If so, where were you and what did your group accomplish?
Did you participate in Newton SERVES or the Charles River Cleanup this weekend?
by Greg Reibman | Apr 28, 2014 | Newton | 10 comments
Crazy Divers: Men be like...
drivers man be like
If so, where were you and what did your group accomplish?
Crazy Divers: Men be like...
drivers man be like
I took part in the Quinobequin Road cleanup. We filled more than a dozen bags with trash and invasive plants and pulled down numerous dead trees and otherwise cleared the path along the road and opened vistas to the river where we could see participants in the Run of the Charles go by. The Friends of Quinobequin can be very proud of their first major activity.
I also took part in the cleanup of the South Burying Ground. A handful of volunteers did a great job on 90% of the site. The only areas that need help are the rear lefthand corner where a trees has been overwhelmed by a thicket of invasive plants, the lack of a fence between the adjacent parkingllot and the site, the massive trees girdled by thick vines , and the middle of the rear fence where the collapse of materials on the other side has exposed the visitors to burying ground to a massive view of commercial products. All of these issues will probably require city resources to remedy. The Newton Historical Society and its Burying Grounds Committee will probably provide the city with a bill of particulars.
While Alderman Yates was working with the road clearing crew, there were two other crews also hard at work on Quinobequin. One crew pulled about 17 miles of thorny vines out of the trees and opened up a number of river views. I was with the Boy Scout crew that cut and sawed Asian Bittersweet vines that have been pulling down lots of trees in the park.
At the end of the morning the Boy Scouts discovered that there is something good about those destructive Asian Bittersweet vines after all.
It was a good full weekend of activity. Started in the rain on Saturday planting Newton Tree Conservancy trees on Nevada and Fessenden Streets.
Sunday, we did the third – and possibly the last – year of cleaning up and planting the traffic island at Centre St & Rt 9 in the Highlands. Rumour is that the intersection could be reconfigured in the next year, so this may very well have been a last hurrah.
Kudos and thanks to the folks who did the Quinobequin cleanup. The trails are a real underutilized resource here. Perhaps having more use of the riverfront will also allow people to better understand our relationship with the Charles.
@Chris Steele
As someone said to me this weekend “we really are a river town”. The Charles River is our border with Neeedham, Wellesley, Weston, Waltham, and Watertown.
I wondered where Jerry Reilly was on Sunday since he was one of the initiators of the Quinobequin cleanup efforts and had spent Saturday mornng in the rain cleaning up along Quinobequin Road as part of the Charles River Cleanup. Glad to hear about the miles of bittersweet removed.
Alderman Brian Yates
Jerry was with me and many others,mostly Boy Scouts and their parents all morning.
Brian must have been waylayed by Andreae and her crew up closer to Rte 9,as my only sighting was his email address on checking board.Hope you had a good time Brian,we did.
I forgot to mention that I also participated in the Friends of Hemlock Gorge cleanup as part of the Charles River Cleanup. Although fewer than usual volunteers participated because of conflicts and dubious weather, we added at least onehardworking walkin from the neighborhood and 6 to 8 volunteers from the Chamber of Commerce’s Young Professionals Committee (Thanks , Greg). At lunch at the stone building (Thanks, Seanna), we enjoyed the vista of the River opened by a crew at a previous cleanup.
I’ve suggested to the Mayor that the Charles River Cleanup and Newton Serves be coordinated in the future so that volunteers could take part in both.
Brian Yates
Friends of Hemlock Gorge
http://www.hemlockgorge.org
Good suggestion Alderman Yates.
The Boy Scouts from Troop 9 based based out of Waban did have a lot of fun with this project, and look forward to particpating in NewtonServes next year. It was fitting that the most massive of all the vines was towards the end of the clearing area – “Tarzan” would have been proud.
Troop 9 – Boy Scouts
http://troop9newton.org/
Michael Wordell
Many thanks to those hardworking, hacking, sawing, clipping Boy Scouts of Troop 9