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Amateur Owling: Meet the Eastern Screech Owl

March/April 2025, Newsletter Comments Off

Feb 272025

Amateur Owling: Meet the Eastern Screech Owl

By Fred Bouchard Owls have pop cred and cool cachet. These regal predators of the dark hours are icons of wisdom and spookiness: secretive, inscrutable, hair-raising. Kids are drawn to their candid, piercing, surprised eyes. They are harbingers of the occult and the unknown. With feather-soft wingbeats, owls are inaudible in flight, the better to sneak up and snatch unwary prey with razor-sharp talons. Owls’ amazing eyes have huge corneas and pupils. Their retina’s plentiful rods are super-sensitive to light and movement though a paucity of cones limits perception of color. Yes, they really can rotate (not spin) their heads [READ MORE]

Profiles in Belmont: Pat Brusch

March/April 2025 Comments Off

Feb 272025

By Elissa Ely If you want to reach Pat Brusch, here’s a recommendation: do not text her. Call on the landline, which is the only phone she will answer. If you decide to email her, there’s no need to type fast. Get a cup of coffee and a good meal, because it may take some time to hear back. “I’m stuck in the 50s,” she explains. “I am a horror with electronics. The non-electronic paper world is my world.” This is someone who cheerfully admits she once contacted the publishers of Computers for Dummies because the book hadn’t explained what [READ MORE]

Town Meeting to Vote on Rodenticide Article

March/April 2025 Comments Off

Feb 272025

Town Meeting to Vote on Rodenticide Article

At the upcoming May Town Meeting, members will vote on a warrant article requesting that the Select Board file a Home Rule Petition with the Massachusetts Legislature. This petition would grant Belmont the authority to prohibit or restrict the use of second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides (SGARs) within town limits. Once the authorization has been granted, a bylaw or other rodenticide restrictions will be presented to future sessions of Town Meeting for approval. SGARs are potent rodenticides that disrupt blood clotting, causing prolonged internal bleeding in rodents. However, these poisons also have unintended and harmful effects on Belmont’s wildlife. Predators such as [READ MORE]

Belmont Will Create New Comprehensive Plan

March/April 2025 Comments Off

Feb 262025

By Chris Ryan and Taylor Yates A common concern we hear from Belmontonians is that town government seems to be reacting to events, rather than planning ahead. That may or may not be true, but what is absolutely true is that Belmont lacks an important tool to let it do much more: a 10-year comprehensive plan. A comprehensive plan is a common tool that communities across the country use to establish a vision for the future and set goals and establish action items to achieve that vision. Like a corporate strategy document, it ties together the functions of government and [READ MORE]

Select Board Candidates Answer BCF Questions

Board of Selectmen, March/April 2025, Select Board Comments Off

Feb 262025

Select Board Candidates Answer BCF Questions

Each year, the Belmont Citizens Forum asks Select Board candidates questions about issues facing our town. This year, Paul Joy and Taylor Yates provided answers. They were limited to 1,000 words. BCF About 95% of the property tax levy in Belmont comes from homeowners and 5% from business owners, a ratio that has varied little in decades. a) Is the development of more business space a realistic solution to Belmont’s financial challenges, with much of the existing commercial space empty or underutilized? Taylor Yates There’s meaningful revenue potential in rezoning our business districts, but we must be realistic about the [READ MORE]

Vision for a Better Belmont: Julie Wu

March/April 2025, Newsletter Comments Off

Feb 262025

This article is the seventh installment in a series of interviews with Belmont leaders about their vision for Belmont’s future. Jeffrey North conducted this interview. It has been edited for length and clarity. – Ed. Julie Wu is president of the Belmont Pan-Asian Coalition, co-chair of Belmont’s Diversity Equity and Inclusion Implementation Committee, and was a member of the MBTA Communities Advisory Committee. She is also a founder of Belmont Composts! and a member of the town’s Solid Waste and Recycling Committee. Diversity, as measured by ethnicity, race, language, gender, age, income, disability, and country of origin, has increased in [READ MORE]

Belmont’s Historic Home Plaques

Historic Preservation, January/February 2025, Newsletter Comments Off

Jan 032025

Belmont’s Historic Home Plaques The Belmont Historical Society (BHS) recently celebrated the 10-year anniversary of its historic home plaque program, with 45 plaques now displayed on historic homes around town. Belmont’s historic homes are greatly diverse in their architecture, ranging from Georgian to Victorian to Craftsman and mid-century modern. To qualify for a plaque, a home must be at least 50 years old, retain its original design integrity, and have a clean chain of title. For more information about this program, contact belmonthistory1859@gmail.com. Photos by Evanthia Malliris and John Beaty.

