Salisbury Association opens environmental exhibit on rewilding

SALISBURY — A new exhibit at the Salisbury Association explores ways to reintroduce native plants, animals and landscapes to the region.

“Rewilding” looks at conservation efforts large and small, including steps homeowners can take on their own properties.

For “small landscapes” such as gardens and backyards, homeowners can remove invasive plants and replace them with native flowering plants, shrubs and trees.

Other measures include adding window stickers that are visible to birds but unobtrusive to people inside, helping to reduce avian crashes into homes.

Minimizing outdoor lighting also cuts down on light pollution that impacts insects, and not allowing cats to roam freely protects the bird and small rodent populations.

The exhibit text points out that a century ago, northwest Connecticut was largely deforested as a result of trees being cut for agriculture and for the charcoal and iron industries. As a result, only about one to three percent of the local forest is truly “old growth.”

Land trusts, including the Salisbury Association Land Trust, have been acquiring undeveloped properties in an effort to reconnect forest habitats with each other. The “Follow the Forest” initiative, for example, is a multi-state program that connects forested areas from the Hudson Highlands to the Canadian border.

The exhibit covers river bank and aquatic habitat restoration efforts by groups such as the Housatonic Valley Association and Trout Unlimited. This includes removing old dams and fixing culverts so that fish and other animals can move freely from one side of a stream that runs under a road to the other.

And, the exhibit covers the reintroduction of native animals, such as the New England cottontail rabbit, which has been largely supplanted by a lookalike species, the Eastern cottontail rabbit.

A reception for the exhibit will be held at the Salisbury Association building at 24 Main St. in Salisbury on Friday, Sept. 4, from 4 to 6 p.m.