Rock Meadow Receives Funding for Mowing and Maintenance

 Environment, January 2022, Newsletter, Open Space  Comments Off on Rock Meadow Receives Funding for Mowing and Maintenance
Jan 042022
 
Rock Meadow Receives Funding for Mowing and Maintenance

Acting on intelligence provided by the Belmont Citizens Forum, Town Administrator Patrice Garvin and Conservation Agent Mary Trudeau collaborated in October to apply for state funds for mowing and maintenance at Belmont’s Rock Meadow conservation area. Belmont was able to secure a budget earmark, facilitated by State Representative Dave Rogers, for the Rock Meadow conservation area in the FY2022 budget for an amount of $60,000.  The funds will be distributed to the town through the Department of Conservation and Recreation. In working with Garvin to identify funding needs for the town, Commonwealth officials noted that use of this important community [READ MORE]

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Letters to the Editor January 2022

 January 2022, Newsletter  Comments Off on Letters to the Editor January 2022
Jan 042022
 
Letters to the Editor January 2022

To the Editor: Just a quick note to say thank you for the latest edition of the Citizens Forum (Belmont Citizens Forum Newsletter, November/December 2021). Nicely done. I’m a raptor fan, and I have been following articles about poisonings for a few years. There were quite a few sick and dead squirrels found on the Town Field/Waverley area (including my backyard) a few years ago. Just today, I saw a new post on the Belmont Parents Facebook page about a sick squirrel — symptoms of a larger problem. Sadly our local red tailed hawk hasn’t been seen in months. Thank [READ MORE]

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Whither the Royal Road Woods?

 Bicycles and bike paths, Environment, January 2022, Newsletter, Open Space  Comments Off on Whither the Royal Road Woods?
Jan 042022
 
Whither the Royal Road Woods?

By Vincent Stanton, Jr. Last spring, as playgrounds were being closed statewide to contain the emerging COVID-19 outbreak, a new Belmont pocket park came into existence where COVID restrictions didn’t apply. Conceived and built by a group of Belmont boys, the park is hidden from casual passersby by its topography and tree canopy. However, it is well publicized among its users, who have documented their exploits on Instagram, Facebook, and other social media (search for “Belmont Dirt Jumps”).  Created for bicycle jumping, a sport that emerged from BMX bike racing, the park initially consisted of a network of crisscrossing paths [READ MORE]

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Belmont’s Invasive Species: Glossy Buckthorn

 Environment, January 2022, Lone Tree Hill, Newsletter, Plants  Comments Off on Belmont’s Invasive Species: Glossy Buckthorn
Jan 042022
 
Belmont's Invasive Species: Glossy Buckthorn

By Joe Hibbard Take a walk on the north side of the Great Meadow at the Lone Tree Hill Conservation Land and you might notice some recent changes in the landscape. A broad area along both sides of the Pitch Pine Trail, which was until recently an impenetrable thicket of invasive plants, is being cleared and on its way to a healthier forest/meadow edge landscape. The clearing is part of a long-term project to restore ecological balance to degraded landscapes that are part of the Lone Tree Hill Conservation Land. The project is led by the Land Management Committee for [READ MORE]

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Lone Tree Hill Restoration Shows Strong Start

 Environment, January 2022, Lone Tree Hill, Newsletter, Open Space, Plants  Comments Off on Lone Tree Hill Restoration Shows Strong Start
Jan 042022
 
Lone Tree Hill Restoration Shows Strong Start

By Jeffrey North Late last year, field technicians engaged by the  Land Management Committee for Lone Tree Hill (LMC) and the Judy Record Conservation Fund began a multiyear campaign to restore select parcels of the Lone Tree Hill conservation land. These stewardship projects focused first on invasive plant removal at Area A1. Restoration specialists from Parterre Ecological Services hand-cut the bittersweet vines that were smothering the trees there and deployed a forestry mower to obliterate (if only temporarily) the buckthorn and multiflora rose.  The forestry mowing radically altered the appearance of that portion of the property, prompting the few visitors to ask if [READ MORE]

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Community Path Passes Phase 1 Milestone

 Bicycles and bike paths, Bike Paths, January 2022, Newsletter  Comments Off on Community Path Passes Phase 1 Milestone
Jan 042022
 
Community Path Passes Phase 1 Milestone

By Jarrod Goentzel, Sara Smith, and Eric Batcho  The town recently passed a major milestone in the development of the Belmont Community Path when town consultant, Nitsch Engineering, submitted the 25% Design for Phase 1 to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT). Phase 1 is the section of the Belmont path from Brighton Street to the Clark Street Bridge just beyond Belmont Center, including a spur to the Belmont High School and Middle School via a tunnel under the MBTA Fitchburg line (bit.ly/BCP-P1-25). The Belmont Community Path is a critical two-mile link in the Mass Central Rail Trail, a 104-mile, [READ MORE]

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How Can Belmont Reduce Single-Use Plastics?

