July 10, 2023 wasn’t the first major flood Clifford Park has experienced in recent years. In 2011 the floodwaters from Tropical Storm Irene deposited a thick layer of silt on the grounds that was subsequently scraped off by heavy machinery after the White River retreated–along with all the land’s topsoil. Further degraded by conventional turf management practices, the scrubby expanse of Clifford Park proved hospitable for little more than crabgrass when Hartford volunteers first set foot on the land in 2021. Yet, they were determined to coax life out of the park’s thin subsoil and cultivate a food forest and Abenaki garden. But, after three years of work, the increased frequency of these supposedly hundred-year floods called into question the future viability of the project.
As shared by Abenaki leader and Resilient Hartford Committee Member Earl Hatley, in the days prior to colonization and environmental degradation these floods would have been a blessing that gifted the soil with vital nutrients. Now, the risk of contaminated waters stood to jeopardize the future of the riverside food forest and Abenaki garden, and with it, the many hours of caring toil volunteers had poured into the land. Through a series of meetings among volunteers, Resilient Hartford town committee members, and community members, a new, climate-adaptive vision for Clifford Park has emerged. We ultimately chose not to abandon the land but to work with its current contours and decenter the notion that humans are the only species that might benefit from our work at Clifford Park.
Our plan for Clifford Park includes building out the riparian buffer to increase flood resilience, selecting for species that are edible and medicinal, while native and more flood tolerant, planting perennials over annuals, and continuing to improve ecosystem health. Now, our focus is not just on growing food for humans, the success of which will vary from year to year as floods come and go; we are also committed to providing habitat, pollination, and food for other species that share the park with us. All are welcome to help bring this vision to life during our bi-monthly work parties–reach out to rskent21@gmail.com to be added to our volunteer Google Group!
Written by: Rachel Kent and the Hartford Hub
The Clifford Park Food Forest project and Abenaki Garden are a part of the Upper Valley Resilience Network. Learn more about the Upper Valley Resilience Network (UVRN) and sign up for monthly newsletters by visiting the home webpage here!