Friends of Alewife Reservation (FAR)
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The opinions expressed by Russ Cohen are not necessarily those held by FAR or its members, but represent serious consideration of improvements and restoration of the Alewife Reservation. see also: MDC Master Plan Unveiled November 20, 2002 Comments on Draft Master Plan for MDC's Alewife Reservation Russ Cohen December 20, 2002 Dan Driscoll, Planning MDC 20 Somerset St. Boston, MA 02108 RE: COMMENTS ON DRAFT MASTER PLAN FOR MDC'S ALEWIFE RESERVATION Dear Dan: I am writing to share a few comments with you following the excellent presentation of this project on November 20th. In general, I am very pleased with the contents of this Plan, the philosophy behind it and the planning process utilized to arrive at the current preferred option. My comments are for the most part minor in nature and intended to further enhance the effectiveness and utility of what you are proposing. I have sorted my comments by topic but otherwise they are not presented in any particular order of priority. Flooding and Sewage Overflows As you know this is a major concern of many in attendance at the 11/20 meeting as well as most residents of the Alewife area. It is true that the low-lying area encompassing the Alewife Reservation and adjacent lands is flood-prone. I largely disagree, however, with comments made by others at the 11/20 meeting and elsewhere that it is primarily the MDC's responsibility to fix the flooding problem and that addressing that issue should take precedence over any park improvements. I commend you and the MDC for incorporating elements into your project design (such as the restoration and/or creation of wetlands at the ADL parking lot and the former ice rink) that should help alleviate the flooding problem in the Alewife are while providing other aesthetic and ecological benefits. I also support the City of Cambridge's proposed treatment wetland located within the Alewife Reservation just north of the proposed bike route that is intended to receive and (to some degree) absorb and filter excess flows originating in the culverted section of Alewife Brook. Nevertheless, there may be opportunities for the MDC to partner with others to incorporate further flooding mitigation for the Alewife area. I would like to reiterate a point I made in my MEPA comment letter on the proposed "Frontage Road" project proposed for the Belmont "uplands" adjacent to the Alewife Reservation. In that letter I suggested that one way that proposed development could ameliorate current flooding conditions is to provide capacity to store not only stormwater generated from the proposed development, but to capture and store runoff from adjacent impervious areas as well (such as Frontage Road and Acorn Park Drive). One way to do this would be to construct an underground stormwater detention facility beneath the office building as well as the parking garage as currently proposed. A similar level of flood mitigation could (and should) be sought in other developments proposed for the Alewife area, such as on the so-called Mugar and Martignetti sites as well as the redevelopment of the ADL campus. A similar technique could be employed to help mitigate sewer overflow problems in the Alewife area. A large underground storage tank could be constructed and sited within the Alewife Reservation or other appropriate location nearby where excess sewer water could be temporarily stored instead of discharged into Alewife Brook or other waterways. Once the precipitation event triggering the excess flows is over and some capacity in the sewer pipeline is restored, the contents of the storage tank can be discharged back into the sewer system. The City of Worcester Department of Public Works maintains such a CSO control facility on Quinsigamond Avenue in the city's Green Island neighborhood. I think it would be appropriate for all the residents, businesses and others contributing flow to the sewer pipes flowing through the Alewife area to contribute to the cost of fixing this problem. A betterment charge on sewer bills or a similar mechanism could be employed to help cover the cost of the necessary infrastructure improvements. Furthermore, as was rightly pointed out by a Tufts University professor attending the 11/20 meeting, the Alewife area is more a recipient of flood-causing stormwater from the highly developed and largely impervious watershed feeding into it than it is itself the source of the stormwater. In addition to looking for ways to alleviate the flooding problem in the receiving area, we should also look for opportunities to reduce stormwater flowing into the Alewife area from the surrounding watershed. One way to do this would be to minimize the runoff from impervious surfaces on private property into municipal storm drains feeding into the Alewife area. When I spoke up at the 11/20 meeting I mentioned that I am a resident of the Alewife watershed (I live in Arlington Heights by the Park Circle water tower) and that I have several rain barrels capturing runoff from a portion of my roof, which I subsequently use to water my flower and vegetable garden during dry periods. The runoff I collect in this manner does not run down the hill and exacerbate flooding problems in the Alewife area. Granted, the contribution I am making with my rainwater harvesting devices to mitigating the flooding problems at Alewife is negligible, but if similar actions were proliferated in a large scale throughout the Alewife watershed, it could and should add up to a significant reduction in stormwater loadings to Little Pond, the Little River and further downstream. Once again, monies could be raised from the neighborhoods contributing stormwater to Alewife to help cover the cost of necessary mitigation. One way to do this would be to create a stormwater utility district for the Alewife watershed similar to other public utilities; this technique has been successfully employed in the city of Chicopee. The last comment I wanted to make on the flooding issue is to suggest (if the project as currently designed doesn't already include them) that sediment forebays be established at all the major locations where water flows into Alewife-area waterways such as Little Pond, the Little River and Alewife Brook. As you know, excessive sediment (largely resulting from road sanding operations) can substantially reduce the depth of receiving waters, reducing their flood storage, recreational, aesthetic and other values. Installing sediment forebays at all major locations conveying flow to Alewife-area surface waters would enable the sediment to settle out of the current and then be periodically scooped out and appropriately disposed of. Of course, more could (and should) be done to intercept the sediment before it ends up in Alewife-area