Polly Brody Gets a Forest Road For Her 70th Birthday

By Dottie Evans

Some presents are too big to be wrapped.

Imagine that on your 70th birthday, your son says he wants to take you for a walk in your favorite bit of woods. When the two of you get there, you find a large group of friends and family, not to mention several state and town officials, waiting for you at the trailhead.

Despite the threatening rain, these people have gathered in your honor, and it turns out that your birthday present is a two-mile scenic road with your name permanently attached to it.

This is not a gift you can ever take home with you, but it is something for future generations to remember you by.

At one time in your life, you spent significant effort working to save this 800-acre forest from development. Now, your name will always be associated with it.

The time is 10 am, Friday, August 8, 2003, and the place is the Upper Paugussett State Forest, off Albert’s Hill Road and Echo Valley Road in northeast Newtown.

The occasion is the dedication of the Polly Brody Forest Road, and you are Polly Brody.

How 800-Acre “Mulliken Tract”

Was Saved In 1969

Although Ms Brody is now a Southbury resident, she spent many years living in Newtown and was chairman of its Conservation Commission between 1965 and 1968.

A biologist by training, she is an expert on all things avian –– from the body language of sea gulls to the annual migration of spring warblers. She has been a leader of countless bird walks, hawk watches, and Audubon Christmas counts, and she is a published poet as well as a naturalist.

During her earlier Newtown years, she had been accustomed to walking through this particular vast forest and former sheep farm with her mother, and she became alarmed when, in 1964, John A. Mulliken of New Canaan bought the entire 790 acres and announced his plans to develop it.

Immediately, the Newtown Conservation Commission led by Ms Brody set out to prevent this from happening. At first, she and her commissioners urged the town of Newtown to buy the tract. They even paid for a survey out of their own pockets. But the town failed to respond, so they approached the state.

A letter that Ms Brody had written during that time to Connecticut Governor John Dempsey was read aloud to the group on August 8 by Donald Smith, director of the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Bureau of Natural Resources, Division of Forestry.

Dated November 27, 1968, the letter urged the governor to support acquisition of the 800-acre Mulliken property by the state. These are excerpts of Ms Brody’s letter, written 35 years ago.

“You may be aware that the asking price for this particular property is $800,000… The acreage is a wooded peninsula, which possesses over four miles of shorefront along the part of the Housatonic River called Lake Lillinonah, just upstream of CL&P’s Shepaug Dam.

“This outstanding property has the physical scope to permit imaginative recreational use, in conjunction with the river, for years ahead, as increasing population will demand.”

Ms Brody went on to point out that $1,000 an acre was not too high a price to pay, and that the Conservation Commission of Newtown was supported in its goal by the Nature Conservancy, the Audubon Society, the Sierra Club, and Open Space Action Institute.

Thankfully, the governor and the state bond commissioner agreed the property should be purchased, and the Upper Paugussett State Forest became a reality. The land, with its many trails, its extensive shorefront, its scenic road, and its wild inhabitants was preserved forever.

A Scenic Road Is Dedicated

After DEP State Forester Donald Smith dedicated the road in Ms Brody’s name, Newtown First Selectman Herb Rosenthal spoke briefly, thanking Ms Brody for her foresight and determination in preserving the park, and he commented on its beauty and its value to future Newtown residents.

Ms Brody’s son, Chuck Brody, who lives in Wilton, described the events of that August 8 morning and spoke about what it meant to his mother.

“We arrived at 10 am, and it all happened pretty fast because they were all there waiting.”

“They” were State Representative Julia Wasserman, Mr Rosenthal, Mr Smith, Pat and Leon Barkman, Paula Chipman, Carol Titus from Ms Brody’s hawk-watching days, David Anderson, a local artist and photographer, and family members that had come from near and far. These included her son, Chuck Brody, and her grandson, Peter Brody, and her daughter, Brookfield resident Debbie Chen, with her children, Winona and Daniel Chen.

 “She said afterwards, this was the happiest day of her life. In a way, she gave this present to herself and to the rest of the town a long time ago,” Mr Brody commented.

Then he begged for a bit of “poetic license” in describing the following detail of the morning’s happenings.

“My mother and my grandmother used to go up that road about a quarter of a mile every spring to hear the first Louisiana waterthrush. They called it a sure sign of spring.

“On Friday, our little group walked up that same way, looking at plants along the road. We got to the special place where she used to hear the bird, and then we turned around to come back.

“Amazingly, the rain held off just that long. As soon as we left the spot, it started to sprinkle. By the time we were back at the cars at 10:20 am, it was absolutely pouring.”

Mr Brody preferred to believe that on his mother’s birthday, nature was doing its best not to spoil the party.