Writing the Land: The Connecticut River

“Writing the Land is an attempt to honor nature and our relationship with it in a way that is as equitable and transparent as it is deep and entangled. We intend to be as inclusive—to humans and places—as we hope the mantle of protection that land trusts offer can be. Our work will never be complete but gains strength, depth, beauty, and energy in a multitude of voices.” —-Lis McLoughlin, editor

This book features a foreword by David L. Deen, and a prologue by Richard Little

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Participating Partners:

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Silvio O. Conte Fish and Wildlife Refuge:

Nulhegan Basin Division, Pondicherry Division, Fort River Division, and Fannie Stebbins Unit

Connecticut River Conservancy

Northwoods Stewardship Center

Forest Park/ReGreen Springfield

Friends of Holcomb Farm

The Scantic River Watershed Association and the East Windsor American Heritage Rivers Commission

Park Watershed

Connecticut Landmarks

Praise for Writing the Land: The Connecticut River

A sweeping and poetical picture of New England's premier river, from Fourth Lake New Hampshire to Old Saybrook Connecticut on Long Island Sound. -Brendan J. Whittaker; Former Secretary of the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, and Former Chair of the Connecticut River Joint Commissions

This book folds intimate moments in the woods together with big-picture landscape ecology and conservation to capture wild places and opportunities for nature connection up and down one of the most beautiful – and most historically important – river valleys in North America. Through a juxtaposition of poems, essays, and photographs we are brought to the frontlines of conservation through multiple modes, giving us a holistic appreciation. Whether or not you live in the valley, the poetry inspires, the essays educate, and the locations will give you directions to explore. --Noah Charney, PhD; Assistant Professor of Conservation Biology, University of Maine; author of These Trees Tell a Story: the Art of Reading Landscapes

Rivers are a part of Earth's circulatory system--and we human beings take rivers to heart. They transport us, feed us, bathe us, offer us beauty and essential habitat. Here is an essential book that celebrates the great Connecticut River in prose and poetry and in so doing encourages us to care for a river that runs through the heart of Connecticut. -‑Margaret Gibson Poet Laureate of the State of Connecticut (2019-2022) ; Author of The Glass Globe and Draw Me without Boundaries

This slim volume elegantly complies with the area’s geologic history through recent conservation projects, information on local wildlife and habitats, photographs, and even maps of trails into a sort of naturalists’ travel guide to the Connecticut River watershed. It is all woven together by poets, who invite us to attend “the church of each rolling stream,/ where congregations of ferns meditate in prayer/ against choral backdrops from welcoming warblers” [excerpt from "Big Pondicherry Amphitheatre" by Rodger Martin]. This is a church which I, too, have found in some of this area’s tremendous public open spaces. --Julia Blyth, naturalist and resident of the Connecticut River watershed