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Learning from Seattle's 'up-zoning' for higher density, before we vote in tomorrow's mayoral Preliminary Election

9/10/2017

There have been many mayoral forums leading up to tomorrow's mayoral Preliminary Election, most of them viewable online, but the one video that I wish everyone in Newton would watch before voting is of an event I attended last year. It has now aired on NewTV and is available for viewing online.

"The False Promises of Up-Zoning Reform: Lessons Learned From the Seattle Neighborhood that Inspired the Movie ‘Up’", is the story of what’s happened to the Ballard section of Seattle since zoning was changed in 2010 to allow greater residential density. It includes a live video-linked interview with community preservation activists in Seattle about their first-hand experience.

Outcomes include higher housing costs, with the areas with the highest density experiencing the highest increase in rents, displacement of workers, elimination of middle-class housing, loss of trees, green space and local businesses, and development outpacing the capacity of transit and other infrastructure.

The parallels with Newton are striking, including a pro-growth media, “engagement theatre” for residents, developers promoting density as “green,” with organizations like the Sierra Club arguing for more intense land use, but promises of better public transit decades away.

It’s an hour and 13 minutes, but I promise you will find it worth your time and quite compelling. Here's why it's relevant to the mayoral race. Two of the three candidates with a realistic chance of advancing to November, Ruthanne Fuller and Scott Lennon, both voted for the Washington Place rezoning to MU4 and special permit, and support more such high-density MU4 projects. Amy Sangiolo voted against the Washington Place rezoning and special permit, wants to preserve more of our existing naturally affordable (smaller) housing, and emphasizes the need for commercial development that will be sufficient to offset the negative fiscal impact of additional residential development.

Please share this information with your Newton friends and neighbors. It’s not too late to keep what happened to Ballard from happening to Newton, but we need more people to be informed about what’s at stake, and vote on Tuesday.

Why I’m running (a second time) for Councilor-at-Large Ward 3

8/12/2017

For those who don’t know my background: I’m an almost lifelong resident of West Newton. I graduated from the “old” old Newton High School in 1973, went on to graduate from MIT with a bachelor’s in Economics, and earned an MBA at the University of Chicago. I spent most of the 1980s living in Detroit, working for General Motors, before figuring out that what I really wanted to be was a newspaper photographer. Since 1989, I’ve been a photojournalist at the Lowell Sun.
I became active in public affairs in Newton almost by accident, by attending a Programs & Services Committee meeting to speak on another issue, hearing a discussion of the soon-to-be-passed Tree Preservation Ordinance, and learning about the dire situation of Newton’s public trees (which I’d previously taken for granted). Trees seemed like a discrete, manageable area where I could be of service, so I joined the Urban Tree Commission, and later became a founding director of the Newton Tree Conservancy, and president for the last two years. Since 2010, working with groups of neighbors, we’ve planted almost 800 trees. Trees in turn led to my early interest in the issue of gas leaks, and getting them fixed.
I also became increasingly concerned about the issue of teardowns, and the resulting tree removals, wastefulness, and loss of many of Newton’s most affordable houses. I value the economic diversity that Newton has had since my parents moved us here from Scituate in the late 1950s, and watch with dismay as one by one, Capes like our first house in Newton, or bungalows like the one I live in now, are demolished, replaced by houses two or three times as big and expensive.
I’ve written about these issues as a Village 14 blogger, and joined with other residents with similar concerns to form the Newton Villages Alliance, to provide information and advocate for policies and decisions that will help preserve a middle class in Newton.
I'm running for City Council for the same reasons I did not wait for an open seat to run for Alderman-At-Large two years ago. I want voters to have a choice, and I believe residents need more advocates on the City Council.
As one example, I was appalled that 2/3 of our City Council voted for the Orr Block rezoning with a “devil strip.” State law gives residents the right to petition for a 3/4 threshold to approve an unwanted zoning change. The developer’s devil strip (the non-rezoned strip) made him his own abutter, circumventing the clear intent of state law, and 2/3 of the City Council let him get away with it, putting the financial burden on the real abutters to finance a lawsuit to enforce their rights.
On more routine Land Use items, residents get short notice on projects that the City’s Planning Department and applicants have been working on for months. Too many residents are having to hire their own attorneys, architects, surveyors and arborists to do what zoning should do — protect themselves, their property, and their trees, from the adverse impacts of adjacent development.
Rising taxes, increased traffic, crowded schools, and vanishing trees and backyards have many people asking whether Newton is still the Garden City, and wondering whether they want to stay or can afford to stay.
I’m not giving up. And I urge others not to give up, either, because all the good things about Newton are worth fighting to preserve.
Instead, vote. And convince your friends and neighbors to vote. Local elections are where our individual participation has the most impact. I ask for your vote on November 7, and your support as I work for a financially and environmentally sustainable Garden City.
I also urge a No on the proposed new charter, to preserve the “representative” part of representative democracy, the ward-elected councilors. The proposed charter would concentrate power in fewer hands, eliminate dissenting viewpoints on the Council, and make it more expensive for everyone to run for City Council, because every race would be citywide. It’s no benefit to be able to ‘vote in every race’ as proponents argue, if your preferred candidates are swamped in every race by voters from the other parts of the city.

