Halaby Nature Preserve, Trumbull

Halaby Nature Preserve is in Trumbull near the Shelton border, just off of Isinglass Road. I've driven along Isinglass Road many times and had no idea there was a preserve back behind those houses. Access is at the end of Red Fox Lane, and you don't even have to be a Trumbull resident.

I came in search of treasure, this time a geocache. I'm usually looking for letterboxes because I like the hand-carved rubber stamps they contain, a form of folk art, but this particular geocache had a puzzle that called out to be solved, and I was curious about the preserve.

The Trumbull Land Trust has done some nice work on this preserve, most of which is low and moist. There's an unmarked trail with a couple of sturdy boardwalks across the wet areas. Christmas Ferns were peaking out through the melting snow along one of them.

Although the preserve is only 27 acres, it nearly connects with significant water company lands around Trap Fall Reservoir in Shelton, which are teaming with wildlife. The diversity of plants and animals in this preserve may therefore be greater than if it were in isolation, a situation biologists referred to as 'fragmentation.'