Letter to the Editor: Roundabouts

Bicycles and bike paths, January/February 2025, Newsletter, Traffic Comments Off

Jan 032025

To the Editor: I am looking at the September/October BCF Newsletter article, “Town Works to Make Streets Safer for All,” with plans for the roundabouts on Concord Avenue at Winter and Mill Streets. I favor roundabouts for the sake of traffic safety, and so I am in favor of most of the project. The drawings, however, show a bikeway along the southwest side of Concord Avenue, narrow at the ends and widening as it passes two roundabouts, where there are crosswalks, and ending on Mill Street. The bikeway serves only eastbound bicycle traffic. A sidewalk is shown on the northeast [READ MORE]

Homer House Restoration Gets Underway

Historic Preservation, January/February 2025, Newsletter, Plants Comments Off

Jan 032025

By Wendy Murphy and Neal Winston Driving down Concord Avenue from Belmont Hill into town, you can’t help but notice the emergence of a stately Victorian mansion. A wall of trees hiding the mansion was removed this spring as part of a landscape restoration project for the back and side yards of the 1853 William Flagg Homer House at 661 Pleasant Street. The Belmont Woman’s Club owns the house and land. The project was sponsored and managed by the Belmont Land Trust, a volunteer nonprofit organization, which has held a conservation restriction on the property since 2010. Long neglected, the [READ MORE]

Profiles in Belmont: Dr. Gi Yoon-Huang

January/February 2025 Comments Off

Jan 032025

By Elissa Ely In this rough world, there are those who turn to all sides with grievance and rage. But there are also those who turn with care and gentleness—and if they happen to turn with medical expertise as well, the rough world is fortunate. They are treasures. Here is one. Gi Yoon Huang, MD—co-director of the Belmont Celebrates Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage group, Town Meeting member, and member of multiple Belmont committees—was born in South Korea. Her parents had moved to Virginia from their impoverished, war-battered country (“it was their American dream”), but her mother returned briefly back [READ MORE]

Town Still Hangs From ‘Fiscal Cliff’

Board of Selectmen, January/February 2025, Newsletter Comments Off

Jan 032025

By Allison Lenk and Robie White Two years ago, the Belmont Citizens Forum Newsletter published the article, “Have You Read the Collins Center Report?” The 2022 report, produced by the Edwards J. Collins, Jr. Center for Public Management, stresses the urgency of acting on their recommendations which were initially made in 2018. The earlier report included a warning that Belmont would be falling off a “fiscal cliff” in the future if changes weren’t pursued. The Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center for Public Management is part of the McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies at the University of Massachusetts [READ MORE]

Belmont’s Owls are Calling, and Dying

January/February 2025, Newsletter Comments Off

Jan 032025

by Fred Bouchard With its regal size and stern, brow-knit mien, the Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus, GHO) stands as not just a sagacious symbol of wisdom but as a fearsome, widespread nocturnal raptor. Its namesake horns, conspicuous 2-inch erect ear tufts, help triangulate aurally on prey. Aptly called a “tiger among birds” by ornithologist Frank Chapman, these owls once raided chicken coops. Today they are the scourge of smaller birds (even smaller owls) and suburban mammals like rabbits and rodents. And therein lies their unique vulnerability. As apex avian predators, owls—along with hawks and eagles—are subject to being victimized [READ MORE]

