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Since 2021, the Hastings Conservation Commission has conducted planting sessions and worked to maintain them along Boutillier's Brook, thanks to NYS DEC's Trees for Tribs grant program, and with help from volunteer residents and Groundwork Hudson Valley's Green Team. This project planted about 1000 trees and shrubs.
The area by the Saw Mill River Parkway was previously a mound of porcelain berry and Japanese knotweed with areas of mown lawn, all of which are shallow-rooted and provide little sustenance for area fauna. The Conservation Commission continues to nurture the new plants and thwart regrowth of invasive vines and knotweed to restore this riverine corridor, with the help of star volunteer Matt Hobby and others.
This work contributes to the health of the Saw Mill and Hudson rivers downstream. Headwaters are critical ecosystems that contribute to the life of rivers. Read this article from American Rivers to understand the imperative for protecting small streams.
Thanks to Bloomberg's Youth Climate Action Fund, volunteers have expanded the restoration work to both south of Farragut Parkway and to the upper reaches of the brook.
Email us to join a work session at conservationcommission@hastingsgov.org. We conduct maintenance seasonally.
Plantings on Farragut Parkway @Exit 12
Plantings on Farragut Parkway @Exit 12
Plants are tubed to protect them from deer. Thanks to NYSDEC Trees for Tribs for the plants and equipment!
This is what happens when you don't remove invasive vines - #thankyoumatthobby:
Click for: Before-and-After Pics - the full album
More Trees Installed on Farragut Parkway 2025
More Trees Installed on Farragut Parkway 2025
Thanks to a grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies' Youth Climate Action Fund, 10-person crew from Groundwork Hudson Valley's GreenTeam cleared an area of invasive plants across Farragut Parkway from our original planting area, and planted 110 native trees from a variety of species along the Saw Mill River. See more details here.
Upstream Stream Care, August 2024: Adding trees to the upper reaches of the brook.
Thanks to funding and inspiration from the HoH Youth Climate Action Fund 2024 (HoH-YCAF), with monies donated by Bloomberg Philanthropies, Kai Ghalib, Joe Drake, Greg Weiss and Kareem Ghalib planted 8 red maples and two swamp white oaks adjacent to the source of Boutillier's Brook, which is @Ravensdale Road on the site of the former Ice Pond. For more on this project, click here.
Our long-term vision. The section we are restoring first is on NYS DOT (Dept of Transportation) property, for which we were awarded a work permit. Not addressed here is our goal of restoring the spurs to the north (see right) above Nepperhan Avenue, which are on neglected Village property. The western spur was used as an unofficial dump for years. See this photo album for pics.
The stream begins just above Ravensdale Rd, flows through Dan Rile Park and under Fenwick and Branford roads. It emerges in a forgotten triangle of Village land between Farragut Ave and Farragut Parkway (depicted above), where it is joined by a western tributary. It continues through backyards along Nepperhan Ave and then travels under Farragut Parkway twice before finally emptying into the Saw Mill.
19th & 20th Century Maps Depicting the Brook
19th & 20th Century Maps Depicting the Brook
Courtesy: Hastings Historical Society
1870 map of Mrs. T. Le Boutillier's property, over which the brook flowed. Note that the brook starts on Mrs. M. Lefurgy's land in a small pond next to a quarry. That small pond is still there, in a backyard just north of Ravensdale Road at Rosedale. This map shows the brook continuing onto Equitable Insurance Company land, but doesn't show the brook's full course.
This 1867 map, from a slightly different angle, shows the brook, beginning near a quarry, on land then owned by Mrs. Riker. It flows through T. Le Boutilier's land (spelled here with one "L"), crossing Farragut Avenue onto L. Pignolet's property, and finally joining the Saw Mill River on Frank Curry's farm.
Photo of the Ice House at the small pond, located between Nichols Quarry (at the foot of today's Hamilton Avenue) and Ravensdale Road at Rosedale Avenue. A.C. Langmuir, who built the original Quarry Park and was an amateur photographer, said that the pond was used for skating. Notes at Hastings Historical Society indicate that the ice house at some point burned down.
1907 map showing the Ice Pond next to the intersection of Ravensdale Road and Nichols' Quarry.
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