Animals

Free Electric Shuttle to Franklin Park Zoo from Forest Hills Debuts

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A new electric shuttle bus running back and forth from the Forest Hills MBTA station and Franklin Park Zoo is now free to anyone on weekends. Zoo officials hope the electric, zero-emissions complimentary shuttle will attract a wider audience to the Franklin Park Zoo. “We couldn’t be happier to debut the shuttle and offer an alternative transportation option for our guests, that will not only make it easier for them to visit Franklin Park Zoo, but also directly supports our conservation mission,” said John Linehan, President and CEO of Zoo New England. “Fewer trips in single-occupancy vehicles alleviate traffic congestion, improve air quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.”
The shuttle was converted by ZEVX (Zero Electric Vehicles) with a grant from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC), according to a press release. The shuttle route from Forest Hills to the Zoo is just under 1.5 miles, and is very easy to see because it's wrapped in bright colors with animals that live in the Franklin Park Zoo or Stone Zoo.

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City Services

Franklin Park Advocates Want You to Contact Councilors to Ask Them to Override Mayor’s Budget

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The Franklin Park Coalition (FPC) is imploring Bostonians to contact the six city councilors who are not supporting the budget package that includes an amendment for additional Franklin Park maintenance. And time is short because the last city council budget vote is Wednesday at noon (City Hall, 5th Floor). In an email newsletter, FPC said District 7 City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson, who has the whole park in her District 7 and chairs the Ways & Means (Budget) Committee, " ...asked us to show up for one last chance to pass the City budget with funding for Franklin Park maintenance and management." Due to the sale of downtown's Winthrop Square Garage, the city provided $28 million to Franklin Park Coalition. $5 million will remain as the principal while the interest it generates will be available as cash every year: 70% for maintenance and 30% for programming. The maintenance projects and cultural/recreational programs are chosen via a vote by the trustees of Franklin Park.

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Environment

Eye Candy at the Arnold Arboretum

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“Rarely if ever before have the Arboretum Laurels (Kalmia latifolia) been as full of flower-buds as they are now, and by the time this bulletin reaches its Massachusetts readers many of the plants will be covered with flowers. The flowering of the Laurels is the last of the great Arboretum flower shows of the year, and none of those which precede it are more beautiful, for the Mountain Laurel, or the Calico Bush as it is often called, is in the judgment of many flower-lovers the most beautiful of all North American shrubs or small trees.”

So wrote Charles Sprague Sargent, the first director of the Arnold Arboretum, in June of 1916. 107 years later, I am watching the best mountain laurel bloom in my thirteen springs here. I found a couple of very old postcards that depict the mountain laurels at the peak of their collective bloom, a seemingly endless stretch of whites, pinks, and even reds at the base of Hemlock Hill. The upper image is from circa 1915, showing the Olmsted designed carriage road with its graceful curve ever revealing something just on the horizon.

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Environment

Hermaphrodite Conifer Cones at Arnold Arboretum — Are Not to Be Missed

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Botany rule # 17: all conifer cones, for the last 300 million years (give or take) are unisexual. Each cone either produces pollen (male function through sperm) or seeds (female function through eggs). For well over a century, plant morphologists (members of a rarified discipline that focuses on the principles of plant form and was inaugurated by none other than Johann Wolfgang von Goethe) have known of conifer tree weirdos that can produce strange looking bisexual or hermaphrodite cones in addition to normal pollen-producing cones and seed-producing cones. While no one knows why this happens, it is rare and definitely something to see when the opportunity arises. [Week of April 29] at the Arboretum, one of our Lijiang spruces, Picea likiangensis (243-92*C) has broken bud, revealing hundreds of hermaphrodite cones right at eye level – and easily found at the south end of Conifer Path near Walter Street Gate.

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Environment

BBR’s Mission Hill Building Certified as Zero Energy

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The Boston Building Resources (BBR) Reuse Center building in Mission Hall was certified as a zero-energy building by the International Living Future Institute (ILFI), representing one of the highest aspirations in energy performance for buildings. BBR announced the award at their April 22 Earth Day celebration. Zero Energy Certification from ILFI allows projects to demonstrate that the building is truly operating as claimed, harnessing energy from renewable sources to produce net annual energy demand. Through a third-party audit of actual performance data, Zero Energy certified projects are proven to be highly efficient buildings that rely only on clean energy, without on-site combustion of fossil fuels. BBR’s 8,800-square-foot building became zero energy after a transformational renovation project, completed in 2021.

