A Rare Search On The Lordship Bluffs
Botanists Hunt For Seeds Of Rare Plants To Preserve Species
Botanist Lauren Brown (left), LIA's Christine Griffin (center) and botanist Dan Brubaker meet to search the Bluffs. Not pictured: Kelly Kerrigan, Stratford's Environmental Conservation Superintendent.
Learn more: www.NativePlantTrust.org
It was a sunny, hot September morning. Experts combed the Lordship Bluffs for hours, walking in a grid pattern from the Bluffs edge to high water mark on Russian Beach, in search of an elusive plant that was spotted there years ago.
On a peninsula jutting into Long Island Sound, Stratford’s nearly 10-acre Lordship Bluffs is acclaimed by conservationists and botanists as a treasure trove of native plants to preserve.
The Bluffs is managed in a land trust by the non-profit Lordship Improvement Association (LIA), a member of the Connecticut Land Conservation Council. The area covered by the LIA trust runs along Park Boulevard from Lordship Road to Spruce Street.
Several weeks before this hunt, the LIA was asked for permission for botanists Lauren Brown and Dan Brubaker to search for rare species.
Brown and Brubaker are Plant Conservation Volunteers with the Native Plant Trust, a non-profit conservation organization that partners with the Connecticut Natural Diversity Database to monitor populations of native plants throughout Connecticut.
The botanists sought to document the current location of the plants and collect seeds to safeguard their populations for the future.
To their request, the LIA replied “Of course!” And offered to join the hunt. In fact, the search would nicely dovetail the LIA’s multi-year Lordship Bluffs Restoration Project to identify and preserve native plants, and eradicate or control invasives (see more). So a date was set.
THE HUNT BEGINS ...
Early that September morning, Christine Griffin, chair of the LIA’s Environment and Education Committee, met Brown and Brubaker near the Bluffs. Kelly Kerrigan, the town of Stratford’s Environmental Conservation Superintendent - and no stranger to the Lordship Bluffs - joined them.
Brown shared a document that noted the species' location some time ago. And the search was on.
“Unfortunately, with the massive invasives, no specimens were found for seed collection,” Griffin reports.
“But the botanists were thrilled to find colonies of prickly pear cactus, pearly everlasting, wild asparagus, and a variety of asters,” Griffin adds. “These were two dedicated botanists.”
And despite not finding any very rare plants, the botanists were pleased with their visit.
“I was very impressed with all the work your organization is doing,” Brown said about the LIA’s preservation efforts at the Bluffs.
Lea Johnson, Director of Conservation for the Native Plant Trust, later added congratulations to the LIA for “the important work you're doing to manage invasive plants and preserve this beautiful and diverse place.”
ABOUT THE NATIVE PLANT TRUST
The Native Plant Trust is the nation’s first plant conservation organization, and the only one solely focused on New England’s native plants. Currently celebrating its 125th year anniversary, the trust leads the movement to conserve native plants in the wild and use them in designated spaces.
Visitors are welcome at its Garden in the Woods botanic garden in Framingham, MA. The trust also operates a nursery at Nasami Farm in western Massachusetts, and manages six sanctuaries in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont that are open to the public.
For more information, visit: www.NativePlantTrust.org.