Blessing of the Bay is a slice of nature right in urban Somerville. The boathouse is home to a canoe and kayak rental plus a rowing club, and the park is located in the heart of the Mystic River Reservation, a 10-mile, 329-acre linear park system.
Greeting visitors to the park is a new art installation and sign that turns attention toward the river and highlights the role the river plays in their quality of life. The bright blue wave facade includes photographs and quotes provided by the community. This project was led by two great artists, Carolyn Lewenberg and Jessica Finch, Selbert Perkins Designs, and was funded in part by a challenge grant of $7,500 from Mass Development’s Commonwealth Places Program and a Patronicity crowdfunding campaign, where 27 donors gave $8,080. Read more about how this art campaign came to life here.
In the same week the wave art installation was completed, prep work began on the first-ever native meadow on the Mystic River Reservation. Though right now the meadow is not much to look at, soon native plants grown from both seed and plugs will add biodiversity to the region and provide an urban oasis for pollinators and other wildlife! Offshoots Productive Landscapes, the design and installation firm, will be working on transforming the existing lawn to a native pollinator meadow over the next three years. The meadow is located near the boardwalk under Route 28 and is funded through a grant from the City of Somerville’s Community Preservation Act. Offshoots and the Mystic River Watershed Association will be hosting tours and educational sessions as this meadow takes root in the coming years. Follow the progress on the meadow’s own Instagram.
Want to learn more about the native meadows coming to Blessing of the Bay? Come to our Meet the Meadow-Makers open house on October 14th (8am to 10am) to chat with representatives from MyRWA and Offshoots Inc.:
Proposed Areas for Meadow Installations. Work on the Phase 1 Meadow Location has begun!
The beginning of the first native meadow on the Mystic River Reservation.
To tackle trash that is in our parks, rivers and ultimately the ocean, the Mystic River Watershed Association is partnering with Paddle Boston to offer free paddles for volunteers willing to pick up trash out of their Blessing of the Bay location! You might also see the staff from the Somerville location picking up trash around the park during their downtime (video). Grab your friends or family, come down to Paddle Boston, get out on and enjoy the river and clean up some trash. See here for sign up.
These improvements are part of a larger effort the Mystic River Watershed Association and the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) is leading to revitalize Blessing of the Bay Park with new amenities and programming to benefit visitors of the Mystic River Reservation. Since creating a vision plan in 2018, many of the shared-use paths have been restored, more than 20 trees have been planted and new benches have been installed. MyRWA will continue to advocate for improvements to improve access to the river, enhance walking/biking facilities and increase ecological value of this important waterfront park.
How you can get involved:
Meet the Meadow-Makers at our Blessing of the Bay open house on October 14th
Get a free paddle to pick up trash in the Mystic River
Share pictures with us and make observations on iNaturalist as you see Blessing of the Bay transform!
Subscribe to our eNewsletter to stay up to date on Blessing of the Bay progress and other MyRWA projects and events.
