A significant tract of open space has been preserved in Sandy Hook.

Newtown Forest Association (NFA) recently received the deed to 73 acres known locally as Snake Rock Farm, located at 109 Berkshire Road. The protected land lies along scenic Zoar Road, extends to properties on Lone Oak Meadows Road, and connects with other NFA property in the Cobbler's Mill subdivision.

This gift from the Anne and John Howat family increases protected land in that area. The generous donation was the result of more than a decade's work between the landowners and NFA. Anne and John Howat had lived on the property, and chose years ago to leave their farm to NFA.

In 2006, and at the request of the Howat family, several NFA board members met with the family to discuss conservation options to ensure the family homestead would remain undeveloped.

NFA next received a letter from Anne Hadley Howat, the donor family matriarch, noting, "On Earth Day (2007), it seems appropriate to report that the Howats signed new wills leaving the Snake Rock Farm property to the Newtown Forest Association."

They made the decision with their daughters, Karen and Laura.

On August 20, 2009, the family of Anne Hadley Howat donated to NFA a 68-acre conservation easement over the family's homestead, encompassing all of the Snake Rock Farm except for the house and the adjacent five acres.

John Howat died on June 23, 2015. His wife died less than six months later, on January 5, 2016. On September 22, 2017, the deed was recorded, transferring Snake Rock Farm to NFA.

The NFA specifically views the acceptance of the Snake Rock Farm as critical to the protection of a diverse ecosystem that directly abuts 33 acres of NFA property it already owns from prior donations. NFA's property also abuts approximately 16 acres of town-owned open space.

With the addition of Snake Rock Farm there is now a 120-acre tract of land that will forever serve as a wildlife refuge with diverse habitats and a reminder of the town's agrarian history. The Snake Rock Farm property includes forestland, meadows, and wooded wetlands.

"The property is so rich in natural resources and has passive recreation components and we are honored to have this rare opportunity to preserve it," said NFA President Robert Eckenrode. "Properties like this do not come along every day and it's great we were in the right place and the right time in honoring the Howats' wishes in preserving the farm."

NFA properties "are in everyone's neighborhood," Mr Eckenrode said. Maintaining the rural character for future generations, he added, is paramount.

NFA Treasurer Guy Peterson states, "We are eternally grateful and honored that Anne and the entire family has entrusted the Snake Rock Farm to the NFA to preserve in perpetuity and that the beauty and solace that Anne's family enjoyed for more than a century will be shared with our community now and forever. In all of my interactions with Anne she always spoke so deeply of her love of the Snake Rock Farm, and I hope the NFA will exceed her expectations of how we care for this preserve and share it with our community for all of our guests to fall in love with it as Anne did."

The meadow preservation provides important habitat to ground nesting birds and butterflies and is of critical importance, as it one of the fasted depleting habitats due to development and reforestation. The mixed hardwood forest, which dominates the site, contains numerous mature white oaks that have exceptionally high conservation value and support a wide diversity of birds and other wildlife.

The land has been under the forest association's care, but has not yet been opened to the public. NFA will open the Snake Rock Farm Preserve to the public once the boundaries and trails are posted, a parking area is prepared, and trail hazards are remediated.

Karen Howat, Anne's daughter, said she is looking forward to seeing the trails opened for the public.

"There is a wonderful network of farm roads and trails throughout the property," she said, although the added it also feels "most peculiar to no longer have a foothold in Sandy Hook."

Snake Rock Farm will become NFA's largest Sandy Hook-based preserve. The association is looking forward, representatives said, to sharing the preserve with the community sometime in the spring of 2018.