Lonetown Marsh Sanctuary Lonetown Road

Lonetown Marsh Sanctuary
Across from the Redding Elementary School, Lonetown Road, Redding, Fairfield County, CT
11 acres

Directions:

Route 107 to the Redding Elementary School. From Bethel it will be on your right a half mile to three quarter mile from the Redding Country Club. From Route 53 it will be a mile and a half on the left. Park at the school.

From Route 7 heading turn right onto Route 107 north; merge into Route 53 north; turn right onto Lonestown Road; pass by the town hall at Redding Center and park in the parking lot of the Elementary School on the left. The marsh is across from the parking lot of the elementary school.

History:

1968 -- the first acquired open space with public funds in Redding; previously known as Murphy's Swamp.

Trails:

.5 miles of trail; white-blazed. The trail is primarily board walk as it passes by the pond. Then it stops and goes up hill and then to the left for a short ways. The boardwalk is rotting a bit in several areas.

PLANT LIST:
Dr. Patrick L. Cooney (March 15, 2002) very brief stop; again on 3/21/02 (* = blooming)

Trees:
Acer pensylvanicum (striped maple)?
Acer rubrum (red maple) *
Acer saccharum (sugar maple)
Amelanchier arborea (shadbush)
Betula alleghaniensis (yellow birch)
Betula populifolia (gray birch)
Carpinus caroliniana (musclewood)
Carya ovata (shagbark hickory)
Fagus grandifolia (American beech)
Fraxinus americana (white ash)
Liriodendron tulipifera (tulip tree)
Picea abies (Norway spruce)
Populus deltoides (cottonwood)
Quercus alba (white oak)
Quercus rubra (red oak)
Tilia americana (American basswood)
Ulmus americana (American elm)

Shrubs:
Berberis thunbergii (Japanese barberry)
Cephalanthus occidentalis (buttonbush)
Chimaphila maculata (spotted wintergreen)
Clethra alnifolia (sweet pepperbush)
Cornus amomum (swamp dogwood)
Forsythia sp. (golden bells)
Hamamelis virginiana (witch hazel)
Ilex verticillata (winterberry holly)
Lindera benzoin (spicebush)
Rosa multiflora (multiflora rose)
Rosa palustris (swamp rose)
Salix discolor (pussy willow) *
Spiraea tomentosa (steeplebush)
Vaccinium corymbosum (highbush blueberry)

Vines:
Celastrus orbiculatus (Asiatic bittersweet)
Toxicodendron radicans (poison ivy)
Vincetoxicum nigrum (black swallowwort)

Herbs:
Alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard)
Peltandra virginica (arrow arum)
Potentilla sp. (cinquefoil)
Pyrola rotundifolia (round-leaved shinleaf)
Symplocarpus foetidus (skunk cabbage)
Typha latifolia (broad-leaved cattail)
cuckoo flower

Sedges:
Carex laxiflora type (sedge)
Carex pensylvanica (Pennsylvania sedge)
Carex stricta (tussock sedge)
Scirpus cyperinus (woolly grass bulrush)

Grasses:
Phragmites australis (giant reed grass)

Ferns and Fern Allies:
Onoclea sensibilis (sensitive fern)
Osmunda cinnamomea (cinnamon fern)

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