The Re-wilding of Beaver Brook

For thousands of years, the western Massachusetts site just outside the town of Northampton was part of the vast forest that covered almost all of the region. In colonial times, it was – like almost all of that primeval forest – cut bare to permit farming and supply lumber for buildings and roads. In the 1930s it became a dairy. And, in 1960, 240 of its acres gave way to the Beaver Brook Golf Course and an adjacent second-growth woodland.

Hilltown Land Trust's perview

In 2025, the owner of the struggling public course sought a buyer. An expression of interest came from an unexpected source: the Hilltown Land Trust (HLT); a 37-year-old organization serving 13 towns in a mostly rural part of the state, and which has conserved and provides stewardship of more than 5,000 acres of land in those towns. HLT, in turn, reached out to The Trustees of Reservations; a century-plus-old organization that stewards 120 places of ecological, scenic, and historic importance in Massachusetts. The Trustees’ portfolio comprises 52,000 acres, representing 120 places of ecological, scenic, and historic importance.

A price was agreed upon and, last July, the Beaver Brook Golf Course hosted its last players.

Once a fairway, 
now foot-tall grass

Since that time, the site has largely been allowed to lay fallow. The fairways and greens now host foot-tall grass; the sand traps have begun to fill in. But, at the same time, the site has been meticulously documented and inventoried. There are decades-old fresh-water mussels in Beaver Brook. There are rare butterflies and turtles whose habitats will need to be protected. There is already marsh grass growing in low areas that were once mowed and drained. What was once a marsh will be allowed to return to its natural state.

This one-time water hazard
may or may not remain

And, along with a catalog of specimen trees (including a dawn redwood), there is a laundry list of invasives. The inventory of unwanted species ranges from wild rose to Japanese knotweed. Teams of volunteers and, in the case of the knotweed, specialists, are already fanning out to cull interlopers.

Our guide, Julie,
knows the property well

The reservation is not yet open to the public. I had the opportunity yesterday to see it as a work in progress; to take a walk with a guide, Julie – part of The Trustees’ conservation staff and who was stunningly knowledgeable about the property. She enumerated what has been done to date and the longer list of what needs to be done to make the site sustainable. Eventually, it will open as a Trustees site, with several miles of hiking trails.

Double-click to see image

More than just land conservation, though, Beaver Brook serves another purpose: carbon sequestration. This was driven home in a talk given after the walk by Jonathan Thompson, whose day job is Director of the Harvard Forest; Harvard University's 4,000-acre laboratory and classroom located in Petersham, northeast of the Quabbin Reservoir. Thompson notes more than half of Massachusetts is forested – roughly three million acres. But much of that forest abuts roadways and developments. The ecosystem of the ‘edge’ of a forest is quite different from that of a ‘deep’ forest; especially when it comes to soaking up carbon. Beaver Brook is surrounded by yet more forest. Properly managed, it will be part of a carbon sink – what The Trustees terms ‘climate hope’.

Other Trustees and HLT
properties in the region

Beaver Brook could have had a very different future. Another golf course in nearby Amherst was acquired and became a tree-less solar farm. In more populous areas, the site would be ripe for re-development as housing.  This golf course has a more ecologically beneficial long-term future: wildlife habitat, home for endangered species, a place where folks can hike and, if all goes well, where beavers will return to gnaw on helpless trees.

At present, there are no beavers at Beaver Brook. Beavers have no interest in fields of grass, no matter how attractive they may be to humans. They need something to (literally) sink their teeth into. There are beavers downstream. As trees are planted along the brook, there is an expectation they will return… and that they will gnaw down the very trees The Trustees and HLT are going to plant.