LEEDS — Tom Jenkins whipped two oxen named Rocky and Star into action. It was a clear day toward the end of March, and the cattle had work to do, logs to pull.
“They haven’t worked in several weeks because I’ve been out doing other stuff,” Jenkins, an oxen logger and forester from Westhampton, said off to the side as the two oxen munched on grass, “so they’re feeling a little lazy — and evidently hungry.”
On that day, their job was to drag several freshly cut logs from the center of a portion of the Beaver Brook/Broad Brook Conservation Area, where a wildlife blind overlooking wetlands is planned in a 6-acre rehab area. The blind will be made of rot-resistant black locust trees chopped on site and hauled by the oxen.
“They’re pretty low impact compared to a machine,” Jenkins said of the oxen. “If you had a big tractor or log skidder, you’d make a set of ruts really quickly, so we’re having a really minimal impact on the land.”
Organizers with the Broad Brook Coalition and Leeds Civic Association are working on low-impact improvements to the former farmland, which will allow hikers, birders and others to traverse unpaved trails. The wildlife blind overlooking Beaver Brook will have a 4- to-6 foot elevation off the ground, according to plans, and positioned so visitors can view kingfishers, great blue herons, beavers and deer.
The land is owned by the Northampton Conservation Commission and located down Haydenville Road (Route 9) just north of the St. Marys Cemetary and across from the Northampton VA Federal Credit Union.
The project was awarded a $17,000 Community Preservation Act grant from the city early this year. Work on a picnic area, unpaved trails, an information kiosk, parking spaces and interpretive signs is expected to be completed before the end of the year, according to the application.
“They just thought it was a really great community collaboration,” Sarah LaValley, a planner for Northampton, said of the committee that administers CPA funds. “As it is now, it’s basically just a drive-by. You wouldn’t be stopping there.
“And they thought it was a really good return on what basically is a really small investment,” she added.
The main feature of the revamped area may be the wildlife blind, overlooking the brook and using cut black locust trees some consider invasive.
“Instead of looking at a wildlife blind that just looks like somebody’s shed or something in a natural area, why don’t we make an effort to have the aesthetics comport with the rest of the area,” said Matt Verson, one of the organizers of the project.
In the grant application, the cultural significance of the project is also noted. When the city bought the property in 2010, two farmhouses were demolished but several artifacts were recovered, including kettles, dishes, harnesses and horse collars. There is also an old sawmill, which trees have grown around.
The application says large signboards will be used to describe the property history as well as smaller signs in different areas.
Jack Suntrup can be reached at jsuntrup@gazettenet.com.
This version of the story corrects a misuse of cattle terminology.