Residents on the lower end of Luce Road in Williamstown complained of being inundated regularly. The Massachusetts Department of Transportation responded in 2016 by adding three small pipes. (It had planned on adding one large one, but other utilities under the road limited space.) The pipes increased the volume of water that could pass underneath Main Street. On the Spruces side of Route 2, DOT daylighted 500-feet of the drainage, leaving about 1,000 feet of pipe before the Hoosic River.
Back in 2011, Tropical Storm Irene flooded the Spruces Mobile Home Park, displacing some 200 residents and rendering their homes unusable. With Federal Emergency Management Act funds, Williamstown acquired the land and tried to help residents find other places to live. No further development on the floodplain was allowed, so the town turned The Spruces into a park.
After the 2016 pipe installation, the volume of water passing beneath the road could now be greater than the pipe in the Spruces could handle. DOT carved out a detention basin, or swale, in the daylighted portion. The Hoosic River Water-shed Association (HooRWA) saw an opportunity to plant native species along its banks to beautify the area, provide wildlife habitat, prevent erosion, filter pollution and shade and cool the flow of water. Flowers and berries would attract birds. Planting native species is a way of combatting climate change, as they absorb carbon.
In preparation for the planting, the town mowed the area and provided 30 yards of compost and 30 yards of shredded wood mulch. North Branch Nursery supplied the plants and used its auger to dig the holes as well as donated labor and supervision to the project. Volunteers from HooRWA and the community, including 24 first-year Williams College students, carefully placed, staked and tubed the plants, although in their exuberance, the North Branch’s planting plan was overridden. The town’s Community Preservation Act funded the project. Most of the work was done prior to the September start.
It’s not like planting in your backyard, where each viburnum and dogwood will receive loving, almost daily attention. The plants along the swale at the Spruces were watered twice within their first week, followed by some welcome rain. Then they were strictly on their own, sorting out which would flourish and which might not. For that reason volunteers planted excess, 840 trees and shrubs along both sides of the swale.
The 15 different native species began their new lives in blue, plastic tubes designed to protect against voles, mice, rabbits and deer. The shelters increased the survival rate and functioned as miniature greenhouses, speeding growth, so that the plants reached a size safer from critter predation sooner than might be expected. HooRWA removed the tubes a year or so later.
Not all plants survived, but some did so spectacularly, while the application of manure also encouraged existing plants. The site today flourishes abundantly, certainly not an orderly garden but a joyful chorus of the wild.
At least, that’s how it looks from the White Oaks.
Lauren R. Stevens writes a regular, environmental column for The Berkshire Eagle.
