Mill River Greenway Initiative

A community-based steward for the Mill River

JW Sinton

Invasive Plant Species Workshop, August 6th

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Smith College’s Center for the Environment, Ecological Design, and Sustainablity (CEEDS) in collaboration with Connecticut River Watershed Council (CRWC), Mill River Greenway (MRG), and Grow Food Northampton (GFN), will be hosting an invasive species removal workshop on Saturday, August 6th from 12:30 to 4:30PM. The first half of the workshop will take place in the new CEEDS center in Wright Hall on Smith College campus in Northampton MA. This workshop will include identification of invasive plants common to the region, removal techniques, as well as a discussion of resources for those hoping to organize a removal event within their own community. The second half of the workshop will involve hands-on practice of invasive removal on GFN’s property on Meadow St. Participants are responsible for transportation to the GFN site.

This workshop is FREE but registration is required. Space is limited, so please register quickly! We will provide some tools, but if you have hand clippers or gloves, please bring them and plan to wear or bring long sleeves and pants. For more information or to register, contact Brittany Innis at brittany.innis@gmail.com.  Directions and more information on what to bring will be provided to registered participants.

Sat. Oct. 1, River Clean-Up

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SAVE THIS DATE: Saturday Oct. 1 is the day we’ll set aside for a Mill River cleanup that we’ll coordinate with the CT River Watershed Council’s Source-to-Sea cleanup.

Mill River Greenway members should weigh in on the section of our river where we should focus our attention.  Which section of our river is most in need of a clean up?

We’ll formulate a plan early in September.  Meanwhile, please save the date!

Look Park Pond Dredging Meeting

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Folks, there’s a meeting today, June 23 at 3:00 at Look Park to visit the Corps of Engineers dredging site at Willow Park.  Here is the contents of the email from the Corps’s contact, John Sargent:

…we are planning to have a site walk with the park staff and the con com on June 23 at 3 pm at Look Park.    The purpose of the meeting would be to gather additional information to include talk of dredging alternatives, impacts to coldwater fisheries in the river, and other issues that have been raised.  The con com will have a public hearing following the site meeting where the Corps representatives will be present as well.

We will follow up this post as the things unfold.

Mill River Industrial History

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Please take a look here at the first installment of our mapping project — Kassia Rudd’s (Smith ’11) geographic study of the changing industries and industrial power sources from 1831-1895.  It includes the reach from the Upper Mills (Smith College) to Broughton’s Meadow (Florence).  We’ll be adding historical material from the 17th and 18th centuries shortly, and we look forward to adding the river reach from Leeds to Williamsburg.

 

Upper Roberts Meadow Dam

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Check out the Upper Roberts Meadow Dam and Reservoir project that we’ve just added to the project list.  While the Greenway takes no official position on whether or not to save the dam, we think it’s important to let our members know what’s going on.