The Three Reaches
The main stem of the Briarwood descends from the high meadow through three named reaches. The Upper Run drops some two hundred and forty feet over a distance of seven-tenths of a mile through a shaded alder flat, gathering the tributary of the Sugarloaf Draw before crossing the basalt bench. The Middle Stem carries the stream through the three-stage falls and past the Miller and Hollenbeck check dams to the plunge into the cataract pool. The Cataract — the short reach from the pool's outfall to the Lower Weir Station — is the most heavily instrumented and the most often written of.
The Draws
Three named draws descend from the east ridge: the Sugarloaf (upper, shortest, the subject of the standing transect), the Hemlock (middle, longest, with the remnant old-growth stand at its head), and the Pettit (lower, steepest, the site of the Y3 Rhamnus removal). The west ridge is ungraded and gives rise to no named draws; its drainage is diffuse and is not gauged.
The Whitford Open
A meadow of some forty-four acres above the falls, retired from agricultural use in the conveyance of 1964. It is mown once in late September by the associate warden, on a twelve-year rotation by thirds, and is otherwise undisturbed. The Whitford gauge, a secondary station, is sited at its lower corner.
The Brook House
A timber-frame cottage built in 1887 as a fishing retreat, repaired in 1974, and now the residence of the warden and the seat of the archive. The Brook House comprises the warden's quarters, the archive room (with its standing press, its minute book cabinet, and the run of the Quarterly), a small working laboratory for the sediment analyses, and a covered porch on the south elevation from which the Lower Weir may be observed in fair weather.
The Standing Stations
- LWS · Lower Weir Station
- Continuous gauging, year-round. The principal record.
- MRS · Middle Reach Station
- Secondary, staffed through the spring melt and the late-summer drawdown.
- WO · Whitford Open gauge
- Meadow baseline, precipitation and soil moisture.
- Sugarloaf transect
- Herbaceous layer, re-walked each August.
- Hemlock transect
- Old-growth remnant, canopy and deadwood.
- Pettit transect
- Disturbed slope, re-walked biennially.
- CP · Cataract Pool
- Temperature, dissolved oxygen, occasional ichthyology.
A note on access
The parcel is closed to the general public by the founding covenant and is not marked, signed, or indicated from any public way. The three gates — north, east, and river — are locked in all seasons. Visiting researchers are met at the north gate by the associate warden at a pre-arranged hour under the standing research compact; no independent entry is permitted, nor is it attempted.