KENT, Conn.—Attendance at Monday’s Kent Land Trust community picnic soared this year as sunny skies kissed the hills and valleys for the first time in weeks.
“People are out,” said KLT Executive Director Connie Manes with satisfaction as she surveyed a field full of people enjoying free picnic fare, children’s activities, and surveying the information booths manned by volunteers from town nonprofits.
On the other side of the field, the Joint Chiefs, a musical trio that has held forth at the picnic for many years, was playing to an appreciative audience.
“It is truly a community event,” said Manes. “We wouldn’t be able to do it without all the volunteers.”
Information booths included the KLT’s own table, which provided information about its three-year restoration project at the East Kent Hamlet Nature Preserve.
The KLT’s Stewardship Chairman Angus Gracey said the organization received a grant in January to help with the project, which will establish an early successional habitat. The grant was provided by the Connecticut Land Conservation Council through the Climate Smart Farming Agriculture and Forestry program.
KLT will additionally partner with Sarah Lang of Conundrum Farm to grow plugs using ecotypic seeds harvested on KLT’s nearby preserves for the project.
Nearby were tables with materials explaining the local effort to perpetuate the Purple Martin population in the region and another set up by the Rex Brasher Association, which is working to establish a museum on the former homestead of the esteemed ornithological artist.
Brasher (1869–1960) was one of America’s great bird artists. He left a vast body of work, including nearly 1,000 original paintings and descriptions of every bird species in North America. The association’s mission is to allow his work to inspire a new generation of bird enthusiasts.
Mason Lord, who manned the next table has a different kind of mission. His goal is to inspire young people to explore different trades in an effort to “build the next generation of hands-on creators, makers and problem solvers” through his nonprofit organization, TradesUp.
TradesUp sponsors workshops during the summer—the next is July 12 at the Eric Sloane Museum when young people will be introduced to “plumbing Basics—as well as SPARK, a large gathering of craftspeople and tradesmen planned for Oct. 25, also on the museum’s grounds.
A trade of another kind was promoted by the Kent Dispatch’s own table, which welcomed young reporters to explore the career of journalism.
