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Not a river you want to fall into
By adamg on Sun, 06/22/2014 - 8:33am
On Friday, Ed Hatfield photographed the Muddy River under the Bowker Overpass at Charlesgate:
That basketball has been there for at least 5 years, the soccer ball about eight and I think the baseball was a Babe Ruth homerun knocked out of Fenway Park. This is part of the reason the Charles River is getting cleaner. I think every thing that ends up in the water from JP down stream ends up here and it is blocked so it doesn't go into the Charles River basin.
Yesterday, for the second time in three months, a body was recovered from the Muddy River, just upstream from this location.
Photo copyright Ed Hatfield. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.
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Comments
Just imagine how many dirty
Just imagine how many dirty hypodermic needles are in there, nasty. Whoever is tasked with cleaning that mess is a better man than me, I couldn't do it.
I don't think that Augean mess
..has a Herakles.
It's primordial soup for new life forms like protozoans with Red Sox logos or paramecia with space savers.
If they wait long enough, there may even be some Bruins trilobites.
Fishing
I'd like to try flyfishing in this spot.
For what? Trouser Trout?
Jeeze. It may have a few really tolerant carp, who knows?
But that's more of a spear fishing option.
Oddly, I did see genuine stream fly fishing yesterday along the Charles just below the dam in South Natick.
Today, it was just a morning cormorant between the Commonwealth and Fish piers. The lolling park bench winos were seemingly indifferent to the subtle grandeur of it all.
This
has been disgusting for years. It's revolting and it's not blocked off by a particularly strong barrier. I've always had a terrible phobia of someone pushing me over the rail (as a pedestrian) or getting into a vehicle crash that broke through the rail.
I get that they can't keep the reeds and the algae out, but part of Muddy River is funneled through underground pipes. Can't they install skimmers? Or reconnect it to the Charles so it doesn't sit there stagnant for eternity?
As for fishing, I have seen people fishing there. I'm hoping they're fishing for sport and not food. Yuck.
It has all the hallmarks of a really stressed area...
..at least in eco terms. Those reeds are from Europe and are another weed that was dragged here.
There are an assortment of plants you learn to recognize as evidence of land that has has the crap pounded out of it.
Remediation would involve torching that stuff until it stopped coming back along with the even more persistent Japanese Knotweed that grows well with it.
Then you'd have to get whatever belonged there to grow back.
They could probably do a bunch of things short of that that would at least make it half functional as a small stream system.
Towns like Wellesley even deploy pond scum scrapers in some places like Longfellow Pond.
http://youtu.be/qlpBKhmLIko
Some of the rivers like the Mystic have fairly active Watershed associations that even get out on the water and weed out invasive stuff when it starts to take over.
But I'm guessing the Back Bay is too socially fragmented for whatever reasons and ecosystem restoration isn't as sexy as the usual ridiculous shit they seem to care about.
The city is better at starting things than finishing them.
Once again, more ignorance
Once again, more ignorance from you.
I am a member of Friends of the Charlesgate and we have been organized to do something about this for years, and we are gaining progress.
http://cgatepark.com/
Aah ..it is still in the Posturing Stage.
Do be sure to share triumphant pics of the Friends clutching their muck rakes and other implements as they wade into the muddy to beat back the phragmites.
A shot or two of the new grade terrain and replacement species would rock.
Oh and be sure to include the restoration game plan for the long shot contingency that the DOT, City and whoever else doesn't get around to dismantling their primary artery for that busy little corner before the trilobites emerge..
Wouldn't want all that charming plan drawing stuff to dissolve on contact with reality. Shuffling pixels takes so much more effort than clearing Japanese Knotweed.
I'm offended by your
I'm offended by your accusation that the work of the Friends is nothing but slacktivism. We organize cleanup groups every spring to get out there and clean what little remains of the park's former glory. We are gaining traction and the city is listening.
Would you like a hanky to cry
Would you like a hanky to cry into?
Well a person could be forgiven
..for mistaking process for objective.
And in my ever earnest wish to learn something, it sure does look like officials are about to talk about talking about some misty mythic day when the thing goes away.
I got this for you. fresh as blueberries shipped from North Carolina.
http://boston-massachusetts.us/back-baybeacon-hill-charles-river-basin-p...
It's in BPL and I can't wait for our earnest citizen advocate to report back with a wealth of visuals and pithy observations.
And while the mighty wind winds its way through the backwaters of discourse and meeting we are assured that effort is underway to at least keep the thing from dropping concrete on someone or acting up in other ridiculous ways.
And, as I began, any effort by these pristine advocates to roll up sleeves and take a machete to the phragmites and finally rescue that forlorn basketball are worthy of applause.
Easy Fix - Start saying it's like the Gowanus Canal
Cries of "This is not Manhattan! We can't abide by Manhattanization of Boston! It's covered in shadows!" will echo through websites and 10am weekday public meetings at City Hall.
(Just don't mention that the Gowanus is in Brooklyn.)
Whaaaaat the.....
Mother of God! Can somebody please explain the rational in turning the into a fetid, stagnant body of water?
World class, baby!
World class, baby!