BNRC preserves Hoosac Range in North Adams

Newly completed BNRC reservation shown in black outline. View of Hoosac Range Reserve looking east over downtown North Adams from Pine Cobble summit in Williamstown.

On May 18, 2009 the Berkshire Natural Resources Council completed acquisitions for its new Hoosac Range Reserve in North Adams. The Reserve includes approximately 735 acres and some two miles of ridgeline. The numbers are impressive, but the landscape, the people, and the connections tell the real story.

The Hoosac Range Reserve from the air.

With its dramatic heights above the city, Hoosac Range is a mountain paradise within reach of an urban center. Our acquisitions include the site of the existing Wigwam Gift Shop, where breathtaking views of the valley create an unparalleled gateway to the Berkshires. The potential for community programming on the Hoosac Range matches that of Yokun Ridge in Central Berkshire. It will be a fun and beautiful place to connect conservation with community.

Steve and Karen Andrews sell Wigwam Gift Shop to BNRC

Much hard work went into assembling the new Reserve, but luck was involved too. We worked with a wild variety of landowners – a timber investment company, a bankrupt cable television corporation, a North Adams landlord and businessman, a widow and her daughters, a military doctor stationed in San Antonio, and the retired civilian manager of the Pearl Harbor Navy Shipyard and his wife.

Any one of them could have said “no,” putting a stick firmly in the spokes. We were lucky. None did, and each deserves a place in this mountain’s history: Steve and Karen Andrews, Timothy J. Caffrey, Mary Walden, Michael A. Deep, Trustee of West Shaft Realty Trust, Adelphia Cable Corp, and Matt and Jim Kelly of J.W. Kelly Enterprises.

A pride of heroic partners and funders helped make it all possible. BNRC’s protective ownership is now reinforced by a conservation restriction over the entirety of the reserve, held by our partners at the state Department of Conservation and Recreation. Jennifer Howard and Paul Jahnige of DCR deserve special thanks from all of us in the Berkshires.

The state’s Conservation Partnership Program helped finance one piece of the project, and generous lead funding was also provided by the Open Space Conservancy, Inc., an affiliate of the Open Space Institute, Inc., the N. Robert Thieriot Foundation, the Ruth E. Proud Charitable Trust, the Geoffrey C. Hughes Foundation, the Bafflin Foundation, the Fields Pond Foundation, the Alice Shaver Foundation, Pamela Weatherbee, Scott and Ellen Hand, and David B. Lyons. The Conservation Foundation provided a bridge loan. Our great thanks to all.

Wetland atop the Hoosac Range.

The Future Hoosac Range Trail
Though all of the Hoosac Range Reserve is open to the public, the best acres are on top of the ridge. The ridge has expansive views of Massachusetts (Mount Greylock, North Adams, Florida, Savoy Mountain State Forest), New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire (Mount Monadnock is readily visible on a clear day). BNRC plans to start building a hiking trail in 2010. From its Route 2 trailhead, the path will travel two miles along the ridge before tying into DCR’s Busby Trail atop Spruce Hill.

The trail will also serve as a leg of DCR’s Mahican-Mohawk Trail (MMT), a long-distance hiking trail that loosely re-creates Native American routes of travel between the Hudson and Connecticut Rivers. Currently 34 miles of the MMT are formalized and constructed, with the remaining 100+ miles following town roads and state highways. BNRC is pleased to partner with the MMT Committee in this initiative.

Paul Jahnige and Peter Jensen on the Hoosac Range.

The trail will be designed and built by Peter Jensen & Associates (the craftsmen who built BNRC’s Yokun Ridge, Bob’s Way and Basin Pond trails). The terrain is challenging, with frequent east-west ledges and sensitive habitat. Look for the creative stonework and brilliant design that are Jensen’s stock-in-trade.

Our fundraising effort for this exciting project will begin soon. Please support us as we create public access to the beautiful Hoosac Range.

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