[Music] [Applause] I'd like to call this meeting to order the first part of our meeting will be the business portion including the treasures report Clerk's report and the president's report then an open discussion with
questions um suggestions we'll have a break for refreshment and then our guest speaker is Lorie Sanders she's a naturalist and co-director of the historic North pamp who will provide an overview of the
manhan river and I believe she has a um a surprise from one of our our properties so um I'd like to introduce the more board members I'm Dian mlan the
President John Bader vice president which is easier than being president it it sure is I'd like to switch back and then Rachel is this working yes it is
Rachel Eric Rose new guy Mar old gu Tomer director Mary L Dodge board cler ktie carold board member
the um the first order of business is to reelect the um there's a reelection every 3 to 3 to 7 years um as long as they wish to remain on the board I'll give them an out um John Bader is up for
re-election this year Molly Goodwin who is on vacation is up for reelection Thunderman and Sue Waltz so I'd like to ask the um the floor if they would like to
make a motion to reelect these members so move a second second all in favor we have a new clerk Mary L Doge who would like we would like to
formally nominate her for this position she's been working um as our notetaker Clerk and organizer for quite some time well for at least a year I'm really appreciate it um can I have a motion
from the floor to nominate Mary L for position of Clerk and a second all in [Music] favor um we'd also like to again thank Don akley who has held this position um
for many years her dedication and commitment was is very appreciated and we're delighted to have Mary Lou take on this role really it's great um this is exciting we have two new board members who would like to formally vote on board
um one is Alan Clark who couldn't make it tonight and Eric Rose who is the new guy I'd like to ask ask the floor for a motion to vote Alan Clark to the board of the PCT
[Music] okay a second second all in favor I same for Eric um would somebody from the floor like to make a motion I still move and a
second second all in favor we're we're really pleased to um welcome these two board members they come with a um a suitcase full of um Val yeah and
money they bought their way on the board um I'd like to ask anyone on the floor if they have anyone they'd like to nominate for the board okay that's fine if you think of anyone who would like to be on the board
of the great esic conservation trust just let us know um first up is the treasure report treasurers report okay let's see if I can get through this it's very short I'm very nervous all right hi
folks thank you all by the way just for being members like I'm the treasurer so I see your checks and I'm like very heartened by every single one we get and I really appreciate it it's really wonderful okay uh here's the balance sheet report for this year we have I'm
just going to read a bunch of numbers but feel free to you know interrup me we have 198 963 and current assets which includes cash and can everybody hear me should I take this off yeah okay y cash and investment accounts this is up from
178 818 from last year 3124 the difference is primarily reflected in our modest investment accounts value rising and a $5,000 donation from the contamination of P Brook unfortunately from G&G construction and the very successful
estate sale we had at Bill bur so thank you Bill is it okay my technical assistant here thank you B we have uh we we have no liabilities this comes from being an all volunteer board so our
bottom line is um as of March 1st 2025 409 623 including our properties so you add what I just said with our properties and last year it was 389 478 sorry um in December the board
authorized the opening of a high yield money market so we moved 120,000 from our checking account to establish it and that's been doing really well and that's it that's all I have thank you do you have any questions or anything you want to know that's fine great thank you very
much thanks Rachel and now the C support right just quick P conservation Trust annual meeting was held at the Blue Room at City Hall in East Hampton at 7:00 p.m. Tuesday Fe 27
2024 attending were 11 board members and approximately 40 members of the public our trust president Diane mlan opened the meeting welcoming members of the public and introducing members of the board uh both treasurers report for 23
24 year and the clerk's report of the minutes of the last annual meeting were read and approved by all present as then Diane listed our projects and activities for this past year or the past year um
including number one the acquisition of a 10 acre parcel on the manhan river in East Hampton that was the gift of a trust member and it increases our ability uh to protect the river and its banks a precious wildlife carridor and
Greenway that winds through our city this new parcel is now going to connect to one of our oldest Pro properties the old old pass comment section uh secondly our maintenance committee assisted by the
ever able Kevin Mulligan has worked to repair heavy storm damage and other wear and tear on trails and property keeping them walkable enjoyable for the public and fundraising from two uh seasonal
plant sales as well as the sale of several memorial benches on our property and sale of our calendars and a popup Shop new this year selling our t-shirts and hats has created a good amount of income for the trust all right and this
was last year um and still going on the trust closely monitoring the tasty top proposed development on rout 10 we continue to be active in speaking to the town and residents about its possible threats to the Natural landscape and
wildlife in the area to be continued the trust continues to offer its uh annual scholarship to a local high school senior interested in environmental issues and we continue to set up our information tables at community events
