The Year in Review
Friends of Fresh Pond Reservation
2006

During our fifth year, Friends of Fresh Pond Reservation continued to experiment with new ways of connecting with the Reservation and the wider natural world. We offered 50 programs for our members and the public, many of them on subjects we had not previously explored; and we pursued other educational projects and stewardship opportunities. As in previous years, 2006 also brought new friends and new challenges.

In August we made an offer to the Cambridge Water Department (CWD) to help set up a project for the biocontrol of purple loosestrife at Fresh Pond Reservation, using "Galerucella" beetles that live on and eat only purple loosestrife. We asked that the CWD purchase the beetles with the understanding that the Friends would provide volunteers to monitor beetle proliferation and damage to purple loosestrife plants. After meeting with the Purple Loosestrife Project coordinator from the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management, we worked with CWD staff to design and set up a program. On November 4, the CWD and FFPR offered an introductory program for the public. After a power point presentation on loosestrife biocontrol, nine volunteers walked to the wetland at the north end of Little Fresh Pond where they measured heights and numbers of plants in five test plots. These data will be used as a baseline for future measurements.

Galerucella beetles are to be purchased and released on the Reservation in the spring of 2007 and for several years thereafter. Monitoring by volunteers will continue until the beetles become established. PURPLE LOOSESTRIFE BIOCONTROL REPORT

Friends group program topics in 2006 included birds, plants, insects, fungi, ecology, pond life, animal sign, Fresh Pond history, nature readings, the Cambridge Water Department, and introductions to the Reservation. Five programs were planned especially for families with children under the age of 12.   EVENTS OF 2006

We also publicized the Cambridge Water Department's annual Water Week celebration in May, and eight "Walkabouts" in the Northeast Sector led by watershed Manager Chip Norton.

The Friends group donated money to the Cambridge Public Schools for bus rides to the Reservation for 4 grade school classes. We also gave money to Neville Place to help cover the cost of refreshments for our programs, for birdseed, and for garden supplies. One hundred dollar honoraria were given to Jill Sinclair for her history of Fresh Pond lectures and to Larry Millman for his daylong mushroom workshop. This year we spent more money than in previous years on guidebooks and magnifying lenses.

Major restoration projects on the Reservation made it difficult to park cars at our favorite meeting place, the Maynard Ecology Center at Neville Place. We were able to continue using the room thanks to BBN Technologies, which offered a helping hand by allowing us to use their visitor parking lot across on nearby Moulton Street. For programs that required access to resources that were not accessible from Neville, we moved to the Training Room at the Walter J. Sullivan Water Purification Facility on Fresh Pond Parkway.

New Programs this Year

The Indoor Naturalist: an evening of reading nature poetry and literature in the Neville Place TV room, attended by Friends and residents of Neville.
Nature Lives! A Winter Ecology Walk: a search on the Reservation for fungi, insects, and birds
Tours of the Water Purification Facility: evening programs that included a power point presentation of the water purification process and a walk through the building
Insects that Fly at Night: an evening program on the Neville patio
A Mushroom Marathon: our first daylong program, including a classroom presentation and a field trip
Insect Inventory: a search for insects and other arthropods, held in the Kingsley Park bioswale
Biocontrol of Purple Loosestrife: an introductory program and initial survey carried out by volunteers in the wetland near Little Fresh Pond
Identifying Trees by their Buds: a program in which participants made their own twig charts

New Projects

Phenology Project: Barbara Strell, Tom Murray, and Elizabeth Wylde met once every month to observe seasonal changes and collect data from three sites on the Reservation, a pond, a woods, and a meadow. Data, images, observations and conclusions were recorded in a binder titled "2006 Ecology Project", which is available at the Ranger Station.
Be your own Nature Guide: We set up a lending library in the Ranger Station, offering a variety of the small "Finder Guides" that are inexpensive and easy to carry. When we realized that most of the guides had been taken and not returned, we removed the books. We need to rethink this idea!
Twig Identification Contest: Jean and Elizabeth made a twig chart from 32 twigs gathered on the Reservation. We set up a display in the Ranger Station inviting people to use whatever guides or other sources they could find to identify as many of the twigs as possible. For correctly identifying 10 twigs, we promised a Winter Tree Finder guide by Watts and Watts. For identifying all of them, we offered a free membership in Friends of Fresh pond Reservation.

