Ruby the turtle, art, seed planting, face painting, music and a race are all at Magazine Beach today. And many are just enjoying this spectacular day.
Come check out Mass Audubon’s first 2024 Nature in the City festival (until 5pm). Or just take a walk, a run, a picnic, a read, or a pull up. Note: The pedestrian footbridge is closed. Cross over Memorial Drive at Brookline St. or at the BU Rotary.
Great turnout today in the rain for the CRC & CRWA Earth Day Cleanup with so many volunteers from Cambridge Running Club, Davidson College, Riverside Boat Club, the University of Florida and neighbors, too. Thank you, all!
The park is clean and with its spring blossoms and Mass Audubon’s Nature Center open weekends, ready for visiting.
See photos below. Any thoughts about what Liam’s mystery object is or what purpose it served? He found it along the shoreline. It is by far the most beautiful object we’ve found on a river cleanup. Update: Friend and sailor Jamie Frankel has identified it as a cowl/air scoop, part of a boat. (Thanks, Jamie!) What is that, you might ask. Google says:
Some of the heat from these exhaust gases will transfer to the engine bay. A cowl vent, however, will help to reduce heat buildup. It will allow fresh air to enter the engine bay, thus protecting the engine bay from excessively hot temperatures.
Take note: Mass Audubon’s first 2024 Nature in the City Festival is NEXT Saturday, April 27, 12-5pm. Learn more about this program and others at the park here.
With the longer, warmer days, the foliage will soon be bursting out at the park. Already dogs are rolling in the grass and people are out reading, playing soccer, cycling, running and using the outdoor gym.
This Saturday Mass Audubon will host a Woodcock Walk 6:30-8pm, for adults and kids, ages 10 and up. FREE. And parents, they’ll be hosting a paid program, 4 sessions of Afternoons Outside: River Ramblers for 6-10 year olds, starting this Wednesday, 3.20. To register and see more information go here.
Update on Phase II-2:
DCR now says that construction (turning the sunken parking lot between the pool and the river into a grassy beach) will begin in September. In the meantime, Magazine Beach Partners is pushing for more trees and native wildflowers. We have lost so many trees over the past year due to severe weather!
See our 2023 MBP Annual Report here!
The park is looking beautiful with its first snow of the year.
Update: See our 2023 MBP Annual Report here.
In 2023, Magazine Beach Partners was so grateful to DCR for
In 2024, we look forward to
We are well aware that Magazine Beach is 17 acres of the State’s portfolio of almost 500,000 acres. We’re thrilled for their attention at the park. It is a living tapestry.
We are also so grateful to Mass Audubon and the Charles River Conservancy for their partnership. Go here, to learn about Mass Audubon’s upcoming programs: Wildlife Tracking (1.13) Bird Walk (1.20), and Nature Detectives (1.25). And. thank you, the CRC, for organizing 12 clean ups at the park in 2023! Finally, thanks to all of you who volunteered at the park (picking up trash and putting so many sticks in piles!) or donated to Magazine Beach Partners and our partners!
Working together, we get things done! Look for our annual report here by early February. See photos of late December storm damage below.
Last Saturday, artist Zhonghe (Elena) Li unveiled her “The Dragon that Inhabits the Charles River,” a 9-meter-long paper cut dragon at Mass Audubon’s nature center. The artwork is in the shape of the lower Charles river and includes people and and living things in and along the river. For more info and better images go here or here.
In ancient Chinese mythology dragons inhabit major rivers. According to Li’s website, they also symbolize water, weather and the power of the Tao (nature). This hand-cut artwork was mostly funded by a grant from Cambridge Arts and supported by Mass Audubon, the Mass Cultural Council and the Foundry.
Tomorrow is the last day of the season for the Nature Center. However, Mass Audubon has MANY programs planned through the spring, including: bird watching, preschool nature detectives, wildlife tracking and tree ID. And when snow falls, they’ll be adding programs: snowshoeing, wildlife tracking and snow shelter building. Check here or here for listings.
Many thanks to the this year’s Powder Magazine Nature Center Site Manager Mateo Schwartz-Torres, to Mass Audubon’s Cambridge Community Education Coordinator Paul Kelley, and to all the naturalists.
It was a perfect day for Mass Audubon’s last 2023 Nature in the City Festival. There was live music, scary Halloween decorations, nature and art activities, and a corn snake.
