native plants – Belmont Citizens Forum

Volunteers Clean Up and Restore Lone Tree Hill

Apr 292026

Volunteers Clean Up and Restore Lone Tree Hill

By Radha Iyengar On a sunny and cool Saturday, April 25, the Belmont Citizens Forum (BCF), in conjunction with the Judy Record Conservation Fund, held its 12th annual Lone Tree Hill Volunteer Day. The volunteers included Girl Scout Troop 84205, Cityside Subaru employees, volunteers from Habitat, and citizens from Belmont and the surrounding communities. Many hands made light work. This year we had three different work locations. At the Meadow Edge Trail, volunteers planted 60 white pine saplings and five eastern red cedar saplings. These trees will eventually create shade as another way to make it harder for the buckthorn [READ MORE]

Miyawaki Forest Grows Through Two Seasons

Environment, May/June 2026, Plants Comments Off

Apr 242026

Miyawaki Forest Grows Through Two Seasons

By Fred Bouchard and Jean Devine By Clay Pit Pond’s bridge on that brilliantly sunny October morning, dozens of eager planters — aged 12 to 80, armed with shovels and trowels — were swarming among hundreds of potted saplings and bushes at Belmont’s inaugural Miyawaki Forest. (Akira Miyawaki, 1928-2021, was a Japanese botanist who developed the practice of restoring small plots of degraded land with densely planted pocket parks.) Curious joggers, dog-walkers, strollers, and pram-pushers who paused for a look-see or polite query barely slowed the feverish activity that unrolled all day long, from 8 AM to 6 PM. The [READ MORE]

Environmental Leader: David O’Neill

Climate Change, Environment, May/June 2026, Newsletter, Open Space Comments Off

Apr 242026

Mass Audubon, founded in 1896, is one of the oldest and largest conservation organizations in New England. With more than 112 wildlife sanctuaries across Massachusetts, a network of 180,000 members and supporters, and a mission to protect the nature of Massachusetts for people and wildlife, Mass Audubon combines land protection, habitat restoration, conservation science, and environmental education to safeguard biodiversity and build climate resilience across the Commonwealth. The Belmont Citizens Forum spoke with David O’Neill, president and CEO of Mass Audubon, about the organization’s statewide conservation strategy, its partnerships with communities and policymakers, and his vision for the future of [READ MORE]

Miyawaki Forest Planted at Belmont Middle and High School

Environment, November/December 2025, Open Space, Plants Comments Off

Oct 312025

Miyawaki Forest Planted at Belmont Middle and High School

On Saturday, October 4, dozens of volunteers of all ages gathered at Belmont Middle and High School to plant a Miyawaki forest, also known as a mini forest. (See “Belmont’s First Miyawaki Forest Comes to BHS,” BCF Newsletter, July 2025.) They planted 1,400 native tree and shrub seedlings on 3,000 square feet—about the size of a public swimming pool. Photos by Jeffrey North.

Lone Tree Hill Restoration Continues

Environment, Lone Tree Hill, Open Space, Plants, September/October 2025 Comments Off

Aug 262025

By Jeffrey North and Joe Hibbard For over a decade, Lone Tree Hill has been a focal point of community-led ecological restoration in Belmont. The Belmont Citizens Forum, the Judy Record Conservation Fund, and many dedicated volunteers, all under the aegis of the town’s Land Management Committee for Lone Tree Hill, have shared this effort. Since the restoration work began, this conservation land has transformed from a neglected patch of invasive thickets to a thriving habitat increasingly dominated by native species. Last April 26, despite steady rain, more than 50 volunteers gathered at Lone Tree Hill’s Meadow Edge Trail for [READ MORE]

Belmont’s First Miyawaki Forest Comes to BHS

Climate Change, Environment, July/August 2025, Open Space, Plants Comments Off

Jun 302025

Belmont’s First Miyawaki Forest Comes to BHS

By Jean Devine Picture this: It’s 2028, and on the Belmont High School campus, a small forest of native trees and shrubs is shooting toward the sky. The trunks sway gently and the leaves shimmer softly in the summer breeze. As you walk toward this grove, birds flit in and out, you hear a hum of bees, while other pollinators, insects, and worms, mostly invisible to you, thrive in deeper sections of this new habitat. Before you stands Belmont’s first Miyawaki Forest (aka mini forest). Now, three years after planting, this forest is self-sufficient. And, it’s replicable! Maybe it has [READ MORE]

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]

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]

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.

Belmont’s Trees Enrich Town Streetscape

Newsletter, September/October 2024 Comments Off

Aug 232024

By Vicki Amalfitano, Lucia Gates, Eva Hoffman, and Adam Howe What makes you feel at ease when you drive down a town street? Would it be as comfortable on a hot summer’s day without shade trees? Tall, beautiful oak, maple, and birch trees; magnificent beech trees, flowering dogwood, magnolia, and cherry trees enrich our streets and yards. They fill our senses with their beauty, and they cool our homes. They take in the carbon dioxide we breathe out, and they release the oxygen we breathe in. We are grateful for the trees’ benefits and their positive impact on the value [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]

Managing Nature Without Pesticides

Environment, May/June 2024, Newsletter Comments Off

Apr 302024

By Judy Sheldon Whether we’re growing tidy-looking lawns, tree-lined paths to meander, or flower or vegetable gardens, our yards and our parks also provide food and shelter for other creatures. Bees, butterflies, ladybugs, spiders, and fireflies all live in our lawns, gardens, and trees. Birds eat the seeds, berries, fruits, and nuts from the plants. Some bird species get nutrients from insects, including mosquitoes and others we don’t want around. Rabbits eat mostly plants; squirrels and chipmunks thrive on fruits, nuts, and acorns. Larger birds, like hawks, owls, and even eagles, also eat the small animals and birds that live [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]

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]

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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