Master Plans

TRAILSIDE MASTER PLAN: BLUE HILLS RESERVATION

In 2007, DCR initiated this Master Plan to provide a ten-year
vision for the Trailside buildings, site and educational exhibits.
This Master Plan represents the culmination of a year of work by
the project proponents (DCR and MAS) and the consultant
team, with input from the Trailside Advisory Committee.
Trailside is a pivotal component of the Blue Hills Reservation,
Massachusetts’ largest park in the metropolitan Boston area, as
it functions both as the primary interpretive center for the
Reservation, but also because it is located at the base of Great
Blue Hill and the most popular trailhead. This Master Plan
envisions a new nature education center that forms a gateway
to the Blue Hills, with up-to-date interpretive exhibits that
celebrate the ecology, geology, cultural resources, habitats, and
plant and animal species that comprise this diverse park. With
Trailside set to celebrate its 50th anniversary soon, the Master
Plan provides a vision with achievable goals for Trailside’s next
fifty years.

UPPER CHARLES RIVER RESERVATION MASTER PLAN (18Mb pdf file)
The Upper Charles River Reservation Project addresses a 5.75 mile section of the Charles River, including 11 miles of protected river banks, from Watertown Square to Commonwealth Avenue in Newton and Weston. It is part of the agency’s larger goal to extend the Charles River greenway 14 miles to Brook Farm in West Roxbury. As this first section of the Reservation greenway is completed, it will provide a critical open-space link between the Charles River Basin and the scenic “Lakes District”, spreading over 190 acres through Newton, Weston, and Waltham.

NEW CHARLES RIVER BASIN MASTER PLAN, 2002 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

ALEWIFE MASTER PLAN
As a meeting place - of earth and water, city and suburb, culture and ecology - the Alewife Reservation and Alewife Brook Parkway play an important role in the lives of people and other animals alike. The area is rich with physical and symbolic connections: hydrologic connections link wetlands, rivers, floodplains, and neighborhoods; restored and protected ecosystems link wildlife habitats and thus stain biodiversity; a network of trails and paths connects people to each other, to a significant historic legacy, and to the wilder, natural world which is the home for many animals

NEPONSET RIVER MASTER PLAN

In 1998, the master plan for the Lower Estuary of the Neponset River Reservation (Phase I) was completed, and much of the that plan, up to Central Avenue, has been implemented. Building on the success of the earlier Phase I Plan, the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) embarked upon a master plan for a major section of the Neponset River Reservation extending from Central Avenue on the Boston/ Milton line to Paul’s Bridge in Hyde Park. This plan provides access to the river, a continuous trail connecting to the Phase I trail, five MBTA stations and several private development sites along the river, as well as a wide range of recreation opportunities for the adjacent neighborhoods and region.

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