GREENFIELD (June 29, 2006) -- A 70 foot gravel
embankment at a Native American burial site in Greenfield,
Massachusetts, will soon be carpeted in native grasses if the recent
efforts of USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service staff and local
volunteers are successful.
At one time the land was a sand and gravel operation. In 2001,
Friends of Wissatinnewag purchased the land, the last undeveloped
quadrant of the ancient Native American village and burial grounds that
originally surrounded the great falls on the Connecticut River.
The "Friends" now tend traditional Native American gardens at the site,
which is listed on both the state and federal registers of
historic places, and is believed to have been continually inhabited for
as long as 10,000 years, making it one of the oldest settlements in the
region.
In May 2001, the “Friends” contacted the NRCS office in Greenfield
for technical assistance in restoring vegetation to prevent the
embankment from eroding and exposing graves.
Revegetating the slope has proved challenging. After a 2005 trial
hydro-seeding didn’t produce the expected results, NRCS staff consulted
with Chris Miller, Plant Materials Specialist at the agency’s
Plant
Materials Center (PMC) in Cape May, New Jersey, who came up with several
new alternatives to try.
He shipped six types of native grass seed from the Cape May PMC and
the Big Flats PMC in Corning, New York, to Massachusetts. Then Miller
traveled north to oversee the seeding and planting effort in person,
bringing with him 1,200 plugs of a variety of American beach grass
developed at the Cape May PMC and also available at the Big Flats PMC.
A dozen volunteers and staff using hand seeders distributed a seed
mixture of Fireball Red Top, Tioga Deer Tongue, New England Indian
Grass, Niagara Big Blue Stem, New England Little Blue Stem and Brooklyn
Switch Grass. After raking in the seed, a portion of the slope was
covered with erosion control blanket as mulch; the rest remained
uncovered.
In addition to the warm season grass seed, the American beach grass
plugs were planted, two stems to a hole, in one section of the slope
where the sand was coarser and more devoid of vegetation.
“Although American beach grass is native to the coastal sand dunes of
the mid-Atlantic and southern New England coastline, we’ve used it
successfully at inland sites to jump start succession,” explained
Miller. “The beach grass grows well in droughty, hot, sterile
environments and it creates sort of a microclimate for other native
grasses and plant species to become established.”
According to Miller, the beach grass is a temporary measure that will
help the native grass seed take root by catching organic debris and
providing shade. “We didn’t intend for the beach grass to live long
term. In time it will probably die out because it’s not receiving
accumulating sand like it does on a sand dune,” said Miller.
Beach grass has also been used successfully at former strip mine
sites in West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
“We're very excited to see how the three different techniques used
perform over time,” said Monique Fordham, President, Friends of
Wissatinnewag, Inc. “We greatly appreciate the NRCS staff’s
resourcefulness and dedication to this very important project, and we
look forward to celebrating great results that will stabilize the bank,
provide increased wildlife habitat, and protect the burials in the upper
terrace from erosion.”
Rita Thibodeau, District Conservationist for Franklin County, and her
staff will monitor the site to determine which of the methods worked
best: the hydro-seeding, seed with mulch, seed without mulch or the
beach grass and seed combination. Though some vegetation is expected
this summer, if successful, the grasses won’t be fully established for
several years.
by Diane Baedeker Petit, Public Affairs Specialist, NRCS Massachusetts
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