Information Sharing

Municipal Officials: UMass Extension offers state-wide training opportunities for municipal officials involved with selectboards, planning boards, zoning board of appeals, and conservation commissions. Because of Extension's focus on the Mill River watershed, board members in the communities of Conway, Deerfield, Hatfield, Northampton, Whately and Williamsburg may request special training sessions on specific topic issues listed below.

Planning boards and zoning boards of appeal may wish to take advantage of upcoming workshops available at the Citizen Planner Training Collaborative Website http://www.umass.edu/masscptc/. The Citizen Planning Training Collaborative is a cooperative venture by multiple NGOs, local and state agencies. UMass Extension staff oversee course coordination and administration. Any of the training courses on the CPTC website can be held and hosted by one of the Mill River watershed towns.

Conservation commissioners in the Mill River watershed can request any of the following programs whenever they wish:

• Procedures of the Wetlands Protection Act
• The Basics for New Commisioners: Protected Wetland Resource Areas
• Making Your Way through the Riverfront Area Regulations
• What Makes a Good Site Plan
• Identifying and Certifying Vernal Pools
• Identifying Wetland Boundaries (BVW)
• Identifying Wetland Plants

Board of Health members can take advantage of a county program offered by one of the Mill River Project's principal partners--the Franklin Regional Council of Governments. For more information about technical assistance on Title 5 and Board of Health matters, contact Phoebe Walker at 413/774-3167 x. 119.

School Programs: In 1998-9 UMass Extension staff developed a water testing program for environmental science students at Frontier Regional High School. Over the course of one semester students learned techniques and completed water analysis of Bloody Brook, which flows past the school grounds.

Following this outreach activity, other Extension personnel organized a series of environmental roundtable workshops for teachers. These included: water quality testing using macroinvertebrates (8 teachers attending); geology of the Connecticut River Valley (8 teachers attending); an introductory GIS workshop and a series of watershed related films to encourage teachers to include environmental sciences in their curriculum. One of these teachers and her students subsequently had students participate as part of Stream Team activities and invited a Mill River biologist to her classroom to describe research projects in the watershed and the biology of freshwater mussels.

Forest Landowners: A workshop is planned for the Spring 2002 that will focus on forest stewardship for owners of woodland in the Mill River watershed.

Riparian Landowners: Landowners along the Mill River and its tributaries will be sent information about riparian buffers.

Conservation Alternatives: A workshop for landowners on conservation alternatives to protect open space was held in June 2000. Over 50 residents from the watershed participated. The crowd was almost evenly divided between large landowners interested in options and residents who interested in learning how to encourage large landowners to safeguard important properties. Another workshop is being planned for 2002.

Farmers: Free technical assistance for farmers on agricultural issues is available from UMass Extension's agroecology program. Visit http://www.umassvegetable.org/.