Check out our highlights from this fall! Thank YOU for being a part of the Mystic and helping us work towards a vibrant, healthy, and resilient watershed for all.
1) Over 400 local students participated in this year’s Canoemobile program. Canoemobile features hands-on activities on the water and on land including watershed art, learning about trash at the Garbage Graveyard, fishing for facts with NOAA, and more. Thank you to the EPA Urban Waters Federal Partnership and to our many school, community, and city partners for making these field trips possible!
2) MyRWA River Reps were out at FIVE community events in September and October — Arlington Town Day, the Mystic River Celebration, Fiesta del Rio, the Malden Community Health Fest, and the Belle Isle Harvest Festival.
Mystic River Celebration at the Medford Condon Shell. Credit: Daria Santollani
Arlington Town Day. Credit: Isaiah Johnson
Belle Isle Marsh Harvest Festival. Credit: Friends of Belle Isle Marsh
3) Our watershed science team hosted a water quality training for new volunteers to learn the ropes of our baseline water quality monitoring program. Baseline monitors collect data that informs the EPA grade for the Mystic River.
Volunteers learn how to take samples from a body of water at our October Baseline Monitor Training. Credit: Jennifer Delgado
4) MyRWA broke ground on the largest construction project we have ever managed— the plaza at Little Mystic Channel — at a ceremony with our partners in September. The Little Mystic Plaza will provide much-needed shade and outdoor community space for the many families that live near the Little Mystic Channel.
We are so grateful to City of Boston and Mayor Michelle Wu 吳弭, Boston City Councilor Gabriela Coletta, Boston Public Schools, the CharlesNewtown apartment complex residents and board, Landing Studio, Green International Affiliates, Inc., Bald Hill Builders, LLC, our resident-led Little Mystic Channel Steering Committee, and to the Barr Foundation and the Lawrence and Lillian Solomon Foundation for making this possible!
Groundbreaking ceremony at Little Mystic Plaza. Credit: Isaiah Johnson
MyRWA Staff Patrick Herron, Marissa Zampino, and Karl Alexander celebrate the start of construction at this site. Credit: Isaiah Johnson
5) #I’dDepaveThat! Our partnership with Green & Open Somerville engaged hundreds of community members with depaving this fall — through a float in the Honk parade, a virtual workshop during CREW’s Climate Prep Week, and three volunteer events to remove asphalt for East Somerville residents! Thank you to the Liberty Mutual Foundation for supporting these efforts.
From Green & Open Somerville — “Depaving cools the local climate and reduces the urban heat island effect, increases stormwater uptake, reduces run-off and the concentration of pollutants in it, restores the soil carbon sponge, removes toxic asphalt, supports climate change mitigation, contributes to wildlife habitat, and grows the urban connection to nature.”
6) We joined the City of Woburn and City Councilor Chuck Viola for a community trash cleanup of the Shaker Glen Environmental Park. These volunteers and city staff worked through wet weather and collected an awesome amount of trash including two very old tvs and several tires. Amazing Woburn volunteers Roberto de S, Rodney F, Julie G, Ron C, and June M continued the trash cleanup through October, retrieving 781.6 more lbs of trash and recycling 3097 aluminum cans, using the money redeemed to buy food for the Woburn Food Pantry.
7) MyRWA staff attended the grand opening of the Maillet, Sommes, & Morgan constructed stormwater wetland. This project is the result of a watershed-wide effort to regionally coordinate around stormwater flooding. We are grateful to everyone who made this possible, including the Town of Reading, the Resilient Mystic Collaborative’s Upper Mystic Working group, Congressman Moulton’s office, and the MVP grant program.
8) Our partners La Comunidad & Everett Community Growers hosted events at Gateway Park in Everett. It was awesome to see this space being activated as we continue wetland and open space improvements. Read more about the work being done at Gateway Park on the City of Everett’s webpage.
9) We hosted our annual meeting — DeMystify the Mystic — at Assembly Row to celebrate the accomplishments of the past year, give cheers to volunteers and partners, and elect new members to our board.
10) 94 new trees joined the watershed this fall. Volunteer teams delivered 80 trees to Medford residents as part of TreesMedford’s third resident tree giveaway. And MyRWA kicked off our Resident Tree Ambassador program, welcoming 6 ambassadors from Chelsea, Everett, and Somerville who already helped us plant 14 trees in the City of Chelsea.
