HADLEY — A Hadley native who grew up near North Hadley Pond is providing a $523,540, five-year restoration grant to the Friends of Lake Warner.
The Janice and Matt Barger Lake Restoration Grant will allow the organization, between this year and 2030, to undertake a series of projects, including managing invasive plants, implementing targeted phosphorus treatment and tracking the ecological response.
Specifically, the work will involve mechanical harvesting and volunteer water chestnut removal, a phased phosphorus treatment to address nutrient loading and reduce harmful algae growth, long-term ecological monitoring and adaptive management and bringing on seasonal staff and equipment.
Friends of Lake Warner President Brian Pearson expressed gratitude for the gift.
“Lake Warner is a living ecosystem, home to everything from invertebrates and thriving fish populations to osprey and the many other species that depend on its health,” Pearson said in a statement. “It is also a cherished recreational resource for residents and visitors throughout the region.”
Janice Barger lives in California but has maintained a connection to the lake she remembers from childhood. During a birding tour of the Lake Warner peninsula in spring 2025, Barger shared her love of the lake and her desire to see it restored to the healthier, vibrant place she remembered.
A graduate of Hopkins Academy in 1975 and later Smith College, Barger in January also supported her high school alma mater, making a $386,229 donation for stage renovations.
In a letter sent to Superintendent Anne McKenzie, Barger wrote the gift would modernize the stage and create a state-of-the-art performance space where students could put on world-class shows like “Hamilton.”
“Growing up in Hadley shaped me in many other meaningful ways as well, so the idea that the theater renovation could benefit the entire community that I hold dear — as the setting for town meetings, community performances, guest speakers and lectures, student Ted talks, and more — is exciting,” Barger wrote.
The grant for Lake Warner fits in with the network of partnerships the Friends group has made with Kestrel Land Trust, various departments at the University of Massachusetts, UMass Extension, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources Conservation Service and local conservation districts, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Silvio Conte Refuge Program, the Connecticut River Conservancy and both Hadley and Amherst officials.
Typically, the Friends group has relied on grassroots fundraising, Hadley Community Preservation Act money, including an appropriation at this year’s Town Meeting, and community effort to do critical dam repairs. The organization has also built trust with the agricultural community by framing monitoring as collaborative problem-solving rather than regulation.
Friends of Lake Warner will continue its efforts through a fundraising concert featuring five-time Grammy nominee Karrin Allyson and pianist Miro Sprague at the North Hadley Congregational Church on June 21 at 4 p.m.
Ticket prices range from $20 to $55; register at https://book.peek.com/…/35c5e121-138e-4b51-866e…/jY97R. Tickets will also be available at the door.
