Garfield Avenue Conservation Area Garfield Avenue Conservation Area
A Natural History of the Garfield Avenue Conservation Area
Prepared by Laurie Sanders, M.S.
December 2014
Garfield Avenue Conservation Area 2
Garfield Avenue Conservation Area
Of all the City-owned conservation
areas, this 5-acre site near down-
town Florence has one of the
strangest histories. Accessed from
Garfield Avenue, it opens into a
grassy, ½ acre clearing surrounded
by woods that are dominated by
oak in the drier, rockier areas and
sugar maple in the sections with
deeper, richer soils.
On the other side of the clearing, a
narrow rim of bedrock along one
edge is a clue to the site’s former
uses. In the 1890s this property was operated as a small rock quarry. The blocks of stone were probably
used locally for foundations and
walls. A few, for instance, can be
seen in a low stone wall at the
entrance to the bike path on
Chestnut Street.
By the early 1940s, the rock-
quarrying operation had ceased
and true to the times, what better
use for a hole than to fill it in?
Beginning in 1943, the quarry
became a private dump. Ap-
proved by the City, trash was
hauled from the local neighbor-
In the 1700s and 1800s, numerous small quarries were present in Northampton,
with most of the stone blocks used locally for building. For instance, some of the
rock from this quarry can be seen in a low stone wall at the entrance to the bike
path on Chestnut Street. This photograph is from Sheffield’s 1895 History of Flor-
ence.
The conservation area, circled, is within easy walking distance of hundreds of
homes and the bike trail.
Garfield Avenue Conservation Area 3
hoods and businesses and then burned. Fifteen years later, the hole was close to full and after covering it
with fill, the property was sold to new owners. They built a house on the land (but not on the former pit).
Fifteen years later, they sold the house and property to a new owner.
Whether the new buyer was aware of the property’s history as a dump isn’t known, but in 1989, after an
investigative report demonstrated high metal concentrations in the soils, the MA Department of Environ-
mental Protection (MA DEP) categorized it as a former dump. Four years later, MA DEP formally recog-
nized it as a “disposal site,” which triggered a series of tiered investigations to assess the public health
risks. As part of this, between 1993-2003, samples from groundwater monitoring wells and the soil were
collected and tested, and although the groundwater monitoring wells showed no evidence of contamina-
tion, the soil test showed higher than acceptable levels of polyaromatic hydrocarbons, heavy metals and,
in one area, PCBs.
In 1995, the owner took the City to court, citing an inability to sell the property at fair-market value and
listing the City as the responsible agent for authorizing the burning dump during the 1940s. To settle the
case, the City purchased the property for $240,000 and agreed that the former owner bore no future liabil-
ity for any subsequent remediation costs. In 1998, the city demolished the house and in order to protect
the public from any health risks associated with the soil contaminants, capped the former landfill.
Seven years later, as part of a limited development project, the City subdivided the property, selling six
lots near the end of Garfield Avenue (one market-rate lot and five for affordable housing) and held on to
By 1958 the quarry had been regraded and a house built along the edge. By 1965 it was growing in with vegetation.
Garfield Avenue Conservation Area 4
the remaining four acres as permanent conservation land. Today the DPW and Board of Health hold an
easement over the conservation area and have the responsibility to maintain the landfill cap in perpetuity.
Since then, the property has not been managed other than brush-hogging the capped landfill each year.
There are no signs or designated parking to let neighbors know that this is a conservation area, either
along Garfield Avenue or from the Meadowbrook Apartment complex. But occasionally it has a visitor or
two. Last spring, a small trail had been beaten down across the old landfill and leading into the woods.
But, by July, the vegetation had grown up and overwhelmed it.
