Many already know what wildlife gems exist in Northwest Cambridge. Lesley University’s speakers Feb. 26 with “deep ecologists” included wildlife assessor David Brown and landscape storm water wetland designer Duke Bitsko. They illustrated the rich array of biodiversity at Alewife Reservation, its surrounding buffers and integral ecology, which includes acreage greater than 130, if Blair and Yates Pond and the Belmont/Cambridge Silver Maple Forest are included. The urban wild should be assessed as one ecosystem, say professional ecologists.

Wisdom of the Forum or “Indigenous Urban Ecological Knowledge” was a new term spontaneously coined by Professor Morimoto of the Natural History and Mathematics Department. The term illustrates local Alewife history of Cambridge region’s natural resources, if we couldonly understand the ecology science better for preserving our own diminishing New England land and waterways.

Brown’s detailed assessments of Alewife wildlife for the last six years and his lifetime expertise was shared through the great bird and mammal diversity which he assessed in 2002, 2008 and 2010 with a state Fish and Wildlife grant over the seasons. The 20 mammal and more than 100 bird species inhabit this former “Great Swamp” remnant between Arlington, Belmont and Cambridge identifying it as a wildlife refuge. Brown and partner speaker, Duke Bitsko of Bioengineering, laid the groundwork for future Alewife conservation and curriculum development with Lesley University for fieldwork, and with Friends of Alewife Reservation (FAR) and its Summer Ecology Camp, in order to preserve the entire area described by Brown as “The Greater Alewife Ecosystem.”

Duke’s slideshow of the new storm water wetland captured each stage of construction, biodiversity planning and development, whose incredible vision brought more than 100,000 wetland plants to the reservation this past spring. Duke explained the gigantic hydrological infrastructure of more than a mile between Huron Avenue and Little River, which will help clean and ameliorate the river’s water quality, with surge protection from two complex islands and varied level marsh construction. The overview of the historic Cambridge project and the official city, state (DCR and MWRA) and bioengineering team included interaction with the community and Friends of Alewife Reservation. Students from everywhere will begin to appreciate renewed habitat and biodiversity in this rare constructed wetland.

- Ellen Mass, president, Friends of Alewife Reservation

Posted to Wicked Local Cambridge, Mar. 7, 2014 @ 8:33 am. Accessed 2014-03-07.21:40
http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20140307/NEWS/140307238