Belmont’s Victory Gardens Remain Vibrant

 Environment, History, Lone Tree Hill, Newsletter, Open Space, September/October 2024  Comments Off on Belmont’s Victory Gardens Remain Vibrant
Aug 232024
 
Belmont’s Victory Gardens Remain Vibrant

By Jeffrey North Victory gardening in Belmont has never been more popular (local food production activity during World War II notwithstanding). One of the largest and oldest continuously active community gardens in the Boston area, Belmont’s Rock Meadow Victory Gardens consists of 132 garden plots of varying sizes, typically ranging from 12 by 12 feet to 50 by 50 feet. The gardens cover about three acres of land at the Rock Meadow Conservation Area along Mill Street, between Trapelo Road on the south and Winter Street on the north. After glaciers retreated 10,000 years ago, Native Americans burned the land [READ MORE]

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Belmont Boasts Bounteous Birds

 Environment, July/August 2024, Newsletter  Comments Off on Belmont Boasts Bounteous Birds
Jun 252024
 
Belmont Boasts Bounteous Birds

By Fred Bouchard Most of us try to cozy up to Mother Nature now that we’re increasingly climate-conscious, especially during longer days and presumably carefree hours of summer. Whether you’re in the garden, open spaces, or on woodsy walks, our home town offers a variety of eco-friendly locales to commune with Ma Nature’s little winged ambassadors. I offer four likely places, each hosting two not-obvious, strictly seasonal denizens that you might readily identify with your attentive ear and sharpened eye. We go from high altitude to low, and throw in an easily overlooked hotspot in nearby Cambridge. A good guide [READ MORE]

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Honeybees Thrive at Rock Meadow

 May/June 2023, Newsletter  Comments Off on Honeybees Thrive at Rock Meadow
Apr 262023
 
Honeybees Thrive at Rock Meadow

By Sadie Forbes Most people visiting Rock Meadow have noticed the presence of beehives. Belmont beekeepers now tend 20 hives in five locations along Mill Street and in the center of the meadow.  There are many pressures on honeybees. Beekeepers and scientists agree that two problems are largely responsible for “colony collapse disorder,” where entire hives of bees die off.  The first cause is varroa mites (Varroa destructor). These mites were benign pests of Asian honeybees (Apis cerana) in Asia. Beginning in the 1980s, varroa mites began to be seen in western apiaries. They have been highly destructive to the [READ MORE]

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Spare a Thought for Lone Tree Hill

 Environment, Lone Tree Hill, Newsletter, Open Space, Plants, Sept/Oct 2022  Comments Off on Spare a Thought for Lone Tree Hill
Sep 092022
 
Spare a Thought for Lone Tree Hill

By Dean Hickman and Leonard Katz  Between Pleasant Street and Trapelo Road to the south, Concord Avenue to the north, and Mill Street to the west, Lone Tree Hill wraps around McLean Hospital and sits above Belmont, providing us with a peaceful and secluded mix of woods and meadows where we can escape the hustle and bustle of suburban life down below. It is also Belmont’s gateway to Rock Meadow on the other side of Mill Street as well as to the more secluded trails of the Western Greenway which head west into neighboring Waltham and Lexington. Anyone looking for [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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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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New Rock Meadow Parking Plan Proposed

 Air Quality, Environment, July-August 2020, Newsletter, Open Space, Parking, Plants, Stormwater, Traffic, Water Quality  Comments Off on New Rock Meadow Parking Plan Proposed
Jun 302020
 
New Rock Meadow Parking Plan Proposed

By Jeffrey North and Mary Trudeau The Belmont Conservation Commission recently engaged a team of Northeastern University students to explore parking lot and stormwater drainage improvements for Rock Meadow. As visitors to Rock Meadow can attest, the parking lot is inefficient, rutted, partially paved, and often filled with pockets of standing water. Improvements have been called for since at least 1968, when the report, A Program for Renewing Rock Meadow, stated the obvious: “The entrance is not attractive and does not do justice to the beautiful area beyond.” The arrival experience is incongruent with Rock Meadow’s value as a treasured [READ MORE]

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Belmont Highlights Natural, Historic Treasures

 Environment, Historic Preservation, History, Lone Tree Hill, Newsletter, November 2019, Open Space, Plants  Comments Off on Belmont Highlights Natural, Historic Treasures
Nov 042019
 
Belmont Highlights Natural, Historic Treasures

By Mary Bradley The Belmont Historical Society hosted two events in September and October celebrating Belmont’s rich cultural and environmental history. Tracking the Wellington Hill Station through Time The Belmont Historical Society hosted an open house on September 15, 2019, to celebrate the completion of a series of repairs and restorations to the many-purposed Wellington Hill Station building the previous month. The station received a new cedar shingle roof and repairs to the decking and gingerbread trim, the interior plaster walls, and the lower wood sections. The roof was funded with Community Preservation Act (CPA) funding and donations from the [READ MORE]

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