Sawmill Hills Conservation Area

Image 1: Black-and-white photograph of 10 men of varying ages working at a logging mill. Some wear overalls over button up shirts, and others just wear button ups and pants. Their clothes are all dirty to varying degrees. They all have hats of varying styles on their heads. Around them there are stacks of logs and behind them, a wooden mill. Image 2: A photograph of a pathway in the woods, framed by trees with small pink budding flowers. Into the distance, the trail drops off and shows flatter wooded land. Image 3: A large, quill-covered North American porcupine sits on a mossy green rock on the left side of the frame, facing slightly left while putting its front paws toward its face to itch. The porcupine has dark fur on its lower body and long, prominent white-tipped quills covering its back and head. There is a tick on its nose. The background features a large, layered rock formation with dark crevices and a ground covered in dry, brown autumn leaves.

Image 1: Loggers working on West Farms, Northampton, MA, c. 1886-1902. Photograph by the Howes Brothers. Historic Northampton (ID no. 1975.40.56). Image 2: Photograph of nature in Sawmill Hills. Image 3: Photograph of a porcupine outside of its den in Sawmill Hills. A tick can be seen on the porcupine’s nose.

A satillite map displays a large, wooded area outlined by a prominent yellow boundary line. The enclosed territory consists primarily of dense brown and green forest canopy, crisscrossed by straight, narrow property lines or access roads. Scattered throughout this forested zone are several blue circular icons. The yellow border forms an irregular polygon, narrowing significantly at its northern tip and featuring a jagged, pointed indentation on its eastern edge. To the right of the yellow boundary, the landscape transitions into a densely packed, light gray urban development with a tightly woven grid of residential streets, buildings, and houses. Additional blue and yellow icons are scattered sparsely across both the urban neighborhood and the surrounding wooded areas outside the main yellow outline.
Outline of Sawmill Hills conservation area on MassMapper.
Six fluffy, light brown coyote pups are huddling and napping closely together on a rugged, rocky outdoor ground covered with some dry twigs and fallen leaves.
A liter of coyote pups in the Sawmill Hills Conservation Area.
An open view of a distant mountain ridge framed by dense green forest trees. In the immediate foreground, a large, moss-covered boulder anchors the lower center of the frame. The midground drops away into a thick, lush green forest canopy filling a wide valley. In the background, a distinct, flat-topped mountain ridge sits under a clear blue sky with a few scattered clouds. Bright green leaves frame the top left and top right corners of the view.
Sawmill Hills Conservation Area.

Located less than a 15-minute drive from downtown Northampton, the Sawmill Hills are one of Northampton’s largest roadless areas, stretching 2 1⁄2 miles north to south and 2 miles east to west. The 2,200 acres include rough and rugged terrain (cliffs, countless rock outcrops, steep slopes, and thin, acidic soils) along with headwater streams, perched wetlands (separated from the main groundwater), and more than a dozen vernal pools.

The landscape’s rugged topography and shallow soils made for such poor pasture that when early English settlers divided the land in the late 1600s, they carved this area of Northampton into long, narrow woodlots to meet the firewood and timber needs of people living in what is now downtown.

By the 1830s (and perhaps earlier), commercial-style logging was underway. There was one sawmill on the west side of the Sawmill Hills, along what is now Sylvester Road. It was owned by the Bartlett family and powered by Parsons Brook. There was another sawmill on the east side of the Sawmill Hills near Spring Street, which pulled power from a small tributary of the Mill River. According to a Hampshire Gazette article (9/21/1880), Bartlett’s Sawmill gave this range of ridges its place name.

During the 19th century, a large portion of the Sawmill Hills was purchased by the Brown & Bailey Brickyards (which was located near the present-day Northampton High School). The company harvested the wood to fuel the fires that baked their bricks. By 1880, “a large fraction of it [was] young growth” (Daily Hampshire Gazette).

Although some logging has taken place during the past century, today the forests on the Sawmill Hills have grown back and are dominated by oaks (red, chestnut, black) and other deciduous species. 

In the late 1970s, Floyd Andrus donated Roberts Hill to the city as conservation land. Since then, another 800 acres have been protected as city-owned conservation land. These parcels, together with privately held land, support habitats that are important to wildlife and that offer a network of trails used by hikers and mountain bikers.

For a more complete understanding of the human and natural history of this conservation area, click here.

Wildlife Camera Footage from Sawmill Hills

Wildlife and Mushrooms (Summer 2024)

Serious natural history studies in America took off during the 19th century, including the scientific cataloging and naming of mushrooms. In 1885, Massachusetts’ Julius A. Palmer Jr. published Mushrooms of America, Edible and Poisonous, noting in his introduction: “No country is richer in mushroom food than America…” Palmer also warned to stay away from the Amanitas, most of which contain “deadly and violent poison” and are “extremely common.” This compilation begins with two Amanita mushrooms and reveals the emergence and decay of several mushroom species as well as the wildlife that passes by, and on occasion, interacts with them.

A Fungi Focus (Summer 2024)

A glimpse into the fungi in Sawmill Hills Greenway & some bonus wildlife views!

A Den of Activity (Spring 2024)

The American porcupine is the second largest rodent in North America and is found throughout much of the U.S., Canada, and even into the mountains of northern Mexico. Nevertheless, because its preferred habitat is rocky, wooded uplands, most of us seldom see them, let alone have a chance to observe their routine behaviors. Having an intimate knowledge of porcupine behavior was, and continues to be, important to Indigenous peoples, particularly because of their use of quills to create elaborate, decorative designs on clothing, bags, belts, moccasins, sheaths, and other items.

February at the Porcupine Den (2024)

Today porcupines are common in Northampton, living and denning in areas with forested, rocky uplands. A naturally solitary species, the porcupine is active year-round, mostly at night. At the time of year in this video, it feeds on the bark and buds of several kinds of trees and shrubs. Aside from the stream, in the first night scene, you’ll hear the porcupine’s soft, low voice and then see some spinning, a behavior that is common and thought to be defensive. This species is not mentioned in 19th-century documents for Northampton and for good reason. At that time, due to deforestation, porcupines were rare and restricted to the northwestern corner of Massachusetts.

See our Youtube channel playlist “Wildlife in Wilder Places” for more wildlife content at Fitzgerald Lake Conservation Area.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCE

Kestrel Trust, “Mineral Hills Conservation Area.”