Geology
Although almost all traces of the quarry have been covered, a few bedrock outcrops appear in the wooded
portion to the north. The bedrock here is part of a long, north-south running band of 450 million year old
metamorphic rock that stretches from Whately to Connecticut. In the old days, many of the bedrock
knobs in this part of town were
used as small, unofficial quarries—
almost like borrow pits. The 1831
map, for instance, calls a nearby
knob Millstone Mountain
(presumably because it was a good
site to quarry millstones) and the
dirt road/driveway near St. Mary’s
Cemetery is now known to a few
old timers as Quarry Road. And
another small quarry lies just be-
yond the boundary of the conserva-
tion area. Whether it was open and operating at the same time as the Garfield Avenue Conservation
Area’s quarry isn’t known, but a 1965 aerial photo suggests that rocks from the second quarry were being
removed during the early 1960s.
In spite of this property’s bedrock underpinnings, most of it is fairly level. This is a function, not of hu-
man alteration, but of the land’s glacial history. After the last of the continental glaciers retreated from
the region, this area was covered by glacial till and then by the icy waters of glacial Lake Hitchcock. The
lake waters were shallow here, with a drumlin due west (High Street) and bedrock outcrops to the north-
Garfield Avenue Conservation Area 5
east. Over time, the underlying till was covered with layers of lake clays, which were subsequently cov-
ered with layers of sand as the Mill River formed a large delta into Glacial Lake Hitchcock.
During the last 12,000 years, these glacial deposits have been modified by erosion and more recently, by
people.
Vegetation Patterns
After the dump was covered in the late 1950s, most of the land around the old quarry/dump was left idle
and is now almost entirely forested. Based on
land use history and soil conditions, the prop-
erty can be divided into four broad vegetation
communities (see Vegetation Patterns).
Capped Landfill/Former Quarry Pit (1)
Now an open field, the capped landfill/
former quarry is a jumble of goldenrod and
asters, along with giant ragweed, burdock
and three good-sized clumps of Japanese
Garfield Avenue Conservation Area 6
knotweed. On the northwest side is a
small exposure of the old quarry wall
where garlic mustard, celandine, multi-
flora rose, euonymus and catalpa have
established. Just beyond and ringing the
northern boundary of the old quarry, the
forest edge is a mix of black locust, stag-
horn sumac and scattered oak.
Oak-Dominated Woods (2)
Just north of the old quarry pit is a
small, but almost park-like, oak-dominated
forest, with impressive rock outcrops. In addition to oaks (red, white and black), the thin soils also sup-
port a mix of red maple, sugar maple, shagbark hickory, sassafras, black birch, and white pine. Witch
hazel, maple-leaved viburnum, wild raisin, huckleberry and low-bush blueberries are common shrubs,
while white woodland aster (Eurybia
divaricata) and Virginia creeper are the
most abundant ground cover. Other
ground plants include Canada may-
flower, Pennsylvania sedge, true solo-
mon’s seal, wild sarsaparilla, teaberry,
poison ivy, and bracken fern. The leath-
ery, evergreen fronds of marginal shield
fern grow in the nooks of the rock out-
crops, and a few Japanese barberry
bushes can be found here too.
Black Locust/Sugar Maple Woods
This pretty section of the property was
obviously cleared in the past and has
wetter, richer soils than the adjacent oak-
dominated forest. No bedrock is visible
here, and the forest is dominated by
black locust and sugar maple, with a
By late summer the capped landfill is thick with vegetation, including
Japanese knotweed in the foreground.
Oak leaves carpet the surface of the conservation area in the fall.
Garfield Avenue Conservation Area 7
healthy component of red maple. Fallen
trunks of black locust crisscross the forest
floor. In the shrub layer, spicebush is com-
mon, and multiflora rose, privet and
winged euonymus are occasionally en-
countered.
The forest floor is much richer and in-
cludes swaths of lady fern, spinulose
woodfern, and hayscented fern. Virginia
creeper and Canada mayflower are also
common, while the dreaded garlic mustard
is found here too. A single large sycamore
is located on the property boundary; it is
impressive...but it also has wintercreeper
clambering up its trunk. Not far away is a
small, shallow, isolated depression where
American toads may breed in the spring.