BCF Asks State to Suspend SGAR Registration

January/February 2025 Comments Off

Jan 032025

BCF Asks State to Suspend SGAR Registration

The following letter was sent to the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources on December 16, 2024. Dear Members of the Pesticide Board Subcommittee, The Belmont Citizens Forum, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and enhancement of the environmental quality of Belmont and surrounding areas, strongly supports the suspension of the registration and legal use of Second-Generation Anticoagulant Rodenticides (SGARs) in Massachusetts. The Belmont Citizens Forum publishes a bimonthly newsletter that informs residents about local environmental and community issues. Recent editions have featured articles detailing the dangers of SGARs, including their impacts on wildlife, ecosystems, and public health. These articles [READ MORE]

Belmont’s Decarbonization Path Stays Uncertain

January/February 2025, Newsletter Comments Off

Jan 032025

Belmont’s Decarbonization Path Stays Uncertain

By Brian Kopperl and Roger Wrubel In the 2024 July/August BCF Newsletter, the Belmont Energy Committee (EC) updated BCF readers on the committee’s work to advance Belmont’s decarbonization efforts. The EC is now encouraging the town to pursue Climate Leader Community certification, to give the school department the option to acquire several electric school buses and to apply for a new Mass Save grant to fund a town energy manager to help the town obtain and manage decarbonization and energy efficiency grants to meet the town’s Climate Roadmap goals adopted in 2019. Climate Leaders Communities The Department of Energy Resources [READ MORE]

January/February 2025 Newsletter

January/February 2025, Newsletter Comments Off

Jan 032025

Read the January/February 2025 Newsletter PDF In this issue: Belmont’s Decarbonization Path Stays Uncertain The Energy Committee is encouraging the town to apply for a new Mass Save grant to fund a town energy manager to help the town obtain and manage decarbonization and energy efficiency grants to meet the town’s Climate Roadmap goals adopted in 2019. Read more. BCF Asks State to Suspend SGAR Registration The Belmont Citizens Forum strongly supports the suspension of the registration and legal use of Second-Generation Anticoagulant Rodenticides (SGARs) in Massachusetts. Read more. Belmont’s Owls are Calling, and Dying As apex avian predators, owls—along [READ MORE]

Belmont’s Brumal Birds Will Soon Abound

Environment, Newsletter, November/December 2024 Comments Off

Oct 282024

By Fred Bouchard. Photographs by Shawn Carey. We’ve changed tactics for getting familiar with our bird buddies of the brumal (pre-vernal, i.e., winter) season. We’ll pair like with like—woodpeckers, raptors, songsters, and feeder favorites. For more information, research any species by visiting ebird.org. Downy Woodpecker / Red-bellied Woodpecker Woodies are mostly non-migratory. While flickers and sapsuckers head South, the rest abide with us—quite vocally—year-round; in leafless months we get to see them better. Of the five remaining, three mainly stay in forested areas: the mid-sized Hairy, the majestic Pileated (“Woody”) and the rare Red-headed Woodpeckers. Our likelier winter peckers [READ MORE]

Lone Tree Hill Displays Autumn Glory

Lone Tree Hill, November/December 2024 Comments Off

Oct 282024

Photos by Jeffrey North Lone Tree Hill is a popular spot for a springtime stroll—but Belmont’s open space offers fall fascination as well. From asters to mountain mint, the site’s native plants put on a colorful autumn show.

BCF Community Service Opportunity

November/December 2024, Traffic Comments Off

Oct 282024

I hope to recruit a high school student to work with me on a Belmont traffic project for community service. The project will use the rotary at the intersection of Grove, Blanchard and Washington Streets to estimate the effectiveness of similar rotaries at the entrance to McLean Hospital at Mill Street, and at the intersection of Concord Avenue and Common Street at Belmont Center. I am a retired electrical engineer with an advanced degree from MIT. I did a traffic study in 2017 with a high school student to estimate Belmont’s cut-through traffic during the morning rush hour. Here are [READ MORE]

Belmont Serves Subdues Center Knotweed

BCF Events, Environment, November/December 2024 Comments Off

Oct 282024

On October 14, stalwart Belmont Serves volunteers—working with Belmont Conservation Volunteers—took shovels and snips in hand to clear a massive Japanese knotweed infestation on town-owned land abutting the railroad tracks, the site of the future community path Thank you to everyone who pitched in.

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