Plants – 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]

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]

Profiles in Belmont: Hal Shubin

May/June 2025, Plants Comments Off

Apr 292025

By Elissa Ely Height comes with advantages (which many of us low to the ground wish we had). In Hal Shubin’s case, it’s one way to recognize him at the Belmont Farmers’ Market, where he’s chairman of the overseeing committee. You might already have recognized him, though, from his work with the Belmont Food Collaborative, or his three terms on the Board of Library Trustees, or his early involvement on The Belmont Voice, back when the weekly newspaper was still a list of suggested names. As he wrote on his LinkedIn page, “no rest for the retired.” Hal’s farm awareness [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]

Akebia (Chocolate Vine) Invades Belmont

March/April 2025, Plants Comments Off

Feb 272025

By Dean Hickman and Leonard Katz Akebia quinata, also known as chocolate vine, is an evergreen ground cover and climbing vine with compound leaves, typically having five leaflets with notched tips. It is invasive in our area, and has taken over as ground cover and climbed and smothered trees in two forested conservation areas in Belmont: Beaver Brook Reservation, northeast of the upper Mill Pond off Mill Street; and in the Pleasant Street area of Lone Tree Hill, across the brook from the Coal Road Trail, on the hill above the back entrance to the Star Market parking lot. Akebia [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]

Group Plants Cambridge Front-Yard Forest

July/August 2024, Plants Comments Off

Jun 252024

Group Plants Cambridge Front-Yard Forest

An abridged version of the article appeared in the July/August 2024 BCF Newsletter. Group Plants Front-Yard Forest in Cambridge By Susan Filene, Tori Antonino, Judy Perlman, and Ali Kruger The first Miyawaki forest in the northeast was planted on public land in Cambridge in September 2021. (Miyawaki Forest Boosts Biodiversity, Resilience, BCF Newsletter, May 2022). Similar little forests have been planted or are planned for nearby communities, including Somerville, Brookline, Watertown, Natick, and Worcester. It occurred to me that people could do something similar, on a smaller scale, in their urban/suburban yards. We could replace lawns with native species of [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]

Belmont’s Beech Trees are Dying

January 2024, Newsletter, Plants Comments Off

Jan 052024

By Phil Perron The majestic beech tree is under attack in Massachusetts. The culprit is a microscopic nematode (Litylenchus crenatae ssp. mccannii). Beech leaf disease (BLD) has taken the state by storm, causing, in the best cases, leaf distortion and, in the worst cases, total tree mortality. All beech tree varieties are at risk, including the stately copper beech. Unfortunately, many questions about this disease have yet to be answered as the industry works to find solutions to manage this pest before it is too late. BLD was first discovered in Ohio in 2012. Eight years later, it had made [READ MORE]

Lone Tree Hill Saw Improvements in 2023

Environment, January 2024, Lone Tree Hill, McLean, Newsletter, Open Space, Plants Comments Off

Jan 052024

By Radha Iyengar Belmont’s Lone Tree Hill Conservation area benefited from another year of conservation, restoration, and stewardship, thanks mainly to the efforts of the Land Management Committee for Lone Tree Hill (LMC). Many Belmontonians and visitors enjoy this 119-acre conservation property for walking, biking, viewing wildlife, and being out in nature. The LMC was created through a memorandum of agreement between the town and McLean Hospital in 1999. The agreement outlined the development restrictions for the McLean Hospital campus. It also reserved approximately 119 acres of the campus as publicly accessible open space, including a new municipal cemetery, and [READ MORE]

Residents Restore Royal Road Woods Ecosystem

Environment, Newsletter, November/December 2023, Plants Comments Off

Nov 012023

Residents Restore Royal Road Woods Ecosystem

By Vincent Stanton, Jr. and Pamela Andrews Belmont Conservation Volunteers (BCV) formed earlier this year to work on “restoring our natural spaces for everyone to enjoy.” Volunteer efforts have focused on reining in the extensive and expanding invasive species displacing native plants which support local insects, birds, and mammals. The BCV emerged from pioneering volunteer work by Leonard Katz on Lone Tree Hill. (See “Spare a Thought for Lone Tree Hill”, BCF Newsletter, September 2022.) To expand that work to town-owned land, Katz and Sustainable Belmont leader Dean Hickman obtained permission from both the Select Board and, because many of [READ MORE]

