WARREN, Conn.—The Warren Land Trust (WLT) has completed the acquisition of the 198-acre Tanner Farm Preserve on Route 341.
The acquisition and permanent protection of the land was completed in partnership with the Kent-based Northwest Connecticut Land Conservancy (NCLC), which will hold an agricultural conservation easement on the farmland portion of the property.
It has been a multi-year effort to conserve this significant property and furthers a 30-year effort by the Lake Waramaug Conservancy (LWC) and the Tanner family to improve and protect the health of the water resources on the farm.
The transaction was also facilitated by Yale University, which conveyed a long-held interest in a portion of the farm to ensure its permanent protection.
Owned and operated by one of Warren’s oldest farming families, which has held the land for nearly 250 years, the property will continue to be farmed while securing prime agricultural soils, extensive forestland, critical wildlife habitat and high-quality water resources.
Flowing through the farm, Sucker Brook is the largest feeder to Lake Waramaug—one of only two Connecticut Heritage Lakes. Protecting the riparian corridors of this cold-water stream helps sustain the lake’s clean water and sensitive ecosystem.
In addition to conservation benefits, the Tanner Farm Preserve will provide public access to a trail network that skirts the perimeter of the farm fields, features long vistas of the Warren Valley, and winds through upland forest. The trail network also allows for future connections to other Warren Land Trust preserves, the Wyantenock State Forest, and the Connecticut Blue-Blazed Mattatuck Trail.
As the project advanced the goals of numerous State of Connecticut and federal agricultural, environmental, and public recreation programs, funding was provided through a combination of state and federal grants. The Connecticut Department of Agriculture’s Farmland Preservation Program, together with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service, supported the protection of 128 acres of farmland. With this transaction, nearly 400 acres of farmland in Warren have been protected permanently for agricultural purposes by the Farmland Preservation Program.
The preservation of the remaining 70 acres of forest in the northern portion of the property was funded by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection’s Open Space and Watershed Land Acquisition Grant Program and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Highlands Conservation Act Grant Program.
Together with adjacent properties, the conserved 70 acres supports the Housatonic Valley Association’s Greenprint Collaborative “Follow the Forest” initiative, which focuses on conserving connected forest habitat while addressing climate resilience and habitat fragmentation.