When I moved to West County some 40 years ago I could bicycle the five miles down Route 2 to McCuskers and see maybe four slow cars on the whole ride. Back then we could gather two or three families and tube down the Deerfield, being the only tubers for miles.
I avoid biking on the Trail these days. Triple-tasking drivers need to arrive at some destination sooner than they used to. Many more of them. It’s no longer safe for bikers.
On the river traffic has also changed. With two for-profit rafting businesses operating seven days per week, 300 days a year, leisurely tubing is no longer inviting. There are also the log jams of fun-seeking families from Holyoke, Hartford or Somerville who understandably choose our river to cool in, all at once, day after summer day.
I believe that this burgeoning herd is coming to our otherwise pleasantly sparse population, in part, as a result of advertising. Shelburne Falls has been smitten with a flood of online representation. And I understand the Bridge of Flowers was once written up in Yankee Magazine. Like any place serene, placid, and refreshing, our forests, hills, and streams are easy to sell to out-of-towners. And it’s nice for us to share what we have with the ostensibly less fortunate.
But the size of the shifting crowds is, to me, unmanageable, and unhealthy. As an EMT, I witness the increase in river accidents as a result of overuse. On one Saturday last August there was a count of 1,200 people on the river and in Mohawk Park — a dependably average number (very few wore masks).
In addition to advertising some local organizations seem driven to perpetuate this growing tourism by expanding potential attractions. Lara Radysh and Susan Stafursky have both recently written in opposition to an underrepresented survey by the Open Space Committee that was hoping to secure passage for the construction of a complex trail from town to the river. In my opinion, and in support of those recent letters, this project would only invite a stampede of non-residential foot traffic to yet another sanctuary that would be better reserved mostly for local wildlife.
Too many people compressed in a natural setting inevitably reduces a habitat’s ability to support indigenous species that so essentially stratify this ecosystem. This can be addressed.
Years ago several ATV clubs from other parts of the country came to Catamont State Forest to drive in groups of over one hundred vehicles, bumper to bumper, through the forest on no particular trails. Noise, pollution, erosion, and the perpetuation of disrespect for local species led us locals to protest. Eventually these groups were turned away, grumbling, after a wildlife biologist established that the area was a home for the endangered spotted salamander. Abuse can be exposed and properly dealt with.
We can preserve and defend the beauty of our river surroundings and the wildlife that owns it more than we do. We can alert our state reps and suggest legal size limits for crowds. We can keep the safety of threatened habitats in the forefront and work for viable coexistence within our sacred ecology.
Sonny Crawford lives in Shelburne Falls.