our Sunday farmers markets and cultural chaos Etc and uh from those tables we get a lot of new uh residents informed that we do have a lot of trails in town and we hand out maps and uh let them see
where they are uh we are collaborating uh Environmental Protection efforts with the East Hampton land protection collaborative and the upper manhand river Watershed committee and during let's see the next event
which was our open discussion last year board member Tom Len Heiser asked the audience for input on the our proposed Banning of dogs from our properties a good discussion with mixed reactions followed with a general sense of
agreement that our mission is that of a protector of the creatures and the health of the properties we Overlook and our current knowledge and this is what science knows now is that dog's presence is harmful and destructive to
Wildlife On Any Trail um finally di Express to all the members and volunteers that we have um had sh up this year we're grateful for financial support and a lot of help with property
maintenance uh so then there was a refreshment rate last year and our speaker was introduced that was Marty Klein longtime board member noted my colist and photographer who gave an illuminated and beautiful presentation
slideshow on mushrooms in our area throughout the seasons and jman of the meeting was motioned for at 9:10 with all in favor that perfect I move we accept am
minut second all in favor we go back to move to accept the uh Treasurer support but I have it written down here too um could I could I so move so move to
second second all in favor okay so on to the president's report um the gifts and Acquisitions we have had the great P privilege of acquiring a gift of land it's it's
almost like a ditto it's about 10 acres a 10 acre parcel on the manhand that will now be conserved and cherished by mostly birds mammals flana this parcel will remain open space since it has no access an East Hampton homeowner has
acted to protect these 10 acres of State significant habitat it is set aside in it as an undisturbed Natural Area the parcel is a complex of flood plane forest and wetlands extending along nearly half a mile of River Front
um and it was very exciting it's it's like a piece of wild land that we're able to to protect and and um let every all the animals and be undisturbed served um this is in addition to last year's um about 10
acres as Mary L mentioned um as you can see one of our major Focus areas is the protection of the manhand um and it'll be um Lori will have a better a better Viewpoint of that
[Music] um we had a um we were very happy to be a partner with um Castro land trust and DC y to protect a Farm off of East Street as you know there are few Farms on East Street which and they may become
vul vulnerable at some point the PCT is here to protect Farms open space and Forest so once this project is complete and public we will let everyone know where we are where we stand with that but it's it's really exciting to have a um a hand in that um another incredibly
exciting project which we plan to start in the spring is to eradicate invasives starting with two properties we received funding um to cover 3 years of invasive work at Brickyard Brook and um Edward
DWI we're hoping to include two more properties next year this is a project that's been on our list for some time um and it's really hard to get everything together and and everything aligned so um as we move forward and and get rid of
the invasives we plan to plant native plants in these these areas is attracting pollinators um next we're funding we we're currently working on funding to replace a bridge near the East Street entrance entrance at mfield if you can
remember back to last spring we had a huge amount of brain which changed many of our River and Brook Banks the path Paths of the river and Brooks changed with a strong flow and it has degreg part of that so we are redoing a bridge and hopefully
um upgrading part of part of mfield um last year about this time we um hosted a guided walk of old pamic as well as the mountt North Trail Head this guided walk was part of the mass Land
Trust coalition's annual meeting and it was an honor to showcase our properties to individuals individuals in The Wider Massachusetts conservation Community people came from all parts of Massachusetts and were happy to see um that we were able to protect as much
land as we we can so it's a thank you to everyone here in this room um I'd like to take a minute to thank our property specialist Kevin Mulligan for all the work he has done with the PCT he's done great work
fundraising um as you know our major fundraising events were um fan sales which we all loved but the onset of jumping worms made us pivot so we're moving our fundraising efforts to tag sales um our initial sale was at um an
estate sale at pcts fing members home it was a lot of work but boosted the balance sheet for all our our all volunteer trust we want to thank bill for his generosity and hopefully we'll we're planning to have another tag sale at
john vader Park in May um the memorial Bunch bench fundraiser bunch bunch of benches we have spots open um so if you'd like please um let Garrett or someone on the
the board know to um this year the benches were added to Old Trolley line to at Edward dwire Conservation Area and two at pomoy Meadow the Open Bench spots are located in strategic areas um to truly enjoy East Hampton's great
attributes um and next for fundraising again Sue wal famous nanic Pond calendar the sales have been generously donated to the PCT Sue is taken on this project for many many years and she's now passing the
calendar for time onto Marty Marty's taking over public relations and Outreach we've arranged with kto land trust to Stage a joint field trip for um the mass Coalition M Massachusetts land
trust coalition um we continue to spend a lot of time in the monitoring as we did last year of the proposed s Vista Commons known as tasty toab um we've submitted numerous
letters Maps um to the city and will'll continue um our quest uh members of the PCT are involved in the eastampton land protection collaborative which was mentioned as well this this group meets quarterly at
