Dear Editor,
Amy Saltzman, Cambridge Chronicle,

Very grateful January 20th for the non-governmental Alewife Symposium Conference at Tufts University, sponsored by Earthos Institute, Tufts Environmental Department, and Sustainable Arlington, all of which widened the climate change discussion to regional thinking, surrounding the need for greater urban open space, green design and natural systems planning around the Alewife T. This geographical area is based on hydrology which includes the Quadrangle, Triangle and Alewife Reservation including the Upper Alewife Basin waterways of 1 mile Little River with ponds and streams of the Mystic River watershed.

Nine workshops included 3 to 4 panelist specialists represented many environmental needs of the entire "Alewife Corridor" that runs from Winchester through Arlington, Cambridge, Belmont, Somerville, and Medford to the Mystic River. The event presented a municipal urgency for regional planning and protections triggered greatly by the rapidity of global warming.

The 150 plus attendees heard hydrologists, green design planners, on site non-profit environmentalists, Conservation activists and Conservation Commissioners and municipal engineers, several of whom are employed in Cambridge. Four city councilors attended.The keynote, former Assoc. Professor at Harvard's Design School, Robert France, key noted the Conference with his previous endeavors, helping design the Alewife Reservation's storm water wetland with published books on environmental conservation at Alewife and chapters highlighting climate solutions from his work throughout the world. He presently teaches Environmental Studies at Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia.

Biodiversity specialists representatives encouraged development of nature’s highly valued "environmental services" for urban planning such as carbon sequestration, mitigation of storm water contamination, swale development, "green lighting" and green building designs, by extending the Reservation's storm water wetland to south side of the commuter rail in the Quadrangle.

Ellen Mass
Friends of Alewife Reservation
Cambridge, Ma.