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Mill River Greenway Initiative

A community-based steward for the Mill River

Bay State

A Stunning Spring and Summer Ahead

April 25, 2016 by JW Sinton

We’re thrilled to announce a series of great initiatives this spring and summer:

LET’S TACKLE INVASIVES ALONG OUR RIVER!

We’re delighted to make available a new guide for land stewards in the Mill River watershed, “Making Room for Native Plants and Wildlife.” The guide, written by the New England Wild Flower Society with support from Smith College, is a plant-by-plant guide to the management and removal of invasive plants species commonly found encroaching on the banks and floodplains of the Mill River. The guide devotes one page per species to repeat offenders such as Japanese knotweed, oriental bittersweet, and multiflora rose, offering pictures and description for identification, a table of when and how best to combat each species, and suggestions for replacement plantings of species native to this region. The guide is available for free on our http://millrivergreenway.org website and will also be available in a printed, bound version at cost, $15 per guide (email us at info@millrivergreenway.org if you’re interested in purchasing print copies). We’re planning to organize educational and stewardship events along the river this summer to distribute the guide and galvanize the community to care for the river. Stay tuned for more info. We hope we’ll see you out there!

THE CONWAY SCHOOL BOOK WILL BE AVAILABLE BY MAY DAY

We’ve gotten an early peek at Armi and Margot’s work at the Conway School and it looks beautiful. The book, entitled “Building a Strategic Plan for the Mill River Greenway” is 68 pages and chock full of photographs, maps, and data. THANK YOU, Mill River Lovers, this is your gift to the river, and the river will be giving back to you. We can’t wait to get this out to you. Watch this space.

A SELF-GUIDED TOUR BROCHURE FOR FLORENCE

Wendy Sinton of the Sojourner Truth Memorial Committee, with the help of Dianne Jester-Wieland (Smith ’16), Julia Franchi Scarselli (Smith ’18), and Florence architect Scott Laidlaw have a draft prepared for a Mill Riverwalk in Florence. Designed once again by the inimitable Rob and Damia of TransitAuthorityFigures.com, we expect to have copies of the brochure early this summer. This is the third brochure in what we hope will someday be a series of ten!

BAY STATE RIVERWALK OPTIONS

Once again, Smith students lived up to their reputation for amazing projects by producing maps and data that summarize parcel data, historical features, and invasive species challenges on the Bay State reach of the river. This work will provide the basis for Bay State residents and the City of Northampton to envision the Greenway from Paradise Pond to the Cutlery Building, as well as gathering the information that will become another self-guided tour brochure. We will post their work on the website in May. Thanks, Julia Graham, Grace Peralta, and Bryn Gingrich for work that will have lasting impact!

ENGINEERING DESIGN FOR THE RAIL TRAIL DISMOUNT TO SOUTH MAIN STREET IN HAYDENVILLE

…speaking of lasting impact, Joanna Kenneally, Sophia Poulos, Jin Rui Yap, and Eliana Perlmutter, Smith seniors working through the Engineering Department’s Design Clinic, have completed an engineering study to link the end of the rail trail in Leeds to South Main Street in Haydenville (Williamsburg). They presented two options, one earthwork and one boardwalk, at a very well attended Community Forum in Williamsburg on April 9. The students’ design and analysis lays the groundwork for Williamsburg to seek the funding that will be required to complete the project. Our deepest gratitude to Smith and the College’s superb students!

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Bay State, Florence, Haydenville, Invasive plants, Leeds, Mill River Greenway, River walks

Two April Opportunities

April 16, 2015 by JW Sinton

Here are two imminent April events!

April 18 Bay State Sustainability Fair 1:00-4:00 with a pair of riverwalks on Mill River historic sites. BSVA_SustainabilityFairFlyerPE

April 27th at 7:30 P.M.: A UMass Amherst project for an outdoor exhibit in Florence at the Northamtpon Community Farm/Florence Recreation Fields site.  Check it out:  UMass Outdoor Exhibit

 

 

 

Filed Under: Bay State, Community meetings, History, Mill River Greenway, Northampton, River walks

Look Park Pond Dredging Meeting

June 23, 2011 by JW Sinton

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.

Filed Under: Bay State, Community meetings, Northampton

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