Solar carports threaten trees at Newton Free Library parking lot - City Council vote Monday, April 4

4/3/2016

I've spent much of the last few weeks, along with fellow tree advocates on the Urban Tree Commission, and the Newton Tree Conservancy board, trying to convince the City Council not to approve a deal between Ameresco Solar, Inc. and the City of Newton that would require cutting trees to install solar carports at the Newton Free Library parking lot.
Initial debate at the March 18 City Council meeting showed a closely divided vote,, and Councilor-at-Large Jim Cote chartered the item (postponing it for two weeks) to allow more time for the public to be informed and weigh in. My Letter to the Editor appeared in the March 20 Newton Tab. The Urban Tree Commission has urged the City Council to preserve the Library trees and put solar elsewhere, and the Newton Tree Conservancy board has written to our members to alert them to the impending vote. This document was part of that email:

Here is my latest communication on the subject, to village list serves and google groups:

City Council vote Monday April 4 on cutting Library parking lot trees to install solar carports

I urge anyone disturbed by this prospect to contact the city councilors, because lack of objections to this plan (even though most people were — and maybe still are — unaware of it), has been interpreted as approval.

Our Library parking lot is the greenest in the city. It still has some of the mature trees that were preserved when the parking lot was designed in 1989. And after many years of an insufficient tree planting and maintenance budget, new trees of large-maturing species were planted just a couple of years ago. As a result, the Library lot comes the closest to meeting our zoning ordinance, which recognizes the importance of landscaping in parking lots by requiring one tree for every ten parking spaces when lots this size are altered.

Solar proponents say the youngest Library trees will be moved, or replacements planted elsewhere. But that is no more than required by our Tree Preservation Ordinance, no net gain, and not reassuring when we are still losing hundreds more public trees per year (about 650) than are being planted by the city and Newton Tree Conservancy combined (about 410). At the same time, we are losing private tree canopy to teardowns and other development at a worrisome pace. Development has also led to loss of public trees at Angier and Zervas, to build larger schools with more parking, and reconfiguring Auburndale Square to accommodate more traffic will cost a large traffic island tree. So we should be planting more trees anyway to offset these losses. Not diverting resources to moving established trees.

City councilors were being urged to act quickly, before a state solar incentive program (which makes these installations financially viable) hit its cap. And also told that Newton’s project would reduce carbon emissions. A contradiction, because a capped incentive program means that another community will install the solar capacity if Newton doesn’t. Now that the cap appears to have been reached, the argument has shifted to ‘having more communities on the waiting list will increase pressure to lift the cap.’

We’re also told solar carports at the Library will be “educational,” as if we’re too stupid to think solar is a good idea unless we’re forced to look at it close up. I disagree.

