Conservation Commission Unanimously Backs Noannet Brook Dam Study Grant

NORWOOD — March 26, 2026 — Norwood's Conservation Commission unanimously backed a Trustees of Reservations grant to study five dams on Noannet Brook. The commission voted four to zero at its March 26 meeting to send a letter of support for the Trustees' application to the Massachusetts Rivers Alliance, due March 27, which if funded would launch an early-phase assessment of water movement, temperature, and fish passage along a state-designated cold-water stream. D.A. Hayden, the Trustees' Metro West regional vice president, and ecologist Kate Conlon told the commission that a 2023 Division of Fisheries and Wildlife survey found only seven pickerel fish in a hundred-meter stretch of Noannet Brook, a stream that once held wild trout. Conlon framed the string of five dams — the oldest dating to roughly 1830 — as a possible candidate for coordinated, wide-scale restoration, noting Massachusetts ranks third nationally in dam removal projects but would need 750 years to clear all obsolete structures at the current pace. The commission also voted unanimously to extend a lapsed order of conditions at 4 Bridal Path Circle for three years under DEP File No. 089-5.