The Campaign for Jamaica Pond and Olmsted Park: Capital Improvement Advocacy in Action

The MMOC welcomed Tony Dreyfus, Jamaica Pond Association board member and Chair of its Parks, Parkways and Open Spaces Committee at its February 18th meeting to share the progress of The Campaign for Jamaica Pond and Olmsted Park. The Campaign, a collaboration of the Jamaica Pond Association and the Friends of Jamaica Pond, was launched in April, 2025 with the goal of ensuring that “healthy, green environments…thrive for decades to come as places of natural beauty and human activity.”

The Campaign has been collaborating with the Emerald Necklace Conservancy and the Charles River Watershed Association to take advantage of the expertise and experience of these two well-established groups.

In the face of declining conditions—incursion by invasive species, erosion, loss of wooded areas, and poor water conditions—the Campaign focuses on volunteer observation, identification of problems, and advocacy for solutions, including capital improvements.

To date, these capital improvements have been proposed:

Among the most pressing strategic challenges for the Campaign are ensuring the City of Boston’s ongoing commitment to managing and rehabilitating the parks—and providing the required financial support to maintain and expand protections.

Additional goals are listed in the Campaign for Jamaica Pond and Olmsted Park’s Ideas for Capital Improvements:

JAMAICA POND

Bandstand

• Replace rotted wood, scrape old paint, and repaint entire Bandstand.

Erosion

• Rebuild runners’ tracks acting as low berms around the Pond to guide stormwater into the drainage system and prevent erosion.
• In selected heavily eroded areas, install short segments of granite stones (as done extensively on the south and west sides of the Pond in the 2018-2019 improvements).
• Rehabilitate degraded areas with added soil and native plantings.

Supporting trees, removing invasives and adding native plants

• Remove large stands of invasive species and replace with native species:
  West side of the Pond (beneath Francis Parkman Drive), especially between the path and Pond.
  North side of the Pond, especially on the slope between the north cove and Pinebank Promontory.
• Create a plan and implement a strategy to respond to beech leaf disease found among some very large beech trees on the west side of Jamaica Pond.
• Plant 20 trees at the Pond to replace recently lost trees and to strengthen wooded areas beyond the path around the Pond.
• Remove selected view-blocking trees and vines between the path and the Pond, especially mulberry and other invasive trees.
• Remove extensive weeds and replace with shrubs and ground cover in the areas between the path and Pond, especially on the east and northwest sides of the Pond.

Bike-Pedestrian Safety

• Prioritize for redesign the intersection of Perkins and Chestnut Streets, where most inappropriate cycling access occurs.
• Modify the existing, but unprotected bike path on Perkins Street between Chestnut Street and the Jamaicaway with low-cost improvements similar to others used throughout Boston.

Replace Large Open Trash Barrels

• Replace existing open barrels with more attractive medium-sized bins with partial covers used in other City parks.

OLMSTED PARK

Erosion

• Remove decades of runoff deposits from the north Daisy Field baseball diamond that have filled in the south end of Leverett Pond.
• Use branches or natural materials to narrow widened footpaths in the Olmsted Woods.
• Reposition displaced stones lining the sluiceway that channels water from Jamaica Pond into Ward’s Pond.

Supporting trees, removing invasives and adding native plants

• Prepare and implement plans for invasives species removal and replanting plans for:
• the informal path parallel to the improved north-south permeable roadway north of Nickerson Hill
• the paths descending from Nickerson Hill to Ward’s Pond by the Babbling Brook outflow.
• Remove large stands of invasives species and replace with native species in the northern part of Olmsted Park on the east side of the Leverett Cove Bridge.
• Create a plan and implement strategy to respond to beech leaf disease found among beeches.
• Apply strategies from the Emerald Necklace Tree Inventory, Conditions Assessment and Manage­ment Plan to support long-term forest regeneration and biodiversity of the Olmsted wooded areas.

For further information, please email Tony Dreyfus at tdreyfus-omega@comcast.net.

The next meeting of the Friends of Jamaica Pond Conservation Committee will be held at 36 Perkins Street, Jamaica Plain, from 6 pm to 7:30 pm on Monday March 16.