Friends of Fresh Pond Reservation, the volunteer stewards, and the Reservation itself have lost a friend and advocate with the sudden death on Monday, January 13, of Chip Norton, Cambridge Watershed Manager.

Chip strongly supported the Friends group's educational and stewardship activities at Fresh Pond. His many contributions to those activities included leading Reservation Walkabouts to highlight the recent landscape restoration projects; organizing bus trips to Cambridge-owned reservoirs and land in the upper Cambridge watershed; and sponsoring plant identification programs led by botanists from the New England Wild Flower Society. He embraced the concept of volunteer stewardship and in 2007 created the Volunteer Stewardship program to help with the control of invasive plants on the Reservation. He also championed volunteer-led landscape restoration projects such as the Woodland Restoration Project and the more recent Woodland Habitat Restoration Project. His encouragement and support have been essential for the success of these projects.

Chip loved the Reservation as much as we do, and working with him was always a pleasure. We will remember him fondly - and with gratitude.

The Friends of Fresh Pond Reservation Planning Committee