um and it's a union from those of Fish and Wildlife the city kro land trust mass aaban and us so we're able to get together and um Talk About Properties in our in East Hampton and and the surrounding areas it's been very helpful
we do we always offer a so far a a scholarship to support High School grads interested in the environment and as Mary L said we are involved in the community events the cultural chaos our thank you to members
ice cream social and hosted many tables at the farmers market and other um venues in East Hampton um going on to Property Maintenance one of our big maintenance project last year was to retra the old
pamic Conservation Area it was a true challenge which was done in the spring which I mean mud um changing the direction and doing restorative work on Trails will also minimize future maintenance which everybody's happy about we've had
multip multiple erosion issues due to the heavy rainfall last year in some areas the river swept through the forest at DWI Conservation Area for 100 ft or more requir requiring re rooting of trails and moving benches to um go be
beyond the banks structure and always the infrastructure repairs bog Bridges sets of stairs there's always maintenance um I'm going to ask for your help later um for this year coming up we continue
we will continue to monitor the sier Vista Commons continue to be involved in the East H to land protection collaborative land protection is always our top priority we're proactive in the conservation and protection of sites in
and around eastampton and we will complete a scholarship ship as well our tag sales in May so you'll be getting our our notice and newsletters um so I work through it
quickly so we could um listen to Lor's presentation but um this is the time for open discussion so if anybody has any comments questions suggestions we're always looking for people to help us out with um
maintenance um Property Maintenance Trails Trails cutting things we do things from breaking to major work but it's always fun it's good I didn't is there does anyone have
a question so that's a good one so I move to adjourn the business meeting and can I have a motion to adjourn a business meeting make a motion toour a second second do we have to accept
your report oh that's true thank you Marty I don't want it I don't want acceptance um can I have a motion to accept the president's report thank you a second second all in
favor okay now we can go on to the adjournment um I would just throw like to throw um a little request out to the audience if there's anybody out there who um likes to do public relations like publicizing
events and that kind of thing um we could really use somebody that's dedicated to doing that right yeah I mean we we kind of do one does a little and another but we it would be great to
have a dedicated person so if anybody is interested in doing that is a volunteer um and we'd be happy to have you okay so anything else from the board our board is our board is um growing a little bit by little bit and
with very um very educated in the environmental um environmental area so we're we're really pleased um I I neglected to introduce Alan Clark who is online and
Sue Waltz also they're both board members um with that I can adjourn the business meeting officially and a second second all in favor so we can now we'll break for
refreshments and then um Lorie Sanders our guest speaker um we'll go ahead with her presentation well well thanks so much for not only coming but for staying and
um when I spoke to Marty a couple months ago about the possibility of being here tonight uh he said well we're really interested in the manhan river and I my husband that's too dark sorry uh my
husband and I live in Westampton and the manhan as you're going to learn a little bit more is is part of our uh part of our town too so I feel like it was just a very nice um combination so I think
for most of us for so many people the way they know about the manhan River today is because they drive over it and they see that they're crossing a bridge but historically the manhan river has had a profound effect if we look just locally
at eastampton in terms of the history of East Hampton and so in the old days when you would go across the bridges of the manhan you had a little bit longer time to admire the manhan and look over and and the crossing of the manhan river
happens in many locations in eastampton and it was celebrated in many many postcards so these are two bridges that some of you uh may remember I was just talking with John Bader he said oh remember that one bridge and I said you're going to see a postcard in just a
few minutes these are two bridges that were very close to where the uh Manan uh meets the Confluence of the of the Oxo but um the most celebrated I would say is the one that we cross now along Route
10 the upper image is when there was a covered bridge in that section uh from 1838 to 1897 and then that bridge comes down and you get a view this other view in the lower corner of the newer more modern Bridge of the time now many of
you know East Hampton well so that you know if you're uh just not too far away is this feature which is a a large exposure of what we often call a red rock it's a 200 million year old
sandstone and this is where the first dam was constructed and this site has had uh a profound impact on the history of Northampton and continues to so here's this big exposure of sandstone it
is the location when uh in 165 1675 that when three Proprietors from Northampton so Northampton by that point had been settled for about 20 years if you look at the historic Maps uh there's
this big block of Northampton and there's this like little tiny finger that comes over that includes this portion so people knew for a long time that there was a rock exposure and when you have a rock exposure it's a great place to build a dam and so in 1675
three Proprietors are given permission to build a sawmill there um not too much later a fellow named Samuel Bartlett is given uh the op the authority to put in a Grist Mill and corn Mill he is one of
