Magazine Beach

From Amanda Milad of Riverside Boat Club:

Riverside has 44 entries this weekend–ranging from single sculls to eights. Cambridgeport is an integral part of the regatta. The race starts at the BU boathouse and Magazine Beach serves as the launch site for the singles and doubles. Everyone is excited for a great weekend of racing!

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Update:

Building of mystery. Much of it is underground. Come explore it with us Oct. 17.

Ever wonder what happens to the water that runs into our sewers during heavy rains, or about where our sewage goes? Or did you ever wonder what goes on in the big brick building at Magazine Beach Park, just to the west of the BU Bridge?

Stephen Cullen, the Director of Wastewater Operations & Maintenance at the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) will lead a tour of the Cottage Farm Combined Sewer Overflow Treatment Facility at Magazine Beach on Thursday, Oct. 17^th at 7 pm.  Not only will he tell you about the Cottage Farm facility, but also he’ll share an overview of recent water and sewer system-wide improvements and plans going forward.

To sign up for the tour, contact Cathie Zusy at cathzusy@gmail.com. Please wear comfortable, closed toe shoes.

Also, save the date: Saturday, November 9 (9-12 noon) for our next Magazine Beach Cleanup.

Those wonderful Vertex volunteers.

18 Vertex employees did a day of service at Magazine Beach yesterday.  They picked up 37 bags of trash and 37 bags of compostables!  Vertex employees raked leaves, picked up sticks and garbage, and weeded the front garden beds.  Thank you, Vertex, and to Danielle Stehlik of the Charles River Conservancy for organizing this.

Take note: Our next community cleanup, with the Riverside Boat Club and the Charles River Conservancy, will be Saturday, Nov. 9, 9-12noon. Please save this date!  To sign up, contact Danielle at dms@thecharles.org.

The park looking fabulous after the cleanup.

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Last night the Cambridge City Council unanimously approved the CPA Committee’s recommendation to allocate $100,000 towards repair of the 1818 Powder Magazine at Magazine Beach. Stabilizing this building—restoring the roof, re-pointing the masonry, restoring the windows and doors, and adding security lighting—are essential next steps to prepare the building for its next use. In 1818 it was erected to store gunpowder safely, a half mile from settlement. In 1899 the Olmsted Brothers converted it into a bathhouse when bathers flocked to the Charles River to swim. Ideas for its next use include it becoming a concession and meeting area that is welcoming, celebrates Cambridge’s diversity, and that sells healthy, affordable food.

Cambridge Historical Commission Ex. Director Charles Sullivan said, “This is a major win for historic preservation in Cambridge.  The powder magazine is one of the oldest buildings on the Charles River Basin and, for decades, has begged for attention.”

In a June 20, 2013 letter to the CPA Committee, new DCR Commissioner Jack Murray, proposed to share the cost of stabilizing the structure with Cambridge. If the City contributed $100,000 towards this work, he promised to “provide the balance of funding” which is estimated at about $125,000.

This is huge news and will make the revitalization of Magazine Beach Park possible. Thanks to all of you who have contributed to this effort! For further information, see: http://www.cctvcambridge.org/PowderHouse

The Powder Magazine as it could be. Rendering by Max Moore, Architect

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Saturday’s bird watching and foraging tour was a mediation of sorts. Janet Crystal and David Craft helped us to slow down and observe all that was there—the beauty, abundance, resilience and mystery of nature—in our urban park. While the birds were elusive, hidden in the trees and brush, the wild plants were ever present. Thank you to Janet and David for opening up our eyes to the beauty and wonder around us. For more about local wild plants, see David Craft’s Urban Foraging, available on Amazon. For a fuller description of our morning, see Mary Holbrow’s: http://www.cctvcambridge.org/MagazineBeachWalk

Here is what we saw or heard. A visual catalog of some of our sightings follows.

Birds:

• American Goldfinch, Black-capped Chickadee, Gray Catbird, House Sparrow, Mallard (female), Red-tailed Hawk and Song Sparrow

Plants: Asiatic dayflower, aster, black-eyed susan, burdock, cattail, chicory, clematis, goldenrod, hibiscus, Japanese knotweed, jewelweed, milkweed, mugwort, Joe Pye weed, lady’s thumb, phragmite, purple loosestrife, ragweed and tansey

You can eat the young leaves of chicory and make “coffee” with the roots.

Aster

You can eat the young shoots and green flower stalks of cattails before they turn brown.

Boneset, with its white flowers and connected leaves, is poisonous to humans but used in traditional medicine.

Horse or meadow mushroom

Burdock, used in Japanese and macrobiotic cooking

Japanese knotweed is invasie. The bees love it, though, and the stalks are tender in the spring and great for pickling.

Note the thumbprint on the leaves of lady’s thumb.

The whole Asiatic dayflower is edible. The flower is pretty in salads.

Mugwort can cleanse energy

Gray catbird

Gray catbird hiding in the goldenrod.

What a line up!

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*Saturday, Sept. 7, 8:30-10am, Birdwatching and Foraging Tour. Meet at the corner of Pleasant St. and Memorial Dr. , next to the Courtyard Marriott. Led by Janet Crystal and David Craft. See August 13 post for details.

*TBA–in late September or early October, Where Goes Our Waste? Evening tour of the Magazine Beach Combined Sewer Overflow Facility. This will be followed by a tour of the Deer Island Treatment Plant.

*Saturday, November 9th, 9am-12noon, Joint CRC, RBC and CNA Magazine Beach Cleanup. Details to come!

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Sunday marked the close of the Veteran’s Memorial swimming pool for the season. What a gorgeous day, with swimmers, picnickers, geese and kayakers, all enjoying a last glorious day of summer.  Beautiful wildflowers, too, and freshly pruned trees, thank you very much, DCR.

Thank you to Carolyn Shipley for the plant identifications. From Carolyn, about Purple Loosestrife:  “It has wiped out millions of acres of native vegetation, thus depriving birds and other wildlife of their favorite plants. It has clogged and is clogging our marshlands, meadows, bogs, and inlets.”

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On the other side of the world (Magazine Beach’s) Riverside Boat Club rowers were competing in the World Rowing Championships in Chungju, South Korea. Go Riverside! Thank you to Riverside’s Amanda Milad for this update–our first, international post.

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Many thanks to the MIT students who picked up trash and weeded at the park yesterday, and to Vertex for sharing some of their staff with us September 27th, during their day of service. Thank you, also, to the Charles River Conservancy for organizing both events.

Our next big community cleanup will be Saturday, November 9th, 9-12noon. Both the Riverside Boat Club and Charles River Conservancy will partner with us. Save the date!

And don’t forget Ron Wyman’s film of the community performance “Unsubscribe” at our June Celebration–go to the March 25th post for that one–and Michael Schaffer’s call to arms–produced last November. (See November 28th post.)

Thank you, filmmakers!