by Elissa Ely Shortly after the pandemic began, when the only response within anyone’s control was isolation, Julia Blatt and her husband bought kayaks. They had canoed as a family for more than 30 years—Montana, Idaho, Maine, Colorado, Florida, Vermont, New Hampshire—and for years her professional work had taken her kayaking through the Concord, Sudbury, and Assabet rivers. Sometimes she brought politicians with her (a form of visual education) and sometimes it was a form of solo field research. But this was different. The sky doesn’t know a pandemic is raging; birds and turtles have no idea and less interest. [READ MORE]
Events March/April 2021
By Meg Muckenhoupt So much is still uncertain. Organizations that normally form the bulk of the Belmont Citizens Forum’s event listings are quiet online, leaving their web pages blank and their calendars empty. No one trusts the future to allow us to meet, to learn, to pause to observe the natural world—or grieve the activists who are gone. The Belmont Historical Society, Friends of Fresh Pond Reservation, the Charles River Watershed Association, the Native Plant Trust; if they have anything listed, it’s for a Zoom video. We are all tired of Zoom videos. Here is what I know for certain [READ MORE]
Rogers Works to Keep Rivers Flowing
By Dave Rogers On November 4, 2014, at an event at Habitat here in Belmont, I was honored to receive a Rivers Friend Award from the Massachusetts Rivers Alliance. I received the award for my work supporting increased Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) funding and my successful efforts to protect the rollout of major changes to water supply rules in Massachusetts. Both of these issues are important for those of us concerned about careful environmental stewardship. Between 2008 and 2012, battered by the decline in state revenue caused by the global recession, funding for DEP was cut dramatically. Although [READ MORE]