the um handful of um enslavers in Northampton at that point and two of his enslaved people worked at that Grist Mill um and they would be grinding corn and
wheat that as a Grist Mill it's a it's a meeting place so it's right you've got one on one side you got the Sawmill on one side the Gris mill on the other and lo and behold not no surprise it's a it's a great time while your wheat is being ground to go get a drink and so
the there was a Tavern that was established there in the early 1700s so at that point what we call East Hampton now is still part of North Hampton um it was initially owned owned by this is a 20th
century rendition that's at uh Historic Deerfield of what the tavern looked like and it was eventually transferred from a Lyman to the claps and this signature of the of the lion was one of the features which you saw over and over again in
taverns so the tavern uh this is the 1831 map so by now uh East Hampton is its own entity it becomes its own town in 1785 but if you look at the top where the red circle is you can see I hope on
one side it says grismill on the other side it says Sawmill um right across the way is where the is where the tavern is and guess what just up the hill is where the meeting house was cuz meeting houses were on hill right on hills and so just
up the slope it's not in the same location it's sort of in this area where where we are today by 1831 there's more the first residents full-time residents in East Hampton come around 1700 so by 1831 when this map is
made that you got plenty of generations so if you look at you can see these little squiggles that's a s Broad Brook and then the brook that fills What's called the rubber thread Pond for those of you who are old enough but there's a sawmill up above more or less where uh
the lower Mill Pond is on Broad Brook and then and then another one down down below at the at the bottom um the other really important uh tributary the important tributary within East Hampton to the man hand and one
that just dramatically changed the history of this town is broadbrook and you can see in this early uh postcard one other just side note is that all these postcards were my mother-in-law grew up here in East Hampton and these
are all her postcards which I have never had the opportunity to my husband grew up here in East Hampton so this is part of another reason that I just uh wanted to say yes to Marty so for many years Broad
Brook you saw in 1831 was still a little Brook but by the 1840s the first Dam goes in and that forms the upper Mill Pond which we know today as nanic pond so here's an early early image of it for
a long time it was just called the upper Mill Pond and there was little like I would call it marketing Improvement it's called nanic Pond but nanic Pond that water Power Fuels the button Mill which is really the first major uh industry
here in in East Hampton and from williston's first button shop more factories grow that that has a lot ahead and not only is there more development with more factories it's right in the time of within American history lots of
Industrial Development lots of Industrial Development happening in nearby Northampton and this dramatically changes not only the economics of the town as more come in but it also changes the demographics of the town right this is the Heyday of immigration in America
the Irish are coming that the the Irish famine coincides more or less with the with the establishment of that first Dam on on broadbrook and with these people of course the downtown changes for what the first 150 years
it's you know you're a congregationalist and that's what you are right but then really after the Civil War as the proliferation of of people are who are coming here French Canadian um Irish
polish the there's a proliferation of religions and churches and architecture so just the damning of of that tributary to the manhan just radically radically changes this town and then the the pond
itself is becomes this environmental attrib you know influencer it's aesthetic and it's a recreational resource and it's a recreational resource for a long time including this
summer but we've just been looking right at little this little part of of East Hampton but one of the things that was talked about I think in the president's report and the previous is all these kind of collaborations and thinking more broadly and so if you look at the
Watershed of the manhand it's it's very impressive it's 55,000 acres and so more or less okay this is my crude quick and dirty so if you look at this you see the outline of East Hampton all essentially
all of East Hampton drains into the manhan Watershed almost all of Southampton drains into the most of Westampton where I live Northampton about a third of Northampton and then as
you look around portions of holyo Westfield Montgomery Huntington and even a little tiny bit of Chesterfield it's a it's a watershed even though it's small and we go sailing across it it really it really reaches so many
communities so one of the things because I think many of us we don't have a lot of opportunities to ramble along that River so you here you see the lower portion in in blue with the word manhan hope you can see that so here's the North Branch which I I'm going to just
go back so you can see it pop up so this is the North Branch so one of the headwaters of the North Branch of the manhill which is mostly draining West Hampton is Pine Island Lake which some of you have been to or or we'll know that's one portion the the the South
Branch also begins up in Westampton principally and goes Long Way South all the way into Westfield and then turns and goes north north north north north now there's some other big
tributaries that we mentioned there's there's Broad Brook which you see on here and then there's also one a brook that has so many different place names over time uh sometimes it's called Clan Brook it's called Sawmill Brook it's called Parson Brook and down in this
