News

MassAcorn is a new interactive website for landowners and others interested in forests in the Deerfield and Westfield rivers watersheds.

The Franklin Land Trust has moved to 36 State Street in Shelburne Falls. It is still an excellent orrganization helping preserve land in our watershed, and we encourage all to donate to them!

Open Space

See the Final Draft of the watershed-wide Open Space and Recreation Plan! These are PDF files. Need Adobe Acrobat to read. Download program for free. The final document is available from the Shelburne Falls library.

Title Page
Table of Content
Chapter 1: Summary
Chapter 2: Introduction
Chapter 3: Community Setting
Chapter 4: Environmental Inventory and Analysis
Chapter 5: Inventory of Lands with Conservation and Recreation Interest
Chapter 6: Community Goals
Chapter 7: Analysis of Needs
Chapter 8: Goals and Objectives
Chapter 9: Ten-Year Action Plan
Chapter 10: Public Comment
Chapter 11: References

Also take a look at the Charlemont Recreationand Open Space site.

The Deerfield River watershed Team has funded Open Space plans for several towns in the watershed that didn't have any yet, and also is funding a regional open space plan for the whole watershed. Our November 16, 2002 conference in Buckland, MA was devoted to the topic.

Go to the Massachusetts Land Trust Organization web site to read an interesting paper on how Saving Land Lowers Taxes, by Robert Levite. This site is also a good place to find out about conservation easements, how to start a land trust, conservation gifts, conservation restrictions, government land acquisition assistance programs, and more!

(content borrowed from River Network)

What is sprawl? Sprawl is a dispersed pattern of urban growth that has substantial negative impacts on communities and the environment due to the spread-out location and configuration of new buildings and inter-linking, normally impervious surfaces.

What are some of the negative impacts of sprawl? Sprawl has many adverse social and environmental effects. Research has demonstrated that sprawl development typically causes increases in traffic; increases in taxes and fees necessary to pay for infrastructure and provide services; increases in air pollution and related public health problems such as lung disease; an increasingly sedentary population and related public health problems such as obesity; loss of revenue for older towns; loss of a sense of neighborhood/community cohesion; and greater response times for emergency services. In addition, sprawl development is generally highly consumptive of critical land, water and wildlife resources.

What is Smart Growth? Smart Growth strives to encourage and support patterns and methods of new development that result in high-quality communities and substantial open space preservation. One of the key goals of Smart Growth is revitalizing and redeveloping existing communities. Many older failing towns are ripe for economic revival and Smart Growth promotes redevelopment of older areas over development of open space.

What are some of the characteristics of Smart Growth? Mixed land uses; compact, clustered community design; range of housing choice and opportunity; walkable neighborhoods; distinctive, attractive communities offering a sense of place; open space, farmland, and scenic resource preservation; water resource conservation and protection; future development strengthened and directed to existing communities using existing infrastructure; transportation option variety; predictable, fair and cost-effective development decisions; and community and stakeholder collaboration in development decision-making.

The Farmland Protection Toolbox: A fact sheet from the American Farmland Trust describing the tools and techniques that state and local governments are using to protect farmland and ensure the economic viability of agriculture.

Woodlands

Much of the watershed is forested. Very little of our forest is old growth. You can see some old growth forest in the Mohawk Trail State Forest in Charlemont:

Mohawk Trail State Forest, Route 2, Charlemont, MA

Directions from Greenfield: Follow Route 2 along the Deerfield River through the town of Charlemont. Mohawk Trail State Forest is just a few miles beyond Charlemont on the right. Drive past the headquarters and camping area until you reach a gated wood road. There will be two outhouses nearby. Follow the wood road, past a small former pond (a CCC project, that now acts like a vernal pool), and begin down the hill. On the left will be a small, easily overlooked trail that leads down a steep hill to a cluster of New England champion white pines. Two of these measure 160 feet in height. You can continue down slope into the meadow. If you cut about halfway across and then go back up the slope, you will go through some younger forest and then reach a band of old growth sugar maple and yellow birch that is on a very rugged, rocky, steep slope. Wonderful forest. (text borrowed from WFCR)

But most of our woods have been cut at some point or many times. Learn more about the forest in our watershedt and how to manage it wisely at MassWoods.

MassAcorn is an interactive website for landowners and others interested in forests in the Deerfield and Westfield rivers watersheds