Restoration Projects at Fresh Pond Reservation

Blacks Nook The City of Cambridge has contracted with the Bioengineering Group to develop and implement a plan to improve access and landscaping to the eastern side of  Black's Nook Pond. The restoration plan has been designed in accordance with the Fresh Pond Master Plan.  The Black's Nook Restoration Plan aims to improve the environment around this small pond, improving degraded areas, eliminating invasives, and fostering native plant growth, while preserving the sense of wildness that makes Black's Nook unique. The restoration project will improve the use of the pond as a resource/study area for children, and allow for universal accessibility, while minimizing user conflict. more>>

 
Glacken Slope Improvement Project Glacken Slope, located behind the Fresh Pond clubhouse and sloping down to the perimeter pond road, has become severely degraded over the years due to compacted soil, erosion, and lack of plant diversity, negatively impacting water quality, as runoff from the slope drains to Fresh Pond. The plan addresses severe erosion and compaction, with the aim of stabilizing the slope, improving soil infiltration and drainage, controlling runoff, planting native species, and enhancing views from the top of the slope. Completed work includes removing invasive plants, removing the degraded walkway, and building infiltration trenches with level spreaders, biodetention basins, and vegetated swales. Glacken Slope presentation

Purple Loosestrife Bio-control Project The invasive wetland plant purple loosestrife was first observed at Fresh Pond Reservation over 5 years ago.  Since then, it has spread to inhabit shoreline space along every waterbody on the Reservation, as well as in several of the wetland bioswales.  Friends of Fresh Pond Reservation and the Cambridge Water Department are working cooperatively to implement a biocontrol project at Fresh Pond Reservation that will limit purple loosestrife populations and allow native species to reclaim areas currently inundated with the invasive plant. more>>

Fresh Pond Reservation Access and Circulation Plan During the fall and winter of 2006/2007, the Cambridge Water Department worked to form the Fresh Pond Reservation Circulation and Access Plan.  Current conditions at Fresh Pond Reservation were mapped, such as pathways and access points.  more>>