a rural/suburban community with a growing number of family and individual-run farms, a thriving business district and a significant commuter population. Colchester has many natural resources including rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, forests, wetlands, and open space. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 49.8 square miles, of which 49.1 square miles is land and 0.7 square miles, or 1.49%, is water. Among the many waterways are the Salmon River, Jeremy River, and Dickinson Creek, which is spanned by the Lyman Viaduct. The town has numerous state parks/state forests (Salmon River State Park, Day Pond State Park, Salmon River State Forest, Babcock Pond Wildlife Management Area, Airline Trail system and Airline Trail Spur which is linear multi-use trail system converted from old rail trails. Colchester also has a number of parks and preserved open space, including Ruby and Elizabeth Cohen Woodlands (206 acres) with a Butterfly Pollinator garden (2014) and Children's StoryWalk garden (2019) to as well as other gardens in town where native plants for pollinators are being added. Colchester is the first town in Connecticut and the 36th in the country to become certified as an NWF Community Wildlife Habitat in 2010. This worthy designation came after more than a year of work by town residents, businesses, local government and nonprofit organizations to certify more than 130 properties as community wildlife habitats. These included 110 homes, four schools, four farms (including one vineyard), three businesses, one place of worship and 14 parks or preserves. The small team of CWHC volunteers earned a GreenCircle Award in 2011 from the State of Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection for the accomplishment of Colchester becoming an NWF Community Wildlife Habitat. In 2019, when Doug Tallamy, Ph.d. University of Delaware, presented "Restoring the Little Things that Run the World" to members and guests of the Connecticut Horticultural Society, the Community Wildlife Habitat of Colchester was on hand with an educational display. An article on the Community Wildlife Habitat of Colchester was in the Summer 2019 CHS newsletter along with an article summarizing Doug Tallamy's presentation. Read both articles at: https://cthort.org/newsletters/2018-2019/CTHort-Newsletter-Summer2019.pdf The project team is focused on activities and education to help people rediscover nature to ensure the ongoing quality of life and environment in their community, and encourage them to Garden for Wildlife and Pollinators. To see more photographs of our Colchester community wildlife habitat go to FLICKR page: https://www.flickr.com/groups/colchesterwildlife/