Helia Native Nursery located in West Stockbridge, MA, invited a group of MCLA students working with HooRWA to visit as part of our service learning project to learn about using native flora for riverbank stabilization. The 3 students – Ruby, Trevor, and me (Jakob) – cut whips of native Dogwood and Pussywillow while also being given a brief tour of Helia’s facilities. These whips or trimmings were vital to allow to root, so as to be planted as part of a bank stabilization project we were working on for our spring semester service learning project.
Rural Lands, located in Williamstown, MA, hosts a large natural conservation area open to the public. They feature historic buildings and open wildlife conservation areas. Dan Gura, Stewardship Director, directed us on how to properly plant the whips of Dogwood and Pussywillow along the pond’s bank. The hope is to provide bank stability and habitat to the dammed pond nearby. This pond is home to an active beaver lodge so we wish the plants well and worked to protect them with sheaths.
Part of the field trip to Rural Lands, was a brief exploration of the nearby stream where the pond waters flow into. The goal was to provide better insight into what bank stabilization means and the importance of its preservation ecologically to support the riverine ecosystem.
At the end of the day, everything that took place, from the field trip to Helia Native Nursery to the work done at Rural Lands was to help us better our environment, particularly the needs of a river; as well as the importance of taking care of the place we call home.
If you are interested in finding out ways you can be of help to our world, literature as well as resources through HooRWA and others are available to you. Let’s work together for a better tomorrow and a brighter today!
Submitted by Jakob Revett, MCLA student & HooRWA Spring and Summer Intern
Resources:
- The Hoosic River Watershed
- Rural Lands Williamstown (where the demonstration project was done by RL staff Dan Gura with MCLA students during their spring semester service learning project)
- Helia Native Nursery (Berkshire County native flora vendor where the spring service learning field trip took place)
- Watershed Restoration w/Trout Unlimited
- Using Stabilization Techniques by Riparian Restoration
- The Importance of New England Native Plants by New England Wild Flower Society
- Native New England Flora by Mass Audubon
- Native Plant Trust