Raising Awareness

Knowing the locations of special natural areas and how these areas function is one of the goals of the Mill River Watershed project. Like many small river systems, it can be easy to miss the Mill River or one its tributaries as we sail past in our car. In order to familiarize residents and local officials with the watershed's waterways, its special habitats and hiking trails, and the plants and animals that live there, UMass Extension has initiated a series of activities:

Field Walks & Workshops: During 1999-2000, nearly two dozen field walks and workshops were held across the watershed. These ranged from mountain biking and salamander searching to identifying wildflowers to recognizing and handling local snakes and visiting historical sites. All told, more than 250 people participated. Nearly all of the field walk leaders were local residents. Among the most popular were programs on land protection, which was co-sponsored by Valley Land Fund, Deerfield Land Trust, Franklin Land Trust, Broad Brook Coalition and the Conservation Commissions in Conway, Hatfield and Whately. Another workshop on forest stewardship is planned for spring 2001.

UMass Extension plans to hold another series of field walks during 2001.

Fry Stocking: Since 1998, more than a dozen citizens have worked with state and federal fisheries biologists to release Atlantic Salmon fry into the cold, clean, well-oxygenated waters of Whately's West Brook. Each year approximately 7000 fry are released in this stream; more than 2 million are released throughout the Connecticut River watershed. In the fall of 2000 a single female salmon formed a gravel nest, known as a redd, in the sediments below the Hatfield Dam. This nest represented one of less than a dozen created by salmon in the entire Connecticut River Watershed that year.

Newsletters: To raise awareness about the environmental activities in the Mill River watershed communities, UMass Extension has worked with local community leaders to prepare two newsletters. The intention is to produce four newsletters a year. To view the first two newsletters, visit: Newsletter 1; Newsletter 2

Signs: With funding from the Massachusetts Riverways Program, UMass Extension designed and produced signs with the names of the Mill River and all of its major tributaries. These were installed by the local public works departments where the river or tributary crossed below a road. The signs were conceived to help not only raise public awareness about the specific rivers, but also give residents a better sense of the term watershed and the pathways and connections between streams in the watershed.