Bulfinch Muskrat Marsh Meeting
May 3
Meeting 3
Bulfinch Building 25- Conference Room

Attendees:
Technical Field Team:
(working team)

Tim Smith- Wetlands Protection Program- wetlands specialist
tim.Smith@state.ma.us

Jeremy Bell- Wetlands Protection Program- wetlands specialist
tim.Smith@state.ma.us

Larry Boutiette-usda- Natural Resources Conservation Service
hydrologist
larry.boutiette@ma.usda.gov

Ingeborg Hegemann
Ihegemann@bscgroup.com - BSC V.P, wetlands specialist. Bulfinch  consultant

Stew Sanders- wildlife naturalist (Friends of Alewife Reservation,  Mystic River Watershed Assoc.)
Belmont Conservation Commission
ssandbird@yahoo.com

Neal Price- Horsley and Whitten Environmental Firm- hydrologist
nprice@cape.com

William Taylor- US Dept of Agriculture- soils specialist
william.taylor@ma.usda.gov

Marc MacQueen-USDA - Natural Resources Conservation Services
marc.macqueen@ma.usda.gov

Dave Morimoto- Director Natural Sciences and Mathematics Dept.Lesley  University
morimoto@lesley.edu

Susan - field intern- Environmental Natural Sciences program student  from Lesley University
Please contact FAR with contact for future e-mailings.(earlier info  lost)

_________________________________________________________________________

Conservation Commissioners:
Jennifer Wright- Executive Dir Cambridge
jwright@ci.cambridgema.gov.

Cori Beckwith- Director
Cbeckwith@town.arlington.ma.us

Ellen Reed- Commissioner Arlington
eltreed@earthlink.net

Martha Moore- Conservation Commission Belmont
marmoore@aol.com
_________________________________________________________________________
Larger Muskrat Marsh Team

Susan Redlich- Corporate Wetlands Restoration Partnership
susan.redlich@umb.com

Ellen Mass- Friends of Alewife Reservation, activities organizer
elnmass@verizon.net

Elsie Fiore- MyRWA, Coalition for Alewife
fiorelsie@hotmail.com

Darrell King- long term employee of Tiax company on site
king.d@tiaxllc.com

Stewe Kaiser- engineer
FAX or phone

John Walker- architect- FAR member
617 876-0223

_________________________________________________________________________
From Ellen:
Please keep careful record of all decisions made.WE have a tentative  meeting for July 12th at the FAR office.
There will be a book at 186 Alewife Brook Parkway for all to see of our  progress and records and meeting minutes.
Electronic data collection will be available after a week or so if we  want.
A website can be created if desired- Webmaster will do it and can  convert all into proper format if desired.
Please obtain necessary data from other sources and groups if you can.

Later we can consider sharing on a more technical basis if desired by  group.
 As Tim notes, for now, we must move ahead with our own work.

Towards that end, I have been notified that we will need to request from  the owners, a conservation easement, which legally protects the marsh as  a natural wetland area in the future from intrusion and abuse.
Otherwise partners will not come forth, and we would get little support  for the work.
_________________________________________________________________________
 First half of meeting Notes from Muskrat Marsh meeting, 5 May, 2005,  Acorn Park
(you will be getting the second half when Jeremy gets them to me)


Stew Sanders:  questioned how one installs a staff gauge;

Neil Price:    detailed installation, using 1-1/2=94 pipe with 1x4  pressure treated wood fastened to side;

Steve Kaiser:  mentioned NAVD vs. NGVD; need to know which system used;

Tim:            doesn 't matter since it 's relative data;
                BSC can take data at points 1, 2, & 4;

Stew to install staff gauge at point 3, Tim to mount gauge;

Tim:            DPW to survey;

Steve:          Is there a connection between points 1 and 2?   Yes.
    Point 1 is about 3 ' higher than point 2;

Ingeborg has GIS maps;

Elsie:           noticed 4 storm drains along median strip on Frontage  Road;

Tim:             looked at culverts beneath Rt. 2 for drainage; there  are 3, equalizers for Mugar property;

Corey:           Arlington ConCom has digitized maps;

Tim:             For restoration area: how much in, how much out; keep  it simple;

Ellen:           suggested someone take 20 minute walk along Acorn Park  Drive to observe;

Neil:            better to find drainage maps and calculate/simulate  flows;

Tim:             use data from elevations, drainages; Jeremy can  analyze, ARC view/ARC info;

Corey:           Arlington has digitized maps;               
Stew:            Belmont, probably no.

Stew:            Belmont drains 3 places, into Perch Pond, Spy Pond, and  Little Pond;

Steve:           Wellington Brook drains into Perch Pond;

Cambridge has full time monitor at Alewife; shows Little River does flow  backwards at times;

Ellen:          there are 3 small streams going North into DCR (ADL)  property from Little River;

Steve:          Tri-Town has their own data; we should coordinate with  them;

Ellen:          keep focus on our project;this is a complex layer of  participants in Muskrat marsh group

Tri-Town Flood Committee next meeting to be Tues. at 6:30 pm in  Arlington Town Hall;

Stew:       regarding the proposed flood control project across Little  River in Cambridge, there are opposing goals in the room: Elsie and  Steve vs. Ellen and Stew;

Ellen:        What data do we need?  Use Lesley Univ. data.  All of  wetlands restoration plans are on FAR website;

Tim:         describe Stew 's map?  1974 topo elevations, traced  projected flows by hand using change in elevation;

Tim:         how to put together 3 towns ' data; use professionally  surveyed data from the towns, electronic format;

Stew:        once had mosquito controls teams which walked these areas;

Contact Owen O 'Reardon in Cambridge, Glenn Clancy in Belmont for maps,  data;

David Morimoto:    I used 1-1/2=94 PVC pipe, drilled holes every 4=94  along a 3 ' length to make a =91flowmeter '; 5 =91flowmeters ' in  all;  have all Cambridge GIS map data on server;

Neil:      difficult to make wells, hole close when bored;