River Restoration

Neponset River Restoration, Milton and Boston

Riverways serves as a liaison among neighborhoods, municipalities, community organizations, and state and federal agencies who share an interest in restoring the Neponset River and its corridor: restoring ecological functions and anadromous fish, restoring freshwater wetlands and salt marshes, restoring public access and scenic vistas, creating recreational opportunities on and along the river and its estuary, and determining land uses in the river corridor as properties transform from industrial/commercial to residential and open spaces.

As part of developing and implementing a basin-wide action plan for the Neponset River Watershed, Riverways formed and supported the efforts of seven subwatershed Stream Teams who conducted shoreline surveys of their local streams and developed action plans to reach short and long-term goals for protection of valued resources between 1994 and 1997.  Riverways has coordinated an ecological restoration study managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers since 1998 and an assessment of the extent of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) contamination the sediment, water column, and fish of the lower Neponset River and estuary since 2002.

Riverways strives to implement innovative approaches to community outreach.  Since 1997, staff have organized and facilitated community meetings on anadromous fish passage and ecological restoration, including an interactive “conceptual rendering” process to present visual simulations of restoration alternatives.  In 2005, thanks to funding from the Massachusetts Environmental Trust, Riverways is collaborating with the University of Massachusetts at Amherst to develop techniques for communicating information about environmental contaminants in the context of ecological restoration and build local capacity for community members to share ecological restoration and environmental cleanup information and data with the community-at-large. 

Components of Neponset River Restoration:

1) Fish Passage and Habitat Restoration

2) Remediation of Sediment Contamination

3) Outreach and Public Participation

4) River Revitalization

5) Historic Photographs