Joshua's Trust Pigeon Swamp Preserve, Lebanon, CT

Pigeon Swamp Preserve

Lebanon, CT Pigeon Swamp, a Joshua's Trust preserve

Photo by Dan Donahue

Pigeon Swamp is a 135-acre preserve in Lebanon, CT, that was given to Joshua's Trust by Dr. Mervyn H. Little and his wife, Dr. Olga A. G. Little. The Littles were medical pioneers in Eastern Connecticut. Their concern for the protection of the land and their friendship with two long-time Trust members, Dr. Sam Dodd and Dr. Frank Bird, led to their generous gift of this preserve in 1966.

The name Pigeon Swamp refers to the passenger pigeons whose flocks once filled the skies before they became extinct. They came to the 40-acre marsh and feasted on beech nuts, abundantly provided by the adjacent thick stands of American beech trees.

The property hosts second-growth deciduous forest, old pasture and shallow emergent marsh. Three miles of level trails take the visitor through a variety of habitats ( marsh, swamp, forest, and old pasture). Of historic interest are the remains of an old house foundation, mill, dam and sluice on Pigeon Swamp Brook. A grist mill was in operation there as early as 1777.

Lebanon's Big Pond, featured on our properties page, is a 23 acre pond, whose shoreline forms the north-east border of Pigeon Swamp preserve.

The preserve is being managed primarily as wildlife habitat, and ongoing restoration of old pastures may be observed. In Southern New England, early succession habitat is one of the most unusual habitats. Here you will observe pioneering species that support wildlife, like fruit-bearing red cedar and black cherry trees, groves of staghorn sumac and patches of speckled alders.

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