Image: James Paleologopoulos/WAMC
The new pond is already drawing wood ducks and swallows back to the site, according to WAMC Northeast Public Radio. Bentsen said birds are returning, including wood ducks and swallows. The wall of mud and sticks is close to impenetrable, yet a healthy stream still flows through its base, keeping water in the habitat during mild drought conditions, according to the WAMC report. Phase two, according to LaValley, includes removing a man-made dam at a nearby irrigation pond, which is not the beaver dam, plus more wetland and trail work. Tom Annese, a land planning assistant for Northampton, told WAMC that the open character of the site is rare among the city’s mostly wooded, hilly conservation land, and that its wet conditions made housing mostly impractical.
When a Massachusetts golf course closes, the land does not stay quiet for long. At the former Pine Grove Golf Course in Northampton, beavers moved in roughly a year before restoration crews, damming a small stream with a wall of mud and sticks six to eight feet tall. Meanwhile, the city and state ecologists are ripping up pavement and reshaping the brook, in what project partners call a flagship example of golf course rewilding, a model for other retired courses. The results are visible. Planners also hope to build an accessible loop called the All Persons Trail, with a bridge over a culvert that has failed.
Julianne Busa of the engineering and design firm Fuss & O’Neill told WAMC that Pine Grove is the first project of its kind in Massachusetts and that the state division hopes it will serve as a flagship for rewilding retired courses. Similar efforts are following, she said, including a driving range being rewilded in Stow and the Beaver Brook project in Williamsburg and Northampton. Project partners see wider significance.