As Steep Rock reflects on our accomplishments over the past year, we want to celebrate you, to recognize you, and to thank you for your support. Without you, we could not continue the long tradition of conservation, recreation, and education that enhances the natural world and contributes to our quality of life. In short, your support allows Steep Rock Association to protect what you love.
Over 100 years ago, our founder Ehrick Rossiter took a bold step to protect what he loved in Washington by purchasing 186-acres on the Steep Rock summit and opening it for public enjoyment. What started as an effort to protect a viewshed has evolved into a strong, healthy community-based organization that now protects over 5,760 acres of land and waterways in the Litchfield Hills.
This past year has been truly remarkable. And we are so excited to tell you about it.
We realized a dream when we added 206 acres of high priority conservation and recreation land to Hidden Valley Preserve that is open for your enjoyment.
For hikers, we restored the iconic River’s Edge Trail in Steep Rock Preserve, which was originally constructed in 1931 and we added a total of a mile of new trail in our Hillside Farm Preserve and along the Shepaug Railroad bed in Hidden Valley Preserve.
We celebrated Judea Garden’s 15 seasons of growing and giving to our community and have now grown and distributed over 50,000 pounds of organic vegetables to food banks, social service agencies, and neighbors in need at no cost to them.
And as a testament of our community support, we set a record with over 300 volunteers contributing more than 3,000 hours of their valuable time to our trail stewardship efforts, Judea Garden, wildlife monitoring, event tabling, and office efforts.
We could not have done this without you and your spirit of both philanthropy and volunteerism. Thank you for all you do for Steep Rock Association and for protecting what you love about this area and organization.
To show our appreciation for your support, we are pleased to share with you SRA’s “2023 Gratitude Report.”
With Gratitude,
Brian E. Hagenbuch, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Thomas M. Rickart
President