Bike to the Sea will once again lead a family-friendly non-competitive bike tour as part of the Mystic River Herring Run and Paddle on Sunday, May 18th. Bring your own bike! The tour will depart from the Blessing of the Bay Boathouse, Shore Drive, Somerville at 11:15AM.
View Mystic River Herring Run & Paddle - May 18, 2014 in a larger map
The return of the herring is a sure sign of spring for Mystic River communities, and the Mystic River Watershed Association is happy to offer the public an opportunity to view this annual migration. Join us for an open house at the DCR Upper Mystic Lake Dam on Mystic Valley Parkway in Medford to learn more about the Blueback and Alewife Herring. If you would like to coordinate a group visit, please contact the Association at 781-316-3438. Read more about the Herring Monitoring Program at www.mysticriver.org/herring-monitoring/.
Fish Ladder Open House Dates:
Monday, May 12th, 3PM to 7PM
Sunday, May 18th, 11AM to 2PM
Saturday, May 24th, 11AM to 2PM
The Mystic River Watershed Association (MyRWA) was founded in 1972 and has largely functioned as a volunteer-run organization, mobilizing activists on a project-by-project basis. Its mission is to protect and restore the Mystic River, its tributaries and watershed lands for the benefit of present and future generations and to celebrate the value, importance and great beauty of these natural resources.
For more information see www.MysticRiver.org.
Hundreds of volunteers dawning rain coats, work gloves and trash bags gathered in the steady, cold rain in Somerville, Malden, Cambridge and Medford to do their part to clean-up their local green space on Saturday, April 26th. These events were part of Mystic Community Earth Day – a coordinated effort by many community groups and organizations in the Mystic River Watershed to plan events for Earth Day (April 22nd). In 2014 – the fifth consecutive year of this initiative – twenty-one organizations coordinated nine Earth Day events in the Mystic communities of Winchester, Medford, Somerville, Cambridge, Malden, Chelsea, Revere and Winthrop. Thanks to the many hundreds of volunteers who participated – together, we collectively removed well over 400 bags of trash, tires and debris! Below is a brief summary of the events.
Cambridge: Results of Alewife Earth Day Cleanup and DCR Park Serve Day could not have been better. Despite the lousy weather for a cleanup program, Friends of Alewife Reservation (FAR) was delighted to receive local residents and students from BU, MIT and UMass Boston. Sara Barbuto from the Mystic River Watershed Association assisted Ellen Mass of Friends of Alewife Reservation at the Alewife T stop where cleanup teams filled up on supplies and carbs to venture deep into the Reservation's 130-acre urban wild and newly constructed storm water wetlands. The goal was to clear the remaining abandoned encampment along the south Little River trail which had been left since the Fall.
Chelsea: On May 3rd seventy-five community members gathered at City Hall to take action in making Chelsea a cleaner environment. We collected over 100 bags of trash and recyclables along with 17 tires we took out of the marina. We also planted a tree on Bellingham Street to kick-off our tree project of planting 700 trees throughout Chelsea.
Medford: Friends of the Mystic River hosted its 19th annual Mystic River Spring Clean-Up, attracting 30 volunteers to cleanup Mystic Riverbend Park , Condon Band Shell park and in the Auburn Street/Boston Avenue/Route 16 area near Whole Foods Market. Among the more unusual items collected were a toaster and an ironing board.
Malden: Tri-City Community Action Program, Inc. (Tri-CAP) partnered with Groundwork Somerville and their sponsor, Comcast Cares that provided breakfast foods, gloves, and bags; Bike to the Sea; Friends of the Malden River; and Cambridge Health Alliance/Malden. This was Tri-CAP’s fifth annual Earth Day clean-up, which focuses on the Malden River. This year, due to the earlier good work of Malden’s Department of Public Works, there was less trash to pick up than previously. Cambridge Health Alliance’s groundskeepers have also been maintaining the river bank at their Canal Street site. As a result of these efforts, the 20 committed volunteers did the clean-up along the Bike to the Sea path from Medford Street, near the CHA site, to the Madeline English School in Everett. Approximately 10 large trash bags and 5 recyclable bags were filled.
Somerville: Mystic River Watershed Association, the City of Somerville, Groundwork Somerville, Gentle Giant Rowing Club and KEEN Footwear hosted a river clean-up at the Blessing of the Bay Boathouse in Somerville. The event was also part of Comcast Cares Day and BU's Global Day of Service. The more than 100 volunteers collected over 200 bags of trash along I-93 and the river, as well as planted and mulched the garden beds at the boathouse.