It’s really a question of whether we really want to give up all the other environmental and health benefits of trees, and the aesthetic value of trees in our public spaces. The projected cost savings of Library carports is less than $17,000 per year, or about 20 cents per resident per year. The same cost savings and carbon sequestration figures (equivalent “acres of trees”) being used to justify removal of Library trees for solar could just as well apply to other public spaces, from the Comm Ave median, to Saw Mill Brook Parkway.

Please support the City Councilors who are trying to save our trees in public spaces by sending an email ASAP, in advance of the Monday, April 4, vote, to swarren@newtonma.gov and to the City Council via the City Clerk at dolson@newtonma.gov, in your own words, or by cutting and pasting the following message:

Dear City Councilors,
I ask you to please vote to save the trees in the Newton Free Library parking lot - even the small trees, because they are the large trees of the future. Cutting down trees on our public spaces for profit is a terrible precedent to set. I support Newton's commitment to solar and renewable energy, but not at the expense of our already shrinking tree canopy. I’d like to see more trees in parking lots, as our zoning ordinance requires. Please work to make sure every suitable flat roof, commercial as well as public, has solar panels, instead of cutting down the trees we have. Please support trees where trees can grow, and solar where trees cannot grow. Thank you.
(Your name and street)

Bulldozing Newtonville: Orr Building development may extend to Lowell Ave; residents last to know

2/9/2016

When I first wrote here about the proposed development at Washington and Walnut Streets, I'd heard it included 150 units. That seemed impossibly high for an already busy intersection, the kind of number a developer asks for as a starting point, so I described it as "well over 100 apartment units." And it appeared that developer Robert Korff of Mark Investment was merely buying up all the commercially zoned properties, most of them from one family trust. Little did I imagine that this 'edifice complex' could grow to engulf the entire stretch of Washington Street from Lowell Ave to Walnut Street. While I had thought the firewall was the residential district of Washington Terrace, it now appears that the only real firewall is the southern end of the Newtonville Historic District. (Map at right.)

I first heard from a resident on Washington Terrace that his lease was not being renewed because his landlord might be selling the building. So it sounded like the development might extend to the east side of Washington Terrace. However, I am now hearing that this will be a six-story development with 230 residential units above the commercial level. But what is perhaps more shocking to me than the scale, is the complete lack of outreach by anyone in city government to the people who will be most affected -- the current renters who will be losing their homes in naturally affordable apartments.

There is a long-scheduled meeting for the community this Thursday, February 11, at 7pm in the Newton North High School cafeteria, sponsored by the Newtonville Area Council and the Ward 2 city councilors, for developer Robert Korff and/or his attorneys to present and answer questions. But I spent an hour Sunday knocking on doors on Washington Terrace to try to learn more, and found that most people I met knew nothing even about the project, let alone the Thursday meeting.

One couple had heard (but only two days earlier) that the Newtonville Post Office, the gas station, and the church around the corner on Lowell Ave (Elevation Chapel) were sold or under agreement with contingencies. (I can't confirm the corner gas station, whose owner wasn't talking, or the church, which was closed, but a Post Office employee said their building has been sold, and they only found out last week when inspectors came through.)

But people in five more apartments had heard nothing, These include a seven-year resident whose husband has to live within 15 miles of the Weston Fire Department, who was hoping to stay a little longer, until their daughter graduates from NNHS; a three-year resident with one kid each at Horace Mann, Day, and NNHS; another couple getting married -- three=year residents hoping to stay longer; and a couple from Ukraine who just moved in last fall.

This project would need a rezoning to Multi Use 4 (MU4), which would need approval by 2/3 of the City Council. Residents in other parts of Newton may not feel this affects them, but should be aware, this may be an indication of what's in store for other village centers (especially those with T stations), and for the entire Washington Street corridor, which could eventually resemble Newton Corner. The pro-density, pro-development agenda is clear from recent Housing Strategy sessions like the November Lego exercise. (Consultant's presentation to Zoning & Planning Committee here.)

