Friends of the Malden River Group Wants You!

Join us on Thursday, February 28th, 6pm-8:45pm, for a special meeting: The Malden River: What you need to know? What is the River’s Future?

Come hear from experts from the Mystic River Watershed Association and Alternatives for Community and Environment about the current conditions of The Malden River. We'll hear from other groups about their successes in reclaiming environmentally compromised waters.

Thursday, February 28th, 6pm-8:45pm

Parlin Library, 410 Broadway, Everett

For more information contact: Geobany Rodriguez at geobany@gmail.com or Bob Marra at rmarra@challiance.org; 617-591-6947.

Volunteer to count fish!

On April 1st, MyRWA will launch the second year of the Herring Monitoring Program. Volunteers are needed to monitor the river herring as they pass through the Upper Mystic Lake dam in Medford. All training is provided and there is a minimum 10-minute per week commitment. Register today for the Saturday, March 16th, 10am - noon Herring Monitoring training. (And if you can't make it on 3/16 but would like to volunteer, please register and we will train you separately.)

Climate Change in the Mystic River Watershed Presentation Outlines Local Impacts and Actions

Climate Change in the Mystic River Watershed: Vulnerabilities & Adaptation Strategies 

MA Climate change impacts include warmer summersOver 50 people joined the Mystic River Watershed Association for a special presentation by Paul Kirshen, PhD, Research Professor at the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space at the University of New Hampshire on February 11th. Dr. Kirshen outlined the impacts of Climate Change that one can expect to see in the Mystic River Watershed such as increased intense storms, flooding, CSOs and sea level rise. Dr. Kirshen stressed the importance of trying to control our greenhouse gas emissions today.

Dr. Kirshen recommeded the following resources for additional climate change information:

• The Boston Harbor Association's Preparing for the Rising Tide Report (Feb. 2013)

• Northeast Climate Impacts Assessment (July 2007)

• Massachusetts Climate Change Adaptation Report by MA Energy and Environmental Affairs

About Paul Kirshen, PhD:

Dr. Kirshen is a Research Professor with 30 years experience in the management of complex, interdisciplinary research related to water resources and climate change and has much local experience in climate change adaptation. He has carried projects and research related to managing climate impacts in collaboration with stakeholders for over a decade. Presently he is carrying out vulnerability and adaptation research and projects in Exeter and Portsmouth NH, Boston and Cambridge MA, the eastern shore of Maryland and several other sites in New England. He is a Lead Author of Chapter 26, North America, of the Working Group II contribution to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report (AR5), 2014 and the 2013 US National Climate Assessment (coastal chapter). He received his ScB in Engineering from Brown University and his MS and PhD from MIT.

The Mystic River Watershed Association would like to thank Paul Kirshen for his presentation as well as Tufts University for hosting.

Summer 2013 Internships Available

The Mystic River Watershed Association is happy to offer internship opportunities for summer 2013:

1) Water Quality Monitoring Internship (Cyanobacteria) - 2 positions available - will gather data on Cyanobacteria populations and key water quality parameters from approximately ten water bodies to safeguard the public health of residents who live in the watershed.

2) Aquatic Invasive Management Internship (Water Chestnut) - assist in organizing an effort to remove the invasive species Water Chestnut (Trapa natans) from the Mystic River. Responsibilities include organizing and assisting group and community events and managing teams of volunteers to remove plants from the river by canoe.

3) Herring Habitat Monitoring Internship - 2 positions available - assist in a scientific study on habitat and river herring populations from May 6 through August 30.

Help coordinate community water chestnut removal events!For all positions, the exact dates can be flexible depending on the candidate. These are unpaid positions.

The Mystic River Watershed Association is based in Arlington, MA and is accessible via several bus routes.

The Mystic River Watershed Association is an equal opportunity employer.

We hope you'll consider joining our TEAM!

Suffolk Downs Supports Mystic River Water Quality Programs

EkOngKar Singh Khalsa, Executive Director - Mystic River Watershed Association and Chip Tuttle, Chief Operating Officer - Suffolk Downs, celebrate Suffolk Downs’ support of local water quality monitoring and improvement efforts. (Pictured above on the banks of the Mystic River at Mary O’Malley Park in Chelsea.