 Environment, January 2022, Newsletter, Recycling  Comments Off on How Can Belmont Reduce Single-Use Plastics?
Jan 042022
 
How Can Belmont Reduce Single-Use Plastics?

By Vincent Stanton, Jr. The United States generates more plastic waste than any other country in the world: 42 million tons, or 286 pounds per person, in 2016. That includes plastic waste the US exports to other countries with weak recycling systems (see links at end of article for details). Plastic waste lasts a long time and has many noxious effects (See “Think Twice About Single-Use Plastics,” Belmont Citizens Forum Newsletter, November 2021). The Massachusetts legislature, a recycling leader in 1981 when it passed the “bottle bill” over Governor Ed King’s veto, has become a laggard. (See “Time To Pass [READ MORE]

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Time To Pass An Updated Bottle Bill

 Environment, January 2022, Newsletter, Recycling  Comments Off on Time To Pass An Updated Bottle Bill
Jan 032022
 
Time To Pass An Updated Bottle Bill

By Janet Domenitz and Julia Blatt We need to stop kicking the can down the road.  Since its passage nearly 40 years ago, the bottle bill has created a successful recycling program in Massachusetts.  But time is catching up to the law, and it needs updating to deliver the best results. A lot has changed in Massachusetts since the original bottle bill was established in 1983. First, our waste problem has worsened. According to the new Trash in America report released by MASSPIRG and other regional public interest groups, the average American throws out nearly 1,800 pounds of trash each [READ MORE]

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Belmont Awarded Climate Change Grant

 Environment, January 2022, Newsletter, Stormwater  Comments Off on Belmont Awarded Climate Change Grant
Jan 032022
 
Belmont Awarded Climate Change Grant

By Jeffrey North Belmont has received a $195,000 Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) grant from the Massachusetts Climate MVP Program to identify Belmont’s current and future stormwater flooding risks from climate change. The project, known as the Stormwater Flood Reduction and Climate Resilience Capital Improvement Plan, will include the development of a 2-D stormwater model to assist in locating flood risk areas and evaluating how to make those areas more resilient.  The primary goals of this project are to understand the town’s vulnerability to flooding and climate change on a street-by-street basis using an enhanced town-wide 2-D drainage hydraulic model, and [READ MORE]

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Watershed Modeling Enhances Flood Resilience

 Climate Change, Environment, January 2022, Newsletter, Stormwater, Water Quality  Comments Off on Watershed Modeling Enhances Flood Resilience
Jan 032022
 
Watershed Modeling Enhances Flood Resilience

By Julia Hopkins and Julie Wood Climate change isn’t coming—it’s here. Sea-level rise, drought, blistering heat; the tangible effects of global warming are already happening in Massachusetts, and our highly urbanized watershed and those who call it home are increasingly vulnerable to its impacts. It also means extreme weather and severe inland flooding are some of the greatest threats to our watershed and our lives. In the northeastern United States, precipitation during heavy rain events increased by more than 70% according to the Fourth National Climate Assessment released in 2018. This trend is expected to continue as our climate warms. Today’s [READ MORE]

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Fifty Million Gallons of Sewage Released

 Climate Change, Environment, January 2022, Newsletter, Sewers, Stormwater, Water Quality  Comments Off on Fifty Million Gallons of Sewage Released
Jan 032022
 
Fifty Million Gallons of Sewage Released

Discharges to Alewife Brook Have Persisted for Two Decades By Kristin Anderson and David White Fifty million gallons of sewage-contaminated stormwater have been discharged into the Alewife Brook from the cities of Cambridge and Somerville in 2021, according to websites for those two cities and the Metropolitan Water Resources Authority (MWRA) for the Alewife/Upper Mystic Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO). There has been as much sewage-contaminated water discharged into the Alewife Brook in 2021 as there was in 1997 before the implementation of a $200 million plan to modernize the area’s antique combined sewer systems.  Pollution persists in the Alewife sub-watershed [READ MORE]

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