Making room for Blair Pond and meadow rain garden. Beth El Mitzva 13 member team cuts knotweed near railroad and fills 18 bags. Sponsored by Friends of Alewife Reservation and Beth El Temple.

FAR was very pleased to have Naomi Dworkin bring a group of adults and youth to the Blair Pond meadow and rain garden on May 15th to assist in sustaining the meadow, woodlands and Pond's ecosystems. The Temple is in close proximity to Blair and the group was able to use the new tool shed and to leave over 15 bags of invasives for the DCR to pick up says Ellen Mass, who engendered the visit from the Temple. Friends of Alewife Reservation has had events at the Temple which revealed the challenging watershed issues facing the municipalities of Belmont, Cambridge and Arlington. We hope they return soon. Thank you Temple Beth El Mitzva Day. Pleased to see you have an Environmental Group and a Social Justice Committee, both of which might consider a project at the local Pond in conjunction with the other permitted and neighborhood groups.

From Naomi Dworkin: "We had a successful day at Blair Pond and meadow. First, the weather cooperated. We had 12 temple members join us with adults, Jonathan Jacoby and myself. We worked for about an hour and a half and filled 18 garden debris bags. We worked a little bit around the pond but I wanted to keep the group together as there were five children under the age of 13 and I wanted to keep an eye on them ( of course their parents were there too). Mostly, we worked in the area between the sign that says 'report wildlife", and the railroad tracks whee there is a rain garden and shady. I believe we made good progress on both the mustards and the knotweed (with adults using the round up and touching the broken parts). Some people did work on the bittersweet vines although I cautioned them about handling the sumac too much. As far as I could tell, all went well, and people had a good time. I tried to talk to them about the "Friends of Alewife Reservation " as much as I could, but with young children there, I also had to keep things brief and moving along. They did see a toad, a pair of Mallard ducks, and a Canadian goose landing on the water right in front of them!

I left FAR an additional 6 pairs of work gloves as a donation."