REVITALIZING COOLEY BROOK IN BLISS AND LAUREL PARKS

Prepared for the Town of Longmeadow’s Department of Planning and Community Development

By Savannah Bailey and Brett Towle The Conway School, Spring 2023

In lovIng memory of leon Waverly BaIley Jr.

September 21st 1936 - May 2nd 2023

Longmeadow Resident from 1963 - 2022

Acknowledgments

Thank you to the Longmeadow residents and the visitors of Laurel and Bliss Parks who generously gave us their time and feedback.

Thank you to our Core Team for your continued support and feedback throughout the project process:

Corrin Meise-Munns, Assistant Town Manager

Troy Barry, Geofluvial Morphologist, Tighe & Bond

Timothy Keane, Town Engineer, Department of Public Works

John Bresnahan, Conservation Commission Chair

Bari Jarvis, Director, Parks and Recreation

Kristin Carnahan, Resident Advisor

David Marinelli, Resident Advisor

Thank you to the Longmeadow Historical Society for sharing historical maps and photos of Longmeadow, the parks, and the Olmsted Brothers designs.

Thank you to the experts who advised us and shared their time:

Glenn Motzkin, Ecologist

Sebastian Gutwein, Principal Designer, Regenerative Design Group

Denise Burchsted, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, Keene State College

Alex Krofta, Ecological Restoration Project Manager, Save the Sound

And to the faculty, staff, and students of the Conway School, without which we would not be here.

Project Overview

The Town of Longmeadow’s Department of Planning and Community Development contracted the Conway School to build upon the 2020 Conway Project Enhancing Ecology in the Heart of Longmeadow: Two Visions for Bliss and Laurel Parks. The 2020 Conway project took a broader look at the parks’ functions and human uses, and a main takeaway from the project was the need to improve the function and stability of the Cooley Brook stream system before changes could be made to the human-scale park functions. Based on that project as well as subsequent studies of the parks and brook, this document aims to explore possibilities for increasing ecological health in the brook and strengthening the human/stream experience, specifically through visualizing what the system could look like if the two dams on the brook were removed. This document considers the balance between natural systems and humanaltered systems in and around the Cooley Brook, and presents alternatives for the Longmeadow community to evaluate and refine.

Cooley Brook tells a tale of human intervention, serving many humandirected functions over the centuries. As the uses of the brook and two parks have shifted, so has the attention paid to different parts of the brook system. Today, the Town of Longmeadow recognizes the importance of Cooley Brook to address essential stormwater management needs and the opportunity to advance Longmeadow’s climate resilience goals by increasing the function and balance of the stream system. Prioritizing stormwater management also necessitates evaluating the ecological health of the system and human interactions with the brook in order to identify interventions to increase stability. These three visions of the Cooley Brook—providing functioning stormwater infrastructure and flood resiliency, being ecologically healthy, and providing a fulfilling human/stream connection—guide the clients’ goals for this project.

This document has been produced in conjunction with Longmeadow’s Department of Parks and Recreation, Department of Public Works, Conservation Commission, and the Longmeadow Planning Department. Tighe & Bond, an environmental engineering firm, produced a Hydrology & Hydraulics Study of Cooley Brook in Bliss and Laurel Parks and provided feedback and resources to inform conceptual designs.

ProJect goals

1. A resilient and safe-to-access stream channel

Develop conceptual designs for three locations along the stream to improve the function of the brook. Incorporate green stormwater infrastructure through bioengineering interventions to increase floodplain and riparian connectivity , and enhance the human/stream relationship.

2. Well-informed and engaged community and process

Communicate the scientific data to the community and get their feedback on conceptual designs focused on the human/stream interface.

3. A healthy and diverse ecosystem

Explore the opportunity to increase ecological health in this system.

Zones Of Cooley Brook

Cooley Brook flows west from its stormwater-pipe headwaters in Bliss Park for about 1.5 miles before it empties into the Connecticut River. The brook can roughly be broken into four character zones based on human land use, the boundaries of which are marked by stream-road crossings and stormwater infrastructure.

Zone 3: Private Property

In Zone 3, Cooley Brook flows through the backyards of private homes. The stream channel is heavily armored with rip-rap and rocks to maintain its location. After flowing under Elmwood Avenue through a culvert, the stream flows down a natural bedrock escarpment which forms a series of waterfalls in the brook for approximately 25 vertical feet.

Zone 1: Headwaters

Bliss Park marks the first zone, where two stormwater pipes empty into the stream channel at its headwaters. In this zone, the stream has steep banks and a deep, incised channel.

Zone 2: Ponds

In the second zone, Laurel Park, two human-made dams slow the movement of Cooley Brook and stop the transportation of sediment by the stream. The first dam (B) was designed by the Olmsted Brothers as an aesthetic part of the human experience of this landscape and the second dam is formed by infrastructure left over from when the brook was used as a water source for Longmeadow (C).

