Ernest Hillman Preserve and Lobdell Calf Pasture Preserve
High Point Lane off Hillside Road, Fairfield, Fairfield County, Connecticut
10.6 acres

Lobdell Calf Pasture Preserve; donor: Lobdell Family.

Directions:

Merritt Parkway north to exit 44; turn right onto Congress Street; pass by Burr Street and Mine Hill Road to make a right turn onto Hillside Road; drive 0.2 of a mile and turn right onto High Point Lane.  Drive 0.2 of a mile to the circle at the cul-de-sac.

Trails:

11/21/2005.  On a cool morning, Ceferino Santana, dog Sonar and I  park by the gate at the circle cul-de-sac on High Point Lane.  There is a narrow, short entrance path to a large field area surrounded on three sides by woods.  We had a choice of going straight across the field on the white trail or turning left and heading north on the white trail.  We chose to turn left and headed past a stone wall. (We figured we would be coming back via the white trail across the field from us.)  Came to the intersection with the red trail.  Here there is a sign about the Lobdell Calf Pasture Preserve.  We turn left, heading through an opening in a stone wall.  The path heads downhill and then loops around a large pond.  The red trail goes in a semi-circle loop coming back to the white trail.  We turned left to follow the white trail.  The noise from the nearby Merritt Parkway is quite loud.  The trail goes parallel with the Merritt Parkway a short ways and then heads upland where oaks dominate the landscape.  The white trail makes a loop that comes out at the field. We walked across the field back to the entrance path and then walked the short distance to our car.    Dr. Patrick L. Cooney.

PLANT LIST:
Dr. Patrick L. Cooney, 11/21/2005

Trees:
Acer rubrum (red maple)
Acer saccharum (sugar maple)
Betula lenta (black birch)
Carya ovata (shagbark hickory)
Carya sp. (hickory)
Fagus grandifolia (American beech)
Ilex opaca (American holly)
Juniperus virginiana (red cedar)
Liriodendron tulipifera (tulip tree)
Nyssa sylvatica (tupelo)
Pinus strobus (white pine)
Prunus serotina (black cherry)
Quercus alba (white oak)
Quercus palustris (pin oak)
Quercus rubra (red oak)
Sassafras albidum (sassafras)

Shrubs:
Berberis thunbergii (Japanese barberry)
Cornus amomum (swamp dogwood)
Euonymus alatus (winged euonymus)
Lindera benzoin (spice bush)
Lonicera morrowii (Morrow's honeysuckle)
Mitchella repens (partridgeberry)
Rosa multiflora (multiflora rose)
Rubus flagellaris (northern dewberry)
Rubus hispidus (swamp dewberry)
Rubus phoenicolasius (wineberry)
Rubus sp. (blackberry)
Vaccinium corymbosum (highbush blueberry)
Vaccinium sp. (a low bush blueberry)
Viburnum sp. (hobblebush)   ?
Viburnum dentatum (arrowwood viburnum)

Vines:
Celastrus orbiculatus (Asiatic bittersweet)
Euonymus fortunii (Fortune's euonymus)
Lonicera japonica (Japanese honeysuckle)
Smilax rotundifolia (round-leaved greenbrier)
Toxicodendron radicans (poison ivy)
Vitis sp. (grape)

Herbs:
Alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard)

Rushes:
Juncus effusus (soft rush)

Sedges:
Carex laxiflora type (loose-flowered type sedge)
Carex stricta (tussock sedge)

Grasses:
Setaria faberi (nodding foxtail grass)

Ferns and Fern Allies:
Osmunda regalis (royal fern)
Thelypteris noveboracensis (New York fern)