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A community-based steward for the Mill River

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April 6 River Cleanup Florence Fields to Paradise Pond

Late Summer Email Blast

August 20, 2019 by JW Sinton

Welcome back to the Mill River, everyone, welcome back from wherever you’ve been, even if you’ve only traveled a few miles from home!

This late summer newsletter is a teaser about what’s to come but first, we must give thanks for the gifts the river has received. Of all these gifts, none has been more meaningful than the work that Professor Susannah Howe and her engineering design clinic students at Smith College have done, most recently, in May of this year, the design of the MassCentral Rail Trail Connection that completes the connection from the rail trail in Northampton to the planned trail linking Haydenville to Williamsburg Center. Thank you, engineering graduates Beatrix Dalton, Kelsey Hammond, Serena Cattau, Jess McKnight and especially Prof. Howe, whose design teams have saved our local towns tens of thousands of dollars in project costs and given so generously of themselves – you are amazing people!

Our most exciting news: With the support of Historic Northampton, we are planning to incorporate lessons from the Mill River into the curricula of the schools in both Northampton and Williamsburg! We’ll have more substantial information for you next month, but we wanted to prepare you for what we’ll be calling the Mill River Curriculum Initiative (yes, MRCI)and to ask whether any of our MRGI members would be interested in becoming part of this project. The Williamsburg and Northampton school systems are, of course, independent of each other, but we’ll be coordinating our efforts to come up with projects and experiences that are effective for both.

  • For Williamsburg: Contact Gaby Immerman at info@millrivergreenway.org. She and our good friend Nick Dines will be working closely with Principal Stacey Jenkins at the Anne T. Dunphy school.
  • For Northampton: Contact Kathleen Bamford at bolete@tutanota.com. Kathleen is a MRGI godsend, who contacted us this spring. She recently returned to the Valley from Vermont, knows our region intimately, and has expertise in environmental/place-based education and writing. Kathleen will be reaching out to a number of educators in the Northampton schools.

Our other major fall focus will be the Revamping of our Website. Yes, it’s been too long, way too long, and John will be reworking the contents while Neal oversees an update of the site itself. Please let John or Neal know your thoughts on the website – what we need to include, delete, embellish, and beautify. You can reach either of us at info@millrivergreenway.org

Great news from UMass: Professor Jack Ahern of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning will be using the Mill River watershed as the site for an amazing Designed Biodiversity Studythat his talented third-year students will conduct this fall. In Jack’s words: “The idea came to me after reading the shocking UN report this spring about the critical state of biodiversity globally. I plan to focus on biodiversity in designed/inhabited landscapes and making linkages between these landscapes and protected landscape core areas and corridors [in this case, the Mill River Greenway].” Jack is a superb scholar and teacher. We can’t wait to get the results!

Finally, check out these great events that MRGI is co-sponsoring

  • Northampton Council Candidate Forum on Climate & Environment 

Sept 11, 2019: 

Location: Northampton Senior Center

6:30-7:20pm Ward 1 candidate forum
7:20-7:30pm Transition b/w forums
7:30-8:20pm Ward 2, 4 candidate forum

Sept 12, 2019:

Location: Lathrop Community Room, 1 Shallowbrook Ln
6:30-7:20pm Ward 5 candidate forum
7:20-7:30pm Transition b/w forums
7:30-8:30pm Ward 7 candidate forum

 

  • Great Tree Bicycle Tour: A community bike tour of Northampton’s most notable trees

October 20, 2019, 11am-2pm Details and registration forthcoming at: FNTG.net

Here are the trees on the route:

START: Pulaski Park London Plane

Conz St American elm

Columbus Ave Champion Pin oak

Smith College Champion Ginko

Vernon St American Sycamore

Crescent St. Copper beech

Stoddard St–gas leaks/new trees

FSB–volcano mulching/Norway maple

Keyes St Champion Tulip tree

Bardwell White Oak

1 Corticelli–White Mulberry

End: Maines Field–summary of city’s tree program

 

  • Devil’s Den to Lickingwater Book Events with John Sinton

Sept. 25 5:00-7:00Northampton Neighbors, Senior Center. How Nonotuck became the major New England crossroads for Native Americans and gained primacy of place in the Valley. How the river dictated Northampton’s shape and why we diverted it out of town. In the end, why does the Mill River matter?

Oct. 8 7:00-8:30Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary, Easthampton. The Mill River’s role in the creation of Northampton and how environmental transformations in this little watershed reflect those of the larger world.

Nov. 7 12:15-1:00  Springfield Museums Museum à la Carte Series, Springfield. “Devil’s Den to Lickingwater: How a Small, Little-Known River Shaped the Landscape and History of The Connecticut River Valley.”

