Monday night 28th, Council members and City manager who took a highly aggressive axe to the issues witnessed and presented by knowledgeable testimony from Cambridge, Arlington and Belmont concerning the silver maple forest. The following are reasons why silver maple forest should be acquired by region and preserved as noted in Policy Order #4 passed by Councilor Carlone with possible debilitating changes made. Marc McGovern tried to save the Order by handing it to the Manager. Rep. Rogers who represents all 3 municipalities spoke strongly against the Belmont Uplands development. Another Order passed by Carlone asks DCR and Commissioner to refuse giving the Conservation Restriction (public access options to and from the Reservation) unless increased rain data since 1961 is reviewed and designs changed to accommodate new and accepted science weather forecasts.

According to recent Selectmen's meeting in Belmont, precipitation increase is now accepted throughout the Northeast and many Eastern seaboard communities are preparing for it. Town Meeting member Anne Marie Lambert was supported by an hydrologist who provided his services in 2009 for the Belmont Uplands 4 day DEP Hearings with the Coalition to Preserve Belmont Uplands, and Friends of Alewife Reservation. She noted that owner J. Brian O'Neill's storm water plans are out of date, beginning 1993 when he recorded 6.5 inches of flood elevations (24 hour measurement) instead of today's predictions which are 8.5 inches, 10 years later. They must be redesigned as suggested at the recent Belmont meeting, and reflect present day rain conditions say present Dept. of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) requirements.

Cambridge's Vulnerability Assessment (VA) Study completion is for the Fall, according to CPAC Chair Quinton Zondervan and Brian Murphy, Head of Community Development and leading city voice in the VA Study Committee. It may indicate the environmental value and residential need for an intact 100 year floodplain in using a HECRAS model to determine sea rise and surge impacts which are highly predicted in the future. Some of Alewife region is only 5 feet above sea level and the Amelia Earhart dam cannot be developed to contain a Hurricane one surge. A wait and see request was made in Council meeting witness testimony to refuse any new permits, and stop and desist or put on hold any ones in process from neighborhood after neighborhood in the Alewife area in the 3 municipalities.

The floodplain forest, or silver maple forest of 7 acres (Brian O'Neill owns around 13) is the core buffer to the Alewife Reservation and as such is needed to protect Cambridge's largest wetlands which are comprised mostly of cat tail marshes along Little River which is highly impaired with sewage and other materials coming from Belmont's Wellington Brook. The Belmont uplands silver maple forest helps mitigate the expanding amount of impervious surfaces created by presently, and in process, over 2000 new units with garages and driveways being placed tightly on and against the floodplain at Alewife. Historical documented flooding along the watershed buffer over the past 30 years has not phased Cambridge elected officials.

A recent 400 thousand sq. foot hotel is pending and would be underway if not for 10 Cambridge citizen's appealing against the Bulfinch and BSC permit in the FEMA “floodway”. Constructing on this flood designation is a federal taboo without teeth to enforce. Citizens asked to ‘wait for the VA Study to come out' and the geophysicist on the citizen's side questioned some FEMA changes made which benefit the development side's grand Master Plan.

The rare maple tree forest provides a cooling factor in the area, and the trees provide vital carbon sequestration for the entire Alewife corridor region, as well as providing superb root systems for flood waters which no man-made detention holding system can replicate, which the developer strongly disputes.

The unstable clayish soils and dumped debris from building route 2 are what the 300 unit building would sit on. An unstable proposition at best. Clay and road debris with a high water table are inappropriate soil for large structures

Our Mystic River watershed waterways (ponds, streams river) all benefit greatly from the silver maple forest's natural mitigation functions.

• All major New England mammals inhabit Alewife Reservation and surroundings such as the privately owned forest with mammal exception of moose, bear and wildcat. Rare birds are often sighted at Alewife and it is an important hunting ground for raptors, buteos and song birds. There are endangered species on the Reservation and a rare prothanatory warbler was recently sighted along with a long tail weasel. Friends of Alewife Reservation has an assessment book of 20 mammals and 90 bird species by noted wildlife assessor Dave Brown with full inventories of the animals, birds, plants and insects of the Reservation.
• The Reservation woodlands contain adjacent certifiable and state regulated vernal pools which are unprotected and require more assessment and verification.
• The Belmont Uplands silver maple forests with 3 acres in Cambridge contain a rich Cambridge and Belmont history of farmland that reaches back to King Charles II, and native artifacts from the forest are in Harvard Natural History museum which are not very well known. FAR had collected the list from the Museum and sent them to DCR.

The Reservation is a major source of educational opportunities demonstrated over the years by Friends of Alewife Reservation and their annual summer ecology camp (now 8th) as part of the Mayor's program and monthly walks by experts. Hundreds of residents and visitors throughout Boston frequent the area.

The newly created state and city storm water wetlands which are historic for the region benefit greatly from the silver maple forest which helps ameliorate the serious sewage problem via storm water ground mitigation from the upstream town and protect the city of Cambridge and its North Cambridge residents from drastic flooding damage to the homes and landscapes.

The poor Acorn Park Drive residents who were foolish enough to purchase would be living in a hellish mosquito swamp and owners should not spray in a rare urban wild that humans must care for.

There are many more facts to add about the watershed. Other friends of the Reservation could submit them.

Ellen Mass is President of Friends of Alewife Reservation and has been advocating its preservation together with its growing Board and visitors: Kathy Johnson, Ellen Mass, Amy Mertl, Quinton Zondervan, David Landskov, Alan Hamilton, Anne Marie Lambert.