The Universities Council on Water Resources will award MyRWA with the Education and Public Service Award for 2014 at the June 19th awards banquet. MyRWA was nominated by Dr. John Durant, a Professor at the Tufts University Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering for our work to protect and restore the Mystic River. Patrick Herron will accept the award on MyRWA’s behalf. Thank you Universities Council on Water Resources and Dr. John Durant for this honor!
MyRWA's Outreach Coordinator is working with students enrolled in a Social Marketing course as part of Tufts University's Communications and Media Studies Program. The students have convinced MyRWA to join Instagram, a popular photo sharing media. Please follow us by searching for user "MyRWA." If you're not connected with MyRWA on Facebook and Twitter yet, be sure to do so!
To celebrate Earth Day (April 22nd) a group of Bank of America volunteers helped revitalize a rain garden in Arlington. Dawning red T-shirts and work gloves, the group dug an 8” trench to be filled with gravel to curb erosion in the garden, as well as raked, weeded and pruned the site. The rain garden was planted in May 2013 through a grant from National Fish and Wildlife Foundation's 5 Star Restoration Program, and serves to collect, absorb and clean stormwater runoff from the parking lot at the Hardy Elementary School. The volunteers participated through Bank of America’s Global Impact initiative, which logged over 1.5 million employee hours of volunteerism in 2012. The Mystic River Watershed Association would like to thank the volunteers, Bank of America and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation for their support! Be sure to check out the rain garden at the Hardy School at 52 Lake Street, Arlington.
View photos of the event on FlickR!
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Mystic River Watershed Association.
Come hear from Patrick Herron, PhD, Water Quality Monitoring Director at the Mystic River Watershed Association on Tuesday, May 6th to learn about plans for water chestnut removal work on the Mystic this summer. You've likely seen this invasive plant on the river for the past several years - forming a mat at the water’s surface that impedes boating and damages the health of the river. We'll find out what has been accomplished in the past and what plans are for 2014 water chestnut removal efforts. This event is part of the Association's monthly Committee Meeting and is free and open to the public.
For more information about the Mystic River Watershed Association's water chestnut removal project see: /water-chestnut-removal-project/.
Please join us!
Tuesday, May 6th, 7-8PM
Tufts University, Lincoln Filene Center, Rabb Room
Questions? Call 781-316-3438.
Arlington Engineering Division continues to host its Stormwater Awareness Series. To kick off the 2014 season, the session will detail the “Soak Up The Rain” program. Anne Leiby and Cindy Brown work at the US EPA Region 1 office in Boston. Along with other EPA colleagues they are responsible for the development and implementation of the EPA Soak Up the Rain stormwater campaign in New England. The presentation will be held on April 8th 7:00 – 8:00 p.m. at Arlington Town Hall, Selectmen's Hearing Room, 2nd floor. For additional information on the Arlington Stormwater Awareness series, including links to ACMi online archives of past sessions please visit arlingtonma.gov/engineering.
Volunteers from IBM help remove water chestnuts.The Mystic River Watershed Association has a unique opportunity for your business, church or community group. We are seeking groups of up to 100 to help us remove water chestnut, an invasive plant, from the Mystic River while offering a fun team-building day!
The Need
Water chestnut is an invasive plant that has recently exploded in the Mystic River. It forms huge stands that impede boats and have negative effects on fish, native plants, and water quality. Managing water chestnut is a major goal of river front towns and cities, boat clubs, river advocates, and citizen groups.
The Opportunity
One of the most effective ways to remove water chestnut is also fun! A four-hour event with 25-100 people in canoes can have a tremendous effect, clearing acres of this invasive plant. By sponsoring a corporate event, your company can participate in a major green initiative while providing a great team-building opportunity and rewarding day on the river for your employees. We have worked with many organizations and companies over the past four years, including IBM, FedEx and Citizens Bank, and supply all the materials and expertise necessary.
The Impact
In four years, hundreds of volunteers have removed thousands of baskets of water chestnut, clearing many acres of the river. We are aiming to expand our efforts every year. Studies have shown that the key to ultimate success in management is sustained effort at the same site over several years. Join us this year to help us meet our goals!
For More Information
Elizabeth Glivinski, Water Chestnut Project Coordinator, waterchestnut@mysticriver.org, 781-316-3438.
TOGETHER FOR THE MYSTIC RIVER Photo: Maillet, Sommes, and Morgan wetland in Reading, Credit: Isaiah Johnson