She blazed a trail in Fairfield - now a trail bears her name.

Joy Shaw, 94, spent decades helping preserve the town's natural beauty all while inspiring generations of children to cherish the environment.

"She's a legend in town," conservation director Tim Bishop says. "It was in the 1960s I believe, when she stood in front of a bulldozer that was going to do some tree removal and earth work here, and she stopped it."

The longtime conservationist helped found the Mill River Wetland Committee and then the River-Lab program, which continues to teach Fairfield public school students about the importance of watersheds on local ecosystems.

"Once I learned that rivers were a part of a watershed system," Shaw says, "I wanted very much for this to become a part of elementary education."

More than 50 years after first taking students on an educational journey through the floodplain near Perry's Mill Ponds, the trail now bears her name.

"The world definitely needs more Joy Shaws," Bishop says. "Her legacy will live on beyond just the dedication of the trail."