Town of Pelham Open Space and Recreation Plan

Since 1970, Pelham has experienced increases in population, rising from 937 to 1,373 in 1990 and at the 2000 census 1,403. Town records indicate 1440 at this time. Pelham continues to have one of the smallest populations in the area. Nevertheless, the growth rate in the region has put increased pressure on open space in Pelham where the entire town is zoned residential and Pelham has become an "upscale" destination for many new home-buyers and where the excellent elementary school is an attraction for parents of young children. Generally, Pelham is a town of middle-aged people although the proportion of residents 65 years old or older has increased. It is generally a "family" town with the vast majority of people living in family households. The median age in Pelham is 42.4 years compared to 36.5 years in the state and the estimated median household income in 2005 was $64,400 in Pelham compared to the state median of $57,184.

Pelham residents have notably higher numbers of graduate, professional and bachelor's degrees and compare favorably to most of their neighbors in the highly educated populace in the Five College region. This high level of education is reflected in the amount of attention that has been devoted to the study of Pelham's natural resources by its citizens who continue to be a valuable resource themselves in understanding and protecting the environment. Not surprisingly, given Pelham's high level of education, many of those in Pelham's work force are in managerial or professional occupations. Over 80 percent of Pelham's workforce is in white collar occupations. According to the most recent figures available, Pelham is the wealthiest among its neighbors in terms of per capita income, median family income, and median household income and rates in the top quarter of towns in the Commonwealth. In recent years, however, concerns about property taxes and insufficient revenue to operate the town because of ever increasing expenses related to school, highway, police and fire protection have resulted in decreases or the complete absence of town appropriations to the conservation fund. Some townspeople, however, make regular or specific project related donations to the local land trust.

Pelham and Amherst have multiple economic and social ties. Very few Pelham residents work in Pelham although internet and home occupations may be on the rise. The workforce is heavily linked to Amherst and other towns. Other aspects of economic life are also bound up with the Town of Amherst including the regional school system, the trails and conservation lands and watershed land – these and other links have encouraged and/or required these two towns to work together.

In summary, Pelham's population is generally well-educated and white collar. Townspeople are most likely to regard open space as an amenity of the community instead of a source of livelihood despite large land holdings by forestry operations. The population has greater than average proportions of middle-aged people, children and families with an increasing number reaching retirement age and with much of its economic and social life tied up with the region’s educational institutions and businesses. An increasing number of residents work in internet related occupations.
D. Growth and Development Patterns
1. Patterns and Trends. Historically, Pelham has been slow to develop because it was somewhat off the beaten track. As it is zoned entirely for residential development, the town has no businesses to offset property taxes—a situation that is causing angst among some residents at this time. Pelham remains as described in the 1971 Natural Resources Program of the Town of Pelham: “virtually devoid of industry of commerce, by-passed by major highways, long since abandoned for commercial agriculture, occupied largely by watershed lands, the town of Pelham is basically and essentially a forest. Roads are relatively few and the population . . . is largely concentrated along Amherst Road and in the West Pelham section.”

However, the growth of the University of Massachusetts in the early 1970s resulted in development and change in Pelham. Throughout the 1980s Pelham attracted many new residents "wanting to live in a traditional, scenic New England community yet have access to jobs in the economically thriving Pioneer Valley" (Draft Growth Management Plan for the Town of Pelham 1988). Noting the years that houses in Pelham were built is useful to indicate the relatively peak periods of development in Pelham. Pelham's housing stock grew rapidly for a brief period in the 1980s and some in the 1990s putting development pressure on its open space. However, growth has slowed and the concern now is how to protect additional open space when the costs of maintaining basic town services is increasingly difficult.

The Pelham landscape is veneered by a variety of glacial deposits. The surficial geologic history of the region began approximately 26,000 years ago when the Wisconsin Glaciation of the Pleistocene Epoch resulted in the flow of glacial ice across the region. This thick ice sheet advanced down the Connecticut River Valley and thickened until it eventually overtopped the entire Pelham Dome. The glacier scooped the previously existing soil from over the bedrock and polished the bedrock surface. This mixture of ground-up soils and bedrock was plastered over the bedrock surface and is referred to as glacial till.

The glacier moved southward until it reached its position of maximum advance at present-day Long Island, New York. As the ice thinned, the uplands were uncovered and great quantities of melt water transported loose sediment, depositing it between the wasting ice in the valley and the till-covered slopes of the ice-free uplands. As ice in the valleys melted, distinct terrace levels were formed consisting of stratified, well-sorted deposits of sand and gravel.

The soil resources of Pelham are almost entirely stony glacial tills of various types and varying drainage. Approximately 90 percent of the town is covered by glacial till of variable thickness. Generally, the northern slopes of the hills are covered by thicker deposits of till. The sand and gravel deposits are typically confined to smaller stream valleys and are limited in area. These soils are well-suited to forest, particularly hardwoods (Natural Resource Program 1971).