More great programs are just ahead: A River Dragon Art Showcase, Community Open Mic, Nature Detectives and a Sound Bowl Vibe Session. For more info, click here.
Many were hanging out at the park and just soaking in the last warm rays of summer (in late October!). And there was a wedding. Congrats to the happy couple!
Also this past week: The Morse School Marathon, with hundreds of energetic kids running around the park, many times…
Despite the wet weather, the Head of the Charles goes on, with more than 11,000 rowers from around the world competing! Magazine Beach is a great place to watch the single and double sculls launch. Give a special shout out to Magazine Beach’s own Riverside Boat Club rowers— sporting blue and white striped jerseys—and to the Ukrainian team, in blue and yellow! Races start at 7:45am and last until about 4:30pm.
Mass Audubon’s nature center WILL BE OPEN for drop-in activities (and shelter and bathrooms), 12noon-5pm.
This weekend at the Powder Magazine:
Nature Journaling with Clare Walker Lesley
10/21 from 1-3pm
Bachata By the River (dance, sponsored by Magazine Beach Partners)
10/22 from 5-7pm
There will be no parking at the park this weekend.
The fall colors are out and the fences along the shoreline are now down. Come take a walk at the park!
Update: Riverside Boat Club Winnings as per RBC’s Libby Lichter and Owen Huxley:
RBC entered 57 boats and current or former RBC members competed in another 14 composite or other crews.
Stripes won gold in five events:
Senior Veteran I 1x (Catherine Widgery)
Grand Master 1x (Tricia Carney)
Masters 2x (Tina Vandersteel and Alexis Belakovskiy)
Men’s Club 8+
Women’s Club 8+
We also had Stripes win in the men’s and women’s Alumni 4+ events, as well as the men’s lightweight 1x, racing as different clubs.
Stripes won silver in two events:
Masters 1x (Lauren Ayers)
Masters 2x (Sean Wolf and Pete Morelli)
And we had a Stripe cox the Ukrainian National Team’s women’s 4+ to a silver as well.
Stripes won bronze in one event:
Director’s Challenge Mixed 8+
Way to go, Riverside!
For over fifty years, Nellie has been bringing her family to the park to close the day and celebrate important occasions. Tonight, about 30 members of her family were there to honor her birthday. It was a love fest. Gifts: a bouquet of flowers, a roll of dollars—81 of them, I think—and many rolls of toilet paper. (A desired, practical gift.)
Coming this week at the park:
Evening Yoga, Tuesday, September 5, 5:30-6:30pm
A Pollinator Garden Planning Workshop, Saturday, Sept. 9, 3:30-5pm
Container Gardening for Beginners, Saturday, Sept. 10, 1-3pm
THE SPRAY DECK IS STILL OPEN!
Apparently, Saturday’s Poetry program was spectacular! Thanks to Scott Ruescher for organizing it. More to come.
Gorgeous day at the park today with a Nature in the City Festival featuring Japanese storyteller Yumi Izuyama, music by Saklamara and Bachata dance. And it’s still happening…
Mass Audubon’s September program has just come out. See events here. Coming this fall: two more festivals, poetry, yoga, a pollinator garden planting workshop, more Bachata and so much more.
Starting September 2, the Nature Center will be open for drop-in activities Saturday and Sundays only, from 12noon-5pm.
See you at the park!
8.23.23 Update: Due to Friday’s rain forecast, Mass Audubon’s Nature in the City Festival has been moved to THIS Sunday, 8.27, 3-6pm. Bachata Dance will follow, courtesy of Magazine Beach Partners.
The last swim of the summer is today at Magazine Beach. Head down now. The pool closes at 6:45pm. Many thanks to DCR and to Mass Audubon for an amazing season at the park!
But there’s more to come:
The spraydeck will remain open and, in the next weeks, there’s Mindfulness, Storytime, Nature Detectives, Sound Bowl Vibe Session, another Nature in the City Festival, Bachata and so much more! Check here or here for updates.
And don’t forget that Mass Audubon’s Urban Nature Center at the Powder Magazine will remain open with free drop-in activities (and bathrooms!) Thursday-Monday, 12-7pm, until Sept. 1. After then, it will be open Saturday and Sundays only, 12noon-5pm, until November 30.
Enjoy it all!
Magazine Beach 