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Is restoration possible?
Oct 01, 2025
Stiltgrass
Dee Salomon
I’ve had my head down, picking stiltgrass strand by strand, bunch by bunch. It is too dry to use the burn torch, so the work needs to proceed by hand.And I may have already failed; the offending party has started to go to seed. and there is rain in the forecast (hooray, truly).
Without assembling a team in the next day or two, there will be enough of this invasive plant remaining that its seeds will spread back to areas it reached this year. My own private Sisyphus.
The three acres of marshy area that are host to this year’s stiltgrass invasion had largely been cleared of the “big five’” woody offenders: bittersweet, barberry, multiflora rose, privet and buckthorn.With help, I had reduced the area of phragmites by about a third and, although the coltsfoot has not yet been thwarted, plenty of native plants have grown into the area vacated by the woody invasives. It has given me hope of being able to “restore” the wetlands. I use quotes around the word, as true restoration is impossible to achieve: The ash trees that kept the tulip poplar, black willow and maples company will most likely never return. And who knows what else was here before the mayhem arrived, except for the swath of spring-blooming swamp cabbage, which could easily be many hundreds of years old.
So here I am, by myself, sifting through aster and goldenrod and native grasses, searching for the hairlike shoots of stiltgrass, bending down and using my fingers to find their source at the ground so that I can pluck them out with the root intact. I am aware that the activity is a bit obsessive, but overall this obsession with ridding invasives has created large, productive habitats for plants and animals — and has informed my writing and speaking.
The solitary work also begets obsessive thinking about the conundrum we face concerning the state of nature around us, and what we can do about it. I have mostly kept these thoughts to myself, fearing they may be counterproductive to my effort to inform and persuade people to get involved in saving native habitats on their land.
Here are my thoughts around stiltgrass.Even if I am able to get all the stiltgrass off our property, it still surrounds the three acres on our property where it has currently become an issue.It is on the roadside and in my neighbors’ yards and will easily reseed — by wind and on the feet of animals — the areas where hours were spent picking it, obviating this year’s work.That means, from now on, every year a large part of the summer season will be consumed by picking stiltgrass before it goes to seed.Not just by me, but also by the weekly gardening assistance I am so grateful to have.Which means that the normal cadence of maintenance — picking garlic mustard, narrowleaf bittercress and pulling young woody invasives — will be put aside.And that, of course, means that I will start to get a resurgence of invasives in those areas.
If I leave the stiltgrass alone, within a few years it will dominate the swamp and quickly spread into the woods.Which means that the work I’ve accomplished over the past 15 years will be for nothing.Over time, the stiltgrass infestation will smother seedlings and turn the naturally acidic soil alkaline — slowly, then quickly — killing off the trees and other native vegetation along with their ecosystem services: food, shelter, reproduction requirements for the native animals that rely on them.
Unlike humans, native animals do not have the adaptive capability to switch from eating, say, acorns to eating stiltgrass.Animals die.Biodiversity comes to a halt.Monocultures of invasive plants prevail.
Native habitats are comprised of ecosystems which, in their original state, were self-sustaining. The arrival of European settlers — and then Western-style development —disrupted these systems by introducing different species of plants and animals. So too did the European mindset that nature’s richness is at our disposal. Attempts to protect and “restore’”native habitats will be viable only as long as humans can maintain them. As with any man-made garden, it exists because it is both created and maintained.
There has been solace for me in knowing I have given years of effort and funds in service of plants and animals —a sort of reparations for the human destruction of the gift that nature provided.
And today, as I put the finishing touches on this essay, there are three people in the wetland picking stiltgrass.
I just can’t let it win. Yet.
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Onlookers gaze at the 1875 C.H. Brown Stationary Steam Engine in the Industrial Hall, originally consigned to run a lumber mill in New Hampshire.
Alec Linden
KENT — The Connecticut Antique Machinery Association’s annual Fall Festival was as lively as it gets over the weekend, with the September sun sparkling on a motley collection of steam engines, tractors, locomotives and more.
