 | GET YOUR HANDS DIRTY Growing up on a family farm meant getting our hands dirty each Spring. Rituals included tilling the Earth, preparing beds, pruning old growth, planting seeds, and dreaming of a bountiful harvest for our table and the local farmer’s market. Like many others, though, my family’s farm is now gone forever. Protecting productive farmland is critical for our environment, economy, heritage, and sense of community. Between 2012-2017, Connecticut lost 13% of its farmland and 8% of its farms. Steep Rock prioritizes supporting local farms and protecting farmland in perpetuity. Of the lands SRA protects, 700 acres (12.6%) are actively farmed on more than 40 properties. We have restricted agricultural rights on 370 additional acres. And our very own Judea Garden grows and distributes over 3,500 pounds of fresh organic vegetables to food banks and neighbors in need. April is Earth Month, let’s celebrate by getting our hands dirty doing good conservation work for our community and the planet. See you on our trails (and in the garden)... | | Brian Hagenbuch, Ph.D.
Executive Director | | | | | | 2021 Impact Report On behalf of SRA, we want to thank you for supporting an incredible year. We're pleased to share with you highlights in our first annual Impact Report. We made significant progress on our mission to preserve critical habitats in Washington and to steward our properties for public enjoyment and wildlife protection. >Explore | | | | Double Your Impact Dollar for dollar, your gift to Steep Rock will be matched up to $15,000 during Give Local on April 26 & 27. Every gift will help Steep Rock maintain the trails you love, protect threatened lands and wildlife, feed neighbors in need through Judea Garden, and enhance the community's connection to nature through activities and programs >more | | | | We Love Our Volunteers! April is National Volunteer Month! A huge, heartfelt Thank You to all the Steep Rock volunteers who make sure our trails are safe, who contribute data to our wildlife studies, who grow and distribute healthy food to those in need, who lead our many different programs, who staff the tables at events, and who dutifully serve on our governance body and ensure we uphold our organizational responsibilities. April also kicks off our 2022 Volunteer season. Please join us in doing the good work that benefits you, our community, and the planet >more. | | | | Camping Season Begins Steep Rock Preserve’s camping season opens April 15! We offer tent camping at three different sites located right along the River. We invite you to come experience Steep Rock in a new way! For more information and to reserve online now >more. | | | | Staying Safe Spring is here! Amidst the peeping wood frogs and vibrant blooms of trout lilies and bloodroot, we have black bears, ticks, and other wildlife roaming the landscape in search of food after a long winter of rest. Learn how to Stay Safe this spring while you explore the beauty and rebirth of the season. | | | | | | Judea Garden: Spring Cleaning April 9&10, 1:00pm - 4:00pm
Judea Garden, The Giving Garden, raises and distributes organically grown produce to our neighbors in need. Help us get our 14th season off the ground by helping prepare the Garden for the upcoming season (and maybe even sowing some seeds). Details and registration info here >more | | | | Monthly Trail Work Party April 16, 9:30am - 12:30pm
Put your hands (and not just your boots) on the trails this hiking season by joining Steep Rock Association’s (SRA) Monthly Trail Work Party. The Monthly Trail Work Party meets at 9:30 a.m. the third Saturday of every month from April through October. Details and registration info here >more | | | | WEC's Roadside Clean-Up
Help make Washington extra green & extra clean by contributing to the Washington Environmental Council’s Roadside Clean-Up from April 21-25. SRA Staff will be cleaning the roads bordering Macricostas Preserve. Celebrate Earth Day in Washington
Join Steep Rock at the Earth Day Celebration on Sat., April 23rd in honor of Washington Environmental Council’s 50th anniversary! Events will be held at The Judy Black Memorial Park >more. | | | | SRA Leading Discussion at Mugs & Minds April 23, 1:00pm - 2:30pm
The Gunn Memorial Library’s “Mugs & Minds” program invites you to an Earth Day discussion on Aldo Leopold’s essay, The Land Ethic, with Brian Hagenbuch, Executive Director of SRA. The essay calls for moral responsibility and caring for the natural world. You will receive a copy of Leopold’s The Land Ethic upon registration. Registration required, for info >more | | | | Judea Garden Early Planting Day April 24, 10:00am - 1:00pm
Thanks to volunteers like you, Judea Garden grows and distributes organically grown produce to help our neighbors in need. Help us start the growing season! Plant those cool weather plants and get a jump start on the season and harvesting. Details and registration info here >more | | | | Create Your Conservation Legacy May 2 at 7:00pm
Join Suzanne Walsh Brown, Esq., Chair of Trusts and Estates at Murtha Cullina for this free webinar on estate planning and planned giving hosted by Steep Rock Association and the Litchfield Hills Greenprint Collaborative. This webinar will focus on how to maximize planned giving to benefit your family and nature in the Greater Litchfield Hills. >sign up | | | | Restoring Riparian Habitat May 7, 9:00am - 10:30am
Join Rory Larson, SRA's Conservation Science Manager, on a level, 3-mile round trip hike in Steep Rock Preserve for the first offering in our new Land Management Series. We will examine two complex riparian habitat restoration projects that SRA recently completed, discuss their significance, and highlight how we did it from start to finish. For more information and to register >more | | | | Save the date!
Rossiter Run 5K Race and Fun Run May 15
This year's Rossiter Run 5K Race and Fun Run will take place on Sunday, May 15. Check our website for upcoming information and registration info! | | | | | | | | You can support all our activities by donating to Steep Rock via credit card, gifts of stock, cryptocurrency, or your Donor Advised Fund. Thank you! | | | |  | Steep Rock Association
PO Box 279, Washington Depot, Connecticut 06794
860-868-9131 • info@steeprockassoc.org | | | | | | | | | |
