Fish and Wildlife Service, the Department of Conservation and Recreation, and the Holyoke Boys & Girls Club from the holders of the former Mt.

The Trustees and the Holyoke Boys and Girls Club have a cooperative management approach of the area and run an environmental education program together.

Eubrontes giganteus, Anchisauripus sp., and Grallator cuneatus, all bipedal theropods, lived in this area some 200 million years ago.

Although no fossil tracks are known to be visible on Little Tom, undoubtedly many are preserved deep within the sandstone layers on the property.

Recent discoveries have placed early Native Americans just to the south of the glacial ice sheet 18,000 years ago.

They were ancestors of the Pocumtuck tribe, which lived and thrived in the Connecticut River Valley until the arrival of the Europeans.

DCR received an option to purchase the quarry parcel, which totals 16 acres, on or after August 31, 2012 or after two million tons of stone were removed.

The Trustees and the Holyoke Boys and Girls Club run an environmental education program and manage the area together.

East Mountain and the Holyoke Range share many of the interesting and significant geologic and biological characteristics that are described in this document.

The slopes of the former Mount Tom Ski Area, which are mostly on United States Fish and Wildlife Service land, descend this tilted tabletop roughly from west to east.

Away from the edge of the escarpment, the topography near the top of the main ridge is a landscape of small outcrops and ledges alternating with hollows, which sometimes hide vernal pools.

The quarry, which will continue its operation for several years, is west of Little Tom Mountain, at its base, and directly north of the Boys & Girls Club land.

Scattered along the main slope and in places on the southern end of the Little Tom Mountain ridgetop there are pockets of richer, more neutral soil, often associated with seeps, where a relatively sparse shrub layer and a more diverse ground cover of sedges, herbs, and ferns, and some rare plants occur – these are pleasant places to walk.

An initial scouting survey conducted in May 2003 revealed that a great diversity of migratory songbirds use Mt.

Early migratory stopover studies will be conducted by USFWS in subsequent years to further assess the use of Mt.

It is an isolated pool, far from any neighbors, and as expected, a large number of spotted salamander and wood frog egg masses were found there.

Given anecdotal evidence, available habitats, and historical records, it is likely that the entire area of the Partners’ properties is used by northern copperheads and timber rattlesnakes.