John Norcross, co-director and show chair for the festival, said that Saturday’s crowds brought the 13-acre parking field that sits below the Association’s bucolic museum grounds to full capacity, which is a notable feat.
While Saturday saw the biggest turnout, the whole weekend, including Friday, brought thousands of the machine-curious to the festival to hear the hiss, whistle and chug of CAMA’s facilities in full swing.
“This weekend you see everything in action,” said Norcross, ranging from blacksmithing and saw-milling demonstrations to runs of CAMA’s treasured “No. 5” Baldwin locomotive steam engine, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.
Diesel exhaust fumes and the cozy smell of wood smoke wafted through the air as fascinated attendees wandered from the extensive exhibits of the Hubbard of Mining to the McCarthy Forge, where blacksmith and coppersmith Ian McCarthy pounded away at a red-hot metal rod over an anvil. Throughout the grounds, over 75 vendors touting both antiques and newly handcrafted goods alike, and likewise well over 75 exhibitors demonstrating equipment. The bright reds and greens of dozens of well-maintained tractors and other machines made for an eye-catching centerpiece to the core circuit of the showcase.
The Industrial Hall is fully operational for only four events throughout the year, with its over 20 stationary steam engines eating 22 gallons of fuel and 245 gallons of water each hour during a show day. CAMA’s Chief Stationary Engineer Frank Vopasek is proof that these machines are not simply a vestige of the past, but living history.
“He’s a book of knowledge,” said Norcross, explaining that he still works in the steam industry in New Jersey when he’s not moonlighting as Santa in the Macy’s Day Parade.
Concessions, ranging from candy apples and ice cream to hamburgers, were offered by the Kent Lions Club, St. Luke’s Masonic Lodge No. 48, and Kimberly Farm, with breakfast provided thanks to the #11 Kent Boy Scouts.
Collaboration is the key, Norcross explained. “This is a team effort,” he said. “Everyone’s a volunteer and it just comes together.”
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Jammin’ at Cornwall Days
Oct 01, 2025
Simon Markow
Live music filled Cornwall’s commercial centers from Sept. 26 to 28 for Cornwall Days. Sponsored by the town Economic Development Commission, bands performed in Cornwall Bridge and West Cornwall throughout the weekend. At the Wish House on Saturday, a crowd gathered on the lawn in the afternoon to take in the sounds of Crown Back Funk Trio, seen above.
Matthew Wallace battles Max Bjorkman for the puck.
Lans Christensen
By Lans Christensen
KENT — Saturday, Sept. 27, South Kent School 18U hockey hosted The Hotchkiss School’s varsity squad in a memorable exhibition match in which Hotchkiss won in an overtime shootout.
Leading up to the game, South Kent was undefeated with eight consecutive wins to start the 2025-26 season and a cumulative goal differential of 55-6, per the team wesbite. The Hotchkiss Bearcats traveled down from Lakeville to start their preseason with a non-league game.
It would be hard to put together two more equally competitive squads inside South Kent’s Stockdale Arena.
The first period was nonstop action at both ends of the ice but ended without any scoring.
About seven minutes into the second period, Hotchkiss’s Ryan Murray scored, followed a minute later by his teammate Austin Groves.
In response, South Kent quickly evened the score with a pair of goals and the second period ended with a 2-2 tie.
Murray scored again in the third for Hotchkiss and then South Kent’s Andrew Mohesky managed a goal in the final minutes to end regulation with a 3-3 tie.
A four-minute overtime yielded no score. The game ended with a shootout: one player at a time against the opposing goalkeeper.
Back and forth, the first four attackers from each team were unsuccessful. Then Jake Doherty of Hotchkiss managed to put one in the net, ending the game in dramatic fashion.
Jake Doherty ended the shootout with a goal for Hotchkiss to win the game against South Kent School 18U hockey Saturday, Sept. 27.Lans Christensen
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