Mill River Greenway Initiative
A community-based steward for the Mill River
Reigster early, folks, and learn how to manage invasive plants on this walk at the Lathrop Community in Easthampton! Learn how and why they are removing invasive plants to protect wildlife in Lathrop’s forests. See what is replacing the invasives in areas where they’ve worked for up to five years.
Registration required. Walks at 1:00 and 3:30.
Check out Lathrop Land’s website.
Mill River at the Oxbow — Photo: Janine Norton www.janinenorton.com
It’s been three months since we last corresponded with you, dear MRGI supporters, and, after a Dam Walk and wonderful winter celebration to cap off a productive 2016, we’ve caught our breath and are ready to head into springtime.
As always, we wish you a joyous time on the river that runs through us!
Gaby, John, and Neal
Nonotuck Silk/Littfield Parsons Co. ca. 1865
Meet at the Nonotuck Mill parking lot across Nonotuck St. from ChemiPlastica (do not park at ChemiPlastica!)
MRGI’s third Historic Mill River Walk brochure is hot off the press, and we’re pleased that Wendy Sinton, author of the brochure, will be our leader for our inaugural guided tour. The walk is a mile and a half, but those who are unable to walk that far will be able to do the first half mile and then return to their car.
Long the center of Mill River industry, Florence, originally known as Broughton’s Meadow, was home to factories that produced silk thread, plastics, and brushes. You’ll explore the unique juxtaposition of industrial activity and the abolitionist movement. Sojourner Truth and David Ruggles once lived and worked here as part of a utopian community. This tour ends at the farm of a noted abolitionist and the spot where the sad remains from the 1874 flood came to rest.
As usual, the tour is limited to 20 participants, so let us know of your interest.
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!
The Florence I riverwalk from Maines Field to Meadow St. Bridge will be led by Wendy Sinton of the Sojourner Truth Memorial Committee and MRGI’s John Sinton. It’ll feature the Mill River industries that drove Florence’s prosperity with a focus on the underground railroad and the Northampton Association of Industry and Education. That’s Sat. August 15.
The Florence II walk on Sat. Sept. 26 walk is one of our most popular, featuring naturalist Laurie Sanders and Elizabeth Sharpe, author of In the Shadow of the Dam. It will cover the river from Meadow St. Bridge to Crimson & Clover farm across from Look Park.
Room is available on both those tours, a sneak preview of which can be found at this link, which you should simply copy onto your browser: https://player.vimeo.com/external/133577379.source.mp4?s=31561790f19a26cad582699c08cf0c56&profile_id=0&download=1
The video was brought to you by Burgy’s inimitable and invaluable Tom Adams, Director/Owner of Reelife Documentary Productions & Folktography by Tom
And get ready for a fantastic fall. We’ll be working with new partners and old to create a path from Leeds to Haydenville, to begin some invasive management, to develop a partnership with the Conway School, and add to our Mill River History.
With all our best wishes, John and Gaby
