East Lyme — The Friends of the Oswegatchie Hills Nature Preserve has permanently closed the Quarry Dock Road entrance after caretakers said visitors have been using the entrance area to congregate and then trespass on an abutting private property and have also been mistreating nearby trails.

While caretakers said such activity does occur every year and they’ve made efforts to mitigate the issues by posting private property signs where that property begins, Kris Lambert, the president of the Friends of the Oswegatchie Hills Nature Preserve — a coalition of volunteers that oversees and maintains the site — said she believes issues of people mistreating trails and surrounding property have significantly worsened this year as a result of people being shut indoors due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We saw a huge, huge surge of people coming into the (preserve) once the pandemic began,” Lambert said by phone Monday. Since April, Lambert said she has had to print around 1,000 trail maps.

With more people on the trails there have also been more issues of trail damage and mistreatment, said Friends of Oswegatchie Hills member and former president Greg Decker, who lives on the road leading up the trail’s main entrance on Memorial Park Drive and who helps maintain the trails. He said the trail damage that's occured since mid-March has not only put strain on the handful of volunteers who are trying to maintain the seven miles of trails over the 457 acres that make up the preserve, but placed the environment at risk and negatively impacted neighbors.

“It is a hidden gem in town. It is a real unique property and our goal is to protect it,” Decker said by phone Monday. “We call it a nature preserve and not a recreation area. And that’s the problem we are having. People see it as a recreation area and they treat it as such without consideration to the ecosystem, the plants and the wildlife. We did normally see some damage with the regular hikers before it became popular, but the percentage of (damage now) has increased a lot.”

Decker described dogs running around off leashes; an unleashed dog attack that took off another leashed dog’s ear; damage to saplings and dead wood, which he said are essential to maintain bird habitats; litter left on the trails, including dog waste and dog waste bags; trail damage due to mountain bikers using the land after heavy rains; hand-painted trail signs being stolen; and signs of campfires on the trails, which Decker said is especially dangerous as a forest fire could completely decimate the property.

In particular, Decker said the Quarry Dock Road entrance, which is not the preserve's main entrance, has seen its fair share of problems this year, upsetting nearby neighbors who live on the narrow, dead-end road. He described visitors parking in the area and congregating before then walking through the preserve to cross over onto private property owned by developer Glenn Russo to reach Turkey Point, a popular swimming area along the Niantic River.

Lambert said as a result of the increased activity on Quarry Dock Road, she and the Friends of Oswegatchie Hills, as well as town officials, unanimously felt it was best to permanently close the entrance and have since placed boulders around the parking area to prevent cars from parking there. The Friends of Oswegatchie Hills are also reprinting trail maps to not include information about the former entrance area.

“It’s too bad we had to do it, but it needed to be done," Lambert said. "We are sorry, but we don’t want negative impacts on the neighbors. We decided it was time.”

The main entrance to the Oswegathcie Hills on Memorial Park Drive will remain open, and Decker said he hopes hikers will be more mindful of the trails and will make efforts to follow preserve trail rules which include keeping dogs leashed, not starting fires and not littering. 

“Generations of people growing up in the town have played up there and recreated and feel it is part of their heritage to go up and do what they want, but they don’t realize the consequences to their actions,” Decker said. “We don’t want to deter anyone from going out and enjoying the environment, but we want to promote respecting it and responsible use of the land.”

m.biekert@theday.com