Ongoing Projects

Gardens at Neville Place: Jean and Elizabeth planted vegetables and annual flowers, weeded, and pruned. This year we harvested a crop of about 70 small "spoon gourds" that we used in a program for the Neville residents.
Nesting Boxes: Our eight boxes on the Reservation this year produced two broods of tree swallows and one of house wrens. Jean and Elizabeth put up the smaller chickadee boxes in the fall, and the larger ones for tree swallows in the spring. At the end of the nesting season we took them down, cleaned, and stored them.
Inventories: We added many species to our insect and fungus lists, and a few more to our bird and wildflower lists.

Below are listed the names of the people who played leadership roles in the Friends group's activities.

Thank you, everyone! You made it happen.

Members who led or co-led programs
Susan Agger-co-led the Biodiversity Days program "Pond Life at Black's Nook", made the Maynard Ecology
Center available and welcoming to the Friends group.
Wren Colle-co-led "The Indoor Naturalist"
Susan Coolidge-co-led "Animal Sign at Fresh Pond," "Life Under a Log," "Spiders and Insects
and other Creepy Crawlers," and "Insects that Fly at Night"
Lance Drane-co-led 12 birdwalks, loaned binoculars to beginning birders, encouraged, advised
and occasionally tolerated Elizabeth's efforts as Friends group coordinator
Nancy Guppy-co-led 12 birdwalks, shared her extensive knowledge of bird behavior with us
Janet Kovner- co-led "Animal Sign at Fresh Pond", "Life Under a Log", and "Spiders and Insects
and other Creepy Crawlers"
Lawrence Millman-led "A Mushroom Marathon", co-led "Nature Lives! A Winter Ecology Walk" and "A Quintessential Biodiversity Walk", conducted fungus inventories on the Reservation
Tom Murray-led the "Insect Inventory", co-led "Nature Lives! A Winter Ecology Walk", "Insects that Fly at Night", and "Life Under a Log." Participated in the 2006 Phenology Project
Squizzle Plekavich- co-led the Biodiversity Days program "Pond Life at Black's Nook", did monthly plankton surveys of Little Fresh Pond and Black's Nook. Survey results can be found on the Friends group website.
Jean Rogers-led 4 "Welcome" walks, 5 Tree Identification walks, a "Double Clean-up Day" and a Leaf-raking program; co-led "The Case for Native Garden Plants" and "Autumn Treasures: Nuts, Seeds and Fruits." Participated in all phases of Friends group activities planning
Don Ostrowski-co-led "The Indoor Naturalist"
Barbara Strell-co-led the Biodoversity Days program "A Spring Wildflower Inventory" and "Wildflower Identification" Organized and participated in the 2006 Phenology Project, and assembled a book of observations and data
Elizabeth Wylde-led or co-led 4 wildflower programs, co-led 12 birdwalks, co-led "NatureLives! A Winter Ecology Walk", "The Case for Native Garden Plants", "The Biocontrol of Purple Loosestrife", and "Autumn Treasures: Nuts, Seeds and Fruits." Participated in the 2006 Phenology Project. Acted as coordinator and webmaster for the Friends group.

Non-members who led or co-led programs
Peter Alden-co-led "A Quintessential Biodiversity Walk"
Jim Barton-led the Biodiversity Days walk, "Nesting Birds"
Tim MacDonald-led 4 tours of Cambridge's Walter J. Sullivan Water Purification Facility
Chip Norton-led 7 "Northeast Sector Walkabouts"
Jill Sinclair-gave two lectures titled "Shifting Patterns, Shifting Significance" about the history of Fresh Pond
Hannah Wilbur-led a "Northeast Sector Walkabout", co-led "The Biocontrol of Purple Loosestrife", worked to develop a biocontrol program for purple loosestrife

People who helped with the History of Fresh Pond programs
Suzanna Black, Lew Bushnell, Karen Davis, Maria Meyer, Anne Remby, Mark Sinclair, Carolyn Young and Frank Yulling

Folks who helped in a variety of other ways
Donors-Fifty three people made donations ranging from $5 to $90, in addition to their membership fees.
Doris Engelman-edited written material for Elizabeth.
Sue Bowdridge-(Activities Director at Neville Place) distributed publicity to residents and made sure refreshments were provided for our programs.
Andrew Drane (www. andrewdrane.com)-Helped Elizabeth design the yearbook cover, learn to use new computer programs, and recover from numerous computer crises.
Vince Falcione-(Reservation Site Supervisor) Helped set up test plots for the Purple Loosestrife Control project
Lore and David Levitt-helped Elizabeth with a major mailing campaign
Susan Redlich-alerted the Friends to the possibility of using biocontrol methods to control purple loosestrife