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Date: 1/11/2022
BELCHERTOWN – Belchertown’s Conservation Administrator Erica Larner discussed some of the projects the Conservation Commission worked on over the past year and some of the projects the commission is working on in the new year.
Larner said the Conservation Commission’s work falls into three different areas.
“Conservation Commissions were initially created with a mandate to conserve and preserve land in its natural state. Our other mandate is to protect the wetland resources through the Wetlands Protection Act. Our department also is the stormwater authority,” she said.
Over the past year, Larner said the commission was able to preserve nearly 100 acres of land.
“For the last calendar year, we have acquired close to 100 acres, we closed on a large 80-acre parcel and had two donations that were completed. We have been funded for an additional 32 acres of land, one of the closings we had was a $645,000 closing that we received grant funds from the federal government and some from the Massachusetts CPC,” she said.
Another project Larner said the commission recently completed is design work on a portion of the Mass Central Rail Trail, which the Massachusetts Department of Transportation will construct.
“We completed a conceptual design grant for the extension of the Mass Central Rail Trail. The Norwottuck runs from Northampton to Amherst, and we did a conceptual design for the completion of one segment of it in Belchertown. We were also awarded – and are currently working on – a 25 percent design for the DOT (Department of Transportation) to construct a segment of the rail trail in the center of town in Belchertown,” she said.
Larner said the commission also worked with the Sports Haven trailer park to replace its public water supply.
“The Sports Haven mobile home park has had some public water supply issues for quite a while now and our office donated the delineation of the wetlands for them to be able to utilize the grants, they received to replace the public water supply,” she said.
In terms of working with the community, Larner said one of the ways the commission does so is through educational outreach.
“We do educational outreach in terms of stormwater, best practices around wetlands, we do connect people with free classes that are outdoors or webinars where people can learn more about the nature around them,” she said.
Larner said the community can also help by volunteering or coming to an agreement with the commission by providing land for it to buy.
“We are looking to gather together a group of volunteers for workdays when we go do maintenance on properties or trail maintenance. If people have specific skill sets, they want to be able to share we would love to hear from them as well. People can also consider us in their estate planning or if they have parcels of land they would like to see conserved they can reach out to us,” she said.
One project the commission is currently working on is an American Disability Act (ADA) accessible trail along with a community garden.
“The Meadows Conservation Area, which is off of Catherine Drive, we were awarded a $10,000 grant to create an ADA accessible trail around a portion of one of the meadows and long-term considerations would be whether or not we can have some sort of raised community gardening space or a native, orchard and shrub, but also edible garden in the area,” Larner said.
While the final plan for growing is not completed, Larner said the trail construction will be completed by the end of June. She added people can also reach out about donating edible plants to the garden.
Larner added the commission also works regionally with larger commissions and land trusts.
“We work with regional committees like the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission in order to deal with stormwater at a regional level and at a Connecticut River wide watershed level. We also work with land trusts at a regional level like Kestrel Land Trust in order to coordinate our projects, so our projects match up with other towns’ projects,” she said.
Anyone interested in conserving land or volunteering should email the Commission at conservation@belchertown.org.