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Photo courtesy of Wyndham Land Trust.


BROOKLYN — Former Brooklyn residents, Hadi and Cheryl Bozorgmanesh, recently donated 11.5 acres along Elliott Road to the Wyndham Land Trust.  Surprisingly, the couple had purchased the land in 1968 while undergraduates at UConn.
”At the time, we just felt that that we had to own land,” remembered Cheryl, “so we took out a bank loan and bought two properties in Brooklyn. We weren’t typical students of the ‘60s!”
In 2006 Hadi retired from a successful career with SAIC as a senior executive in high-tech defense and energy systems. The couple moved to Brooklyn, and Hadi returned to UConn as a professor in the Engineering School. Although Hadi’s career with SAIC had taken them around the world, their house in Brooklyn was just a short distance from the land they had purchased almost 40 years earlier.
“It was an area we had fallen in love with,” said Cheryl, “and we knew we wanted to return. We had a strong connection with the land trust while we lived there - Dick Booth [former president] lived close by and we knew Andy Rzeznikiewicz [land manager] at Connecticut Audubon, where Hadi was chair of the board. It was important for us to donate the land. It’s a small parcel that is mostly wetlands, but we’re happy to see the ecosystem and the birds protected.”
“The land is adjacent to our Sherman Preserve along Blackwell’s Brook,” said Rzeznikiewicz.  “The majority of it is wetlands, but the habitat is excellent for birds and other wildlife. Otter, beaver, mink, muskrats, and bobcats are known to inhabit this area. Wood ducks, black ducks, and mallards have often been sighted along this section of the Brook.”
The Wyndham Land Trust was formed in 1975, and the work of the all-volunteer group is possible only through the generosity and dedication of its members and donors.
wyndhamlandtrust.org or follow them on Facebook.

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