Anyone concerned about the physical and financial impacts of development on this scale should attend the Thursday, February 11 meeting at Newton North High School, and continue to follow this issue. You may also want to sign up here for updates from Newton Villages Alliance (of which I'm a steering committee member), on this and other issues.

Mark Investment's website does not show any six-story buildings expect for one in Copley Square, so it's hard to visualize what they have planned for this stretch of Washington Street. We may find out on Thursday.

A roomful of people are asked where to put high-density housing

12/1/2015

The 2013 campaign may be over, but I still have this blog, and plan to use it. However, I've been preoccupied by trees for much of the past three weeks, as we did our biggest set of Newton Tree Conservancy plantings yet -- 90-plus trees over two Saturdays with five neighborhood groups, plus planting three replacements for past trees that didn't survive, collecting TreeGators from trees that have had their two years of watering, doing assessments (and next, first pruning) of one group of trees that's been in for three growing seasons, and getting started on Spring 2016 group applications. (If your street needs trees and you'd like to organize a group for Fall 2016, you can get more information here.)

One event that I didn't want to miss, however, was the November 22 installment of the administration's series of Housing Strategy meetings, where participants were asked to put Lego blocks on maps of Newton to indicate where they would put higher density housing. One of my concerns is that opinions collected from a small number of people, on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, under rules and format set by an administration determined to build more housing and high-density housing regardless of the impacts on school overcrowding, traffic, taxes, and loss of open space, would be used to justify future policy decisions.
I thought it was important for people who were not able to attend, or who did not even know this event was happening, to be able to hear the discussion, hence the video. With ten tables in the breakout session portion (which starts about one hour into the video), I couldn't be everywhere, so that portion is only a random sampling, but I think it captures the competing viewpoints. It's striking, though, that one thing that people had in common was that no one seemed to like teardowns. (So what is the city doing about that? Nothing.)
Contrary to my fear that this exercise would attract mainly people interested in building more and more housing until "demand" is satisfied (when would that be?), there actually seemed to be quite a lot of pushback on the premise of more housing development being needed or desirable.

But the rules of the "game" seemed designed to achieve a particular outcome. I was especially disturbed by how the consultant invited participants to convert commercial and industrial property to residential -- calling that an "opportunity" -- when our percentage of commercial property is already low, and we need to preserve and expand our commercial tax base to have any hope of paying for $1 billion of unfunded pension and OPEB liabilities. And as I say near the end of the final Q&A period, I question why the administration is pushing what amounts to a 10% increase in housing units in a city that many of us feel is already fully built out, (And it's not even clear that 3,200 units is the target, or whether it could be higher.)
A big thank you to my fellow former candidate, Chris Pitts, for processing the video clips and getting this 2 hour 40 minute video uploaded to YouTube. I hope people will take the time to watch it, and let our elected officials know what they think.

Real Property Reuse fails residents again

10/30/2015

Real Property Reuse continues to backtrack on promises to increase the size of the park at 70 Crescent Street, and Lenny Gentile's pledge to limit the number of housing units in the development to eight. Now up to 12 units, a 50% increase. No minimum amount of land guaranteed to be added to the Rev. Ford Playground. And access to the playground from Auburn Street, that Eversource was willing this summer to give over their land, is being held hostage by the Planning Department to approval of the housing. So the only access will continue to be down the driveway of Myrtle Baptist Church.
Audio of last night's October 27 meeting here.
Oh, and in this very same neighborhood, a large oak tree was cut down by an experienced developer, in violation of his Tree Permit, a developer who will be tearing down a perfectly good moderately-sized house to put up luxury townhouses. He'll owe a $300 fine, all that current ordinances allow.

