Volunteers of all ages took part in the 2012 Earth Day River Clean up removing trash all along the Mystic River. Crews picked up trash in other parts of the watershed including Cambridge, E. Boston, Somerville, Chelsea, Malden, Everett and Medford as part of Earth Day Celebrations in the Mystic River watershed.

Over 55 people attended the first-ever Mystic Polar Plunge, held at Constitution Beach in East Boston on Saturday, January 28th. 21 people braved the icy waters on the mild winter day to kickoff MyRWA's 40th Anniversary year - a year to celebrate and promote the recreational opportunities of the Mystic as well as the water quality testing and environmental policy efforts that MyRWA has led over its forty year history.

IBM volunteers gathered on the Mystic River in Medford on Wednesday, June 15th, 2011 to remove a section of invasive water chestnuts. IBMers took to the river on a beautiful sunny day with canoes and kayaks as they hand pulled plants to remove a record 563 baskets of water chestnuts.

Parts of the Mystic River are barely passable due to the invasive Water Chestnut. These floating-leaved plants form dense, continuous mats over the water surface of lakes, ponds and slow-moving waters. The mats in turn impede boating, fishing, and swimming, and crowd out native plants. In June 2011, volunteers pulled 550 baskets of Water Chestnuts from the Mystic River. This effort will continue for years to come. All photos in this gallery are courtesy of David Mussina.

This year MyRWA celebrated the 15th Annual Mystic River Herring Run and Paddle on May 15, 2011. Even among rainy skies, over 250 participants join in the festivities. The US EPA attended the event and announced the 2011 Mystic River Report card.

The 14th Annual Mystic River Herring Run and Paddle was held on Sunday May 16th at the Blessing of the Bay Boathouse in Somerville. We had beautiful weather and over 300 participants in the event. MyRWA was joined by the U.S. EPA and MWRA in the 4th annual announcement of the Mystic River Report Card.

Mystic River Herring Run and Paddle - 2009

MyRWA's annual meeting was held on October 22, 2008 at the Orient Heights Yacht Club in Winthrop. Concerned citizens, volunteers, and members attended and heard about the successful projects MyRWA has undertaken over the past year. Bob Zimmerman, the Executive Director of the Charles River Watershed Association, spoke on his experiences building CRWA into a successful science-based advocacy organization with a strong staff and dozens of notable achievements. Attendees also had the opportunity to watch several documentaries filmed in the Mystic Watershed by graduate students at Emerson College. MyRWA recognized the following outstanding individuals with awards: Pete Mellor - Volunteer of the Year; Michael O'Brien - Unsung Hero of the Year; Bob Nesson - Supporter of the Year; Roger Frymire - Scientific Achievement Award.

The Mystic River supports one of the largest alewife runs in Massachusetts. Diadromous fish including alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) and blueback (Alosa aestivalis) herrings, American shad (Alosa sapidissima), American eel (Anguilla rostrata) and white perch (Morone americana) are unable to reach the Upper Mystic Lake to reach their native spawning grounds each spring. Scooping the fish with buckets and nets, volunteers hoist them up to the other side of the lake in what is known as the Bucket Brigade.

Volunteers are the lifeblood of the Mystic River Watershed Association. For the first 27 years of its existence, all programs were volunteer-run! We still cannot accomplish what needs to be done without the dedication and commitment of many volunteers.

Many organizations team up every year to complete over thirty clean-ups in the watershed. Want to get involved? Look for upcoming clean-ups on the Cleanups page.

Peter Alden led tour of Alewife Reservation to celebrate Watershed Week on Friday, Oct. 19, 2001. It was sponsored by MyRWA and EOEA. Also, MWRA tours take visitors to the heart of a working treatment plant filled with heavy machinery. For the safety of our visitors and our staff, tours are restricted to students in Grade 7 or above.

Watershed Ground Map: Visit the biggest map in the watershed! Walk on it, explore the blueways and greenways, make connections. This colorful oversized watershed map was painted by Somerville artist Anna Shapiro." The 80 ft x 80 ft graphic highlights the rivers, lakes and the surrounding green spaces throughout the 21 communities of the Mystic River watershed, and is located in the MDC parking lot, near the Mystic Lakes Dam and the Medford Boat Club, off the Mystic Valley Parkway in Medford, MA. The graphic raises awareness of links among towns and cities, brings attention to the connections between our land and water resources, and promotes public awareness of and appreciation for the watershed. It is a vivid reminder of the need to preserve green spaces in an urban setting. This project was funded by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management. Thanks to the Metropolitan District Commission and the Medford Boat Club for their support. Update: 11/28/2011 Post dam construction - repainting plans for a similar map in this location to be completed Spring 2012.