Sterling Suffolk Racecourse LLC (Suffolk Downs) delivers the first of three $165,000 annual payments in support of Mystic River water quality monitoring programs. The Mystic River Watershed Association’s ongoing monthly Baseline and Hot-Spot Monitoring Programs will be funded under an agreement recently endorsed by both parties. Suffolk’s provision of funding toward this project was undertaken in connection with the settlement of an enforcement action, United States v. Sterling Suffolk Racecourse, LLC, on behalf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the Clean Water Act.

Watershed Wildlife

Hi folks!

Some wildlife news:

Today a seal was spotted in the Mystic River by Mary O'Malley Park in Chelsea by a water quality monitor.

There have been reports of several bald eagles at the Mystic Lakes for the past several weeks.

And finally, there are rumors of a bobcat(s) in Belmont...

Malden River Interest Group Meeting 1/31

Malden River – Creating a Vision for the Future

Do you live in Malden, Medford or Everett?
Do you care about the condition of the Malden River? 
Was the Malden River Always Like This?
Are you satisfied with the state of the Malden River?
Are there opportunities to restore public access or get parts of the river cleaned up further?

If any of the above questions intrigue you, please join us for a meeting with a purpose:

Development of a local advocacy group of diverse constituency that will seek environmental restoration, public access and sustainable development along the Malden River Corridor.

The Malden River is currently a 1.7 mile channelized river with a checkered history of environmental contamination. The river is challenged by poor water quality and legacy contaminants in the sediments.  Access to the water for boating is limited to a single private dock.  But the history of the river says that there is more than what meets the eye.  Historically the river was tidal with salt marsh and small streams lining the edges.  The river extended in a sinuous fashion further north in a stream all the way to Ell Pond in Melrose.

Please join us on the 3rd floor of the offices of the Tri-City Community Action Program (Tri-CAP), 110 Pleasant St.,  Malden at 6 PM on Thursday January 31, 2013 to help us guide a future for the Malden River. Participants will include other local residents, Tri-CAP, Alternatives for Community and Environment (ACE), the Mystic River Watershed Association (MyRWA) and Tufts University.

If you have any questions, please email Patrick Herron (patrick@mysticriver.org).

Environmental Restoration presentation 2/5

Join MyRWA at our monthly Committee Meeting at 7:00PM, Tues. Feb. 5th to hear from guest speaker Franz Ingelfinger, Restoration Ecologist, Division of Ecological Restoration, MA Dept. of Fish & Game. Mr. Ingelfinger will discuss the Belle Isle Marsh restoration project as well as restoration tools. Free and open to the public! Location: Tufts University, Lincoln Filene Center, Rabb Room, Medford

Mystic River Water Quality Forum held 1/24

MyRWA's Katrina Sukola discusses herring in the Mystic.Over 60 people battled the cold to attend the January 24th Mystic River Water Quality Forum held at EPA’s Boston office. The presenters, largely scientists and municipal staff, presented on a variety of topics including stormwater permits, municipal projects to improve water quality, starting a volunteer stormwater monitoring team, cyanobacteria, historic chloride levels, and herring migration and habitat.

MyRWA scientist Patrick Herron presented State of the Mystic - Water Quality and Environmental Conditions. Patrick demonstrated how the EPA Mystic River grade is calculated each year and provided details on bacterial and phosphorus levels. He also correlated water chestnut and water lily growth in the Mystic to the added nutrient load.

Katrina Sukola, MyRWA scientist, dove into local fisheries and provided an overview of the 2012 Herring Monitoring Program. In the first year of this program, over 80 volunteers counted upwards of 21,000 fish for an estimated 198,932 2012 Mystic River herring run. Katrina also presented data collected through MyRWA’s Herring Habitat Assessment.

The event underlined the high level of data being collected by various parties in the Mystic River Watershed as well as the collaborations and efforts underway to make improvements.

Mystic River Urban Waters Voices

Urban Waters Voices is a series of video interviews produced by the EPA featuring locally led efforts to restore urban waters in communities across the United States. These videos feature local efforts and strategies to improve urban water quality while advancing local community priorities.

Check out the Mystic River Urban Waters Voices video today, featuring EkOngKar "EK" Singh Khalsa, Executive Director of the Mystic River Watershed Association. EK describes some of the challenges faced by Mystic River communities (e.g. access to the river and water quality issues) and how this organization's outreach and educational efforts are being used to address these challenges.