Community meeting Monday on Charles River Greenway safety & litter issues

10/17/2015

Following the recent alleged rape on the Charles River Greenway, the Nonantum Neighborhood Association and Terry Sauro have organized a community meeting to address safety, homeless, litter, and other concerns. It will be Monday, October 19, 7pm at Post 440 (295 California Street).
I had not been to this stretch of the Greenway, having mostly been around the Albemarle Road access for weed pulls, so I took a walk today with Alderman Jim Cote and NNA member Lois Dominique, who walks there regularly and knows the problem areas.

She and Ward 1 Alderman Alison Leary had picked up litter just last Saturday (carefully, because hypodermic needles have turned up), so it looked better than it had, but there was still new litter. It appears the homeless people who had been camping out near California and Bridge Streets are not there now.

Despite the problems which have been reported, not just recently, but going back at least a couple of years, you can see from my video what a lovely walk this is, and we are lucky to have it. We had an unexpected and pleasant surprise about 2/3 of the way through -- a red-tailed hawk (we think) swooped down and landed on a tree trunk near us, lingered a minute and then flew off. We were all thrilled by that!

Austin Street site visit - the movie

10/11/2015

Here's an essentially uncut look at last Wednesday's site visit to Austin Street (minus a couple of extraneous moments like my camera getting in the way of Ruthanne Fuller's pointing arm, and both of us apologizing profusely). It's an hour long, so I've broken into two parts.

I can't do actual tracks, as with Newton Villages Alliance yourlisten.com audio, but if you click on the link below the screen capture, to play the video directly from Vimeo, you will see track points of different topics of discussion are included in the description. When the video has buffered sufficiently, you can jump forward or backward to any point in the timeline, but I recommend listening the whole way through!

In evaluating distances from these videos, it's important to note that, because I'm standing close to people so I can pick up audio, and because the autofocus is broken on the longer focal length of my wide-angle zoom lens, this is mostly shot at a very wide angle focal length. This makes faraway objects appear even more far away, and smaller, than they would in person.

You can judge for yourself, but a couple of things I found most striking: 1) Austin Street Partners (ASP) representatives were not able to mark where the actual building (upper floors, as opposed to footprint) ended in the back ("We couldn't figure that out . . . That requires a little level of engineering that we weren't able to do"); 2) their uncertainty over how far the curb would move out, narrowing Austin Street ("Is it four feet or is it a foot?"); and 3) the general surprise/dissatisfaction evident among the alders that basic information seemed to be unavailable, vague, or in the case of the driveway location, contradictory.

A couple of substantive comments of my own:
First, ASP and the city seem to be trying to have it both ways, double counting Bram Way's benefits, when it can only be one thing at a time. They're counting Bram Way from Austin Street as a third means of access for the public, and a way for trucks serving the businesses that back onto Bram Way to get in/out without turning around to use the back entrance. But they want to get credit for Bram Way being open space, by raising it with pavers to discourage the public from actually using it as an entrance. And putting the responsibility on the city to literally close it for events. But the rest of the time it's not actually closed, so the safety concerns raised by a resident near the end of Part 2, that the architect calls "interesting," seem valid.
Second, while trees may not be anyone's top concern, they're one of my big interests, and I wonder if the designers have really thought out what they're doing on the Austin Street side. If the utility wires along the sidewalk are not put underground -- and ASP seems to be saying, if the city wants it done, the city, not ASP, will have to pay for it -- then you can't plant large-maturing shade trees along the street side. But that's what you need to plant if you want to eventually have trees with a canopy above truck clearance height. The species we plant as underwire trees, like crabapples, serviceberries and Amur maackia, tend to have a wider form, and the lower limbs will need to be pruned or they'll be hit by trucks. Or as Gwen suggested, you can plant trees with a vertical form. But the species that I think of -- English oak, columnar sweetgum (MIT has a beautiful row near the Athletic Center), and Newton Sentry sugar maple (but probably not salt-tolerant) are large-maturing species in height. If there are any short, narrow species, they wouldn't provide much of a green canopy.

Austin Street site visit - October 7, 2015 - Part 1 from Newton Villages Alliance on Vimeo.

