Environment – Belmont Citizens Forum

Another Successful Lone Tree Hill Volunteer Day

BCF Events, Environment, Lone Tree Hill, May/June 2025, Open Space, Plants Comments Off

Apr 292025

Another Successful Lone Tree Hill Volunteer Day

By Radha Iyengar On Saturday, April 26, a day with steady rain, the Belmont Citizens Forum (BCF), in conjunction with the Judy Record Conservation Fund, held its 11th annual Lone Tree Hill Volunteer Day. The volunteers included Girl Scout Daisy Troop 63278, Cityside Subaru employees, volunteers from Habitat, and citizens from Belmont and the surrounding communities. Many hands made light work. At the Meadow Edge Trail, volunteers removed garlic mustard and planted 50 white pine saplings, 10 eastern red cedar saplings and also replaced five white pine trees that did not survive the planting from last year. Volunteers also transplanted [READ MORE]

Make Your Yard an Avian Oasis

Environment, May/June 2025 Comments Off

Apr 292025

You can bring joy to your backyard flocks without going to the trouble and expense—and to some, imagining the specter of surreptitious nocturnal rodents—of up-keeping bird feeders. Birds are opportunistic feeders—a bug in the beak is worth two in the bush—even if cannier species maintain acorn and seed caches. Nor are they circumspect about having a quick drink: a drop of dew, sip from a puddle, draft from a drainpipe—all afford vital hydration. In times of freeze or drought, refreshed watering oases are lifesavers and bird magnets. If you put out birdbaths, even makeshift ones, a sip of Adam’s ale [READ MORE]

Attune Yourselves to the Voices of Spring, Tra La!

Environment, May/June 2025 Comments Off

Apr 292025

Attune Yourselves to the Voices of Spring, Tra La!

An Informal Cornucopia of Nature’s Natterers By Fred Bouchard Now we’ve shed our muffled-up, gray brumal months and can wake up to the myriad bright voices of spring that surround us. Some are tiny, and too intimate: the house fly zizzes angrily to escape your bedroom; a drone mosquito whines by your ears. Some are shrill and chattery: from a tree fork a gray squirrel scolds in a chitter; a chipmunk goes tuk! tuk! as she scoots underfoot. The Eastern cottontails burrowing under your yard—normally silent—may emit petulant squeals if alarmed or attacked. A red fox, skunk, or raccoon can [READ MORE]

Belmont Reduces Rodenticides on Town Land

Environment, May/June 2025 Comments Off

Apr 292025

Belmont Reduces Rodenticides on Town Land

By Jeffrey North Belmont is preparing to vote on a home rule petition at the May Town Meeting to seek local authority to regulate use of second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides (SGARs) on private property. Belmont has largely eliminated SGARs on public property, recognizing their dangers to wildlife, pets, and children. Town departments, including the Health Department, Public Works, Facilities, and Housing Authority, have adopted safer alternatives such as electric traps, carbon dioxide treatments, and snap traps. This initiative reflects Belmont’s commitment to environmentally responsible pest management and aligns with statewide efforts to curb the use of the most toxic rodenticides. Rodenticides, [READ MORE]

OPINION: Understanding America’s Food Systems

Environment, May/June 2025, Open Space, Plants Comments Off

Apr 292025

OPINION: Understanding America’s Food Systems

By Tom Phillips With ambitious promises being made by the new Secretary of Health and Human Services to challenge “big ag” and reduce the country’s reliance on processed foods, and with significant actions already being taken by the Trump administration that impact agriculture on a national level—including the attempted layoffs of federal workers at USDA and FDA—it is crucial for Belmont citizens to understand the complexities of food systems. Growing up in the suburbs of Boston without any family ties to farming, I find it challenging to grasp the financial struggles, social issues, and environmental impacts inherent in food production. [READ MORE]

There is More to Restore on Lone Tree Hill

Environment, Lone Tree Hill, May/June 2025, Open Space, Plants Comments Off

Apr 292025

There is More to Restore on Lone Tree Hill

By Joseph Hibbard and Jeffrey North A crew of 30 field technicians, crew leaders, and one or two landscape designers kicked off the Lone Tree Hill work season on Lone Tree Hill on March 14 with a day of training. For the second consecutive year, the Land Management Committee (LMC) for Lone Tree Hill (LTH) granted permission for the Parterre Ecological Services “Class of 2025” to conduct an invasive species removal training session for field technicians. The trainees’ target area was a section in the northeast corner of the Great Meadow. The training area provided a hands-on workspace for training [READ MORE]