Stewards Keep Ogilby Farm Traditions

Environment, Historic Preservation, History, Newsletter, Plants, September/October 2023 Comments Off

Sep 012023

By Judith Feinleib Henry Ogilby thinks of himself, his siblings, and Mike and Hermik Chase as stewards of the last remaining farmland in Belmont, part of the Richardson Farm Historical District. They are stewards in the classical sense of the term—people whose code of ethics requires them to engage in responsible planning and management of resources. In this case, these resources are the land and houses that have been in the Ogilby family since the 17th century. For the last 11 years, the Chases have cultivated the land of Belmont Acres Farm where they grow and sell vegetables and keep [READ MORE]

Lone Tree Hill Goes Native with Plantings

Environment, Lone Tree Hill, Newsletter, Open Space, Plants, September/October 2023 Comments Off

Sep 012023

Lone Tree Hill Goes Native with Plantings

By Jeffrey North On Earth Day 2023 (April 22), the Belmont Citizens Forum (BCF), in conjunction with the Judy Record Conservation Fund, held its ninth annual Lone Tree Hill Volunteer Day. (See “Volunteers Plant, Clean Up Lone Tree Hill,” BCF Newsletter, May/June 2023, for more information). Several dozen volunteers rolled up their sleeves, and gardening trowels in hand, planted 350 plugs of young native plants in the Great Meadow and reclaimed meadow areas of Belmont’s Lone Tree Hill Conservation Land in addition to planting 40 white pine saplings to replace the mature pines gradually lost to age and weather. The [READ MORE]

BH Students Create Native Plant Garden

July/August 2023, Newsletter, Plants Comments Off

Jun 302023

By Audrey Brenhouse On Saturday, May 13, the Belmont High School Climate Action Club, with the help of adult and student volunteers, planted our long-anticipated native garden in front of the school. Our goal is to grow plants native to this area to promote and support native wildlife, helping to restore the land’s natural biodiversity. In the spring of 2022, we held a student-led concert where many families kindly donated to this process. After years of approvals and fundraising, we are proud and grateful to be able to display the result of your generosity. Over the next few years, these [READ MORE]

How to Get Your Garden Through Summer Heat

Environment, July/August 2023, Newsletter, Plants Comments Off

Jun 302023

How to Get Your Garden Through Summer Heat

By Sarah Wang, Kim DeAndrade, and Jean Devine By this point in the summer, your water barrels may be dry and you may be devoting inordinate amounts of time (and money) to watering. No matter how much you water, it cannot compare to real rain. Here are some tips to help with drought: Mulch! Besides retaining moisture, mulch will feed the soil and keep down the weeds. Avoid dyed mulch. It is unregulated and may contain shredded construction wood waste and pressure-treated wood. And, it won’t do much to feed the soil. If you buy mulch, consider compost and [READ MORE]

Belmont Will Phase Out Gas Leaf Blowers

Air Quality, Environment, July/August 2023, Newsletter, Plants Comments Off

Jun 302023

By Marina (Goreau) Atlas and Karen Cady-Pereira In recent years, Belmont residents have become acutely aware of the roar, fumes, and particulate dust emitted from two-stroke gas-powered leaf blowers. A new town policy will soon change the use of gas-powered leaf blowers that emit cancer-causing particulates, send out winds that can exceed Category 5 hurricanes, and stir up everything from road dust to pollen to particles left behind from Muffin and Fido’s morning walk. This policy is an important step to improve our relationship with lawns and encourage healthy landscapes that enhance our quality of life. From May 15 to [READ MORE]

Let Your Hidden Native Plant Garden Emerge

Environment, May/June 2023, Plants Comments Off

Apr 262023

Let Your Hidden Native Plant Garden Emerge

By Heather Pruiksma Spring has sprung, and gardeners everywhere are itching to get their hands into the soil and among the roots. At Grow Native Massachusetts, we encourage including more native plants in your gardens, which can be less work than it might seem — if you’re willing to be a little patient. Native plants are plants that have been growing in a particular habitat and region, typically for thousands of years or much longer. Also called indigenous, they are well adapted to the climate, light, and soil conditions that characterize their ecosystem. Within this system, they have evolved important relationships [READ MORE]

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