What is a CISMA, and Why Do We Need One?

 Environment, July-August 2022, Newsletter, Open Space, Plants  Comments Off on What is a CISMA, and Why Do We Need One?
Jun 202022
 
What is a CISMA, and Why Do We Need One?

By Jeffrey North New York state has eight very large ones. Oregon has 10. Michigan has more than 20 (required by law for every county). The number of Comprehensive Invasive Species Management Associations (CISMAs) across the country is approaching 400. Massachusetts has one. But that number is likely to increase. With the likely passage of the invasive species bill (H4595), financial and administrative resources will be available for CISMAs and a host of other programs, plans, and projects for controlling invasive plants. The bill would establish an invasive species trust fund. A statewide invasive species coordinator would be appointed, along [READ MORE]

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Belmont’s Invasive Species: Black Swallowwort

 Environment, July-August 2022, Newsletter, Plants  Comments Off on Belmont’s Invasive Species: Black Swallowwort
Jun 202022
 
Belmont’s Invasive Species: Black Swallowwort

By Jeffrey North Black swallowwort is a killer. Monarch butterflies mistake the plant for native common milkweed, and lay their eggs in the non-native invader, where the larvae die. Besides threatening the population of migrating monarch butterflies, it is toxic to mammals, and by crowding out food for wildlife, worsens wildlife habitat.  Vincetoxicum nigrum, also known as Louise’s swallowwort or black dog-strangling vine, is a species of plant native to Europe and found primarily in Italy, France, Portugal, and Spain. Black swallowwort was probably introduced to North America as an ornamental plant in the 1800s. The first sighting of Vincetoxicum [READ MORE]

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Miyawaki Forest Boosts Biodiversity, Resilience

 Climate Change, Environment, May/June 2022, Newsletter, Plants  Comments Off on Miyawaki Forest Boosts Biodiversity, Resilience
May 082022
 
Miyawaki Forest Boosts Biodiversity, Resilience

By Maya Dutta  The first Miyawaki forest in the northeast United States was planted in Cambridge’s Danehy Park last September. Miyawaki forests are dense, biodiverse pocket forests that aim to recreate the symbiotic relationships between diverse life forms that make a natural forest so resilient. By densely planting a diverse array of native species, Miyawaki forests encourage nutrient exchange between the plants and with fungal and microbial life in the soil, resulting in fast-growing forests with high survival rates.  Benefits of Miyawaki forests The Miyawaki method offers a vision of not just planting trees to raise their sheer number, but [READ MORE]

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Lone Tree Hill Volunteers Clean, Weed, Plant

 Environment, Lone Tree Hill, May/June 2022, Newsletter, Open Space, Plants  Comments Off on Lone Tree Hill Volunteers Clean, Weed, Plant
May 052022
 
Lone Tree Hill Volunteers Clean, Weed, Plant

By Radha Iyengar On Saturday, April 30, a sunny but cool day, BCF, in conjunction with the Judy Record Conservation Fund, held its eighth annual Lone Tree Hill Volunteer Day.  At the Pine Allee, volunteers planted 46 white pine saplings of which 40 saplings were store bought and 6 were transplants from Lone Tree Hill. The new plants replaced some of the Allee’s missing trees as well as some of the dead saplings from the 2017-2019 volunteer day plantings. At the other end of the property, the volunteers collected 11 bags of trash, one box of recyclables and six bags [READ MORE]

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Letter to the Editor: January 2022

 Environment, March/April 2022, Newsletter, Plants  Comments Off on Letter to the Editor: January 2022
Mar 042022
 
Letter to the Editor: January 2022

To the editor, With increased mowing in Rock Meadow, does that mean that all that lovely milkweed which grew so wild, lovely, and plentiful will be lost to the mowers? We need that milkweed for the butterflies! That would be so sad. Where is the mowing to take place? Carlee Blamphin Dear Carlee, Mowing at Rock Meadow has not increased, except for the trails. Meadow mowing occurred just once, on October 21. This was intentionally late in the growing season so as to leave the milkweed intact for the monarch butterfly migration, which is mid-August through late September and early [READ MORE]

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State Considers New Strategy for Invasives

 Environment, March/April 2022, Newsletter, Plants  Comments Off on State Considers New Strategy for Invasives
Mar 042022
 
State Considers New Strategy for Invasives

By Bruce Aguilar Invasive species are organisms that severely damage local ecosystems. One example is the gypsy moth caterpillar, introduced in 1869 by one Professor E. L. Trouvelot in an attempt to breed a hardy silkworm. Some insects escaped and were soon established in a vacant lot next to his home in Medford, Mass. These caterpillars have defoliated millions of acres of northeast woodlands.  Another is the Asian bittersweet vine, introduced as an ornamental plant in 1879. It smothers the understory of forests and climbs mature trees to outcompete them for light, eventually strangling them or becoming heavy enough to [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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Urban Trees Improve Everyones’ Lives