1. 
   West Pelham, consisting of Amherst Road from the Thornton Hill power line crossing west to the Amherst line, and the immediately adjacent portions of Harkness Road, North and South Valley Road, Cadwell Street, and Jones Road, is a relatively intact 19^th Century village. Many of the homes here are the original structures, on their original foundations. They were built when fly rod manufacturing, other water-powered mills, and quarry stone processing were natural resource-based activities important to Pelham’s economy. The main structure, several accessory buildings, and extensive foundations of the fly rod factory still exist and are in adaptive re-use.
   
2. 
   The remainder of Pelham’s landscape, outside the Quabbin Reservation largely reflects the past agriculture, stone quarry, and forestry activities, including wood and grain processing mills along some streams.
   
3. 
   The Quabbin Reservation landscape of the east side of Pelham needs more study, but the portion that is not under the Reservoir water is probably like 2 above.
   

Map 3A from Paul Bigelow’s book, Wrights and Privileges, shows the concentration of mills in West Pelham and one now under the water of the Quabbin Reservoir.

1. 
   The old Massachusetts Agricultural College Quarry, now filled in, is on Buffam Road and owned today by the University of Massachusetts. Unlike most Pelham quarries it is known where much of the stone from this quarry went. Most notable is the Old Chapel building, iconic symbol of the University. When the tower steeple of the Chapel had to be re-built in 1998-99 broken stones were replaced using stone found on the surface of this quarry.
   
2. 
   The “asbestos mine” on the east slope of the ridge east of and paralleling the end of Butter Hill Road (not shown on the Bigelow map) is a shallow excavation that has yielded several minerals. One of these is fibrous anthophyllite asbestos that was commercially mined in the early 1900’s.
   

Streams in Pelham are also important elements of the town's water resources. The western two-thirds of the town drains to the west. Significant water courses include: Amethyst Brook and its tributaries Dunlop, Harris and Buffam Brooks, draining the large central portion of town, and Heatherstone Brook, draining land in the northwesterly corner of town into Adams Brook in Amherst. The eastern one third of the town drains from Route 202 east to the Quabbin Reservoir by way of several small streams – Briggs, Purgee, and Gulf Brooks and the larger Cadwell Creek. Jabish Brook drains a small section southward along Route 202 (Natural Resources Program 1971). Except along the few town-protected portions of streams, public access is either poor or informal.

Ponds are few and scattered with only limited potential for outdoor recreation, and the three Amherst Reservoirs–Hill, Hawley and Intake—in the Amethyst Brook and Harris Brook systems are off limits to public uses other than hiking and hunting because of the potential for contamination resulting from more intensive activities. The public has lost the access it once had to the private impoundment on Amethyst Brook in West Pelham, leaving the town without a permitted local swimming spot.

Pelham has approximately 50 documented vernal pools and more that remain undocumented. Among these vernal pools 36 are state-certified and an additional 15 pools await state certification. These are key ecological community types for a number of important common and rare species. Additionally, clusters of vernal pools are contained within the 1830 forest blocks suggesting a number of these wetlands are located within forested areas with moderate levels of agricultural disturbance and elevated levels of diversity. More detailed information obtained in 2007 from the Massachusetts Natural Heritage Program of the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife is included in Appendix C.

Interrupted by residential development along roadsides and a handful of open fields, Pelham is predominately a forested landscape. Many residences in Pelham are set back from the roadside and are either partially or completely screened. This large amount of woodland provides habitat to a great variety of wildlife. Logging operations continue to have a significant impact.

The town's forests have many stands that originated early in the century following an era of heavy cutting; much of this is reaching or has reached merchantable size. Areas of old growth forest are few and are concentrated along stream ravines. Hardwoods consisting of red, white, chestnut, black and scarlet oaks on the drier sites intermix with red maple and paper birch in moister soil areas. Other miscellaneous hardwoods include black and yellow birch, hickory, sugar maple and striped maple. Hemlock and white pine intermix with hardwoods in much of the forest. Less common are scattered yellow and red pine. Since a good deal of forest land is under Chapter 61 protection, requiring owners to file management plans with the Commonwealth and the Conservation Commission, a significant check exists on forestry operations. Holdings of W.D. Cowls, Inc., a forest-products company, are the largest single hold of private forest lands in the town. Other large forest blocks of interest for protection or connection to other protected land include areas off Buffam Road, in the hills between Mt. Orient and Poverty Mountain, in the tract threaded by Amethyst and Buffam Brooks bounded by Shutesbury, Boyden, Buffam, North Valley, and Amherst Roads and between Arnold Road and Butter Hill Road. The Conservation Commission monitors cutting operations carefully to see that they are in compliance with the required plans, but little is done to assure protection of old access ways, views or habitat other than in the context of these forest cutting plans.

Two plant species have been listed as being of special concern: the New England blazing star (Liatris scariosa var. novae-angliae) and the threadfoot (Podostemum ceratophyllum). The arethusa or bog-rose (Arethusa bulbosa) is listed as threatened. Pod-grass (Scheuchzeria palustris) is classified as endangered. An additional nine plants are watch-listed and one plant is listed as once known to the state, but now missing or undocumented. For more detailed information obtained in 2007 from the Massachusetts Natural Heritage Program of the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife see Appendix C.