Boston
The Charles River Conservancy
Volunteer: 8:45 am – 2 pm (picnic lunch break)
Leaders:
Ilana Brownstein ’98, sparkleturgy@earthlink.net,
617-888-2784
Whitney Dodds ’03, whitneydodds@hotmail.com
Boston, MA
Charles River Conservancy
www.charlesriverconservancy.org
Public Boat Launching Ramp, Daly Recreational Center, Nonantum Road, Brighton
MA
Project Details
This year, we return to the banks of the Charles! We will work
with the Conservancy to remove invasive species such as False Indigo,
Asiatic Bittersweet, and Japanese Knotweed. We will also be removing
trash and possibly doing some planting. Weather permitting, it is
possible we will paint park benches. This is a chance to beautify
and care for one of Boston’s crown jewels, and the Conservancy is
thrilled to have us back again, noting how great last year’s Wooster
group was!
We will work from 8:45 a.m. — 2 p.m., rain or shine. We will
begin with an introduction at 9 a.m. from Evan Moss, the Conservancy’s
Stewardship Program Manager, about the river and parklands, and learn
about the complex ecology that makes the Charles unique. We’ll
follow with an orientation and a description of the day’s work. The
work shift will be four hours, intersected with a half-hour lunch break,
and then we’ll regroup with Evan for a conclusion to the day’s
accomplishments.
We recommend dressing in layers for a Boston fall day — the morning
can be cool and the afternoon hot. Please note, your clothes will
get dirty, so dress accordingly! Long pants and closed-toed shoes
are a must, as we’ll be working in areas directly along the river. The
Conservancy will supply work gloves, tools, and supervision.
Meals
Breakfast items and coffee will be provided in the morning, as well as
bottled water.
Please bring a sack lunch.
Wooster “Staff” Attending
Katie Erdman Lyons ’92 — Scots in Service National Co-Chair
Directions
From Boston: Take Storrow Drive West towards Newton. Storrow Drive turns
into Soldiers Field Road at the Boston University (BU) Bridge. Continue
on Soldiers Field Road towards Newton. After passing the IHOP restaurant
(at North Beacon Street intersection), Soldiers Field Road becomes Nonantum
Road. Look for the boat launch parking lot on your right before the Daly
Rink.
From Mass Pike (heading East into Boston):
Take Newton exit 17 off the Mass Pike. You will go up the ramp, past the Sheraton
Hotel (which is located directly over the Mass Pike). Continue past the hotel
until you see a sign for Charlesbank Road. Bear left onto Charlesbank Road
and follow this road onto Nonantum Road. Enter onto Nonantum Road going east.
You will go past the Newton Yacht Club and Daly Skating Rink/Community Rowing
(on your left); the next left will be the Boat Launching ramp parking lot.
Please look for the white CRC Dump truck to be parked in the boat launch
parking lot in the Charles River Parklands. Please note the construction
site with fencing might impact your view of the truck from the parking
lot.
There's a map of the location on the community rowing website, here:
http://www.communityrowing.org/directions.htm
Heres another, more detailed map from Google:
The community rowing website has instructions for public transportation
via bus.
Additional Information
This year’s Scots in Service event is a chance to help solve a
growing problem in Boston. According to a recent Boston Globe article
by Michael and Kitty Dukakis, Massachusetts is suffering from severely “understaffed,
under funded and increasingly unsightly” public parks. They
go on to point out that “Massachusetts, a stronghold of environmentalism
and home to the country’s first public spaces, is now ranked 49th in
the nation in per capita spending on parks and 50th when it
comes to park spending as a percentage of our personal incomes. Our forebears
left us parks to be proud of, from the Boston Harbor Islands to the Berkshires. They
are crucial to our public, economic, and environmental health. Massachusetts
should not be dead last in the country in something we once helped to
invent.”
In October, Wooster alumni, family, and friends can be part of the solution.
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