surface waters, such as more assiduous street cleaning. Biodiversity and Wildlife Habitat As you know, a number of the people speaking up at the 11/20 meeting expressed the concern that the preferred alternative will degrade the Alewife Reservation's value as wildlife habitat. In particular, these commenters felt that the proposed number and/or location of the public access points to and through the Alewife reservation is excessive and will result in a pervasive human presence in the Reservation that will scare away birds and other wildlife. I agree with the sentiment expressed in these comments that the impact of civilization and its trappings (particularly vehicles and roadways) already weighs heavily on the Alewife area. We should exercise care to ensure that the Alewife Reservation and the remaining adjacent undeveloped lands continue to function as a significant oasis for wildlife in an otherwise largely inhospitable area. That being said, I think it is possible to site a system of pedestrian and paddler access points that will accommodate public use of the Reservation while maintaining if not enhancing the area's appeal and value to wildlife. I believe that the nature and extent of the public access outlined in the MDC's current preferred alternative for the Reservation largely achieves that objective. Nevertheless, I suggest that, as the plans become more detailed and refined in the future that local and other expert naturalists be consulted to help the MDC avoid unnecessary adverse impacts to bird roosting areas and other wildlife habitat in carrying out the specifics of the plan. I support the current proposal to put at least one pedestrian bridge crossing over the Little River to enable pedestrian access to and from both major portions of the Alewife Reservation. A concern was raised at the 11/20 meeting that a footbridge spanning the Little River in the vicinity of the Hill Estates apartment complex would enable housecats from the complex to gain access to the north side of the Reservation that they currently don't have, and that the housecats would then wreak havoc on the unsuspecting ground-nesting birds and other wildlife there. The adverse impact of free-roaming cats on birds and other wildlife is, in fact, a legitimate and serious concern, so much so that the national environmental group American Bird Conservancy initiated a "Cats Indoors!" campaign (see Instead of responding to this problem by not installing a footbridge over the Little River near Hill Estates, I would try to stop the problem at its source by prohibiting cat owners at the apartment complex from letting their cats go outside at all. After all, the birds and other wildlife on the south side of the Little River deserve just as much protection from the harassment and predation of cats as those on the north side. The aforementioned "Cats Indoors!" campaign does a great job of raising public awareness on this issue and should be of great value in convincing recalcitrant cat owners of the necessity of keeping their cats indoors. You may recall that one of the points I made when I spoke up at the 11/20 meeting was that current value of the Alewife Reservation to wildlife was in spite of what humans have done to the area and not because of it. As you know, the entire Alewife area was extensively disturbed by industrial and other degrading land uses going back a century or more, and this activity extirpated many native plant and animal species from the area. Although the area is slowly recovering some natural integrity on its own, the area still exhibits many scars of past abuse. For example, I have observed that the current diversity of plant species at the Alewife reservation is relatively low and is composed primarily of native species like Sumac and Black Cherry and exotic species like Japanese Knotweed that are good at recolonizing disturbed habitats and are highly tolerant of degraded conditions. I feel that increasing the diversity of native plant species at the Reservation, such as reintroducing species that were believed to be once native to the area, plus planting other suitable wildlife-friendly species, we can make a significant contribution to the Reservation's value for wildlife, so much so that it should effectively counteract any adverse impacts an increased presence of pedestrians and paddlers would have on wildlife use of the Reservation. I have attached to this letter a list I have prepared of native species suitable for planting in riparian areas. I have put an asterisk by those species I would especially recommend for planting at appropriate locations within the Alewife Reservation. I hasten to add that, as you know, invasive species are well established in many locations in the Alewife Reservation, and it is not enough merely to clear them once, plant native species in their place, and expect the natives to hold their ground without any further intervention. One only needs to take a look at the minipark and paddler access point at the John Wald memorial located along Alewife Brook and the Minuteman Bikeway to see what I mean. What was a tastefully native species-landscaped area around the stone bench and memorial is now being heavily encroached upon by Japanese Knotweed and other invasive exotics. Once areas of the Alewife Reservation are revegetated with native species some mechanism needs to be put into place to stifle any attempts of invasive species to regain footholds in the area if they are to be kept in check. I do not expect the MDC to have the staff or the budget to accomplish this task without considerable help. A cadre of volunteers needs to be recruited to help keep invasive species under control in the Reservation. Fortunately, naturalist, author and Biodiversity Days coordinator Peter Alden has shown some interest in organizing such a group through his proposed "Endangering Species" pilot project at the Alewife Reservation. Miscellaneous My final idea, and it is a somewhat frivolous one, is to reuse some of the material dredged out of surface waters or areas to be restored as wetlands to make a small hill (a faux drumlin as it were) in the Alewife Reservation to create a vantage point over adjacent wetlands and wildlife habitats. A series of steps (or ramps if necessary) could lead to the top of the hill to an observation platform capable of holding a dozen people or so (perhaps more schoolchildren, as they are smaller). As you know, the surrounding area is quite flat, so this hill needn't be very tall to provide an expansive view. This is a means of enabling visual access to areas of the Reservation without needing to provide physical access that might disturb wildlife. Thanks for the opportunity to share these comments with you. I hope they are of some use to you and others working on this exciting project. Very truly yours, Russ Cohen |