With the US Army Corps of Engineers’ extended monitoring period coming to a close in early November, Boston Parks and Recreation Department Special Project Manager Tom Timmons led a group of river advocates on a site walk of “Phase One and a half” work areas on Tuesday, September 23rd. Prior to “final acceptance” and the turnover of responsibility for project maintenance, a group gathered to assess environmental status and opportunities, and to hear from Kellie Connelly, Principal Landscape Architect with Terraink.
Among the key points:
Tom Timmons: “The only things outstanding before the final sign-off on November 5th are minor, like placing plugs in Work Area #6. All the trees have met the standard of acceptance.”
Kellie Connelly: “The choices we make moving forward need to incorporate nature, aesthetics, and design intent… and from a landscape point of view, we have to strike a careful balance between inviting people to move into spaces and making it look like a place we don’t really want people to physically go into…
We have reestablished the banks of the Muddy River with a thriving natural community of plants, shrubs, trees, herbaceous materials. It doesn’t always fall into everyone’s category of aesthetic preference, but everything that was planted here generally has survived. We do have some problem areas that are often the result of either foot traffic or challenging grade. We’ve been trimming down shrubs out of the canopy of trees so we’re not getting too much conflict and we’re getting the shrubs to stay low and full versus tall and thin. That’s been our approach to hillside maintenance.
In all, this has been an incredibly successful project.”
Arleyn Levee: “It’s urgent that we understand this as a constructed riverine landscape—and fight to care for and preserve it as such.”
The Army Corp is expected to issue a report detailing data collected during the entire monitoring period before the end of the year.
Photo (l to r): Jack Schleifer, Brookline Parks; Tom Timmons, Boston Parks; Arleyn Levee, MMOC; Kellie Connolly, Terraink; Paige Swope, Terraink; Margaret Pokorny, Charlesgate Alliance; Freddie Veikley, MMOC.