Remember, the river runs through ALL of us!

John, Gaby, and Neal

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Newsletters

Two May Events

May 10, 2019 by JW Sinton

Welcome to Springtime, dear Mill River Lovers,

We hope you’re enjoying this amazing spring weather by the riverside as the marsh marigold flowers die back and the riparian woodlands come alive with spring flowers! Two more Mill River events are happening over the next two weeks, one on the Hidden Mill River and a final springtime event for Devil’s Den to Lickingwater.

First Event: Monday, the 13that the Forbes Library in the Coolidge Museum from 6:30-8:30 PM, Rediscovering the Hidden Mill River, hosted by Forbes Library, MRGI, and Historic Northampton.

6:30-7:00 Informal discussion focused on a plan for part of the Hidden Mill designed by Tasuku Kamei, MA, University of Massachusetts Dept. of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning.

7:00-8:00 Presentations and Discussion by Laurie Sanders, Historic Northampton;  John Sinton, Mill River Greenway Initiative;   Wayne Feiden, Northampton Office of Planning and Sustainability; Dylan Gaffney, Forbes Library

8:00-8:30  Two short films on the 1936 Flood

More details will be at https://forbeslibrary.libcal.com/event/5394570

Second Event: Tuesday, May 21 at Jones Library in Amherst, 43 Amity St. from 6:30-7:30 PM(co-sponsored by the Jones Library and Levellers Press) John Sinton will present “The Mill River: History, Transformation, and Why it Matters,” an illustrated talk based on Devil’s Den to Lickingwaterthat will focus on the history of the Mill River after the English occupied the Pioneer Valley. Sinton will present an overview of the social and industrial history of the Mill River and its region, an explanation of the environmental transformations that changed the face of the landscape, and the reasons why the Mill River matters. https://www.joneslibrary.org/Calendar.aspx?EID=7854

See you on the river!

John, Gaby, and Neal

Filed Under: Community meetings

The World As Seen From Paradise Pond

April 16, 2019 by JW Sinton

Come hear John’s latest take on Devil’s Den to Lickingwater.

Thursday, April 18th, 7:30 at Graham Hall in Hillyer Hall (the Arts Building) at Smith College.

Filed Under: Mill River Greenway

Re-live The 1874 Williamsburg Dam Disaster with Eric Weber!

April 12, 2019 by JW Sinton

The Mill River Flood
Wednesday, April 17
1:00-3:00 at the Garden House
Tickets are $10 each and available by calling 413-584-5457
In the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, eleven Mill River manufacturers banded together to build a dam and reservoir in Williamsburg that would collect water at times of high stream flow to be released during the drier seasons, thus enabling mills and factories to run at or near full capacity year-round. The dam leaked from the beginning, and on May 16, 1874 it failed catastrophically, killing 139 residents of four downstream villages, making front-page headlines across the United States. It was the worst disaster of its kind in North American history up to then, and it raised important questions about the responsibility of those who design, build, inspect and approve large engineering projects to assure that they are safe.
 
Eric Weber, President of the Williamsburg Historical Society, has digitized some 350 stereo images of the disaster’s aftermath and analyzed what they tell us about the dam, the flood, and the experience of those who lived through it. Drawing on those images and on Elizabeth Sharpe’s award-winning “In the Shadow of the Dam,” Eric will tell the story of the Mill River Disaster and answer questions about it from the audience.

Filed Under: Mill River Greenway

April 6 River Cleanup Florence Fields to Paradise Pond

March 18, 2019 by JW Sinton

Cleanup The River Banks With Us On Saturday April 6 From 9:00 to 11:00 AM

Meet at the Smith College Museum of Art on Elm St.

MRGI and the Connecticut River Conservancy are co-sponsoring this clean-up effort to kick-off Community Day at the Smith College Museum of Art. We invite you to take action and respond to the challenges raised in the exhibition Plastic Entanglements: Ecology, Aesthetics, Materials at Smith’s Art Museum. Sign-up to volunteer for a morning of trash collection on our local river. Transportation from Smith College will be provided for those who need it. Afterwards, head over to the museum for Community Day to reflect, be inspired, and celebrate your hard work!  Register here by March 23. You are welcome to join us even if you don’t register!

We will be cleaning up the following sites: Florence Fields/Meadow Street near Crimson & Clover farm, Riverside Drive in Bay State, the Dog Park and Burt’s Pit Road area, Maines Field, Smith College Path at Paradise Pond Dam and upstream at end of path at Hinckley St

We’ll provide trash bags and Pedal People will pick them up. Thanks to everyone in advance!

Your MRGI crew

Filed Under: Mill River Greenway

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