Earth Day / Park Serve Day at the Alewife Reservation April 25th, 2015 By: Ellen Mass and Christine Heady Friends of Alewife Reservation Thank you to our 60 volunteers who attended Friends of Alewife Reservation’s 8th annual Earth / Park Serve Day cleanup this past Saturday. Net Impact Boston, largest 20 person group of volunteers, worked on the south side of Little River clearing and cleaning heavy vegetated riverbank debris by remote Perch Pond left by homeless populations and runaway teens. Constance Shere, board member said, “We are happy to partner with other organizations for conservation efforts. and to see such large amount of gathered trash”. “People walking along the bike trail thanked us and said we were the best. We were happy to hear how appreciative our community members are.” Environmental Resource Management, Boston consulting firm, brought around 10 participants and Harvard Extension Environmental Club with around 10, teamed up to tackle the back of Yates Pond, directly across from the Alewife T stop, possibly, the most trashed area in the Alewife Reservation demonstrates disregard for the Pond and its natural inhabitants. Eastern Research Group, which analyses federal environmental policy participated with 10 members working around the Alewife Station, cleaning Cambridge Park Place, Alewife Brook Parkway and the bike path behind the T. Chris Lamie, a climate specialist at the company noted, “You can see from the restored wetland and how important this area is to the watershed for mitigating floods… It’s naturally a flood plain… Let’s keep it that way.” Volunteers from Lesley University led by Amy Mertl, worked at heavily vegetated Perch Pond at westernmost part of the 115 acre Reserve. Five members of Appalachian Mountain Club crossed over Rt 2 bridge to remove trash along the greatly threatened Mugar wetlands and woodlands properties of about 7 acres connected to Alewife Reservation in Arlington, now accepting inquiries for development by Oaktree Development of Cambridge. Later in the day we moved a small Kiosk to Blair Pond which will display a plant restoration project going on in the 3 acre meadow and woodland led by Harvard botanist, Walter Kittredge. Also at Blair Pond and meadows at the Highland neighborhood at western most edge of the Reservation, volunteers cut down invasive bittersweet vines, the thickness of some measuring over 2 inches, which can bring down a mature tree. Volunteers reported finding homeless both inhabited and abandoned encampments throughout which contributed to the 3 large DCR truckloads of debris. Dead animals were the most disturbing to participants, seen throughout the day such as woodchuck, raccoon, frogs and a duck. “Is it really the circle of life or is it the water quality?” questioned one of the volunteers about the cause of the deaths. Poison and dewatering from the large construction effort in the region is of great concern to Friends of Alewife Reservation. A heartening sign was a mother quail sitting on a nest in the middle of the sandy pathway to the North Trail on Acorn Park Drive. Eastern Research Group working around Alewife Station Net impact Boston A small fraction of the debris collected by volunteers