Westfield River Wild & Scenic

Check out our Wild & Scenic segment on WGBY Springfield’s Connecting Point!

At the 6th Annual Hilltown Spring Festival on May 12 at the Cummington Fairgrounds, the Westfield River Wild & Scenic Committee will provide important information to hilltown residents and visitors. The Committee will show residents how their communities can apply for grants to protect portions of the River and its tributaries. Residents are also invited to sign up as Stream Team volunteers for wild and scenic portions of the river. And the Committee is seeking people to share their stories and photos about experiences along the river during Hurricane Irene, so that the community can be better prepared for the next hurricane. Young visitors to the Festival will learn about conservation by creating a simulated flow of water, sediment, and pollution in a table-top model of a watershed. Come to learn more about how you can help protect the Westfield River watershed, this treasure in our midst in the Hilltowns.

http://hilltowncdc.org/programs/SpringFestival.html

https://www.facebook.com/#!/HilltownCDC/posts/370365179669534

Title: Atlantic Salmon Stocking - East Branch
Location: Meet at Norwootuck Rail Trail (Northampton)
Link out: Click here
Description: Meet at 8:00 a.m. and roll at 8:30 a.m.
For more info contact: Caleb Slater, MassWildlife, caleb.slater@state.ma.us.

Call Caleb\’s voicemail the day/evening before to confirm the schedule! - (508) 389-6331

Start Time: 8:00
Date: 2012-04-09

The Westfield River Wild & Scenic Advisory Committee and Westfield River Environmental Center at Westfield State University have launched a Macroinvertebrate Monitoring Program. Volunteers have received training in the collection of macroinvertebrates and will collect samples once a month until the snowfall and then again next spring to document the changes and recovery time since the high flows from Tropical Storm Irene. Stay tuned for the monitoring findings.

During the Summer of 2011, teenagers Romina Gotzmann and Cavanaugh Wolski embarked on cleaning up a stretch of Depot Brook below is a video and letter documenting their experience.

Crisp and clear, it trickles delicately into a babbling stream or fuming and furious, it has the power to reshape entire continents. Water is poised to become the most expensive commodity in the next fifty years, more valuable than gold, diamonds, or even oil, natural gas, and coal. It is tantamount to any organism’s survival and yet the amount of usable water is rapidly dwindling due to pollution and a rapidly-increasing world population. Humans will face extreme consequences without an increased knowledge and respect for the intrinsic benefits of this resource. Volunteering, in any capacity, to raise awareness about water’s importance and preserve its natural habitats, such as the Westfield Watershed, and the creatures that inhabit them, is an activity unparalleled in magnitude.

The greatest way to effect change is to set the example. A personal desire to maintain the Westfield River has the capacity to ignite others’ desire to do the same. Working with the widely-recognized Westfield River Wild & Scenic Advisory Committee helps inform people how to experience the beauty of the New England Rivers while working to protect both them and their many dependents, such as the stoneflies and mayflies macroinvertebrates, which cannot survive without their ideal surroundings. If bodies of water like the Westfield River are not properly maintained, humans will experience consequences regardless of the amount of usable water because these waters also established every food chain and web, which are the basis for human survival. Safeguarding natural environments of water, like the Westfield provides, is not merely volunteering but also a preemptory strike against a bleak future.

~ Romina Gotzmann

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Last Sat. July 9th community members and volunteers were treated to an off the tailgate Geological power point (complete with dinosaur footprints and mud balls to hold), a walk along the Chesterfield Gorge and a discovery at mile marker #2, on the East Branch Trail, that is sure to be revisited by many budding geologists.

Renowned geologist Richard Little did a little dance when he noticed an outcropping that perfectly displays what he called a contact –  a Granite (deep igneous rock) Intrusion.  This is when one layer of rock, in this case Goshen stone, is intruded by molten granite, pushing up from below.  In this streamside outcrop the light-colored Granite (which is very large grained, with Feldspar crystals the size of hands reflecting sunlight off their cleavage planes) forms a dike – an intrusion that cuts through the surrounding rock, and also a small sill – an intrusion that is parallel to the rock layering, like sliding your hand between the pages of a book.  

This Free geology workshop is part of a series offered by The Westfield River Wild & Scenic Advisory committee. Our next workshop will be on August 13^th.  We will be identifying pesky invasive and learning how to keep them at bay as well as discussing their effect on bird populations.

Sign-up with Meredyth Babcock, Wild & Scenic Volunteer Coordinator

(413) 623-2070 or volunteer@westfieldriverwildscenic.org,

www.westfieldriverwildscenic.org

Members of the Wild & Scenic Committee and Stream Team volunteers soaked up the sun while paddling Littleville Lake yesterday. The day provided an opportunity to network and explore part of the Westfield River.

To kick-off the day, a black bear greeted us at the boat launch.  He must have received the memo the Division of Fisheries & Wildlife was about to stock the lake with Trout.

The paddle also offered the opportunity for Committee Members to see first-hand some of the problems observed by Stream Team volunteers, including this erosion and damage caused by ATVs crossing the river.

All in all, it was an enjoyable day on the river. Hope you will join us in Walkin’ the Watershed and adopting a mile of river to enjoy and explore!

Contact Meredyth Babcock, Volunteer Coordinator, to learn how you can spend the day on the river!

413-623-2070 or volunteer@westfieldriverwildscenic.org

Title: East Branch Trail Workday
Location: Chesterfield Gorge
Link out: Click here
Description: Join us for
Tidying the
EAST BRANCH TRAIL
SUNDAY MAY 22nd
10am. - 2pm. meet at the
CHESTERFIELD GORGE

Get out your gloves, clippers and shovels!!
We will be trimming the branches,
Clearing the bridges and drainage areas
& Installing the new Wild & Scenic Kiosk
Sign up for a crew with Meredyth Babcock
Westfield River Wild & Scenic Stream Team and Project
Volunteer Coordinator
(413) 623-2070
volunteer@westfieldriverwildscenic.org

Start Time: 10:00
Date: 2011-05-22
End Time: 14:00