Bernardston, Leyden pursuing shared grant for flooding, wildfire preparedness

By CHRIS LARABEE

Staff Writer

Published: 01-10-2023 1:53 PM

The cooperation of Bernardston and Leyden has historically run deep, as the neighboring towns share a school district, a transfer station and, most recently, a shared-policing agreement. Now, the two towns are coming together again, this time for an ambitious climate-resiliency project.

The communities plan to apply for a Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) grant to fund a long-range project that will tackle both flooding and wildfire preparedness by identifying flood-susceptible areas and mitigation measures for rivers, while also identifying areas in the towns’ forests where wildfires might start and where firefighters could draw water from.

Sustainable landscape designer John Lepore, of Bernardston, and Leyden Co-Emergency Management Chair David Pomerantz, who was Northampton’s director of facilities management for more than a decade, are spearheading the partnership.

“By having Leyden and Bernardston work together, we’re also trying to make the statement that climate change is not town-centric,” Pomerantz said in a phone interview. “It does not honor the boundaries of Leyden or Bernardston.”

Pomerantz said the joint action grant, which builds off the initial, separate MVP planning grants used to identify vulnerabilities and risks in the towns, came together because Bernardston and Leyden’s planning grants were both completed in 2021 and 2022, meaning both towns were prepared to apply their findings in a similar timeframe.

The grant application, Lepore and Pomerantz said, will address two key elements. The first is locating potential flooding areas, such as West Leyden Road or Fox Brook, and then implementing some sort of mitigation measures to prevent significant flooding in the future. The second is to identify terrain between the towns that could increase the likelihood of forest fires during drought, while also determining what routes and water sources firefighters could use to fight blazes in those areas.

With this information in hand, the towns can implement it in their emergency management planning and in “nature-based solutions” for future flood and fire mitigation. Tactics they plan to employ include chartering “citizen scientists” to help monitor the changing landscape through GIS maps, which will then be combined with on-the-ground monitoring through drones and site visits.

“That (information) would be critical as far as understanding where our pinch points are for potential flooding and for forest management,” Pomerantz said.

Article continues after...

Yesterday's Most Read Articles

Driver taken to hospital after Interstate 91 rollover in Bernardston
Deerfield woman gets probation in stabbing case
Greenfield Police seek robbery suspect
My Turn: Biden’s record and accomplishments are extremely positive
Greenfield’s Lucas Allenby, Landon Allenby qualify for USASA Nationals
Springfield man gets 5 years in Greenfield shooting case

A project this large, however, could be broken up into two different grants based on thoughts from the MVP program staff.

“It really depends on how MVP is going to review this project,” Pomerantz explained, “and that’s why we want to focus on, especially on the flooding side, designating the top two hazard areas in Bernardston and the top two hazard areas in Leyden.”

A packet laying out the grant’s goals highlights the need to address fluvial (river) erosion and using the Franklin Regional Council of Governments’ (FRCOG) river corridor mapping system to find areas where erosion may be most prevalent.

While erosion control has already been at the forefront of communities’ work around the state, such as Conway’s focus on the South River, a wildfire assessment map may be a first for Massachusetts. At last week’s Bernardston Planning Board meeting, Lepore said there is “nothing on the books about forest fire assessment” and this could be a “very significant” project.

“We’re pretty excited about being at the forefront of this stuff,” Lepore said.

The end goal of what Pomerantz called a “unique” project is to develop a template for other communities around the state and region to look at and adapt for themselves. Creating such a template may also entice the MVP program to award more money to the project. The state’s website does not show a cap for MVP grant awards, and amounts given in previous years range from tens of thousands to millions of dollars.

“We’re building a lot of capacity into this project,” Pomerantz said, “so not only can Leyden and Bernardston benefit from it, but also across the state and maybe New England.”

Next steps include submitting an expression of interest form to the state, further refining the project’s scope and waiting for feedback from the MVP program in the spring.

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.

]]>