News & Events
Darien Land Trust’s 5th Annual Farm to Table Dinner
The Darien Land Trust invites you to the 5th Annual Farm to Table Dinner on Saturday, August 24, 2019, at Waterbury Field. Cocktails will be served at 6:00 p.m. and the al fresco dinner begins at 7:00 p.m. and it is BYOB (Rain Date: Sunday, August 25).
Waterbury Field is located in Darien, and parking is at Wee Burn Country Club, 410 Hollow Tree Ridge Road.
A locally sourced, creative New England menu offered by Tim LeBant Events of Schoolhouse at Cannondale will be served under twinkling lights at long tables in Waterbury Field. To purchase your wine for the dinner, please visit our sponsor, Wineport of Darien, located in the Goodwives Shopping Center. Recommended wine pairings will be announced along with the menu prior to the event.
The cost is $150.00 per person. Last year, this event drew 250 guests to celebrate the DLT’s contribution to the community with cocktails, dinner, and dancing to live music. Tickets sold out fast, so be sure to secure your tickets as soon as possible by filling out the form below. Your information is transmitted and processed securely via Stripe.
Water Conservation Survey
Click here for a brief survey that assesses residential water usage and offers tips on how to reduce consumption. It was developed by Nisha Nalawade, a senior at DHS who, through UCONN’s Conservation Training Partnership (CTP) Program, is working with the Darien Advisory Committee on Sustainability this summer. Nisha’s project will help the town in its application to become certified through Sustainable CT. Please take a moment to complete the survey (one time only, please) to provide data for her research. Thank you!
Trails Discovery Day 2019
Sunday, May 19th, 2019
11:00 am – 3:00 pm
Selleck’s and Dunlap Woods
The Darien Land Trust and The Friends of Selleck’s Woods invites you to a Free and Fun Family Event in the woods for all ages to reconnect with nature and learn about Darien trails! Plenty of parking at the end of Parkland Drive.
Activities include:
- Adventure Land with a zipline, rope bridge, stump walk and archery
- Nature trails with an interactive guided trail map
- Gnomes & Fairies in the Miniature Village
- Animals, amphibians and other creatures of the lake
- Face Painting
- Kids Crafts
- Ringside Grill Food Truck will be on location selling hamburgers, hot dogs and drinks
DIRECTIONS TO DUNLAP/SELLECK’S WOODS
(GPS 3 Parklands Dr)
Head towards Norwalk on the Post Road, turn right at Trader Joes/Rory’s on to Kings Hwy North. Immediately after you go over I-95, turn right onto Parklands Drive and continue past thebuildings to the entrance of the woods.
Panel Discussion: Sea Level Rise in LI Sound Communities
Thursday, April 4th, 2019
6:30 p.m.
Darien Library, Community Room
Save the Sound, Darien Land Trust & Darien Library invite you to:
SEA LEVEL RISE IN LONG ISLAND SOUND COMMUNITIES: THE COMING CRISIS
Our panel of experts will discuss climate change and the ramifications of sea level rise, and answer your questions on coastal erosion, property value decline, loss of coastal habitats, and potential loss of life due to flooding.
Moderated by Curt Johnson, President of Connecticut Fund for the Environment/Save the Sound, the panel includes:
- David Sutherland – Dir. of Govt. Relations, The Nature Conservancy
- Rebecca French – Director of Resilience, CT Department of Housing
- James O’Donnell – CT Institute for Resilience & Climate Adaptation
Wine and snacks will be provided by the Darien Library. The event is free and open to the public, but seating is limited. Please sign up below to let us know you’re coming by RSVP-ing via the link below.
https://www.tinyurl.com/SLRPANEL
A Guide to Restoring the Little Things That Run the World
Thursday, March 7th, 2019
7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Darien Library, Community Room
Join us as we discuss ways in which we can increase the insect population. This valuable population has been on a steady decline since 1974, but we will discuss ways in which we can make changes in our environment to help this population thrive. We’ll talk about how we can build beautiful landscapes that will support the pollinators, herbivores, detritivores, predators, and parasitoids that run the ecosystem on which we depend.
Presenter Doug Tallamy will remind us of the many essential roles insects play, and describe the simple changes we can make in our landscapes and our attitudes to keep insects on the ground, in the air, and on our plants.
For more information, visit the Pollinator-Pathway website.
About the presenter:
Doug Tallamy is a renowned author and professor in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware.
Co-sponsors:
We are proud to co-sponsor this event with the Darien Nature Center, The Garden Club of Darien, The Gardener’s Center & Florist, Rowayton Gardeners, the Norwalk Land Trust, the Tree Conservancy of Darien and the Darien Library.
October Film Series: “Wasted”
Join us at the Darien Library on Wednesday, October 24th, at 7 p.m. for a film screening of Wasted!.
The final installment of our October Film Series offers Wasted!, the Story of Food Waste, a feature-length documentary that will change how people buy, cook and eat food.
