Not enough child's play
A slice of the Emerald Necklace has been lovingly restored; now the young need to find it
Nature lovers began nursing Leverett Pond back to health 30 years ago. Now they're trying to nurture the next generation of stewards for the region's outdoor spaces.
This summer, activists are hoping that picnics, music, face painting, and other attractions will be just the ticket to get the 3- to 10-year-old set and their parents thinking beyond the computer or TV screen and outside in the grass.
"We're trying to address 'nature-deficit disorder,' " said Mark Swartz, park ranger for the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site, citing Richard Louv's popular book, "Last Child in the Woods." "We're selling the parks through music, hoping that after a positive experience there, kids will develop a closer relationship with the park, and concern about its preservation, care, and future."
The first-ever "Sounds and Scenes Festival" June 7 at Leverett Pond will be a child-friendly successor to last summer's adult lectures about landscape and music, "From Beethoven to Ballads." For those emphasizing youth and the need to pass on environmental awareness from one generation to the next, the pond is a fitting symbol.
Park activists know all too well how run-down and trashed-up Leverett Pond and the famed Emerald Necklace were in the not-too-distant past. Roughly 30 years ago, Olmsted Park was considered a "buffer zone" between tony Brookline and the institutional neighbors along Jamaica Plain's Huntington Avenue.
Invasive species, including phragmites - tall reeds that sheltered all sorts of mischief - claimed the banks and the Muddy River. Sewers and cross-connected storm drains backed up into the water, giving it an unpleasant odor as well as unsightly floating detritus. An unnecessary road brought traffic into what Frederick Law Olmsted called the "lungs of the city," and maintenance of all of the park's amenities was almost nonexistent.
Several groups formed to address the issue: Restore Olmsted's Waterway focused on water quality; Friends of Leverett Pond looked at the historic landscape and ways to improve the park, and this month conducted its annual sessions of volunteer maintenance; and Friends of the Muddy River, headed by Isabella Callanan, who passed away this month, fought for the entire park's renewal.
Their work was furthered by later umbrella groups, such as the Emerald Necklace Conservancy and the Muddy River Restoration Project Maintenance and Management Oversight Committee, which is overseeing improvements to water quality and drainage on the river.
"This is our backyard," said Rob Daves, president of the High Street Hill Association. The association is one of the cosponsors of the June 7 festival, whose main organizers are the National Park Service and Brookline Adult and Community Education.
Currently, Leverett Pond is the only segment of the Emerald Necklace that is fully restored as envisioned in a master plan commissioned by the Dukakis administration in 1983, according to Betsy Shure Gross of the Friends of Leverett Pond.
The area has become popular with joggers, bicyclists, and those residents who want more "backyard" than their property can accommodate. Bird-watchers emerge at dusk and dawn to monitor migrations, and youngsters in strollers enjoy the fresh air.
On June 7, the accent will be on youth, with instrument-building, a reading circle of park-related books, food stands, and more.
Musicians will include singer and songwriter and former Simmons student Maria Sangiolo; the flute choirs and faculty of nearby Brookline Music School; High Street neighbors Lorraine and Bennett Hammond on the harp, banjo, dulcimer, and guitar; and two youth choruses - the Boston City Singers and the PALS Children's Chorus.
The festival reflects the work of a passel of benefactors and neighborhood groups that enthusiastically support the "use of the park to encourage people to understand the vision behind it," as Daves put it.
To Shure Gross, the message is "you can restore your landscape, maintain it, and it will be a magnet for this kind of activity," such as music festivals and picnics.
She and other organizers are hoping the event will attract residents of Jamaica Plain and the Fenway, and that they will be inspired to befriend Brookline activists, as well as the Boston side of the pond.
"This should be a circle," she said, "and we should all come together."
The free Sounds and Scenes Festival is to run from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. June 7 on the Brookline side of Leverett Pond, near the intersection of Allerton Street and Pond Avenue.
Those interested in learning how to identify bird calls may take part in a prefestival walk at 9 a.m., and an exercise session with strollers will begin at 9:30 at the Pond Avenue parking lot.
Adults may also join a 1-mile "Sounds of Spring" walk, including "Babbling Brook," at 1 p.m.
Details at brooklineadulted.org or 617-730-2700.
