Today in the South End: Fountains Return to Parks
Find out what's important to know in the South End today, July 30, 2013. South End Patch News
City Fighting Beetles in Boston’s Parks
The city of Boston is expanding its beetle-fighting program to help stop the spread of the nasty elm bark beetle that threatens to destroy trees in the city’s parks. The Boston Parks and Recreation Department has placed 24 traps in location around the Emerald Necklace and Copley Square to help stop the spread of the beetle. The program first started last year. This year, six traps have been placed on Boston Common, five in the Public Garden, five in the Fenway Victory Garden, five on side streets along Commonwealth Avenue Mall, two along the Muddy River, and one in Copley Square. This doubles last year’s placement of a dozen traps. The traps consist of 18.5″x 28″ green plywood boxes mounted approximately 15 feet off the ground on trees located at least 150 feet away from any elms. Each trap contains a paper lining with a sticky surface that acts like old fashioned flypaper. The paper is infused with a pheromone lure to attract the insects. The traps contain no pesticides or harmful chemicals, the city said. The traps will remain in place until early October. This particlar type of beetle, the elm bark beetle, destroys tree bark when they live beneath the tree bark as larvae. As adults, they pose an additional threat by carrying the Dutch elm tree disease from sick trees to healthy trees. “Using elm bark beetle traps and monitoring them closely provides important data for scientists fighting the transmission of Dutch elm disease,” the Boston Parks Department said in a statement. “With this field research, they are able to identify the species of elm bark beetle attacking the elm trees, better understand their life cycle including emergence and breeding patterns, keep track of the existing population, and disrupt their normal breeding behavior.” Have you seen any damage to your trees from these beetles? Tell us in the comments. SOUTH END PATCH: Facebook | Twitter | E-mail Updates South End Patch
Boston Gets High Marks for Parks
Bostonians regularly enjoy our parks, whether it’s large like Boston Common or small like Ringgold Park. But according to new national rankings, Boston’s parks are some of the best in the entire country. Boston’s parks were ranked third in the United States by the Trust for Public Land, tying with San Francisco and Sacramento, and coming in just shy of Minneapolis and New York City. The ranking report used mapping technology and demographic data to determine how well the 50 largest cities in the United States are meeting the need for parks, including how much access citizens have to parks and park amenities. “We are proud of the fact that Boston has so many easily accessible parks and welcome the recognition,” Mayor Thomas Menino said. “From the pastoral expanses of the world-famous Emerald Necklace to our smallest neighborhood playground, Boston’s residents have a wide variety of well maintained parks providing them with opportunities to exercise or just relax within a short walk from their homes.” The ratings were based equally on three factors: park access, which compares the percentage of residents living within a half-mile walk to a park; park size, which is based on the city’s median park size; and services and investment, which looks at the number of playgrounds and park spending per 10,000 residents. According to Boston’s ratings, 97 percent of Bostonians live within a 10-minute walk of park, and 16 percent of the city is devoted to parks. Which is your favorite park in the South End? Tell us in the comments. SOUTH END PATCH: Facebook | Twitter | E-mail Updates South End Patch
New Boston Parks App To Be Unveiled Thursday
The Metropolitan Area Planning Council will present an update on the Hubway bike share program and introduce a new Web app that helps connect residents to the many parks and open spaces available in Greater Boston during a Brown Bag Lunch event on Thursday. “As Hubway’s third season gets rolling, we will take a look back at the results of the first two seasons. Does Hubway make it easier for people to get around? Are Metro-Boston residents getting more exercise because of Hubway? Who is using Hubway, and who isn’t? We will look at these questions and more, including the environmental and economic impact of Hubway, and whether Hubway is making the Boston region more bike-friendly,” MAPC said in a press release about the event, which will be held Thursday from 12-1 p.m. at MAPC headquarters, 60 Temple Place, Boston, in the third-floor conference room. The Hubway bike share system features more than 80 stations all over Boston and in Brookline, Cambridge and Somerville. The new Boston Green Map application features a detailed, easy-to-use listing of Greater Boston’s parks and open spaces, plus details about each site’s facilities, such as playing fields, walking trails and beaches, according to the MAPC announcement. “Currently the website covers all neighborhoods in Boston and seven surrounding municipalities: Arlington, Belmont, Brookline, Cambridge, Chelsea, Somerville, and Watertown. More communities will be added soon. With a planned release later in the summer, the website is an active work in progress, and we invite comments and suggestions,” the MAPC announcement states. Want to learn more? Register for the Brown Bag session online at http://conta.cc/11jzeqo. SOUTH END PATCH: Facebook | Twitter | E-mail Updates South End Patch
Renovations Continue at Blackstone and Franklin Square Parks
If you’ve walked by either Blackstone or Franklin Parks on Washington Street lately, you’ll notice the large fountains are gone, and in their place is a chain link fence and a backhoe. Fear not – the “please excuse our appearance” look in both parks will be gone by late spring, according to newly elected Friends of the Blackstone Square Parks president Courtney Troutman. The $ 600K fountain restoration project is slated to be done by mid-May, said Troutman. “With the recent snowstorms, they’ve been delayed in starting the excavation, but soon they will start soon, and that’s the big part of the project,” he said. The new pumping stations will be built underneath the new Blackstone and Franklin Squares restored fountains, and will serve to recycle water used within the fountain as opposed to running a city water line to it and sending water down the drain. “Before it was just a little dribble and I think the whole basin will be filled with water so it should be really beautiful,” Troutman said. But the fountain project isn’t the only change coming to the park. Over the winter, the Friends group had all the trees in the two parks pruned and four more are slated for removal. “If you go into the parks you can see how much has been taking down and how much more light will come into the parks,” Troutman said. “The trees will definitely be healthier, and people always said Franklin Square seemed dark because it had such a thick canopy, and opening that up helps the grass grow.” In terms of upcoming projects still on the docket, Troutman said the Friends group is looking into new trash cans, and they are in the “early stages” of looking to replace the park’s benches. “These things always take longer than one expects, but in the last two years, the fountains have been taken care of, and the trees are pruned, and we’ve made really terrific progress,” Troutman said. SOUTH END PATCH: Facebook | Twitter | E-mail Updates South End Patch
Categories: Arrests Tags: Blackstone, Continue, Franklin, Parks, Renovations, Square