section it's called Basset Brook named after Joel Basset uh who who lived not far from there and here is East Hampton just because uh this is the audience and so you have a sense of like what what's your piece within that 55,000 acre Watershed
there's lots of different habitat types and and for the Native Americans who were here for about 400 Generations where we are these lower areas for the last thousand or so years for many more years than that they were
managing a lot of this landscape using fire as a tool so down here in this lower portion of of uh East Hampton during the last Thousand Years the agriculture was an important so area there was agriculture here in the area up on these I would say sort of
the Highlands where we are now on the on these old Sandy plateaus that's probably where many more people were living they were um using fire as a tool as I mentioned and and partly to have open areas to make it easier for them to walk
and it changed in this area because of the Sandy soils there was a lot of um open Plains if you look at the historic Maps you'll see Fort Plain well for the English the word plain had a very distinctive meaning a plain man an open
landscape that uh was in the Uplands whereas a meadow on those older English Maps would mean an open area along a river and the only way you get open area areas right is through is through burning and so what I like is that you
can think we actually know sort of the stewardship plan of of native people before us by just looking at those place names on those historic maps in this area where we are right here in the downtown of East Hampton I'm sure there were big uh Pitch Pine areas in this
section there was also a lot of white pine um for Native Americans they were they were fishing they were trapping they were hunting they were forging not only in this lower area but also in the all the Uplands of of that other parts
of the Watershed by the time the English the first English they've been down in the Springfield area for about 20 years and they work with the nanuk and the general court and and there's an acquisition of about 63,000 Acres so you can see the
outline of Northampton here but then that also includes East Hampton Southampton Westampton and portions of Montgomery that subsequently are are set aside so this is probably for when when
Samuel Bartlett and those first three Proprietors came up this is probably what the downtown area of uh East Hampton looked like and certainly that whole section out in the plains out near broadbrook um would have looked a little bit like
this for those early English uh settlers they did not have enough livestock to slaughter and make Tallow candles so the Pitch Pine forests were exce exceedingly important not only for Timber but they had these knots which they would call
Candlewood and so here's a quote from uh trumble's essay trumble's history of Northampton where people would almost as willingly commence the winter without hay as without a good supply of candle wood so Candlewood is this sappy
resinous stuff probably smoked like crazy but it was a way to light the inside of your house um for those first 150 years here in East Hampton once people settled farming
was principally what happened here but then as I mentioned really by the 1840s just totally consistent with the industrialization all widespread in America there's um lots of development so and where we're standing here is
we're at Brookside so think of being at the Brookside cemetery we're looking across nanic pond over toward uh Cottage Street and uh maybe you can even recognize the the rooftop of the what's now the Guild Art
Store during that period 1840s uh and even before then fire is a a huge threat and and you see it over and over again these reports of of disastrous fires in major
cities if you saw those images in the if you noticed in the postcards almost all of those factories are built with brick this is like where everyone wants to go because it's more fireproof because at this point the only water supply here is
principally until the 1840s just through old hollowed logs and so fire suppression is this huge huge issue so by 1845 the railroad has arrived in
Northampton it's there's many more rails possible technology is such that they can make pipe that joins and so there's this opportunity and you see it in city after city after City where they're suddenly thinking we need fire
suppression and this the issue for fire suppression is just so important because it's all about the economics and drinking water domestic use is like way way way down the list one of the things that
distinguishes the manhan river Watershed is its is the its significance to public drinking water supplies in early on it was fire suppression but now very quickly we realize and in fact those are I don't um those early reports fire
suppression was number one but afterward it would be irrigation watering the road to keep the dust down and then oh by the way domestic use so by the time East Hampton is also really worried in the
1870s uh about where is its water supply going to come from as the city is growing so much with all of this manufacturing development everybody else is also looking northampton's looking Hool Oak's looking and the Holy Oak uh Watershed land which you see here that's
all protected Watershed land in West Hampton for their large uh surface water reservoirs um and then there's and then the other pieces to focus on is the Barnes aquafer which is actually you can
see my cursor here this is all this high yield aquafer and barns are are actually all all connected but there's a a little kind of watershed divide here that this water is draining South in the
Barnes water is draining is moving North underground but look at you can see the I hope with the green um the medium yield aquifer so much of this Watershed is important to public drinking water
supplies also makes it as you all know a little more much more vulnerable to to pollutants so East Hampton thinks oh you know what we need more water Maybe will get our water from the North Branch of
the manhan up in Westampton but that price tag is about half a million dollars so they realize that down near Hendrick Street where it's all a meadow there's a place near broadbrook where
