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Mill River Greenway Initiative

A community-based steward for the Mill River

Haydenville

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

Williamsburg Village Centers Visioning Session

June 13, 2011 by nealb

Meekins Park: new fence on restored wall. Photo: Nick Dines

On Tuesday JUNE 14 at 7:00 pm at the Town Offices (Haydenville) please come share your thoughts on the Williamsburg village centers at a public visioning session, it’s a great chance to let the town know how much the river means to you and your community. The meeting is hosted by the Williamsburg Village Centers Visioning Committee which was formed in response to a goal of the recently updated Williamsburg Open Space & Recreation Plan – to help create & maintain vibrant village centers to help protect open spaces elsewhere in town. You can read the Open Space plan here.

Discussion will include river access, pedestrian needs, generally how development should look in and near the centers, and whatever related issues you bring to the meeting. Community input will be used for the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission to assess zoning regulations with the end result to be recommended strategies to strengthen our village centers.

The committee is also seeking public input through this survey. Please take a moment to let the Town know how much you’d like to see the Mill River featured in the future plans for Burgy and Haydenville village centers. (If you need something to get you thinking, here’s a good place to start: the village centers wouldn’t be where they are if not for the Mill River.)

Filed Under: Community meetings, Haydenville, Williamsburg

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