Residents Help Clean Up Old Bridge Sanctuary

For the celebration of the launch of our 100^th, on Tuesday, August 17, all 100 Patches chipped in to do something for their communities. In Brookfield, local residents joined Patch editors and reporters to pick up trash on the trails of Old Bridge Sanctuary, on the coast of Lake Lillinonah.

In two hours, 18 volunteers filled nine large garbage bags (provided by the Parks and Rec Department, along with a place to dump them) with broken glass, aluminum cans, cardboard boxes, plastic bags, random debris, yards of tangled fishing line and some truly toxic items better left unmentioned.

Despite the trash, the preserve itself is great quiet spot by the lake. There's a lot of residential development around, but the houses disappear a short way into the woods. Along the shore, groups of rocks just off the bank make perfect spots to fish in the shade and a number of pits have been built in cleared areas for evening fires. Off-trail are remnants of past settlement, with stone walls and grills and rusted barbed wire (keep your head up).

The sanctuary's beauty was certainly marred by the amount of trash strewn everywhere along both trails and floating between the rocks and tangled roots jutting out along the shore. Much of the debris was simple litter, with no visible signs of regular dumping. Garbage left behind out of laziness or thoughtlessness is inexcusable and, unfortunately, unstoppable, though adding trash receptacles at the head of the trail may go a long way toward keeping the preserve from being overwhelmed between cleanings.

Special thanks to Brookfielder Mark Gerber and his daughter Jessica, entering her junior year at Brookfield High School, Melissa Pisciotta and Natalie Langlois, both of Danbury, and Conservation Commission Chairman Alice Dew for their help, as well as Brookfield Patch reporters Amy Landisman and her three daughters, Wendy Mitchell and her son Cullen and daughter Ruby, and Debra Siepmann; and Monroe Patch Editor Bill Bittar, Southbury Patch Editor Chris Duray, Danbury Patch Editor Mark Langlois and Regional Editor Karen Ali.