Drew Park

Warde Terrace & Melville Drive, Fairfield, Fairfield County, Connecticut

Directions:

Merritt Parkway north to exit 44; turn left and at the light turn right onto Black Rock Turnpike; turn left onto Fairfield Woods Road; turn right onto Burroughs Road; turn left onto Warde Terrace; park on Melville Drive on the left or along Warde Terrace across from the park on the left. 

Trails:

12/01/2005. On a cold early morning Ceferino Santana, dog Sonar and I parked along Melville Drive just before its dead end.  Half this small park is lawn with space for community gardens with a picnic table and some benches. The other half is wetlands and woods.  The park is across the street from Parish Court elderly housing. 

The path through the woods starts at the southeastern end of the lawn part of the park.  The entrance path heads parallel to a fence around the high school football field.  A very wide path heads from this entrance path right through the middle of the woods over to the other dead end of the split Melville Drive.  Off to the left on this wide path is a long, narrow vernal pond.  We passed by the wide path to the end of the entrance path.  Here we found a trail marked by some white arrows.  We followed this short trail in a loop over to that wide path and turned right following it to the dead end of Melville Drive.   To return we picked up a short trail marked with red arrows that walked near the large vernal pond and then back to the entrance path.  Dr. Patrick L. Cooney.   

PLANT LIST:
Dr. Patrick L. Cooney, 12/01/2005

Trees:
Acer platanoides (Norway maple)
Acer rubrum (red maple)
Acer saccharum (sugar maple))
Betula lenta (black birch)
Betula populifolia (gray birch)
Carya sp. (hickory)
Nyssa sylvatica (tupelo)
Platanus occidentalis (American sycamore)
Prunus serotina (black cherry)
Quercus alba (white oak)
Quercus palustris (pin oak)
Quercus rubra (red oak)
Quercus velutina (black oak)
Sassafras albidum (sassafras)
Taxus sp. (yew)

Shrubs:
Clethra alnifolia (sweet pepper bush)
Euonymus alatus (winged euonymus)
Forsythia sp. (golden bells)
Ligustrum sp. (privet)
Lindera benzoin (spicebush)
Lonicera sp. (honeysuckle)
Rosa multiflora (multiflora rose)

Vines:
Celastrus orbiculatus (Asiatic bittersweet)
Euonymus fortunii (Fortune's euonymus)
Smilax rotundifolia (round-leaved greenbrier)
Toxicodendron radicans (poison ivy)

Herbs:
Alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard)
Artemisia vulgaris (common mugwort)
Glechoma hederacea (gill over the ground)
Phytolacca americana (pokeweed)
Solidago spp. (goldenrod)
Taraxacum officinale (common dandelion)     *

Grasses:
Panicum clandestinum (deer-tongue grass)
Setaria faberi (nodding foxtail grass)
(bamboo)

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