On Valentine’s Day in 2024, a small group of activists trudged through the snow to a high chain-link fence surrounding hundreds of acres of woods in Bridgeport. In their arms, they carried thousands of handwritten cards pasted onto large paper hearts: love letters to the forest that for decades had been cordoned off from the rest of the city. One of the activists, Jhoni Ada, said she remembered first catching a glimpse of the woods while passing by on the school bus. Throughout high school, she