Former Eagleville School House
South Eagleville Rd
Mansfield, Connecticut,
Thurs.1:30pm to 3:30pm.
The full color lithograph
of a new painting of the Gristmill
by artist Charles McCaughtry,
is on sale at the Trust Office.
More Information >
Wolf Rechlin’s respect for trees seems to be genetically
ingrained in him.
His paternal grandfather carefully shaped planks of
wood into the staves for revolutionary, elongated barrels
that aerated water as they moved, enabling live fish to be
successfully transported in Germany in the mid-1800s.
His father, Emil Rechlin, taught him how to plant and then
fell a tree with a handsaw, and plane the lumber to build
barns for the family’s dairy farm on Waterman Road in
Lebanon.
For the last 24 years, Rechlin and his wife, Edwina,
have lived three miles down the road from his family’s homestead in a home they built in the middle of a 104-
acre woodland sanctuary, on land that’s been in his family
since 1949. There, they’ve served as stewards of the land,
planting, thinning, and harvesting timber and operating a
Christmas tree farm, all of which earned Rechlin the
“State Tree Farmer of the Year” designation by the National
Tree Farm Association in 2002.
In October, the couple made certain their property
would retain its pristine character -- lush with stands of
red oak, white and black oak, hickory, birch, and larch –
intersected by two brooks and a pond, and home to bird
species ranging from Baltimore orioles to tanagers,
They sold the development rights to the town, the Connecticut
Forests and Parks Association, and Joshua’s
Trust. The plan was to create a lasting legacy that honors
the memory of Rechlin’s late father.
“He’d certainly approve of it,” Rechlin simply says.
Both Wolf and Edwina graduated from the University of
Connecticut and moved to Glastonbury in 1965. They
raised their son and daughter there and lived for two decades
while watching their rural environment give way to
dozens of houses. It made them feel “closed in,” Edwina
says.
Long interested in preserving the land, the Rechlins
were among the first people in Lebanon to take advantage
of Connecticut’s Public Act 490, enacted in 1963, which
allows farm, forest, or open space land to be assessed at its
use value rather than its fair-market or highest and bestuse
value.
“The Trust feels that collaborative projects with towns,
land trusts and State agencies is becoming an important
tool in the preservation of valuable open space,” said
Joshua’s Trust President Warren Church.
“Last year the Trust helped Ashford and the DEP to preserve
the Crooke Orchard. Joshua's Trust is currently
working with the towns of Ashford, Willington, and state
agencies to preserve over 500 acres of valuable farm and
forest land in those towns.”
For the Rechlins, the conservation easement allows
them to continue living in their house, and actively enjoy
all the pleasures their woodland sanctuary affords: hiking,
bird watching, and an abundance of flora and fauna.
“You’re close to nature; you’re very aware of what’s
going on and you don’t take it for granted,” Edwina
Rechlin says.