Austin Street site visit - October 7, 2015 - Part 2 from Newton Villages Alliance on Vimeo.

League of Women Voters/NewTV debate

10/9/2015

Watch my 3-minute statement on NewTV

10/8/2015

Alderman candidate videos are up on NewTV's website.

Decision 2015: Julia Malakie from NewTV on Vimeo.

What will happen to Mishkan Tefila portion of Webster Woods?

9/28/2015

A portion of Newton's largest forest is at risk for development.
Surrounded by Hammond Pond Parkway, Route 9, the Green Line, and residential neighborhoods, the western part of Webster Woods is big enough to get lost in, and I did, briefly, when I stopped to talk and fell behind the large group taking a walking tour of the land Saturday morning.
Congregation Mishkan Tefila owns the middle portion of the woods west of Hammond Pond Parkway, 22 acres, according to the Assessor's Database (though elsewhere described as 24 acres or 28 acres). The Congregation has shrunk, they want to downsize to a smaller facility, and have reportedly reached a tentative agreement to sell the land to Boston College. This would presumably satisfy the stipulation that the land be used for religious or educational purposes for 99 years from the date Mishkan Tefila acquired it from the state in 1954, but it would not prevent BC from developing the land. (And after 2053, I guess all bets are off.) The only portion protected would be the vernal pool along the southern edge, and a 100ft buffer, protected as wetlands.
The Newton Conservators, nearby neighbors, and other residents from elsewhere in Newton, are mobilizing to try to save this integral part of the woods from the risk of development. One of the neighbors, Rory Altman, led the well-attended Saturday walk, and others told stories about kids growing up using the woods, and about the vernal pool (drier than it should be, even in summer, due to the recent drought).
It was a revaluation to me, as I'd associated the woods with Hammond Pond Parkway, to learn how easy it is to get to, with multiple entrances from the streets off of Langley Road, Now that I know how easy it is to get to, I'll be back for more exploring (though probably not until the campaign is over).Here's the video I shot. I missed the caves (located on Newton's portion of the land), because I stopped to talk to Margaret Primack, who told me of her husband Richard Primark's parents' involvement with an earlier effort to "Save the Vale." Let's hope this time it can be saved in perpetuity.

Tour of Webster Woods Mishkan Tefila land in Newton from Newton Villages Alliance on Vimeo.

Faded crosswalks a concern in Nonantum

9/2/2015

Nonantum residents and the Nonantum Neighborhood Association, led by Terry Sauro, have been trying since last September 2014 to get the crosswalks repainted at the major intersections including Watertown Street, Adams, Bridge, Chapel and Pearl. It's normally done in spring and fall, but it didn't happen last fall or this spring, or before the festival in July. They're now being told they'll be next as soon as the school crossing crosswalks are done. In the meantime, they are reporting close calls, with people almost being hit by drivers who say they didn't see the crosswalk. In Nonantum yesterday evening for the Ward 1 Democrats Candidates Night at West Street Tavern, I saw the effect firsthand. Pedestrians may be hard for drivers to see in the dark, but if drivers can't see the crosswalks, they won't even know to expect them. And residents says it's a problem in the daytime, too.

Friday, Aug. 28, deadline to register to vote in September 17 preliminary

8/24/2015

If you're new to Newton or otherwise not registered to vote here, you've got four days left if you want to vote in the September 17 preliminary election for Alderman-at-Large from Ward 2. Remember, the whole city can vote in At-Large races.

The Massachusetts Secretary of State's office now has an online voter registration system, but at this point you might want to do it in person at City Hall if you can, because it will likely take a couple of days to receive your confirmation from the city that you are registered, after using the online system.

If you do use the online site, do not be alarmed by the message that confirmation will take two to three weeks (which would be after the deadline). That message is intended to cover all towns in Massachusetts, some of which have part-time election clerks and slower turnaround, City Clerk David Olson explained to me. It's much faster in Newton. A new Newton resident I met who used the system last Tuesday and got the worrisome message, got her confirmation from the city on Thursday.

