Sound of Music star Christopher Plummer’s widow donated 8 acres from their 40-year-old property; another 8 acres were bought to help create a 750-acre nature preserve |

Image Credit: Aspetuck Land Trust

Christopher Plummer’s widow, Elaine Taylor, has donated eight acres of land cherished by the couple for four decades to help establish a 750-acre nature preserve in Connecticut. The donation, alongside the purchase of another eight acres from the late actor’s estate, has helped Aspetuck Land Trust protect a significant stretch of land along the Weston-Wilton border. The property, once a familiar setting for the couple’s walks with their dogs, is now part of a wider conservation effort intended to preserve open landscapes and create a connected forest reserve for future generations.

Christopher Plummer’s widow donates land for a 750-acre nature preserve

According to Aspetuck Land Trust, Taylor donated eight acres of the property she shared with Plummer to the conservation organisation. The parcel lies in Wilton, directly across the road from her home in Weston, and has long been associated with the couple’s everyday life.The land was particularly meaningful to Taylor and Plummer, who spent around 40 years enjoying the property. Their regular walks included a loop through the fields with their 4 dogs, a routine Taylor recalled when discussing the donation with CTInsider.The couple would walk down to the fields and return along the same route, sometimes completing the loop more than once. Taylor described the land as having been part of their lives for four decades, making its preservation a personal decision as well as a contribution to the wider community.Plummer, who died in 2021, became internationally recognised for playing Captain Georg von Trapp in the 1965 film The Sound of Music. His career also included an Academy Award-winning performance in Beginners, for which he received the best supporting actor Oscar in 2012 at the age of 82.The donation was accompanied by a separate purchase of another eight acres from Plummer’s estate, bringing the total land protected through the transaction to approximately 16 acres.CTInsider reported that the donated portion was valued at around $900,000. The land trust purchased the additional parcel through what its executive director, David Brant, described as a bargain sale.Although the purchased property was valued at approximately $1.78 million, Aspetuck Land Trust acquired it for roughly $900,000. Combined with Taylor’s donation, the transaction enabled the organisation to protect a substantial piece of land without paying its full market value.The property includes open fields and traditional stone walls, features that distinguish it from woodland areas made up almost entirely of trees. Brant described the acquisition as particularly important because it would help connect other protected parcels into a much larger natural landscape.

A larger forest reserve takes shape along the Weston-Wilton border

The Plummer property forms part of Aspetuck Land Trust’s long-running effort to assemble a 750-acre nature preserve along the Weston-Wilton border.The organisation has been working to connect individual properties into a continuous landscape rather than protecting isolated pieces of land. According to its Weston Wilton Forest Reserve information, the project is intended to safeguard one of the region’s remaining unfragmented forests.Aspetuck Land Trust has protected 255 acres so far that connect with several other conservation properties, helping build the larger 750-acre forest corridor. Since 2017, it has successfully protected 169 acres through support from its members and funding from Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.The effort forms part of a broader regional conservation strategy. Aspetuck Land Trust explained that the Weston-Wilton forest initiative was connected to a wider Green Corridor planned across Weston, Easton, Fairfield and Westport.The organisation was also working alongside Wilton Land Conservation Trust to protect areas of natural habitat threatened by development and the fragmentation of forests.

What will visitors find at the newly opened preserve

The Plummer property has also become part of a growing public recreational resource. Aspetuck Land Trust described the Weston Wilton Forest Reserve as a newly opened 750-acre interior forest, highlighting the Plummer property as one of its latest additions. It also invited visitors to explore the reserve during a guided hike led by executive director David Brant.