Conservation Commissions Protect Our Water

Climate Change, Environment, May/June 2025, Newsletter, Open Space, Plants, Water Quality Comments Off

Apr 292025

By Dorothy McGlincy and Jeffrey North Belmont is home to the Massachusetts Association of Conservation Commissions (MACC), a vital nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting Massachusetts’s natural resources by supporting conservation commissions across the Commonwealth. Since its founding in 1961, MACC has been a cornerstone of environmental advocacy, providing resources, training, and support to the state’s 351 conservation commissions and promoting the protection of natural resources for future generations. MACC is headquartered at Mass Audubon’s Habitat property on Juniper Road. A mission rooted in conservation At its core, MACC’s mission is to assist and empower local conservation commissions, which serve as [READ MORE]

Join BCF for Lone Tree Hill Volunteer Day April 26

Environment, Lone Tree Hill, March/April 2025 Comments Off

Feb 272025

Join BCF for Lone Tree Hill Volunteer Day April 26

Join us in stewarding Lone Tree Hill! The Belmont Citizens Forum, in conjunction with the Judy Record Conservation Fund, is holding its eleventh annual cleanup and trail maintenance day on Saturday, April 26, 2025 from 9 AM until noon. Help with the planting of white pine saplings near the Meadow Edge Trail, cleaning up and removal of invasives at the Mill Street parking lot and the Coal Road respectively. Students can earn community service credits. Bounded by Concord Avenue, Pleasant Street, and Mill Street, Lone Tree Hill spans 119 acres of permanently protected conservation land and is available to everyone. [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]

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.

Belmont’s Victory Gardens Remain Vibrant

Environment, History, Lone Tree Hill, Newsletter, Open Space, September/October 2024 Comments Off

Aug 232024

Belmont’s Victory Gardens Remain Vibrant

By Jeffrey North Victory gardening in Belmont has never been more popular (local food production activity during World War II notwithstanding). One of the largest and oldest continuously active community gardens in the Boston area, Belmont’s Rock Meadow Victory Gardens consists of 132 garden plots of varying sizes, typically ranging from 12 by 12 feet to 50 by 50 feet. The gardens cover about three acres of land at the Rock Meadow Conservation Area along Mill Street, between Trapelo Road on the south and Winter Street on the north. After glaciers retreated 10,000 years ago, Native Americans burned the land [READ MORE]

New Connections Coming to Mystic Greenways

Environment, July/August 2024, Newsletter, Open Space Comments Off

Jun 252024

New Connections Coming to Mystic Greenways

By Isaiah Johnson It’s a great time to enjoy Greater Boston’s parks and paths as we head into the middle of summer. Whether you walk, bike, or run, the Mystic Greenways are great places to get outside and enjoy fresh air. At the Mystic River Watershed Association (MyRWA), we are excited to see the path network along the Mystic River grow more connected every year, linking parks and greenways from the Mystic Lakes to Boston Harbor. The vision behind the Mystic Greenways is to connect 25 miles of paths, improve hundreds of acres of parklands, and engage thousands of community [READ MORE]

Belmont Boasts Bounteous Birds

Environment, July/August 2024, Newsletter Comments Off

Jun 252024

By Fred Bouchard Most of us try to cozy up to Mother Nature now that we’re increasingly climate-conscious, especially during longer days and presumably carefree hours of summer. Whether you’re in the garden, open spaces, or on woodsy walks, our home town offers a variety of eco-friendly locales to commune with Ma Nature’s little winged ambassadors. I offer four likely places, each hosting two not-obvious, strictly seasonal denizens that you might readily identify with your attentive ear and sharpened eye. We go from high altitude to low, and throw in an easily overlooked hotspot in nearby Cambridge. A good guide [READ MORE]

Rodenticides Are Killing Massachusetts Wildlife

Environment, July/August 2024 Comments Off

Jun 252024

Rodenticides Are Killing Massachusetts Wildlife

Will Authorities Step Up? Courtesy of the Harvard Animal Law & Policy Clinic A coalition of Massachusetts residents petitioned the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR) in May to suspend the registrations of anticoagulant rodenticide products that are killing eagles, owls, and other wild animals throughout the Commonwealth. The petition—prepared by the Harvard Law School Animal Law & Policy Clinic—was submitted on behalf of bird rehabilitators Erin Hutchings, Jodi Swenson, and Linda Amato of Cape Ann Wildlife in Essex; mammal rehabilitator Jane Newhouse of Newhouse Wildlife Rescue in Chelmsford; Marci Cemenska of Save Lexington Wildlife; James Joyce II and Patricia [READ MORE]