Through the eyes of chef-heroes like Bourdain, Dan Barber, Mario Batali, Massimo Bottura, and Danny Bowien, audiences will see how the world’s most influential chefs make the most of every kind of food, transforming what most people consider scraps and rejects into incredible dishes that feed more people and create a more sustainable food system. The film also features several food waste reduction stories all over the world including waste-fed pigs in Japan, a disposal program that has reduced household food waste by 30% in South Korea, and a garden education curriculum New Orleans. WASTED! The Story of Food Waste showcases forward-thinking leaders who show how each of us can make small changes – all of them delicious – to solve one of the greatest problems of the 21st Century.
This last installment of the October Film Series is co-sponsored by Darien Library, Planet New Canaan, The Darien Environmental Group and Darien Land Trust.
2018 Annual Meeting – Nov. 11, 5:00 pm
Regan Downey, Director of Education at the Wolf Conservation Center (WCC) in South Salem, NY., will be our featured speaker. Regan teaches many of the WCC’s onsite education programs and works with groups of all ages to develop engaging and interactive environmental education lessons. After college, Regan’s passion for conservation education brought her to the Wildlife Conservation Society where she worked in the Education Department for six months before accepting a position at the WCC as the Youth Education Coordinator. She became the Director of Education in 2018, and works closely with the WCC’s Executive Director to develop and execute various conservation and awareness-raising initiatives. Their most recent project emphasizes coyote coexistence and the WCC recently hosted a coyote lecture at the Mamaroneck Public Library, building off of their Coyote Awareness Day series at Muscoot Farm.
A short business meeting will precede the presentation by Regan Downey and DLT Members will be asked to approve a slate of Board of Trustees, including new Trustees Susan Balloch, Elizabeth Mathus, Michael Sgroe, and Timothy Stisser.
Refreshments will be available.
October Film Series: “BearTrek”
Join us at the Darien Library on Wednesday, October 17, at 7 p.m. for a film screening of BearTrek.
The third installment of our October Film Series offers “BearTrek”, an epic feature documentary following bear ecologist and conservationist Chris Morgan on a global crusade to four continents to discover the wondrous world of bears.
Join Chris as he uncovers the secretive nature of some of the world’s most endangered bears, meets the dedicated individuals racing to save them, and reignites his passion with every mile.
This film is co-sponsored by Darien Library, Darien Environmental Group, and Darien Land Trust.
More from the October Film Series
Our next and last film screening as part of the series hosted at the Darien Library:
October 24th – Wasted: The Story of Food Waste
Anthony Bourdain film about the 1.3 billion tons of food thrown away each year and possible solutions.
We hope you can join us and enjoy all of these exciting films on October Wednesdays!
October Film Series: “Bag It”
Join us at the Darien Library on Wednesday, October 10, at 7 p.m. for a film screening of Bag It.
Americans use 60,000 plastic bags every five minutes that we mindlessly throw away. But where is “away?” Where do the bags and other plastics end up, and at what cost to our environment, marine life, and human health?
Bag It follows “everyman” Jeb Berrier as he navigates our plastic world. Jeb is not a radical environmentalist, but an average American who decides to take a closer look at our cultural love affair with plastics. Jeb’s journey in this documentary film starts with simple questions: Are plastic bags really necessary? What are plastic bags made from? What happens to plastic bags after they are discarded? Jeb looks beyond plastic bags and discovers that virtually everything in modern society — from baby bottles, to sports equipment, to dental sealants, to personal care products — is made with plastic or contains potentially harmful chemical additives used in the plastic-making process. When Jeb’s journey takes a personal twist, we see how our crazy-for-plastic world has finally caught up with us and what we can do about it. Today. Right now.
The film is co-sponsored by BYO Darien and The Darien Library and Darien Land Trust.
More Films at the Darien Library:
October 17th – Bear Trek
An epic journey to find the most endangered bears and learn how to protect them.
October 24th – Wasted: The Story of Food Waste
Anthony Bourdain film about the 1.3 billion tons of food thrown away each year and possible solutions.
Please put these Wednesday evening films on your calendar.
Environmental Films in October: “A Plastic Ocean”
Join us at the Darien Library on Wednesday, October 3, at 7 p.m. for a film screening of A Plastic Ocean.
A Plastic Ocean is an epic global adventure following a filmmaker and a world record free-diver as they travel the earth discovering the shocking impact plastic is having on our oceans and the marine animals that live there.
Co-sponsors: Darien Environmental Group, Darien Nature Center, Darien Library, and Darien Land Trust.
After the film, there will be a short discussion led by Peter Linderoth, Water Quality Program Manager at Save the Sound.
More Films at the Darien Library:
October 10 – Bag It
A man whose life is changed when he makes a pledge not to use plastic bags.
October 17th – Bear Trek
An epic journey to find the most endangered bears and learn how to protect them.
October 24th – Wasted: The Story of Food Waste
Anthony Bourdain film about the 1.3 billion tons of food thrown away each year and possible solutions.
Please put these Wednesday evening films on your calendar.