Our mission: "To promote the development, conservation, supervision, and regulation of natural resources, including water resources within the Town of Killingly and provide the methodology for protection and maintenance of these resources."

The Conservation Commission is working hard to protect the natural resources in town and to promote the parks and open space that are open for residents of the region to enjoy. Here are a few of the activities we are involved in:

Walking Weekend (Walktober) October 12, 2008

The Killingly Conservation Commission is offering a two-part program for this year's Walking Weekend event (now called Walktober). The program is being held on Sunday October 12 and is centered around the Cat Hollow Town Park in Killingly. The day starts at noon with a one-hour presentation by local industrial historian Michael Green on the history of the textile mills along the Whetstone Brook in Killingly. The presentation is being held in the Primrose Crossing housing community at the corner of Valley Road and Dog Hill Road.

Participants will then move a few hundred yards south to Cat Hollow Town Park for an easy two-mile walk around the park starting at 1:00pm. (You are welcome to join us at either noon or 1:00pm.) Commission chairwoman, Donna Bronwell, will describe the work that volunteers have done to clean up the park and make it accessible to the public. The Whetstone Brook runs through Cat Hollow, and the walk will pass two dramatic waterfalls that serve as a reminder of the industry that shaped our region.
At 3:00 pm the more adventurous can join the commission for a 4.0-mile walk from Cat Hollow up to Cook Hill Road and continue east along town-owned open space to Hygeia Reservoir. The trail will cut through the woods, and participants should wear hiking boots or strong footwear.
A minibus will shuttle walkers back to Cat Hollow Town Park.
The Killingly Conservation Commission traditionally offers one of the longer walks during Walktober, and this year's program promises to be a good mixture of learning about local history coupled with a hearty walk through the woods.

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Search for Notable Trees in Killingly

As part of the 2008 tricentennial celebration, the Killingly Conservation Commission is gathering information about very old, tall, rare, or historic trees in our community. We'd like to hear from every village in town. Tell us the type of tree, approximate circumference at chest height, and location.

No location information will be made public without the consent of the property owner.

If you have a tree that deserves to be recognized, contact killinglytrees@gmail.com, or call 860 779 5310, or write to Trees, c/o PO Box 47, East Killingly, CT 06243.

Killingly Conservation Commission and Cat Hollow 

The Killingly Conservation Commission is working with town officials and residents to develop a plan for developing and managingCat Hollow, a town park along the Whetstone Brook. In the spring of 2006, students in the Landscape Architecture program at the University of Connecticut visited the site and developed site plans as part of a design class. Two students then created a detailed plan which was approved by the Town Council. Click on the following link to see a schematic of the plan:

Cat Hollow Plan

Geocaching. Geocaching is a great way to get out and enjoy the natural resouces in town. Geocaching is an entertaining adventure game for GPS users. The basic idea is to have individuals and organizations set up caches all over the world and share the locations of these caches on the internet. GPS users can then use the location coordinates to find the caches. There are several geocache sites in Killingly. The best place to start is theofficial geocache web site.