10/10/2026
So thankful for our community to have such a supportive group to make our town’s favorite nature park so beautiful and welcoming!!!!
FROM THE WINY RADIO NEWSROOM: FROM WENDY FUSCO: Cat Hollow Park in Killingly, CT has been transformed during the past three years by volunteers led by Killingly resident Wendy Fusco. Fusco is a certified Connecticut Master Gardener under the instruction of John Lorusso of UCONN's Master Gardener program.
Fusco took on the role of volunteer activity coordinator at the Park in 2023 at the suggestion of Donna Bronwell, a Killingly resident who held that role for three decades. Fusco's first task was to propose to town leaders a two-year plan to beautify the Park using volunteers whom Fusco would oversee. The proposal was approved in February 2024.
Cat Hollow Park is a 25-acre wooded park owned by the Town of Killingly and overseen by Killingly Parks and Recreation (KPRD) and Killingly Public Works and Highway Division (KPWD). The Park, which had been home to three mills many years ago, was opened to the public in 2003. It contains a half- mile paved, handicapped-accessible trail along Cat Hollow Road (now permanently closed to vehicular traffic), plus a one-mile woodland loop trail. Both trails parallel the Whetstone Brook, a major tributary of the Five Mile River that runs through the Park, and the Park is open for recreational fishing.
With grants totaling almost $3,000 received from the Quiet Corner Garden Club (a member of Federated Garden Clubs of Connecticut), the Connecticut Master Gardener Association, and The Last Green Valley. volunteers under Fusco's direction planted a myriad of native plants in the large front meadow garden (40 by 30 feet) at the Dog Hill Road entrance, a mid-sized pollinator garden further into the park, and eight "pocket" gardens scattered throughout the Park's paved walkway.
In 2025, Director of KPWD Mat Dube and his staff undertook the removal of thickly grown invasive plants from the Park's main entrance. They arranged boulders to outline the garden, loosened the soil, and provided loam and topsoil. Fusco and her volunteers then planted an array of native shrubs and perennials. KPWD had done the same in 2024 with a 20-by-10-foot garden, and this year Fusco and volunteers added native perennial plants to all ten gardens in the Park and maintained them. Volunteers also removed invasive plants from various areas of the park along Cat Hollow Road. KPWD continues to perform maintenance: mowing the pavement margins, removing trash, cutting dead or diseased trees, and delivering topsoil and wood chips as needed.
Fusco said she and her volunteers have reached their goals for the park including:
• Create a welcoming, attractive entrance to draw more visitors to the park, be a visual delight for the many people who frequent it or those who just pass by:
• Use native plants to improve the ecological health of the Park and increase native wildlife including pollinators, such as bees, other beneficial insects, birds, and bats;
• Increase visitors' awareness of the contributions native plants offer to a healthy ecosystem and, hopefully, become more open to native-plant gardening in their own yards;
Continue to partner with the Town in a mutually beneficial and community spirit.
Fusco has supervised over 150 volunteers who have devoted hundreds of hours to improving the Park, assisted by Killingly town employees. She manages volunteer "w**d warrior" sessions to remove non- native invasive flora, including multiflora rose, barberry, garlic mustard, oriental bittersweet, burning bush, Asian bush honeysuckle, Japanese knotw**d, porcelain berry, Norway maple, a small amount of bamboo, and Japanese wisteria in order to permit the Park's native plants to flourish.
Fusco recruited volunteers from interested Killingly residents and members of the Quiet Corner Garden Club. The Park has also been an approved volunteer site for Connecticut Master Gardener interns and Master Gardeners, who have devoted many hours to the Park since 2024. People can email Windham County Program Coordinator John Lorusso at john [email protected] if they would like to learn more about UCONN's Master Gardener program.
Fusco also arranged for students from Killingly High School's Vocational Agriculture program, under the supervision of their teachers, to assist with identifying and removing invasive plants in the 2025 and 2026 springs. Fusco is greatly appreciative of her core volunteers: Jean Vose, with her garden design skills; Lisa Danburg, with her landscaping skills; Susan Viera; Donna Bronwell; Noreene Stehlik; and Dick Woodward--faithful volunteers for all three years! Danburg organized two very successful annual Earth Day events and plans to continue. Stehlik envisioned the welcoming entrance garden on Dog Hill Road and was the idea person behind the w**d warriors' efforts.
Fusco was awarded the Killingly Environmental award in 2024 by the Killingly Conservation Commission for her volunteer efforts at Cat Hollow Park. The Commission also honored Fusco with the purchase of a tree, recently planted in the Park by KPWD.
In addition to Dube and staff of KPWD, Director of Killingly Parks and Recreation Bucky Lohbusch and his staff continue to support Fusco and her volunteers' efforts, especially in regard to the process of people becoming volunteers and the selling of Cat Hollow Park designed tee shirts and hats. If interested in volunteering at the Park, donating to the Cat Hollow Park beautification project through the town, or purchasing a $25 Cat-Hollow-designed tee shirt or hat, email the Killingly Parks and Recreation Department at [email protected] or call Lisa at 508-631-9775.
On Sunday, October 25th from 1:00 to 4:00 PM at the Dog Hill Road entrance Cat Hollow hats and tee shirts will be sold. Led by some members from the Killingly Conservation Commission, at 1:00 PM that same day there will be a one-mile walk on the paved pathway (former road) to see all ten gardens.
