Text by Lauren Brown and Bill Horne. Maps provided by Pete Gloor.
In the summer of 2025, the Planning and Zoning Commission approved an application for a three-lot residential subdivision at 19-37 Gould Lane, a 12.8-acre property to the east of the Tilcon rail line (see map). Residential subdivision projects in Branford are required to set aside at least 10% of the property as open space, which is customarily conveyed to the Land Trust. For this application, the owner set aside about 1.5 acres of wetlands that abut a 5.5-acre parcel already owned by BLT.
In this case, the Town Planner also requested that the owner place a conservation easement on 7.4 acres that includes much of the large wetland area remaining within the house lots, which cannot be developed under Town regulations and state statutes, and that the Land Trust accept the easement. The owner and BLT agreed to do so.
A conservation easement is a mechanism for open space preservation where the owner gives up the right to develop or conduct certain specified activities (typically erecting structures, cutting trees and shrubs, dumping and other things with negative impacts on the environmental values of the property). In accepting the easement, the easement recipient acquires the right and responsibility to stop any prohibited activity and take action to remediate damage if a violation occurs. The most important aspect of a conservation easement is that it runs with the property, i.e. future owners are also bound by its terms. The Land Trust currently holds easements on all or part of 13 properties, and as we do for our own properties, we inspect all our easements every year to check for encroachments or other problems. The Gould Lane easement specifies that the BLT can access the easement area and a narrow strip of upland along the edge of the conserved wetland in order to conduct its inspections. The terms of the easement are part of the recorded deeds, thereby ensuring that future buyers are aware of the restrictions and the access provisions.
While many BLT members and other Branford residents are familiar with the roughly 25 Land Trust preserves and properties protected by conservation easements with trails and other recreational opportunities, well over half of BLT properties, like the those described here, are not suitable for hiking or other activities. Rather, they are undeveloped lands that are now conserved forever, for the benefit of our air, the climate, waterways, plants and wildlife. The importance of protecting the wetland on the Gould Lane property extends beyond the property itself. The open space set-aside and conservation easement connect several previously protected properties to the east and south, and the water leaving the site flows under Gould Lane into a small pond on another BLT property and from there under I-95 as it flows toward the Branford River (see map). Together, these properties form an important north-south green corridor in the eastern part of Branford.
We are privileged to permanently protect the ferns and sedges, the winterberry and spicebush, the salamanders and frogs, and the host of other species that call this habitat home.