Multiflora/Privet/Wintercreeper Area
This pocket near the isolated wetland was
the most recently altered, and is an abso-
lute mess of multiflora rose, privet and
wintercreeper, with even a little Phragmites.
Spotted touch-me -not and enchanter’s
nightshade are also here, but the invasives
dominate this patch.
Wildlife
In spite of its small size and residential
location, this property is used by a variety
This part of the conservation area is open, with sugar maple and black
locust.
An enormous sycamore grows at one end of the property. Note the
wintercreeper scrambling up the trunk.
Winged euyonumus, one of several non-native plants,
found in the Garfield Avenue conservation area. It is
related to Asiatic bittersweet.
Garfield Avenue Conservation Area 8
of wildlife. What enhances its value is its proximity to
the protected and wooded land within the Fitzgerald
Lake Conservation Area.
Nearly a dozen birds were heard or seen during my
brief visits (crow, cedar waxwing, junco, blue jay, red-
bellied woodpecker, nuthatch, Carolina wren, gold
finch, yellow-bellied sapsucker, indigo bunting, wood
pewee, and palm warbler) and it is probably used as a
pass-through by raccoons, skunk, deer, etc. Bear have
been observed on Straw Avenue many times, and so it is
not unlikely that they pass through here too.
Recommendations
Although this conservation area will never become a destination for a wide audience, it can function like
a pocket preserve for the neighborhoods around Verona Street, Straw Avenue, Chestnut Avenue, and
the Meadowbrook Apartments. This won’t happen, however, unless more people become aware of what
a nice little patch of woods this is. So in addition to putting a sign up, I would recommend organizing a
field walk for local neighbors to introduce
them to this conservation area. With their
help, a loop trail could be created and the
invasive species could be controlled. In the
future, it might make sense to build a ki-
osk and/or create a brochure that describes
the conservation area’s history.
It will also be important to work with the
DPW and Board of Health to ensure that
the Japanese knotweed is controlled and
does not spread. It could easily overwhelm
the capped landfill and spread into the
black locust/sugar maple forest as well.
Insects, like this beautiful clymene moth (Haploa
clymene) use this conservation area too.
The roof tops of the Meadowbrook Apartments can be seen from the
edge of the conservation area. A linking trail to this neighborhood
would be beneficial to residents.
Garfield Avenue Conservation Area 9
(A) The edge of the later quarry that lies just off the northern boundary of the conservation area. During the last 50 years its
side slopes have grown in with trees and polypody fern and spinulose woodfern grow in its rocky nooks. (B) Although most of
the rim of the old quarry/land fill has been covered, there are a few places where you can still find the former edge.
Funding for this report was made possible by the Community Preservation Act.
All photographs by Laurie Sanders.
A B
A B
(A) Although this conservation area has a long history of alteration, there are a few impressive trees, including this large white
pine in the central part of the conservation area. (B) Cut stumps, probably of black locust, reveal that this area has a long his-
tory of human disturbance that continued even after the landfill was covered in the early 1950s.
Garfield Avenue Conservation Area 10
Above, the thin soils over the bedrock are part of the reason
this forest is fairly open and easy to navigate through.
Natural Resource Summary for the
Garfield Conservation Area
Estimated Habitat for Rare Species No
Vernal Pool Habitat Possible
BioMap No
Supporting Natural Landscape No
Coldwater Fisheries No
Conservation Priority (CAPS-UMass) No
Climate Change Resilience No
Medium Yield Aquifer No
Sources
Sheffield, Charles. 1895. A History of Florence, Massachusetts, including a complete account of the
Northampton Association of Education and Industry. Florence, MA.
Tighe & Bond. 2003. Activity and Use Limitation and Response Action Outcome. DEP Site 1-00524.
148 pp.
Garfield Avenue Conservation Area 11