NORTHAMPTON — The city will receive $154,650 toward restoration work on the Nashwannuck Brook from a $1.4 million state grant program supporting priority restoration projects across the commonwealth.
This funding and project are part of ongoing efforts from the city to rehabilitate the former Pine Grove Golf Course into a recreational and wildlife space. This $154,650 will go toward construction work to enhance the Nashwannuck Brook, restore floodplain connection, create new wetland habitat and plant vegetation on the property.
Northampton Director of Planning and Sustainability Carolyn Misch told Reminder Publishing that the ongoing effort to rehabilitate the former Pine Grove Golf Course is part of a long-term plan of increasing recreational opportunities and wildlife activity on the property.
The golf course on Old Wilson Road was purchased by the city in 2020 with the mission of restoring the 100-acre property back to its natural state. This work began with the dismantling of structures that were installed to help create the golf course before nature takes its course.
“All along, the goal has been to restore this golf course to its natural state. So that started several years ago with initially dismantling some of the structures and features that are in the golf course,” said Misch. “That included planting over 100 saplings in different locations, testing out sort of where they would take off on their own, and then also allowing the native vegetation to grow back. But we facilitated that by having a contractor go out and effectively punch holes in the ground to break open and pull up the clay tiles underneath that were put in as part of the golf course to convey water out. That allowed seedlings to get in, for water to get in. So that was the initial phase of allowing it to rewild itself, by just allowing access to air and water into the natural soils underneath.”
The funding, provided by the Department of Fish and Game’s (DFG) Division of Ecological Restoration (DER), was awarded to 12 communities, including eight projects through DER’s Priority Projects Program, and one project through DER’s Culvert Replacement Training Site Initiative.
DER’s Priority Projects Program supports wetland and river restoration projects that benefit the state’s environment, community and economy. Once designated as a DER Priority Project through a competitive process, projects are eligible to apply for funding opportunities and receive technical support and services from DER.
Misch explained that the city is planning to remove a collapsed culvert that runs under Old Wilson Road next to the property after the culvert unexpectedly collapsed last May due to significant rainfall events, leaving the road closed since then. This is separate from this restoration work and she said that, initially, plans were to focus on the restoration of the course before pulling the culvert, but the damage to the culvert was too pronounced to ignore.
“There are several pieces of a puzzle coming together in phases. Some of it was planned and some of it not so much, and so we’re happy that we can start putting these pieces together that will continue to facilitate rewilding the golf course,” said Misch.
Misch said the culvert is planned to be removed at some point following this upcoming restoration work, but the DER grant will not fund the removal. The grant funding for the upcoming restoration work has a June 30 deadline to spend.
Digging further into the details of the upcoming restoration work, Misch explained that golf courses are by design made to shed water quickly away from greens, but this requires unnatural structures placed along the stream bank, which negatively impacts water flow. Funding will support the removal of these unnatural structures and restore floodplain connection on the property.
“By rewilding now, this space is basically converting from a parking lot to actual natural absorption properties. We’re also sort of creating more storage capacity by removing dams that were created for the impoundment of water to make a pond feature on the property. By removing that and letting the stream flow and overtop its banks naturally, the water can settle and stay there as opposed to being pushed off site immediately. It becomes a flood storage capacity and has potential beneficial events on downstream properties,” explained Misch.
Misch said that the replanting along the stream banks itself is necessary because the banks on the stream were packed with rocks and concrete in some areas, making it difficult to transport water off the course.
“That means that the natural organisms and vegetation can’t grow, so that concrete and rock will be removed from the banks of the stream corridor, and that will allow more natural flow and overtopping of the streams. It will allow absorption, allow new growth of species,” said Misch. “They’ll be planting and also placement of features that mimic natural condition. We have these plans for what are referred to as log jams, which in some cases could be natural wood, but these are sort of engineered features to help facilitate the water staying in and pool around these log jams, so that will help facilitate the growth of new organisms.”
Misch said that other phases of restoration work on the property will depend on future grant funding sources, including future trail work and additional restoration activities. But for now, this $154,650 will still support important restoration work on the property.
The total $1.4 million in grants announced by the Healey-Driscoll Administration will support river and wetland restoration projects specifically. These projects aim to help strengthen resilience to climate change, reduce flood risks, improve water quality and public safety and restore vital wildlife habitat.
“Restoring wetlands and streams, removing dams, and replacing culverts make our communities safer and more resilient to the increasing extreme weather events,” said Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Rebecca Tepper. “Investing in this work benefits all of us now and into the future. That’s why we put forward the Mass Ready Act — to ensure Massachusetts communities are prepared for the storms we are seeing now and the ones we will experience in the future.”
Misch said that while this round of funding will help continue restoration work on the property, state backed grants only further the commonwealth’s commitment to be climate conscious for a greener future.
“It’s hugely beneficial to have the state support this through grant funding, and its mutually beneficial from a climate strategy standpoint for the commonwealth, as well as for the city, because if each community across the commonwealth moved on projects that help create floodplain storage, reforesting areas, permanently protecting land — all of those coupled together really help the commonwealth, and so I think the fact that the commonwealth recognizes that, and supports it through this grant funding is great,” said Misch. “We hope that — and I think the commonwealth hopes too — that this is sort of serves as an example for other communities to start thinking about ways that even on a small scale could be beneficial for their own communities.”
