The MIT trail project took place on saturday morning (9/17) without a hitch. The air was dry, but the vegetation along the overgrown trail was very wet. I met the MIT International Club volunteers at Alewife station at ~ 9:45. There were about 10 of them - one met us along the trail after we started the cleanup. The group included a few non-MIT friends of the members of the MIT International Club.

The group accomplished all that we had planned, and we were finished just before 1 PM. The group cleaned out vegetation along the blue marked trail from the meadow near Alewife station, along Little River, and back to the bike path through the beaver-cut aspen grove. The major chore for the volunteers was to remove a couch and mattress from Little River. This job was easy for the volunteers, using waders, to quickly pull the couch and mattress out of the water and load them onto wheelbarrels to remove them from the area.

The volunteers were invaluable in this cleanup project. I seriously doubt that the trail would have been opened and the debris removed from the river without their help. They were enthusiastically on task for the whole time. Two of the volunteers live in Arlington and were surprised that this place existed so close to their home. One of the volunteers took digital photos of the effort and will provide them to us when he transfers them onto his computer. We had lunch together at the end of the cleanup behind the Dodge site along the bikepath. Sandwiches and water were provided to us through the generous support of Whole Foods at Fresh Pond Mall.

sofa out for DCR to pick up		Manuel and Brigit have lunch
Fourth annual FAR-MIT cleanup successful: 3 FAR members and 8 MIT International Club members pose for camera