Climate Resilience

MyRWA is helping our communities adapt to more intense rainfall, heat waves, extreme storms and the disproportionate impact these have on our most vulnerable residents.

Wicked Cool Mystic is a regional campaign to learn how communities experience extreme heat and implement residents-led cooling solutions.

Wicked cool mystic

The Resilient Mystic Collaborative is a partnership among 20 neighboring communities working to protect our people and places from climate-intensified risks.

Resilient Mystic collaborative

We’re restoring wetlands and salt marsh habitat to enhance flood storage, reduce stormwater pollution, and expand wildlife habitat and outdoor recreation.

ecological resilience

Wicked Cool Mystic

The 3pm ambient temperature model created from Wicked Hot Mystic volunteer data.

To help better understand where extreme heat and urban heat islands, MyRWA conducted a heat mapping campaign called Wicked Hot Mystic. Data collected by volunteers in the 21 cities of the Mystic River watershed created a map of heat islands and places people can go to cool off. The results showed that the most urban communities with the highest percentages of low income residents and/or people of color—are the hottest. See the results here!

The map now informs our regional cooling campaign, called Wicked Cool Mystic. The cities of Everett, Malden, Chelsea, and the Town of Arlington are collaborating to engage residents and workers to envision and design cost-effective, fun pilot projects to help people stay cool and healthy during heat waves.

To lead our campaign against extreme heat, MyRWA recruited eight Wicked Cool Ambassadors from our communities!

Meet the Ambassadors

Thalia (Everett)

I am a first generation Colombian American woman who loves history and activism. I have tackled food insecurity in the Mystic Valley region for over 4 years and I am very passionate about climate change advocacy.

Juan (Everett)

My name is Juan Soler - Ramos, I currently am an Everett resident and a tenth grade student at Everett High School. I’ve lived in Everett for about 5 years now. Recently, I've started to do work in the community through a series of Workshops that were co-led by various organizations. Some of them were One Everett, Everett Community Growers, and the Mystic River Watershed Association. The first experience that I had working with the community was working for a Non-Profit Organization Known as IFSI or the Immigrant Family Services Institute. This experience is what sparked my interest in working with the community and doing outreach.

I love engaging with the community and have a passion for helping people as well as sunlight and tropical weather. I look forward to continuing to expand on the work that I have done in the community through working with the MRWA and other organizations that are involved in this project.

Ada (Malden)

I'm a junior at Malden High School! Outside of school, I enjoy gardening, crafts and reading. This year I'm trying to step outside of my comfort zone more and try new things.

Lisa (Malden)

Lisa has lived in Malden since 2004. She has a background in advertising and marketing, is a lover of animals, fascinated by nature, intrigued by all things historic and enjoys pretty much any outdoor activity. Lisa has a passion for caring for her community and has been a member of Malden’s Community Preservation Committee since its inception in 2017. She is thrilled to have been chosen as a Wicked Cool Ambassador and looks forward to helping preserve the Mystic River and its watershed while reducing summer temperatures in the surrounding communities so future generations will be able to enjoy the watershed’s many gifts.

Clara (Arlington)

Clara is currently a junior at Arlington High School, and she is passionate about environmental conservation and sustainability. Throughout high school, Clara has been involved in several student-run projects that address environmental issues, including the composting group Full Circle Compost Service and a public art project called Climate Futures Arlington. In her free time, Clara enjoys baking bread, spending time on the Minuteman Bikeway, and cross-country skiing.

Elise (Arlington)

Elise Kempf is a junior at Arlington High School, and is very excited to be a part of the Wicked Cool Mystic Ambassadors project! She runs on her school’s cross country and track teams, and will be a captain in each sport next year. In her free time, Elise enjoys playing the viola, rollerblading, and spending time with friends and family. She is passionate about environmental justice, especially on a local scale, and is a founding member of a grass-roots organization in Arlington called Full Circle Compost, which works to make composting more accessible to members of her community. She also enjoys the arts and is a member of the Arlington Town Mural Project committee.

Aldo (Chelsea)

Estella (Chelsea)

YOU CAN STILL BE INVOLVED!

The goal of Wicked Cool Mystic is to engage meaningfully with your friends and neighbors in Everett, Malden, Arlington and Chelsea to help protect us from hotter summers!

Resilient Mystic Collaborative (RMC)

Climate change does not recognize city or town boundaries—therefore our efforts to build resilience around the impacts should not either. Convened by MyRWA and ten watershed communities in September 2018 and now led by senior staff from 20 cities and towns and non-governmental partners, the Resilient Mystic Collaborative (RMC) focuses on managing flooding and extreme heat on a regional scale and increasing the resilience of our most vulnerable residents and workers to extreme weather.

Collectively, RMC communities have secured nearly $57 million for climate resilient projects in the Mystic Watershed, with the goal of securing an additional $100 million in public funding over the next three years. This collective and significant action is helping prepare for a stormier, hotter, and less predictable climate future. Both MyRWA and the RMC understand and are committed to climate justice, which recognizes and works to address disparate impact of climate change on vulnerable communities as well as promote a fair distribution of resources to address the impacts of climate change.

Go to Resilient Mystic Collaborative website

Mystic River Waterfront Vision

One of the Resilient Mystic Collaborative’s projects is a visioning process for the lower Mystic River waterfront. About the project: Through community engagement and a resident-led Steering Committee, we are developing a waterfront vision for the lower Mystic River (Boston, Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett, Malden, Medford, Somerville, and Revere). The vision will reflect public and private interests to create a thriving, inclusive and climate resilient waterfront. Coming out of that visioning process is a coalition of people with strong relationships who want this vision to be implemented, as well as a series of neighborhood-scale projects that can be pursued as part of the larger vision. The community engagement phase of the visioning process will take place in the summer and fall of 2024. This work is supported by Resilient Mystic Collaborative, Mystic River Watershed Association, Stoss, the Consensus Building Institute, and the City of Chelsea via MA Municipal Preparedness Program grant.

go to Waterfront vision webpage

Ecological Resilience

MyRWA is currently working with municipalities on ecological resilience projects throughout the watershed. These efforts have the goals of filtering pollutants out of rain and snowmelt, providing flood storage during large rainstorms or storm surges, enhancing paths and trails, and expanding wildlife habitat—especially at Belle Isle Marsh the largest remaining salt marsh in Boston.

CONSTRUCTED & RESTORED WETLANDS

Belle Isle marsh restoration