Mother Brook rests just down the hill from my house. A morning would not be a morning without a view of the waters of the Brook. The Charles is nice, but Mother Brook is all Dedham... created by early settlers and still flowing through the heart of the town.
This blog is presented as a Public Service for Mother Brook and for Dedham.
PS: Interested in authoring Mother Brook posts? please contact me.
Courtesy of Mass Gov, here is a canned search for Mother Brook Dedham
For Immediate Release Contact: Wendy Fox
February 25, 2008 617- 626-1453
DCR SCHEDULES PUBLIC MEETING TO PRESENT DRAFT MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR STONY BROOK RESERVATION
The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) has scheduled a public meeting to present and discuss the Draft Resource Management Plan for Stony Brook Reservation in Boston. The meeting is set for Tuesday, March 11, 2008, at 6:30 p.m. in the Community Room of the Boston Police Department’s District E-18 station, 1249 Hyde Park Ave., Hyde Park.
Other DCR properties included in the plan are Camp Meigs, Colella Field and Playground, Dale Street Playground, Mother Brook Reservation (also in Dedham), and the Dedham, Enneking, and Turtle Pond parkways. The draft plan documents and assesses the existing conditions of these properties and provides a framework for their management. Public comment will be welcome at the meeting.
Stony Brook Reservation was established in 1894 as one of the first five reservations in the Metropolitan Boston area. With 475 acres, it constitutes the largest protected open space within the City of Boston, and also offers a variety of athletic fields and recreational facilities. The popular Olsen swimming pool, Bajko skating rink, and the Connell, Gelewitz, and Kelly fields are all in Stony Brook Reservation. Users of these facilities are encouraged to attend the public meeting.
The public comment period for the draft Stony Brook Reservation Resource Management Plan closes on March 28. The plan can be downloaded from the DCR website at www.mass.gov/dcr/stewardship/rmp/rmp-stonyBrk.htm. Maps and a copy of the plan also are available for review, during business hours, at the DCR West District Headquarters, 12 Brainard St., Hyde Park. Additional review copies are available at the Hyde Park, Roslindale, and West Roxbury branches of the Boston Public Library, and at the Dedham Public Library
and its Endicott Branch.
Dan from over at the mydedham.org blog ads this lovely tidbit from yet another City of Boston document:
"Mother Brook Greenway
As America’s first canal, built to divert some flow from the
Charles River to the Neponset, Mother Brook has considerable
industrial and commercial development on it. The MDC in
years past had purchased acreage at Mill Pond where River Street
meets the Stony Brook Reservation and along much of the steeply
sloping banks of Mother Brook. Thanks to Fairview Cemetery,
a Parks Department property, and the MDC Stony Brook
Reservation, there is some buffering to the north of Mill Pond.
While small in length, Mother Brook, which connects to the
Charles River in Dedham just west of Route 1, is important in
the long term. A map of metropolitan Boston will show that by
Mother Brook’s linking of the Charles to the Neponset, most of
Boston is encircled by water – to the north and west by the
Charles, to the south by the Neponset, and to the east by the
Atlantic Ocean. Water is a prime connecting “tissue” for
greenway corridor planners. The ultimate loop is this encirclement
of Boston – with the assistance of the other Charles River
communities of Dedham, Newton, and Watertown, and the
other Neponset River community, Milton. Mother Brook is
thus a key link in a potential regional loop water-based trail.
In addition to its role as a missing link in a necklace of water
around Boston, Mother Brook at Mill Pond is at a crossroads in
the MDC system. It is where Turtle Pond Parkway crosses
Mother Brook and becomes the Neponset Valley Parkway,
which connects to the Blue Hills Reservation. The recreational
facilities of the Stony Brook Reservation are immediately north
of this crossroads; heading north from Mill Pond on Turtle
Pond Parkway and Enneking Parkway through the Stony Brook
Reservation, a recreation enthusiast can connect to the Emerald
Necklace via West Roxbury Parkway and VFW Parkway to the
Arnold Arboretum. The value of this connecting node in the
emerging system of greenways in the city is highly significant,
such that Mother Brook should be an important planning focus.
Yet there has been little attention paid in recent years to
Mother Brook, in part due to the efforts in the Lower Neponset
River Reservation and the various Charles River Reservations:
old, new, and the upper reaches in Newton, Watertown, and
Waltham. The most significant activity in Mother Brook in recent years, in addition to periodic clean-ups of the river, has
been the city’s effort to create a new park at a brownfield site
along the Brook. The park, completed in 2000, is called the
Reservation Road Park. It contains an artificial turf soccer/
football field, a skateboard facility, a small parking area,
brookside paths, overlooks, and riparian banks restored with
native plantings. It has been well used since its inception,
attracting people to the water’s edge, and perhaps creating
public interest in further exploring the Brook in both directions."
An interesting bit of planning appears in the "Open Space Plan 2008-2012: Section 7 Analysis of Needs: Section 7.2.8: Community Open Space & Recreation; Hyde Park" document from the City of Boston. To wit:
"At some future point, DCR planners should look at the Mother Brook. The concept would be to connect the Neponset River to the Charles River via Mother Brook. This would result in a continuous riverside greenway from the mouth of the Neponset to the mouth of the Charles [the DCR is also working on the other prong and expresses that “the agency’s larger goal to extend the Charles River greenway 14 miles to Brook Farm in West Roxbury.” (http://www.mass.gov/dcr/masterPlans.htm)]. The Harborwalk system would then connect the mouth of the Neponset to the mouth of the Charles to form a continuous open space system encircling Boston ... a “Blue-and-Green Ring.” The city will assist with planning and through other means, but the major role in realizing this concept will be in the hands of the DCR. As the Neponset River Reservation Master Plan gets fully implemented, this concept of Mother Brook as an open space connector between the Charles and the Neponset will gain more attention from the public. This will be a new open space frontier for Hyde Park in the years and decades to come."
I tried to find a history of discussion between the City of Boston and the Town of Dedham, but none turned up. Has there been discussion on this topic? Comments from anyone in the know would be appreciated.
Gary
A few years ago, a guy by the name of Erastus Worthington penned a piece about Mother Brook. Hop over to Google books for
the short version
or
the long version
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