 Environment, Newsletter, November-December 2021, Plants  Comments Off on Urban Trees Improve Everyones’ Lives
Nov 022021
 
Urban Trees Improve Everyones’ Lives

By David Meshoulam When I first tell people that I work in the field of “urban forestry” they look at me funny. “Urban areas have forests?” they ask. “I thought forests were out in the country.” But urban forestry is a real thing. Over the past several years, its importance has become increasingly recognized as a critical component of a city’s infrastructure, and rightfully so! Trees create more livable and healthy communities by cleaning and cooling our air, mitigating against flooding, and improving the mental and physical health of residents.  In an era of climate change, with hotter summers leading [READ MORE]

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Belmont Was Once a Town of Farms

 Historic Preservation, Newsletter, Open Space, Plants, September 2021  Comments Off on Belmont Was Once a Town of Farms
Aug 232021
 
Belmont Was Once a Town of Farms

By Jane Sherwin Until the mid-20th century, agriculture was a significant part of Belmont life and economy. Three hundred years ago, it would have been unusual to find a family in this area with no engagement at all in growing things. Even a shoemaker would most likely have a few chickens, or a milk cow, or a small garden for vegetables.  The settlements on the land that is now Belmont go back nearly four hundred years. In 1630, Sir Richard Saltonstall led a group of families inland from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, to the area we now call Watertown, to [READ MORE]

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Belmont’s Invasive Plants: Norway Maple

 Newsletter, Plants, September 2021  Comments Off on Belmont’s Invasive Plants: Norway Maple
Aug 232021
 
Belmont’s Invasive Plants: Norway Maple

By Jeffrey North Invasive plant species are disrupting ecosystems from Belmont to Beijing, permanently altering the ecology of our forests, fields, and gardens and causing biodiversity loss and species extinction. This article is the fourth in a series on invasive plant species found in Belmont, the implications of their presence, spread, ecological damage potential, and hopes for their removal and remediation. Acer platanoides, commonly known as the Norway maple, is a species of maple native to eastern and central Europe and western Asia. It was brought to North America in the mid-1700s as a shade tree.  The Norway maple is [READ MORE]

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Events July-August 2021

 BCF Events, July-August 2021, Newsletter, Plants  Comments Off on Events July-August 2021
Jun 252021
 
Events July-August 2021

Though days are now long and warm, event listings for local organizations harken back to the dreary depths of winter. Few groups are planning meetings this summer, the season of bittersweet freedom, of sunny days so many people did not live to see. Voltaire wrote in Candide, “We must tend our garden,” but he didn’t specify how, or who should benefit from said garden. If you’d like to help support your local web of life, consider enrolling in a class with the Native Plant Trust: “Native Species, Cultivars, and Selections: What’s the Difference?” held on Friday, July 16, from 1-3 [READ MORE]

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Belmont’s Invasive Plants: Japanese Knotweed

 Environment, July-August 2021, Newsletter, Open Space, Plants  Comments Off on Belmont’s Invasive Plants: Japanese Knotweed
Jun 252021
 
Belmont’s Invasive Plants: Japanese Knotweed

By Jeffrey North Invasive plant species are disrupting ecosystems from Belmont to Beijing, permanently altering the ecology of our forests, fields, and gardens and causing biodiversity loss and species extinction. This article is the third in a series on invasive plant species found in Belmont, the implications of their presence, spread, and ecological damage potential, and hopes for their removal and remediation. Japanese knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum), also known as Asian knotweed, is native to Japan, China, and Korea. It is frequently found on the sides of volcanoes, where it breaks down igneous rock into new soil. You might think it [READ MORE]

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Fernald Site Contains Rare Specimen Trees

 Environment, July-August 2021, Newsletter, Open Space, Plants  Comments Off on Fernald Site Contains Rare Specimen Trees
Jun 252021
 
Fernald Site Contains Rare Specimen Trees

By Eric Olson It is vanishingly rare that a town within ten miles of Boston can, with a single purchase, add nearly 200 acres to its portfolio of open space. That is exactly what Waltham did in the fall of 2014 when its mayor and city council agreed to buy the former Fernald Development Center from the state. I bet most Belmont residents are at least passingly familiar with this property, tucked up in Waltham’s northeast corner between Trapelo and Waverley Oaks roads, less than a quarter-mile from the Belmont line. As a resident of Newton, I had never heard [READ MORE]

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Restoration Projects Approved for Lone Tree Hill

 Environment, May-June 2021, Newsletter, Open Space, Plants  Comments Off on Restoration Projects Approved for Lone Tree Hill
May 042021
 
