Grants - NRWA Receives Federal Grant to Help Implement Wilton's Allen's Meadow Master Plan Next Spring visitors to Allen's Meadow in Wilton will enjoy newly enhanced and refurbished hiking trails and 15 new shade trees to be planted and identified with signs along the edge of the Allen's Meadow playing fields bordering the central parking area. Scout groups and volunteers organized by the NRWA will clear trails of invasive plant species and connect and clear existing trails. The public is invited to watch for upcoming trail maintenance volunteer work day announcements and to be part of these events. The improvements to Allen's Meadow will follow the Allen's Meadow Master Plan commissioned by the Wilton Department of Parks and Recreation in 2007 and devised for the purpose of landscape improvements to enhance the quality of Allen's Meadow, an area used by 400 to 500 community members a day during the spring, summer and fall seasons. The plan lists as its goals the restoration and maintenance of meadow, forest and wetland habitat as well as the facilitation of increased access to the area for the community through the creation and maintenance of trails and the addition of trees for shade and for screening from Route 7. The Wilton Board of Selectmen endorsed the Plan but has not been able to include funding for the project in the town budget. In order to proceed with work on the Master Plan, NRWA in conjunction with the Town of Wilton has received a $5425 grant from the America The Beautiful Grant Program which is made possible through the USDA Forest Service's program on Urban and Community Forestry and which will be administered and distributed by the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Forestry. Anyone interested in getting involved in NRWA can contact the Norwalk River Watershed Association at P.O. Box 197, Georgetown, CT 06829; call 203-846-8210 or email info@norwalkriver.org.