CLC History
CLC History in Brief
1986 – 2001
Nancy Phelps Blum and her husband John were the main catalysts for the founding of the CLC in 1986. The first meetings of their new Conservancy took place in Nancy Phelps Blum’s kitchen sitting room in the former Phelps Tavern.
She was a descendent of the original settlers of the town, and her house “looked like you were still in the 18th century,” recalls Dan Strickler, a founding trustee and one of its longest-serving. The first Board had an enthusiastic group of people who wanted to preserve the character of their town while celebrating and exploring the natural world surrounding them.
Nancy, the visionary first president, led by example: in 1975, more than a decade before the Conservancy was founded, she and John and Frank Egler had already made a joint gift of 394 acres to The Nature Conservancy. She and her family continued their generosity by granting the CLC easements on a total of 59 additional acres, plus a Greenbelt easement, which restricts development, along parts of Route 183, Phelps Flat Road and Sandy Brook Road.
As Dan Strickler so aptly observed, she “laid the groundwork for the organization to build on in future years.” Sharing the Phelps’s infectious enthusiasm, many others donated their time and resources as well.
For more CLC history (1986 – 2001) see the
Summer 2016 CLC Newsletter >>
In 2009, The Nature Conservancy, which had been given the 394-acre Phelps Research Area parcel before the Colebrook Land Conservancy even existed, decided to formally return ownership to local hands. As Dan Strickler noted, this was proof of The Nature Conservancy’s faith in the CLC’s stewardship, as they had been overseeing the property for them for the past decade.
The following year, another smaller but important parcel of 7 acres along Sandy Brook Road adjacent to the brook and the Kitchel Wilderness area was donated by the Faraway Hill Trust to the Conservancy. The Farmington River Coordinating Committee generously offered matching funds to remove an existing structure on the land, returning the property to an entirely natural state.
Looking back at the past 30 years, CLC trustees and volunteers can point to some real achievements in protecting land, stopping unsightly and harmful development, protecting watersheds and viewsheds and roadways and sharing knowledge and love of nature with local townspeople.
To date, the CLC has acquired 728 acres and holds voluntary conservation easements on a further 576 acres. For a town the size and population of Colebrook, it is an indication of the commitment of its members and the support of the community. A substantial list of people have donated land and given easements on their property.
For more CLC history (1987 – 2017) see the
Spring 2017 CLC Newsletter >>
The Colebrook Land Conservancy
Post Office Box 90
Colebrook, Connecticut 06021
info@colebrooklandconservancy.org
Our Mission
Preserve and conserve the special and unique characteristics of Colebrook—rural, historic and scenic—using accepted land conservation techniques and education in cooperation with the Town, the community and other groups.