Restoration Projects Approved for Lone Tree Hill

By Jeffrey North The Land Management Committee for Lone Tree Hill approved plans and funding for three 2021 forest restoration and meadow management projects for Lone Tree Hill at a March 3 meeting. The Judy Record Conservation Fund is providing matching funds for the projects, for a total of $22,000 for these initiatives. Area A1 Restoration Continues In early spring, licensed field technicians trained in identifying invasive plant species will cut, mow, and apply plant-specific herbicide in the Area A1 woodland. They will combat Asian bittersweet, buckthorn, garlic mustard, black swallow-wort (Cynanchum louiseae), and lesser celandine, and at least one [READ MORE]

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Clay Pit Pond Deforestation Damages Wetland

 Environment, May-June 2021, Newsletter, Plants  Comments Off on Clay Pit Pond Deforestation Damages Wetland
May 042021
 
Clay Pit Pond Deforestation Damages Wetland

By Judy Singler In September 2020, several Belmont residents removed more than 80 trees and shrubs from the south side of Clay Pit Pond. In an unauthorized action taken ostensibly to “enhance” the view of the pond, individuals visited the site on at least three occasions that month, cutting down 50-foot-tall trees, shrubs, vines, and other vegetation. The remaining trees at the edge of the pond were pruned of side branches to a height of 20 feet and more. Town officials eventually ordered a halt to the illegal tree cutting after calls from several concerned citizens. Environmental Laws Exist to [READ MORE]

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Mar 012021
 
Belmont's Invasive Plants: Garlic Mustard

By Jeffrey North Invasive plant species are disrupting ecosystems globally and here in Belmont. Biological invasions are a leading cause of biodiversity loss and even species extinction, and invasive plants are permanently altering the ecology of our forests, fields, and gardens. This article is the first in a series on invasive plant species found in Belmont and the implications of their presence, spread, and ecological damage potential, as well as hopes for their removal and remediation. Garlic mustard (Alliara petiolata) is changing the character of the woodlands in the Northeast. It can outcompete native herbaceous species, depriving the natives of [READ MORE]

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Committee Battles Invasives at Lone Tree Hill

 January 2021, McLean, Newsletter, Open Space, Plants  Comments Off on Committee Battles Invasives at Lone Tree Hill
Dec 302020
 
Committee Battles Invasives at Lone Tree Hill

By Jeffrey North On November 3, field technicians engaged by the Land Management Committee for Lone Tree Hill (LMC) and the Judy Record Conservation Fund began a multi-year campaign to restore select parcels of the Lone Tree Hill conservation land. This initial project focused on invasive plant removal at Area A1, where horticulturalists from Parterre Ecological Services began restoration of the shrub layer by hand-cutting the bittersweet vines that were smothering the largest trees and employing a forestry mower to cut down the buckthorn and multiflora rose. Lone Tree Hill—like public, private, and protected lands elsewhere—is gradually being overrun by [READ MORE]

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Commission Plans Lone Tree Hill Restoration

 Environment, July-August 2020, McLean, Newsletter, Open Space, Plants  Comments Off on Commission Plans Lone Tree Hill Restoration
Jun 302020
 
Commission Plans Lone Tree Hill Restoration

By Jeffrey North Belmont’s 119-acre Lone Tree Hill conservation area, like many recreational lands in the region, is plagued by the insidious creep of invasive plant species. The ecological value of this forest and meadow conservation land is depreciating due to a host of invasive plants that act like predators, harming native plants from oak trees to ferns, forbs, and shrubs. Asiatic bittersweet, for example, has enveloped oak, hickory, and pine trees, covering, killing, and felling a number of these tall trees that define the edge of the meadow and the land’s viewshed. Glossy buckthorn and honeysuckle are killing gray [READ MORE]

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Leaf Blowers Damage Environment and Health

 Air Quality, Environment, July-August 2020, Newsletter, Plants  Comments Off on Leaf Blowers Damage Environment and Health
Jun 302020
 
Leaf Blowers Damage Environment and Health

By Ian L. Todreas Each spring and fall, dozens of landscaping companies dispatch teams to yards throughout Belmont to cut, trim, mow, rake, and blow hedges, bushes, lawns, and beds into coffee-table-magazine standard perfection. But at what cost? These services are not inexpensive. Moreover, their hidden costs are significant. Gasoline-powered lawn equipment, such as leaf blowers, lawnmowers, weed whackers, and hedge trimmers, are notorious for emitting proportionally vast amounts of pollution—and making a heck of a lot of noise. Leaf blowers, in particular, deserve a close look. Unlike many other gasoline-powered lawn tools, for the amount of time they are [READ MORE]

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