there are these Springs these sort of little artisian springs that come up and it just so happens at that time that the it's the hendrik farm that's what Hendrick stream is named after and the fellow who's in charge of the water supply issue is is also a relative who's
named hendrik and he goes to this area when you can see a bridge I think in the background that's going over over Broad Brook and they put a series of pipes down and guess what they get gushers and that's where your that's where your drinking water comes from now it's all
you're tapping into that Barnes aquifer but you're probably I hope all thinking but why is that water coming up like that oh great glacial Lake
Hitchcock if any of you have been to my other talks you know like you cannot get away without hearing about glacial Lake Hitchcock so the red the red star is where we are today so we would be if we could go back in time 13,000 years ago
we'd be under 100 150 ft of water we'd be be cold um here's another kind of a closer look at where where we are that I tried to put the star exactly where we are tonight sitting so you can see the
glacial Lake Hitchcock it's this long um long skinny Lake that extends all the way up to White River Junction and then the South into Connecticut there's a big debris dam of rocks and and ice and
other things that uh persist for a long long time the lake lasts about 3,000 years and it's not always at like one single level it bounces up and down so it has different shorelines but as the glacier is retreating um it's it's redu
it's putting out tremendous amounts of meltwater and sand and gravel and okay it's Northampton Amorous right but where are we oh we're here right we all want to know where we are in the lake so as as those we've all seen those
National Geographic specials where you see that beautiful melt water that that powder blue where all that glacial flower is catching the catching the light in a certain way well here we have not only the manhan river coming into
the the glacial manhan River but many of these other small tributaries are coming in and but they they're nothing like we know today right they're charged with tremendous amounts of glacial meltwater during the warmer Seasons so they're creating vast outwash plains there's big
Deltas that are forming and if we look now this is a very highly stylized block look at where we are um here here's let's see if this cursor okay there's the cursor here we
are in East Hampton this is the Mount Tom range the Holy Oak range over here the Oxbow and so the question is to you know why why is
there why is there an aquifer called Barnes why why is the water here in East Hampton po pushing up like an artisian well it gets back to a longer ago history a couple hundred million years
ago when all the continents were together and this giant super continent of Pangia those continental plates begin to break apart and and but it's not like a clean break it's happening over millions and millions of years and there's all these
points of weaknesses these sort of long stretch marks and sutures that happen and the Connecticut River Valley is one of those places it's a rift valley which you've heard of from Africa or from the Yellowstone area and it's pulling apart
and so there's a fault that happens and it slips down and so these earlier rocks these red beds that the sandstones that have formed they begin they here in this illustration that my husband made
they're very they were laid down flat right but now there's a fault and it and as there's an earthquake and it slides so that's why that's why it's tipped and so as as as the faulting is
happening and there's tension there's also volcanic activity that comes up and forms this B Salt Flat area which you can see I hope dipping down that's a much more erosion
resistant feature and so that's why Mount Holo and Mount Tom and down to East Rock and um West Rock and Connecticut it's one of these north south air locations where the continents
are pulling apart some Basalt comes up and it's much more erosion resistant than that Sandstone below so the Sandstone is everything here is a couple hundred million years old uh more deposits happen on top but you can see
so like the Portland so on one side you have the Western Highlands which some of us might call the burkers right the Eastern Highlands that's the pelum hills those areas are all like 400 million years years old they formed when the continents were crushing together when
there were mountains here the size of Mount Everest in the Himalayas then you got 200 million years of erosion as that erosion is happening it's deposited the whole place is we're in a we're close to the equator at that
point this part of the continent the incipient North American continent and so uh there's Monsoon like conditions tremendous storm events all this mud comes out and these little tiny
dinosaurs for early dinosaurs are walking across some of that right what happens with Barnes aquafer you can see where the manhan is there's a little portion of that
Sandstone that doesn't erode so when the glacier and all of these sediments are being deposited and you've got glacial Lake Hitchcock Clays fingering then with some sandy stuff or some gravel stuff it's this fingering of
clay and sand clay and sand but it happens to be in that Nook right that's been created by this downfall so it's a deeper section so if you if we try to drill down in the Barnes aquifer it would be a much much
deeper over there if we drill down then then right here and it's be it's all related to this very ancient geology Fred's going to give next year's talk on geology so here's a very highlight
stylized uh look you got all these Sands that then once the glacial Lake disappears also more Sands are coming in from from the manhan and the Broad Brook and all these smaller tributaries they're over topping those glacial Lake
Clays which in this particular part of our area are interfingered with Clays sand clay sand and as that water because they're dipping a little bit the water is moving Underground through those