Belmont Mosquito Control Services Explained

Environment, July/August 2024 Comments Off

Jun 252024

The Role of the East Middlesex Mosquito Control Project By Jeffrey North Mosquitoes can be more than just a summer nuisance; they can carry diseases like West Nile virus (WNV) and Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE). The East Middlesex Mosquito Control Project (EMMCP) works to protect Belmont residents from these diseases. Established in 1945, the EMMCP is a regional public health agency dedicated to controlling mosquito populations and minimizing the risk of mosquito-borne diseases. Serving 27 cities and towns across the greater Boston area, the EMMCP employs a team of entomologists, biologists, and environmental specialists to keep mosquito activity in check. [READ MORE]

Belmont Carbon Emissions Down 14%

Climate Change, Environment, July/August 2024, Solar Power Comments Off

Jun 252024

By Roger Wrubel, Brian Kopperl, and James Booth According to the Belmont Energy Committee’s most recent inventory, the town’s carbon emissions dropped from 177,000 tons to 150,000 tons per year between 2014 and 2021. The drop, which measures emissions from gasoline, natural gas, fuel oil, and electricity, results from residents shifting away from home heating oil to other energy sources, driving more fuel-efficient vehicles, and drawing their electricity from a cleaner New England grid. Except for the shift away from fuel oil, none of these reductions are happening at a pace sufficient to reach zero emissions by 2050. The committee [READ MORE]

Profiles in Belmont: Farmer Tim

Environment, May/June 2024, Newsletter, Open Space Comments Off

Apr 302024

By Elissa Ely Choosing a favorite vegetable or melon, if you happen to be Farmer Tim Carroll, is like choosing a favorite child. If he’s eating a cantaloupe from his farm, cantaloupe is his favorite. When he’s eating a cherry tomato, the cantaloupe steps aside. “I’m not a fennel guy,” he says, but with such respect that no fennel could resent him. There are dozens and dozens of vegetable children in Farmer Tim’s world. Since 2015, his Dudley, MA, farm has grown multiple varieties of up to 50 kinds of produce each August through October. The season starts aboveground with [READ MORE]

How to be a Biodiversity Builder

Environment, May/June 2024, Open Space, Plants, Stormwater, Water Quality Comments Off

Apr 302024

by Jean Devine An open mind, eagerness to learn new things, a willingness to work with peers from different schools, and a tolerance for hot weather, a bit of rain, and getting dirty are all it takes to be a Biodiversity Builder. Youth don’t join Biodiversity Builders (BB) to fill out their resume. They join because they’re curious about nature and maybe gardening, they worry about climate change, and they want to do something positive to help the planet. Youth who become Biodiversity Builders learn how to solve environmental and societal challenges, get down and dirty removing invasive plants and [READ MORE]

Restoration Resumes on Lone Tree Hill

Environment, Lone Tree Hill, May/June 2024, Newsletter, Open Space, Plants Comments Off

Apr 302024

By Jeffrey North and Joseph Hibbard A crew of 18 technicians, crew leaders, designer, and managers gathered on Lone Tree Hill early on the misty morning of March 15. They were there for the third and final day of their work season kick-off with a day of training on Belmont conservation land. The Land Management Committee (LMC) for Lone Tree Hill (LTH) had granted permission to allow the Parterre Ecological Services “Class of 2024” to conduct an invasive species removal training session for field technicians. Their target zone was a section of the southeast corner of the Great Meadow. The [READ MORE]

Belmont Has a New List of Preferred Trees

Environment, May/June 2024, Newsletter, Plants Comments Off

Apr 302024

Belmont Has a New List of Preferred Trees

By Eva Hoffman Belmont’s shade tree committee, in conjunction with the Department of Public Works (DPW) and the tree warden, has developed a list of preferred native trees for planting by the town on public property, for contractors planting street trees, and for residents who are seeking information for their gardens. The Belmont Preferred Trees List contains information on the size, characteristics, and growing conditions for each species. Twenty of the 45 recommended trees are marked “street tree,” which means they can be planted between the sidewalk and the street. But they aren’t exclusively street trees. They are adaptable, reliable [READ MORE]

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