And if you're not sure of your voter registration status, you can check that online, too.

Black swallow-wort weed pull at Hemlock Gorge

8/24/2015

This is most of the group that pulled black swallow-wort at Hemlock Gorge Saturday morning, August 15. Brandeis biology professor & invasive species expert Eric Olson (who took this photo) estimated "15 people, thousands of pods collected before releasing 10 or more wind-borne seeds each."

This is a nasty weed, hard to get all the roots out, so I mostly followed Eric's example and just tried to bag as many plants as possible to capture the pods and limit seed spread. Most of these pods a week ago were green, but we saw one example, below, where you can see the milkweed-like seeds. If you see it in your yard, try to get it all. Eric in this video explains why. Katherine Howard (second from right in photo above), one of the lead organizers of Newton Conservators invasive weed pulls, has been going back to Upper Falls to work on other infestations she's spotted. It will be a long battle to keep this and other invasives from overwhelming native species and habitat. Here's more info at a National Park Service link provided by Eric.

BOLO: another invasive plant (and help pull it on Saturday)

8/12/2015

Over the last few years I've become well-acquainted with two widespread invasive plants, garlic mustard (see post on Village 14 back in 2012), and Japanese knotweed, which I see everywhere. (This video was at Tyngsboro High School.) My Newton Tree Conservancy colleagues Katherine Howard and Beth Wilkinson, as well as Eric Olson and Ted Kuklinski, have led eradication and education efforts by the Newton Conservators at weed pulls in areas including Cold Spring Park, Dolan Pond, and Blue Heron Bridge. It's a continuing and under-appreciated effort, without which these plants would be even more widespread and displacing native species.

But only this past Sunday did I encounter black swallow-wort, which sounds like it may be even worse. I was checking one of our Newton Tree Conservancy trees in Newton Highlands that has what looks like a winter moth caterpillar problem, when the owner asked if I knew what this vine was that was strangling her plants and was very hard to get rid of. I didn't, but Beth recognized this photo right away as "BSW" and it is a great concern. It's starting to appear around Newton, and because it spreads by milkweed-like seeds that emerge from these pods that resemble chili-peppers, it could quickly become very widespread.

And the very next day, Katherine's email below arrived, looking for volunteers to pull BSW at Hemlock Gorge this Saturday. She estimates 35 person-hours of work, and if we finish early, the plan is to go around Upper Falls where BSW is rampant and distribute flyers.

So be on the lookout for these distinctive pods in your own yards, and dig it out and dispose of in the trash ASAP. And if you can spare an hour or two this Saturday, please come and help pull this infestation at Hemlock Gorge before it gets out of control. Bring a small trowel or dandelion fork for better root removal. It's a more open area, not woodsy, but long pants tucked in are probably a good idea in case of ticks.

Help Needed to Battle Black Swallow-Wort
At the beautiful Hemlock Gorge park in Newton Upper Falls, at a site poised over the gorge and much the rest of the city, is a flat area, about a tenth of an acre, covered in nothing but black swallow-wort (BSW) and its pods. BSW is a terribly invasive non-native vine that is suddenly appearing all over Newton; within a few weeks its numerous pods will burst open and the wind will further spread its tiny seeds. BSW invades by blanketing large areas and crowding out native species, impacting insects birds and butterflies; it is also fatal to monarch butterflies in migration and is yet another threat to that species.

Join us on Saturday August 15 10am until noon, when we will take up (and bag and dispose as trash) the plants and pods. Bring gloves, and a hat as the area is open and sunny.   Park at the lot at the intersection of Ellis St/Quinobequin and Route 9 (at the underpass under Route 9); walk a bit up Ellis St to Echo Bridge; the area is at the base of Echo Bridge on Ellis St.

Please contact howard_Katherine@Hotmail.com or 617-721-2571 if you have any questions and to confirm that you plan to attend, or if you can't make that time and would like to help at another time. Many thanks!