Sands and it's as if the clay is like a a cake and so they're under pressure so that when you punch a a well pipe down there there's pressure and it gushes and there is the part of your drinking water
supply where you're all drinking this ancient water this 10,000 year old water or more that was uh there since glacial Lake Hitchcock time so here again is the outline of East Hampton the star is more or less
where the Hendrick Street uh Wells are and so when the city put those wells in there instead of half a million dollars it was only like3 ,000 good deal and now um you know there are many more Wells not only for East
Hampton in that location but Southampton has Wells hoio has Wells and Westfield has Wells so there's uh more than a billion gallons that are going out of that aquifer annually by people uh the
average is like a 50 gallons per per person something like that so here's and here's how the water in this section of Barnes aquer is moving to the North heading toward the Oxbow underground so all those Sandy
deposits that we have in this section of town really make for among other things great cemeteries right because what are you looking for right this is going to inform as you as you drive through the landscape now you're going to look at it differently because you're going to when
you see a cemetery you're going to think ah I get it easy digging no rocks and no high groundwater table cuz you do not want those bodies popping back up and that's that is what happens when GL the glacial aake kitkot Clays are close to
the surface happened in Northampton with the first Catholic Cemetery they had to push keep there counts of them holding holding the coffins down because the water was coming up they move they did the cemetery is no longer on King Street
it's now a it's now a playground ground it's the Agnes um Agnes fox fox thank you playground and now the St Mary cemetery is up off a bridge Road in East in Northampton so here's another thing that
happens with these Big Sandy plate flat areas this is East Hampton looking at it in 1910 it's the Library of Congress image uh looking down from Mount Tom and if this is sort of what that area looks like
today because just like with cemeteries for development so here's the N Pond these parts of East Hampton and other areas where there's these big uh openings it's easy digging few to no
rocks no high ground water table mostly flat and gently rolling and then easy Road layout so we see this and lots of lots of East Hampton which has developed really since since World War II there's been a tremendous mendous amount of um housing
here now when the cons when the Pas conservation trust began that in the 80s its focus has always been the manhan river but in the last 40 plus years we've learned a lot more about this
Watershed and we have many more tools so not only do we have talented people like this young guy Tom loutzenheiser in this image but thanks to research all over we know much
more about ecological systems individual species many of which are common but we also know a lot more about many of the species which are declining or are actually rare not only in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts but more
broadly in the nation and so these are important tools for us to understand okay where where do we buy land where do where do we protect land the other really important tool that we have now is GIS all right it's this mapping tool
that enables us to look at the landscape in such a different way so here again as the outline of the manhand Watershed all the permanently protected land is in green so it helps you think about con of connecting things or you know where
should the next purchase be our dollars are limited our energy and time is limited right so we want to get the best bang but with these GIS layers that have a map okay now we can look look at that same map but we can look at
it for where are uh streams and rivers and wetlands of Statewide significance this work has been done we can add to that okay what are the forests of Statewide significance we can add to that what are
the Vernal pool areas of Statewide significance and so we can begin and then here's rare species so we can begin to layer the these pieces so that we can look at these kind of ecological functions but also integrate for as in this room like okay where are areas of
historic significance where are important Trails these other kind of cultural components where is another data layer that I didn't include where is Prime Farmland right so these are all the kinds of questions that we can put
put together to make our our um purchases uh a little bit sharper than in the old days when it was like well that looks good um connectivity is another really important question that we're only beginning to explore in terms
of how is wildlife moving across the landscape so here's here's a data layer thinking about connectivity in the manhand Watershed and we can look at it this is all of Western Mass where we can think about how our animals have the capacity to move all the way from the
quaven region to the birur and back and forth we can also look at it just more closely just at East Hampton but I think one of the things that's so important and it really was touched upon by uh the comments tonight during the business
meeting was this kind of partnership that we're not just thinking like what's in East Hampton these maps are so important where we know what's just over the town boundary so again we can look at okay here's the protected land in in eastampton which I know is now out of
date based on tonight's meeting we're missing at least 10 acres um but we can also the other thing a new a new series of data layers that are available for the last couple years by the state is looking at local biodiversity and so not
at the Statewide significance but like what's important at a at a closer Focus so I'm going to just quickly add everything together this is vernal pools certified vernal pools as well as potential but this is all the bells and
