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Date: 6/8/2022
WEST SPRINGFIELD – A large white sign and freshly cleared parking lot mark the edge of the new Prospect Hill Conservation Area, at Birnie Avenue and Piper Road.
Those are the only visible changes to the more than 100-acre woodland, which abuts the Bear Hole Reservoir conservation area on its west. Existing trails through the property show that it’s long been considered by local hikers to be an informal part of Bear Hole.
The trailhead sits at one corner of the Pohl property, a nearly 70-acre former farm that the town purchased last year for $905,000, after the owner had proposed building a residential subdivision there.
The new conservation area includes both the Pohl parcel and nearby 28-acre and 11-acre parcels known as the Tessier properties, purchased in 2015, as well as a 3-acre lot the town had owned since the 1930s. The Pohl and Tessier properties do not touch, but are connected by hiking trails over a 34-acre privately owned parcel. West Springfield Conservation Agent Mark Noonan said the town is in talks to buy that land, too.
The Pohl land was purchased with a $400,000 state grant and $505,000 from the town’s Community Preservation Act fund. The Tessier purchase, which cost $265,000, all Community Preservation Act funds, included a third parcel north of the Massachusetts Turnpike that is now part of the Bear Hole conservation area.
West Springfield also owns 37 acres of the former Pohl farm east of Birnie Avenue, which the owner donated to the town in December.
Noonan said the Prospect Hill property is open to hiking and non-motorized bicycling, with a trail network that connects to the wider Bear Hole nature preserve and passes over some privately owned land. He said the town is considering what else can be done with it.
Though hunting with firearms is banned throughout West Springfield, one option for the property would be to allow bow-and-arrow hunting during designated seasons. Another would be to convert part of the land – the portion nearest the roads – to grassland.
“It’s a lot of invasive species and some debris” in that area, Noonan said. Clearing the trees and brush would make it easier to get rid of these unwelcome additions to the landscape. He added that most of the Bear Hole properties are heavily forested, and grassland “supports other species. This would be a way to create a mixture of habitats.”
No decisions have been made yet, he emphasized. He said the town wants to organize a committee of neighbors to determine how best to use the Prospect Hill Conservation Area.
At the West Springfield Town Council meeting on May 2, Councilor Michael Eger objected to the most visible change so far – spending $4,615 on a sign at the trailhead.
“It doesn’t do anything good, it just makes us look better,” he said. “I really don’t like spending money on vanity, and this feels like a vanity expense.”
Council President Edward Sullivan said the town is required by state law to post a sign crediting the Community Preservation Act when those funds – which come from a surcharge on local property tax bills and grants from the state – are used on a project. Eger joined the unanimous vote to approve the sign expense.