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Arts

Wake Up the Earth Festival on May 6: Parades, Musical Performances, Vendors, and More

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While the 45th annual Wake Up the Earth Festival will be a lot of fun this weekend, it's also important to recognize the reason the festival was created, and how it relates to modern times. This year's festival is from noon to 5 pm on the Southwest Corridor by the Stonybrook MBTA Station. The original festival was created by community activists who worked together to defeat a proposal to put a highway through the neighborhood. This year's organizers would like to "move more deeply into awareness of climate resiliency and how climate change connects to low income and affordable housing access, and the racial inequities in Boston that make climate change a vitally important social justice and racial justice issue." As organizers explore how they can make an impact, they're encouraging the community to make a pledge to action.

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Animals

There’s A Lot More Fish in Jamaica Pond After Last Week

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One of the great benefits of being governor of Massachusetts means you have the option of participating in the annual stocking of Jamaica Pond -- and Governor Maura Healey didn't miss her first opportunity to do so. Healey was joined Boston Parks and Recreation Commissioner Ryan Woods, Massachusetts Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Rebecca Tepper, students from John F. Kennedy Elementary and Curley K-8 schools, and MassWildlife staff on April 27. According to Boston Parks and Recreation, more than 1,000 trout were released into Jamaica Pond -- approximately 800 rainbow trout averaging 14 inches long, 25 brook trout and 65 brown trout averaging 18 inches long, and 170 tiger trout, a cross between a female brown trout and a male brook trout, averaging 14 inches long. The fish for the stocking event were raised at state hatcheries.

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Environment

Jamaica Plain’s Gina McCarthy Receiving Emerald Necklace Conservancy Liff Spirit Award

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The Emerald Necklace Conservancy will present the Liff Spirit Award at Party in the Park to Jamaica Plain's Gina McCarthy, the first ever White House National Climate Advisor and former U.S. EPA Administrator. Party in the Park, the Conservancy’s premier annual fundraising event for the EmeraldNecklace, will take place in Franklin Park on Wednesday, May 17, 2023. A career public servant in both Democratic and Republican administrations, McCarthy has been a leading advocate for common sense strategies to protect public health and the environment for more than 30 years. McCarthy’s leadership led to the most aggressive action on climate change in U.S. history, creating new jobs and unprecedented clean energy innovation and investments across the country. Her commitment to bold action across the Biden administration, supported by the climate and clean energy provisions in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, restored U.S. climate leadership on a global stage and put a new U.S. national target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50–52 percent below 2005 levels by 2030 within reach.

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Environment

Letter: Franklin Park Action Plan Light Pollution Concerns

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The following letter was sent to Boston Mayor Michelle Wu; Chief of Environment, Energy, and Open Space Rev. Mariama White-Hammond; and Boston Parks and Recreation Commissioner Ryan Woods. We are writing with concerns about proposals to make significant changes to Franklin Park in the recently released Action Plan. At well over 400 pages, it was too big for us to analyze everything in detail but the recently released highlights from the Franklin Park Coalition alerted us to the proposal to add significant amount of lighting to the paved park paths and clear a large border of understory foliage on the park edges. Both of these suggestions appear to be proposed in the spirit of accessibility, wayfinding and perception of safety however we are concerned that other important aspects are not being taken into account, such as increased light pollution, nighttime park uses that the added lighting would eliminate, added lighting's effects on the nocturnal creatures that call this urban forest home, as well as noise pollution, effective reduction of the size of the park, and elimination of habitat for park animals and birds that live in this understory habitat. Increased light pollution
We’d like to remind you that as a city councilor, you sponsored a Dark Skies talk by Kelly Beatty, editor of Sky and Telescope Magazine, at the Arnold Arboretum in July of 2019.

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Environment

Pining for Beautiful Bark in the Arnold Arboretum

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Looking for something unusual and eye-catching in the winter landscape? A hidden gem you might not be familiar with is Pinus bungeana, known commonly as lacebark pine. The bark of the species offers quite a vivid display—mottled and multi-colored, its hues graduate from white to gray, yellow, green, purple, and orange. As a bonus, the bark peels off in amorphous shapes, revealing more yellow bark beneath the surface which changes color by exposure to light. Flakes or plates of bark fall onto the ground beneath the tree like puzzle pieces, exposing new layers.

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