{"id":51,"date":"2019-12-04T13:31:42","date_gmt":"2019-12-04T18:31:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cmccourt\/?p=51"},"modified":"2019-12-04T13:31:42","modified_gmt":"2019-12-04T18:31:42","slug":"sense-of-place-in-colchester-ct","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cmccourt\/2019\/12\/04\/sense-of-place-in-colchester-ct\/","title":{"rendered":"Sense of Place in Colchester, CT."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>My  sense of place at home is primarily set in and around the Salmon River State Forest in Westchester, Connecticut because this forest has played a crucial role in my development.\u00a0 Virtually all of  my hobbies took place in this forest, including mountain biking, trail running, hiking, fishing, lacrosse, learning to drive, and countless memories with my friends and  family.\u00a0 The Salmon River State Forest is 6,000 acres of preserved natural land for the use of the public for recreation and leisure that spans across Colchester, Marlborough, East Haddam, and East Hampton, Connecticut.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cmccourt\/files\/2019\/12\/Screen-Shot-2019-12-02-at-10.00.10-PM.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-58\" width=\"364\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cmccourt\/files\/2019\/12\/Screen-Shot-2019-12-02-at-10.00.10-PM.png 598w, https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cmccourt\/files\/2019\/12\/Screen-Shot-2019-12-02-at-10.00.10-PM-205x300.png 205w, https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cmccourt\/files\/2019\/12\/Screen-Shot-2019-12-02-at-10.00.10-PM-96x140.png 96w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 364px) 100vw, 364px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Driving to the forest, I saw the police officer that seems  to always be hanging out at the fire department, waiting for speeding  drivers to come down the meandering road. I noticed the construction of a new gas station in the center of Westchester, a new house being built  on the side of the road, and that the vape shop closed down.\u00a0  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cmccourt\/files\/2019\/12\/IMG_0450-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-52\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cmccourt\/files\/2019\/12\/IMG_0450-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cmccourt\/files\/2019\/12\/IMG_0450-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cmccourt\/files\/2019\/12\/IMG_0450-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cmccourt\/files\/2019\/12\/IMG_0450-187x140.jpg 187w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>There were rumors going around that the new gas station would be a Cumberland Farms, but it ended up being a Henny Penny, which many people in the town were disappointed about.\u00a0 I stopped at the grocery store and bought a  sandwich at the deli, something my dad and I would do quite often in the  summertime for a really long  time.\u00a0 Once I got to the river, I noticed that the Department of Energy  and Environmental Protection (DEEP) had filled in some of the massive  holes in the parking lot, which made the park more  accessible for the twenty somewhat cars filling the parking lot.\u00a0 As I  was walking down one of the forest roads, I noticed signs of previous  agricultural land use practices similar to those seen in 19<sup>th<\/sup>  century Vermont.\u00a0 Abandoned rock walls, old stone foundations, and the  remnants of an old rock bridge crossing the river enhanced my sense of  place for this area because I have a greater understanding of the past  land use practices that went on where I grew up.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cmccourt\/files\/2019\/12\/IMG_0449-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-53\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cmccourt\/files\/2019\/12\/IMG_0449-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cmccourt\/files\/2019\/12\/IMG_0449-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cmccourt\/files\/2019\/12\/IMG_0449-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cmccourt\/files\/2019\/12\/IMG_0449-187x140.jpg 187w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I now understand why  in some parts of the woods it looks like there was an old road there, or  why there are pieces of brick or concrete at random bends of the rivers  and streams.\u00a0 Sheep grazing as a result of mass deforestation was  common in many areas of Connecticut and the remnants of these practices  are strikingly similar to  what I have seen in Vermont.\u00a0 I think I have a better understanding as  to why my dad and I found an antique toaster buried near the rock wall  in our front yard a few years back, as this was probably left there by the previous landowner who used the property for sheep grazing before abandoning it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cmccourt\/files\/2019\/12\/IMG_0433-e1575483649634-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-55\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cmccourt\/files\/2019\/12\/IMG_0433-e1575483649634-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cmccourt\/files\/2019\/12\/IMG_0433-e1575483649634-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cmccourt\/files\/2019\/12\/IMG_0433-e1575483649634-105x140.jpg 105w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a0The young American Beech, white and  red oak, and grand old pines make up for much of the forest growing  where these pastures used to be, and seeing the denser evergreen forest  on the steep, rocky, low soil banks of the river corresponded with what I  have seen at Ricker Mountain, Potash brook, and Mt. Mansfield. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My sense of place at home is primarily set in and around the Salmon River State Forest in Westchester, Connecticut because this forest has played a crucial role in my [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5847,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cmccourt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cmccourt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cmccourt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cmccourt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5847"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cmccourt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cmccourt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cmccourt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51\/revisions\/59"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cmccourt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cmccourt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cmccourt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}