The Land

First Light Neighborhood & Farm will be built on forty acres of rolling hilltop that rise 875 feet above sea level, with long views to the north, east, and south. The first rays of the rising sun strike here, hence the name "First Light." Like most of southern New Hampshire, this hilltop was once pasture and meadow, as the fieldstone walls crisscrossing it attest. It is forested, but was logged in preparation for a previous subdivision in 2004. Now a small portion is cleared but beginning to grow up in brush; the bulk of the hilltop is thinly-wooded with small-diameter pine, red oak, beech and sweet birch; and the steeper slopes are still fairly densely wooded, with stands of larger hemlock and tall mountain laurel thickets. The land is bounded on the west by a seasonal brook that drops through a narrow, rocky gorge.

The 2004 subdivision of Four Corners Farm, a one hundred and forty acre parcel of which this land was a part, began the fragmentation of the forest that has grown up here since intensive farming ended over a century ago. Whitetail deer, porcupine, wild turkey, ruffed grouse, fox, fisher, red and gray squirrel, coyote, barred owl, redtail hawk and the occasional black bear and moose live on or pass through the site. With thoughtful design and selective planting, wildlife corridors can be maintained or re-created, connecting this land with the rest of the hill and with large, unbroken forest tracts across Isaac Frye Highway, preventing the further loss of wildlife habitat.

In keeping with rural tradition and a law of public use dating back to the Roman emperor Justinian, a safety perimeter around the buildings will be designated and brightly signed to warn hunters that they are approaching dwellings, but the remainder of the common forest land will not be posted against hunting.

Much of the land on Abbot Hill abutting the site - nearly four hundred acres - is owned by the Pine Hill Waldorf School or by three families. The largest landowning family has recently placed its land, which abuts First Light to the north, in permanent conservation. We hope that the entire hillside can be protected and eventually connected to downtown Wilton by a system of walking, riding, and ski trails.