Conservation and Setbacks

Conservation and Setbacks Some of the greatest ecological assets on site constrain where structures and roads can be built.

Wetlands, Vernal Pools, and Streams Current & Future Conservation

NORTHAMPTON

EASTHAMPTON

Town Line

A large portion of Lathrop Retirement Community’s land is wetlands, which were recently delineated as part of Berkshire Design Group’s site assessment. They envelop the developed portion of the site and vary in classification between wet meadows, forested wetlands, stream borders, shrub swamp, and emergent wetlands.

There are four certified vernal pools at Lathrop and one potential vernal pool that is undergoing the process of certification. Three of the vernal pools are in the woods to the west of the developed area, and one is in a cattail wetland in Mulberry Meadow. The potential vernal pool is in a small forested area at the intersection of three meadows. The new development in Farmers Field will encroach within 300 feet of this area.

Wetlands buffers vary across the town line; in Northampton, in addition to state law regulating work within 100 feet 0f a wetland, a bylaw prohibits any new disturbance within 50 feet of the wetland boundary; in Easthampton, the statewide 100-foot buffer also applies, but there are no additional town bylaws restricting work within the buffer. All perennial streams in Massachusetts have a regulated 200-foot riverfront area associated with them. The vernal pools on Lathrop’s property are all within the town of Easthampton, and certified vernal pools are protected by the state of Massachusetts’ Wetlands Protection Act, giving them a 100-foot buffer; there are no additional town bylaws adding to the buffer zone. NORTHAMPTON

EASTHAMPTON

Barnes Aquifer

- Golf Course

Town Line

Currently, Lathrop has approximately 11 acres in conservation, in the northwest corner of the parcel in Northampton. This area was placed in conservation and approved in 2003 by the Northampton Conservation Commission; this land is conserved under Agricultural Preservation Restriction (APR), in perpetuity. The remaining portion of the Northampton parcel is currently under Chapter 61 B as recreational land, which is a tax designation, not part of the deed, and can be changed.

Lathrop is also in the process of placing 75 acres of the Easthampton parcel into a conservation restriction in perpetuity that would span the western half of the property, protecting from development resources such as Bassett Brook, the surrounding forest, Mid-Woods Meadow, Mulberry Meadow, four certified vernal pools, and most of Lathrop’s land that is above the Barnes Aquifer, the main freshwater drinking supply for the town of Easthampton.

This stretch of to-be-conserved land is adjacent to land protected in perpetuity, primarily APR land in addition to the golf course recently purchased by the City of Northampton, which will be gradually returned to a more natural state and managed by the connecting Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary. The proximity of all of these protected parcels may enhance the potential for wildlife corridors by increasing habitat connectivity for wildlife that has a range greater than that of Lathrop’s property.