In the last zone, the brook flows through a 9-foot-wide culvert under I-91. The stream channel is heavily armored around I-91 to protect the highway infrastructure from a more dynamic stream channel, but closer to the Connecticut River the banks are no longer stabilized and the brook is able to form some natural meanders, though the banks are still extremely steep.

Existing Conditions

Cooley Brook runs east to west through Bliss and Laurel Parks. The parks are a forested refuge in the heart of Longmeadow, offering woodland trails, a playground, and active recreation facilities including ball fields, tennis courts, and a swimming pool.

LaureL Park

• Laurel Park has two parking lots: a pull-off on Longmeadow Street on the park’s western extent and a long, gravel driveway leading from Laurel Street to a lot with undefined parking spaces and unclear boundaries.

• Hiking and informal mountain biking trails form several loops on either side of Cooley Brook, only a few of which come near the stream, and two bridges enable stream crossing.

• Cooley Brook runs through a culvert under Laurel Street into Laurel Park where it is obstructed twice, first by the Olmsted-designed dam forming Laurel Pond and second by the former waterworks impoundment forming the slow-moving, broad stream channel downstream of Laurel Pond.

BLiss Park

• Bliss Park has three parking lots; a driveway off Laurel Street closest to the pool and playground, a half gravel/half asphalt lot located centrally off Bliss Road, and a long gravel driveway off Bliss Road on the park’s east end.

• Stormwater pipes enter the site from Oakwood Drive and Bliss Road, carrying runoff into the incised stream channel in Bliss Park, the pipes’ outfalls forming the headwaters of the Cooley Brook.

• North of Cooley Brook, the wide, forested trails are a popular spot for dog-walkers. The trails follow the topography, where post-glacial windswept dune deposits form a small ridge.

• South of Cooley Brook, active recreation facilities provide programmed space for baseball, tennis, swimming, basketball, and the beloved “Mr. Potatohead” playground. The tennis courts and pool are closed for the time-being; the pool overflow was draining into Cooley Brook and the courts need maintenance.

• The trails in Bliss Park rarely approach the stream due to steeper, eroded slopes along the stream channel, limiting stream interaction and views.

communIty engagement In BlIss and laurel Parks

Community engagement is a critical component within the project scope. The Town of Longmeadow hopes to receive thoughtful feedback on concepts for revitalizing Cooley Brook to inform management decisions moving forward.

The Conway team spoke to twenty-six groups of park-goers while canvassing Bliss and Laurel Parks on a sunny Saturday afternoon in May 2023. Drawing on key findings from the Tighe & Bond Hydrology & Hydraulics study, the Conway team facilitated conversations with park-goers about their understanding of and relationship with Cooley Brook. The Conway team found that many people weren’t familiar with the stream, the role it played in the watershed, or the ecological and structural integrity of the system. Lack of access to the stream makes it a secondary feature within the parks. Park users said that the two parks serve very different functions. Laurel Park provides biking and hiking trails; people use the park to experience nature. Bliss Park is a programmed space with a playground, sport fields and courts, and nice dog walking trails north of the stream. Many park-goers were surprised to learn about the results of the Hydrology & Hydraulics Study (see sheet 6) and expressed the opinion that with this data, improving stream health should be a priority.

The Conway team designed and printed interpretive signs that were placed in strategic locations. The signs followed a historic, cultural, and ecological narrative through the parks and were used to generate interest in a community survey written by the Conway team. The survey had only three respondents prior to the installation of interpretive signs. The week following, the survey received thirty more responses, with more every day. The interpretive signs enabled another layer of storytelling and engagement with the community, and the survey will remain open through the next phase of the project.

clImate change ImPacts cooley Brook

Cooley Brook’s role as stormwater infrastructure necessitates forward-thinking around climate change.

Larger, more frequent storms and extended summer droughts affect the hydrologic processes of Cooley Brook and its watershed. A higher volume and velocity of stormwater entering the stream paired with limited opportunity for infiltration in the watershed cause problems of erosion and flooding. Droughts reduce stream flow in the summer months, creating an imbalance in nutrient transport associated with the base flow and seasonal flooding of Cooley Brook. This has implications for ecosystem health, water quality, and aquatic habitat, as well as human safety, recreation, and built infrastructure.

The Town of Longmeadow recognizes the Cooley Brook as a critical natural resource for managing stormwater and mitigating the impacts of flooding within its watershed. Revitalizing Cooley Brook to manage additional stormwater associated with climate change, increase ecosystem health, and improve wildlife habitat can help the Town of Longmeadow achieve greater resilience in the face of climate change.

Seasonal precipitation change in the Northeast shows wetter winters and drier summers, impacting natural resources and human communities in the region.

Source: Regional Climate Trends and Scenarios: The Northeast US (Kunkel et al. 2013)