Hollenbeck Preserve

Page Road, Falls Village, Canaan, Litchfield County, Connecticut

Directions:

From the intersection of Route 112 and Route 7 in Falls Village, go 2.5 miles north on Route 7. On your left will be Page Road. Just a few hundred yards up this road (maybe a tenth of a mile) is a small sign at an open field. This is Hollenbeck Preserve and you just pull your car off of Page Road and park on the grass.

Hollenbeck Preserve located in Falls Village, CT is a bird sanctuary created by the Nature Conservancy that offers a nice open field walk through tall grass and thick brush. The preserve sits in a very scenic part of Connecticut surrounded by rolling hills. Hollenbeck is an open field hike that eventually makes its way into the cover of woodlands. But this hike is primarily a hike through open fields and through some soggy areas created by the waters flowing through the landscape.

 

Difficulty: Easy

Main Attractions: Nature Conservancy preserve, bird sanctuary, open fields, watershed, nice views.

http://www.berkshirehiking.com/hikes/hollenbeck.html

Animals:

deer, turkey, and quite possibly fox or coyote

6/17/2006.  On a mini-vacation out of the Travel Lodge at Great Barrington, MA, Rosemary, Cefe, Carl and I pushed our way through the tall grass.  It was a little tough on our Jack Russell terrier since he is so small and the grasses and other plants so tall.  When we were there parts of the field were quite wet.  Phragmites, a typical wetland grass, grows here. 

On our way back, we found somewhat of an informal path that was relatively easy to walk, but going in we had to push the vegetation down to get through in spots.  We got to the woods where we thought it would be drier, but no, it was swamp-like.  Swamp cabbage was the common herbaceous plant here. 

On the far side of the small woods is a ditch with plenty of mosquitoes in the summer.   The gang just wanted to get the heck away from there as fast as possible.   Dr. Patrick L. Cooney. 

PLANT LIST:
Dr. Patrick L. Cooney, 6/17/06 = plant in bloom on date of field trip.

Trees:
Acer rubrum (red maple)
Carpinus caroliniana (musclewood)
Fraxinus americana (white ash)
Juniperus virginiana (red cedar)
Populus deltoides (cottonwood)
Quercus spp. (oak)

Shrubs:
Berberis thunbergii (Japanese barberry)
Cornus amomum (swamp dogwood)
Cornus racemosa (gray dogwood)
Rubus sp. (blackberry) *
Salix sp. (willow)
Spiraea alba var. latifolia (meadowsweet)
Viburnum dentatum (hairy arrowwood viburnum)
Zanthoxylum americanum (common prickly ash)  ?

Vines:
Parthenocissus quinquefolia (Virginia creeper)
Toxicodendron radicans (poison ivy)

Herbs:
Amphicarpaea bracteata (hog peanut)
Apocynum sp. (dogbane)
Chrysanthemum leucanthemum (ox-eye daisy)  *
Cirsium arvense (Canada thistle)  *
Erigeron annuus (daisy fleabane)  *
Galium mollugo (wild madder)  *
Geranium maculatum (wild geranium)  *
Hieracium aurantiacum (orange hawkweed)  *
Iris versicolor (blue flag)
Oxalis sp. (yellow wood sorrel) *
Pastinaca sativa (wild parsley)  *
Plantago major (common plantain)
Potentilla simplex (common cinquefoil)  *
Prunella vulgaris (self-heal)  *
Ranunculus acris (tall buttercup)  *
Rumex crispus (curled dock)
Rumex acetosella (sheep sorrel) 
Sisyrinchium sp. (blue-eyed grass)  *
Stellaria longifolia (long-leaved stitchwort)  *
Symplocarpus foetidus (swamp cabbage)
Thalictrum pubescens (tall meadowrue)  *
Trifolium hybridum (alsike clover)  *
Trifolium pratense (red clover) *
Veratrum viride (swamp hellebore) 
Vicia cracca (cow vetch)  *

Rushes:
Juncus effusus (soft rush)

Sedges:
Carex intumescens (bladder sedge)
Carex ovales type (ovales type sedge)
Carex stricta (tussock sedge)
Carex vulpinoidea (fox sedge)
Eleocharis sp. (spikerush)
Scirpus atrovirens (dark-green bulrush)

Grasses:
Anthoxanthum odoratum (sweet vernal grass)
Dactylis glomerata (orchard grass)
Holcus lanatus (velvet grass)
Phleum pratense (timothy grass)
Phragmites australis (giant reed grass)

Ferns:
Equisetum arvense (field horsetail)
Onoclea sensibilis (sensitive fern)
Osmunda cinnamomea (cinnamon fern)
Polystichum acrostichoides (Christmas fern)
Thelypteris palustris (marsh fern)

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