by Alan Nogee, President of Friends of Cold Spring Park

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving! Friends of Cold Spring Park is grateful for all the community support this year. Thanks to the generosity of park neighbors and visitors from all over Newton, we made important progress in improving the park, and want to supply an update.

Most importantly, with design and oversight provided by the Dept. of Parks, Recreation & Culture (PRC), we hired a contractor to restore the stone dust surface on the section of the trail where exposed roots and rocks have caused many injuries over the years: the Cochituate Aqueduct between Plymouth Road and Duncklee Street.

Volunteers helped maintain the trails by picking up litter, removing overhanging and fallen branches and letting PRC know of downed trees, which they cleared within 24-48 hours this year. We worked with PRC on an orienteering course in the park— an enjoyable map and compass navigation activity. 

Working with the Newton Conservators, we held four volunteer sessions to remove invasive plants. We helped expand native milkweed, goldenrod, and pokeweed stands—which provide food for monarch butterflies, birds, and other wildlife–in the small meadow.  After (unsuccessfully) trying to keep New Cold Spring Park from being sprayed with herbicides, we tested runoff from the playing fields after they were sprayed, to ensure that contaminated water was not flowing into the brook.

We made extensive efforts to educate people about the great ecological value of the park. My spring webinar through the Newton Conservators was one of their most highly attended of the year. We co-sponsored a webinar with the Conservators, Green Newton, and Mothers Out Front by Dr. Robert Gegear on how we can restore native plants in our parks and yards to help save indigenous bees—the main pollinators of most of our vegetation—that are at risk of local extinction. We also worked with the Newton Community Pollinator Project to install a Storywalk® to help educate kids on the ecological value of the park.

Our educational efforts didn’t stop there. We posted on the kiosk we installed last year flyers of plants in bloom and invasive plants.  We also used our newsletter, website, and Facebook page to publicize articles, webinars, and events related to the park and its ecology.

Our recent community survey found that most respondents prioritize improving remaining muddy stretches between Vaughn Ave and Plymouth Road and extending the Eagle Scout boardwalks along the trail between Zervas and Winslow Road. We will also explore if dedicated funding might be available for an ADA-accessible boardwalk in this section.

We will continue working with PRC to maintain the existing trail, name landmarks, and add navigational signs within the park.  We hope to work with PRC this year to develop a long-run management plan to identify the most important spots to preserve and enhance biodiversity in the park, and to do some more ecological restoration projects.   

Ecological restoration work matters because the spread of invasive species in the park threatens its natural vitality and reduces its resilience to climate change. For example, the non-native shrubs invading the wetlands provide almost no nutrition for birds.

What will happen to the 165 bird species that use the park if we lose the native shrubs that provide the high-fat berries birds need to either migrate or over-winter?  What if we lose the aging oak trees that feed and shelter more than 500 species of caterpillars—also essential food for birds—and if invasive Norway maples—which support very little wildlife—continue to prevent new oaks from germinating? 

Ultimately, we will work to provide permanent protection to the park, to avoid having to fend off proposals like siting housing (a 1980s proposal) or a junior high school (1993), or a senior center (2019).    

It will require great vigilance to sustain Cold Spring Park against the ravages of invasives, climate change, and wear and tear on the trails. If you love the park, please become a member of the Friends of Cold Spring Park, or participate in our many activities, or donate on our web page at coldspringpark.org/donate. Or you can mail a check to Friends of Cold Spring Park to FoCSP, PO Box 610023, Newton, MA 02461. Donations are tax-deductible. Thanks!