Brothers share journey through Westfield River’s history, wildlife

May 31, 2023 | Michael Ballway
mballway@thereminder.com

Attendees of the fish ladder open house in West Springfield on May 22 walk along a channel of the Westfield River.
Reminder Publishing photo by Marc St. Onge

AGAWAM — As a teenager in the 1970s, Stan Svec went to the Westfield River to hang out with friends, to practice his boating skills and to fish for shad. He was drawn to the river like “a magnet.”

He wasn’t the first, though.

In a talk in March to the Agawam Historical Society, Stan and his brother Steve Svec said the river, which descends from the Berkshires and passes through Westfield, Agawam and West Springfield on its way to the Connecticut River, has supported wildlife, Native American communities, industry and recreation over the centuries.

The dam where Stan fished was built for a paper mill, one of many that harnessed the river’s hydropower. The same shad that he caught, and other species, were staple foods for the Native Americans who lived on the river for centuries before English settlers arrived.

Svec said in his many years canoeing on the river, he’d often seen piles of rocks across the river. It was only recently that he figured out what they were: Native American fish weirs. The rocks provide fish with a “shelter” from the river current. They congregate behind the rocks, making them easy to harvest.

Shad aren’t the only fish in the river. Svec said there’s also walleye, white and yellow perch, northern pike, panfish, several kinds of trout, eel, gar, bowfin, catfish and invasive carp. Endangered sturgeon and blueback herring can be found there, as well.

Steve Svec also enjoys fishing, but said visitors to the river should also keep an eye on the sky. The river attracts blue herons and bald eagles, he said. He also enjoys seeing wood turtles, a threatened species, and river otters.

Stan and Steve are both teachers at West Springfield High School, where Stan is the chair of the history department, and Steve teaches biology.

Although the cities along the river are built up with industry, highways and thousands of homes and shops, long stretches of the river itself are an oasis of nature within the urban sprawl. One segment of the river passes between two large parks, Robinson State Park in Agawam and Mittineague Park in West Springfield.

“When you’re on the river and the leaves are on the trees, you see nothing of modernity,” Stan Svec said. “You could be back with Pynchon.”

Yet for William Pynchon, as for the Native Americans, the river was for trade and transportation, not for recreation. He founded Springfield on that particular stretch of the Connecticut River because of its proximity to two tributaries, the Westfield River and the Mill River, which provided access to the inland areas west and east of the settlement, and already supported Native American tribes with which Pynchon wanted to trade. Before paved roads and motorized transportation, rivers were the nation’s first highways, Svec said.

Stan Svec also shared some of the river’s quirky side. He said boaters should keep their eyes peeled not only for wildlife but also for gemstones, carried down from the mineral-rich Berkshire hilltowns, particularly Chester.

“You’ll find garnets in the Westfield River as big as your thumbnail,” he said.

He showed aerial video of what he calls the “ring of ice” — a slow-moving whirlpool just east of the Westfield city line that develops a distinctive ice formation in freezing temperatures.

“If it was in Northampton, it’d be [called] a wonder of the world,” he said.

He recalled the winter of 1980 when the river froze, and he and his friends skated from what is now Crosslight Gospel Church, near that ring of ice, all the way down to the dam.

Both brothers said they’d like to see more people paddling on the river, and encouraged the cities along its banks to promote tourism on the river. More people using the river will mean more attention and more funding for conservation, they said.

 

Try it out

Paddlers can test the waters on June 3 at the Westfield River Watershed Association Canoe and Kayak Cruise. The six-mile paddle from downtown Westfield to Robinson State Park will be led by WRWA members and is open to all ages (under 18 must be accompanied by an adult; under 14 must be in the same craft as an adult), and is suitable to novice paddlers, as there are no whitewater sections. Participants must bring their own canoe or kayak and personal flotation devices.

The cost is $15 per person ($10 for WRWA members) and includes shuttle service, insurance and light refreshments. Registration begins at 9 a.m. in the municipal parking lot off Elm and Meadow streets in Westfield; staggered departures begin at 10 a.m. The cruise ends at about 2 p.m. at Robinson State Park in Agawam.

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