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Date: 1/3/2024
SOUTHWICK — The New England National Scenic Trail, of which a portion runs through the eastern area of town, was recently designated as a national park unit by the National Park Service.
“It’s a wonderful recreational resource and we’re proud to live near it,” said Jim Putnam II, the town’s former moderator, whose home on Rising Corner Road abuts the trailhead near where the trail enters Massachusetts.
“It’s a just a naturally beautiful place,” he said about the approximately 3 miles of the trail along the Southwick-Agawam line. About 2,000 yards of the trail dips into Agawam.
Intimately familiar with the trail, Putnam said wildlife, including bears, use it to “commute” around town. The trail, he said, goes across Provin Mountain and when conditions are right during the fall and winter, the city of Springfield is visible. It also runs by a former traprock quarry.
“Often you can hear the coyotes at night,” he said. “It’s an important cultural resource that, I think, rivals our rail trail.”
South of town, the trail continues into Connecticut. North of town, it runs along the Westfield-West Springfield line and continues following the ridge through Holyoke and the upper Pioneer Valley.
The National Park Service made the announcement on Dec. 7, and it not only included the New England trail, but also the Ice Age National Scenic Trail in Wisconsin and the North Country National Scenic Trail, which cuts a 4,600-mile path from Vermont to North Dakota.
The Park Service said in a press release about the designation that it will “increase public awareness and use of these amazing pathways.”
Highlights of the New England National Scenic Trail in Massachusetts include Mount Tom State Reservation, Mount Holyoke Range State Park, Mount Grace State Forest and Royalston Falls. Designated partial hikes along the trail range from just over half a mile to 13 miles.
“The trail offers panoramic vistas and close-ups of New England’s natural and cultural landscape: traprock ridges, historic village centers, farmlands, unfragmented forests, quiet streams, steep river valleys and waterfalls,” the National Park Service said in its statement.
Town Conservation Coordinator Sabrina Pooler said the trail has been part of Southwick’s natural heritage since long before the National Park Service got involved. It was known locally for years as the Metacomet-Monadnock Trail, or M&M Trail, named after the famous Native American leader Metacom and the Abenaki word “monadnock,” which describes a mountain.
“I do hope we continue to use this name to honor the memory of Metacom,” she said.
The M&M Trail extends into New Hampshire, though the portion north of the state line is not part of the national trail. Some hikers call it the Three-M Trail, including the Mattabesett Trail in southern Connecticut.
The National Park Service unit designation includes the Connecticut and Massachusetts portions of the Mattabesett and M&M trails. The trail joins a list of hundreds of parks, sites, trails, and waterways in federal care and open to the public.
“The NPS manages 428 individual units covering more than 85 million acres in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories. While there are at least 19 naming designations (National Parks, National Lakeshores, National Trails, etc.), these units are commonly referred to as ‘parks’ but can come under different names and multiple parks may be managed together as an administrative unit within the National Park Service,” according to the NPS.
In its statement this month, NPS said three other trails — the Appalachian Trail, Potomac Heritage Trail and Natchez Trace — had previously been designated as national park units, while the New England, North Country and Ice Age trails had not.
“Although there was no apparent reason for the discrepancy, the implications became clear over the past several decades as we watched as resources, including funding, support and promotion, were often held back from the three trails without unit status. This announcement remedies that and puts us on even ground with all of the other units of the system,” according to the NPS.
Pooler said that state and local municipalities have been working on acquiring and protecting land along the trail for years, as many parts of the trail are on private property.
With the new designation, she said, “the federal government is now stepping in to help with this process of acquisition, protection and land stewardship.”
Pooler said a 200-acre parcel of property purchased along the trail earlier this year was the first piece of the trail it had acquired with that goal in mind.
“The fact that Southwick now has a national park in town is only fitting as we are a recreational town. It is exciting … and I hope people take advantage of this opportunity and go hiking,” she said.