whistles everything uh for East Hampton all layered on and I think the piece that comes out to me in this which I will say my screen looks way different than that um it's not quite as U green
but what it does highlight is just how important the manhand river is in that Corridor if you look it's just it's really is the the jewel that's running through your town and then of course there's the mount toown range but that's
like from a habitat perspective wildly different last couple things to think about before I just focus on one Conservation area which is thinking now the other the other part of our conversation which was not a part of a conversation at all in the 1980s when
the pamic concentation trust form is climate change right and so if you look at this map all the dark blue streams all those tributaries are cold water Fisheries among the most vulnerable uh
resources for clim during climate change are are the uh Headwater streams and water temperature and so here's the projection which this map is not great but I have the link if you want to um
look at it more but this is the 2050 projection which basically most most of the manhan shifts from a warm you know kind of coolish coolish stream to a warm water stream and many of the cold water
streams also make that jump so the work that you're doing the work that you're supporting is really important and um we see that repeatedly all right we have opportunities but H H how do you how do
you make CH choices but last year the city of Northampton put out its decarbonization plan its climate plan and item number four is just consistent with what you're doing it's protecting more land um and and then uh
Carrie blood who's here from krro Land Trust um and was kestral land trust is working not only here but Al also in Southampton and West Hampton and Huntington they're this is sort of this bigger Vision that we really especially
now as our our dollars and our overall energy is limited we really we really need to work collaboratively so in the city of Northampton Kudos has its new up updated open space and Recreation plan which is
another another tool okay Grand Finale I want to take you to one of the conservation areas that I had not been to before uh it's the palmery meadow Conservation Area Within in the Holdings that you have it's a kind of a medium
size it's about 17 Acres but one of the things that I really among the things I really love about it is that so the this portion of the manhan is the boundary between Southampton and and East Hampton so on one side on the well we say kind
of the northwest side that's a that's conserved land in Southampton and then all of the green is conserved land here by you guys and um I went there uh the first
time which is actually thanks I would say to Marty in this opportunity where I said to Fred we got to like start looking because even though we don't live that far away we have not had that much up well we haven't taken advantage
of what what you have here so um and the other thing oh this is the other thing that's really cool is that not only is this kind of connected now historically it was connected this is the remnants of an old bridge that extend from eastampton to Southampton you like
that well we'll get the invasive species uh money first because there's a little bit of uh invasives there to block your way okay here's among the many cool things about the pomoy meadow Conservation Area so this is what's
called a a lar map of the area but what I want you to see here is like look at a big portion of it this whole section here is all pretty flat and and and then you have these
deep Fishers going so and then there's the manhand and you can see really over time how that River has moved back and forth across that landscape right you see the old meanders but then there are these sharp Gully
features now as I mentioned earlier these flat areas are just swell to build on and you can see here are the structures all the houses in that neighborhood but Lucky them they're they're close to close to that and so here's the outline of the of the
conservation area where you can park off of ranch Avenue and look at these gullies now one of the things that's really neat is that you have these Sandy overtopping glacial Lake hitch Clays so the water comes down percolates
through that sand hits that clay layer and emerges as Springs so at the base of all those gullies are Springs and small streams and needless to say in anticipation of this presentation I've been going there with some frequency and
they are they they just don't freeze over there's almost always the opportunity to see Open Water there and so these are some of those sort of Headwater streams that we're talking about thinking about vulnerability and climate change the other thing that's really neat about this piece of property is
it's long right it's very extensive and there's it's a beautiful piece um there's remnants of some Old Farm Equipment there's a diversity of habitat types which is nicely written up on the trust's website but some of the things
that you can't get from GIS right we don't all thank you very much I hope none of us are just sort of sitting at our computers looking at screens because part of it is just beyond the joy of going out there the discovering of things so like that tree that I have my
hand that may be it's one of the largest ironwoods in Massachusetts and there's a little patch of them and for those of you whove been to that Conservation Area you know there's a lot of big impressive trees um
on that site so here is the surprise and we'll see if it works so I got permission from Marty to put out a couple wildli cameras and here we'll see if it goes oops that didn't go okay well this is the
surprise all right let's try that one more time can't even find the Curve sir nope okay that's all right I'm gonna end
Tada um but I have both of these and I have not only one but I have two and um and I can also somehow get them on the Trust website but um some some really nice nice things so thank thank you all
so much uh go pamic conservation trust thank you all and um spring is coming [Music]