Food Advisory: Fish

Is the freshwater fish that you recently caught safe to eat? Fish can absorb pollution from the water, so before eating any local fish, make sure to check for advisories or warnings. If you fish in freshwater and eat your catch, it’s important to keep up to date on the Freshwater Fish Consumption Advisory List, […]

Wee Beetles: Out & About, Controlling Purple Loosestrife

Every year, around the last week in April / first week in May, Galerucella calmariensis and G. pusilla beetles emerge from their underground winter shelters to feed on the young shoots of exotic, invasive Purple loosestrife.

Salt Marsh Restoration

Land use along the Neponset River has had a lengthy and colorful history—from industrial to residential land use, commerce to quarrying. Many of these activities significantly have affected the health of the Neponset Estuary salt marshes. In fact, Boston Harbor Watershed salt marshes have dwindled since the arrival of European colonists. Much of Boston’s marshes […]

2010 Project Update

November 2010 Purple Loosestrife Biocontrol Project Update In 2010, Beetle Ranching volunteers from around the Neponset River Watershed and beyond carefully raised Galerucella calmariensis & G. pusilla beetles for this project to reduce exotic, invasive Purple loosestrife in the Fowl Meadow wetlands, Brookwood Farm, and at adjacent wetland areas. Over the years, these beetles and […]

Purple Loosestrife Biological Control Project

October 2011 Project Update In 2011, we raised Purple loosestrife biological control (“biocontrol”) beetles (Galerucella calmariensis and G. pusilla) to treat Purple loosestrife in the northern Fowl Meadow wetlands and in nearby Brookwood Farm, in quantities guided by recommendations from project advisor the Massachusetts Department of Ecological Restoration (DER). Our goal has been to produce […]

Mile-a-minute

Mile-a-minute, or Persicaria perfoliata, is an exotic, invasive, spiny vine that grows in the Neponset River Watershed. In fact, Mile-a-minute grows right in the Canton section of Fowl Meadow, a designated Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC)! The climbing plant shades out native plants (e.g., reduces the other plants’ ability to photosynthesize / make food, […]

Water chestnut

European water chestnut (Trapa natans) is an exotic, invasive aquatic plant that can occupy slow-moving waters and especially ponds and lakes in the Commonwealth. Did you know that European water chestnut lives in the Neponset River Watershed? Water chestnut has grown in Ellis Pond in Norwood. The MA Department of Environmental Management initially spotted the […]

Asian longhorned beetles

In early July 2010, exotic, invasive Asian longhorned beetles were discovered in six Red maple trees at the Faulkner Hospital in Jamaica Plain, a neighborhood of Boston. Jamaica Plain is right on the outskirts of the Neponset River Watershed. As soon as the beetles were identified, the trees were removed, to prevent further spread of […]

Control Invasive Species

Exotic, invasive species are organisms that arrive in an area far from their home and then succeed in surviving, reproducing, and spreading. Exotic, invasive species bring turmoil to a natural system; they can out compete native species and reproduce vastly, taking over a significant swathe of the ecosystem in a short time, changing the structure […]

Exotic, Invasive Species

Exotic, invasive species are organisms that arrive in an area far from their home and then succeed in surviving, reproducing, and spreading. Exotic, invasive species bring turmoil to a natural system; they can out compete native species and reproduce vastly, taking over a significant swathe of the ecosystem in a short time, changing the structure […]