Lyme Pinnacle Conservation Area Grows

Lyme Pinnacle is one of the town’s most iconic landscape features, and the conservation area is popular with hikers, cyclists, and picnickers. Now, the addition of a 47-acre parcel to the Lyme Pinnacle Conservation Area has provided a secure trail connection to Franklin Hill Road, thanks to landowners Kendall Hoyt and Manning Rountree, who bought the parcel adjacent to land they had previously conserved. UVLT worked with Kendall and Manning to amend the prior conservation easement and incorporate the new land.

Access from Highbridge Road through hillside fields to the open summit of the Pinnacle was protected in 2018 following a townwide fundraising campaign, which enabled UVLT to construct trailhead parking and establish a fund for mowing to maintain views. At the same time, a popular informal trail crossed unprotected land to the east of the summit, which remained at risk of sale and development. Now that, too, is protected.

The newly conserved parcel includes two wetlands and 1,428 feet of frontage on an unnamed stream, as well as several acres of open field habitat and almost half a mile of frontage on Franklin Hill Road. It offers recreational connections between numerous trail loops and scenic dirt roads in the area, just in time for outdoor enjoyment this summer!