• Contact Us
  • Events calendar
Entering Swellesley
Pinnacle, Wellesley

The Swellesley Report

More than you really want to know about Wellesley, Mass.

  • Advertise
  • Contribute
  • Eat
  • Wellesley Square
  • School news
  • Private schools, sponsored by Riverbend
  • Camp
  • Kids
  • Top 10 things to do
  • Business news
  • Embracing diversity
  • Seniors
  • Letters to the editor
  • Guidelines for letters to the editor
  • Fire & police scanner
  • Worship
  • Deland, Gibson Insurance Athlete of the Week
  • Raiders sports schedules & results
  • Live gov’t meetings
  • 2023 Town Election
  • Events
  • About us
  • Natick Report
 
Needham Bank, Wellesley
Write Ahead, Wellesley

Help Fuller Brook Park stay pretty on October 6, 2019

October 2, 2019 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

Fuller Brook Park, Wellesley
Photo: Wellesley DPW

Help Fuller Brook Park stay neat and tidy at a clean-up event on Sunday, October 6, 1pm – 3pm. Friends and neighbors will work on and around the path between Dover Road and Cottage Street. Email Jay Prosnitz at jayprosnitz@me.com to sign up.

Prosnitz has been the park’s consistent warrior against the invasive species that keep trying to retake the park. His particular nemesis: bittersweet, with black swallowwort as a close second.

Prosnitz has help keeping invasive plant species at bay from Cambridge-based Parterre. According to Cricket Vlass, Landscape Planner for the Town of Wellesley, the landscaping company’s invasives management division comes in one per week to focus on removal of vegetation that threatens to take over an area. “They’ve made a big difference in management of unwanted species. We don’t have bittersweet growing up in the trees. The knotweed is under control, but still must be kept covered with black tarp to keep it from taking over spots.”

The big three invasives in Fuller Brook Park:

Fuller Brook Park, early fall 2019

  1.  Bittersweet It’s out control in woodlands and roadsides all over New England. Unchecked, the climbing vine will engulf the landscape and win every competition with native trees and shrubs. The ornamental will climb up trees and become so tangled and heavy that the tree can eventually come down. At garden club, I’ve heard talks from floral designers who won’t include bittersweet in their creations because they see doing so as supporting a plant bully. The United States Department of Agriculture has bittersweet listed as a national invasive species.
  2. Black swallowroot is a perennial vine that grows up to seven feet in length. The leaves are shiny and dark green, and the flowers are small and dark purple. The roots run deep, and the seeds spread on the wind from milkweed-like seed pods. Swallowroot grows fast and covers other vegetation (just ask my fern bed). The plants are toxic to many insect larvae including monarch caterpillars.
  3. Knotweed has been used as an erosion control plant in areas (although not in Wellesley), and was even sold through seed and plant catalogs in the 1930s. The problem with knotweed is it’s not satisfied to just control erosion. It has to control the world. I’ve fought knotweed ever since I bought my home 17 years ago. After closing on the house, like a proud homeowner I walked the land, plot plan in hand. I soon realized I had a squatter which had long ago declared dominion over a substantial part of my yard. The knotweed claimed a clearcut case of eminent domain, and it was fully prepared to dig in its rhizomes and fight. One of us had to go, and it wasn’t going to be me. We still do battle, and the knotweed is just waiting for me to grow bored with this silly game we play. It eyes the peony beds, the horseshoe pit, the badminton area, poised to gobble up all as soon as I let down my guard.  In England, knotweed is such an issue that British banks won’t give a mortgage to a property with knotweed on its grounds or even with knotweed growing nearby, unless a management plan is in place. What if the knotweed growing nearby is on your neighbor’s property? What if your neighbor doesn’t want to be managed?If all this talk about the evils of monster plant life has convinced you to take up arms agains those that threaten our way of landscaping, contact the Natural Resources Commission. They can help you organize a cleanup in your neighborhood.Until then, here are a few pics from an early autumn walk along the Fuller Brook Park path:

    Fuller Brook Park, early fall 2019

    Fuller Brook Park, State Street Pond, early fall 2019
    This bench and view of State Street Pond is actually in Memorial Grove. Although not technically part of Fuller Brook Park, it was close enough on my walk. Vlass says water quality in Fuller Brook Park has improved dramatically since completion of work on the park. In 2015, State Street Pond was dredged. Nearly 150 truck trips were made from the State Street parking lot to a landfill in Chelmsford, MA, to remove more than 4,000 tons of sediment that were dredged.

    Fuller Brook Park, early fall, 2019

    Fuller Brook Park, early fall, 2019
    Asters bloom at the edge of the wet meadow area, between Brook St. and Wellesley Ave. The Town contracts with Cambridge-based Parterre to keep invasive species out of the wet meadow, and the rest of the 2.5 mile stretch of Fuller Park.
    Wellesley Fuller Brook Park, late fall 2019
    Pretty Wellesley cottage along Fuller Brook Park path. Underneath the black tarp in the foreground lurks the dreaded knotweed. This patch may possibly be eradicated. I didn’t see any shoots poking up through the tarp. 

    Wellesley Fuller Brook Park, late fall 2019

    Fuller Brook Park, State Street Pond, early fall 2019

    MORE:

    Now that Fuller Brook Park is all neat and tidy, help keep it that way

    Fuller Brook Park pictures, Summer 2017

    Fuller Brook Park construction pictures, Winter 2016

print

Filed Under: Environment, Outdoors, Volunteering

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Advertisements:

Linden Square, Wellesley
EXPLO, Wellesley
Wellesley Hills Junior Women's Club

Tip us off…

Please send tips, photos, ideas to theswellesleyreport@gmail.com

Advertisements

Wellesley Square, Wellesley Merchants
Wellesley, Jesamondo
Beacon Hill Athletic Club, Wellesley
Fay School, Southborough
Sexton test prep
Feldman Law
Wellesley Theatre Project
Volvo
Cheesy Street Grill
Mature Caregivers
Admit Fit, Wellesley
charles river chamber
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
Never miss a post with our free daily Swellesley Report email
Name: 
Your email address:*
Please wait...
Please enter all required fields Click to hide
Correct invalid entries Click to hide

You can subscribe for free, though we appreciate any contribution that supports our independent journalism.

Most Read Posts

  • Sign up now for summer camp in Wellesley (and beyond)
  • Friday is letters-to-the-editor day on The Swellesley Report
  • Voting rights expert to give talk at Wellesley College
  • Wellesley Club gets update on town affairs
  • EXPLO Junior summer program launches at Regis College in Weston

Click on Entering Natick sign to read our Natick Report

Entering Natick road sign

Upcoming Events

Mar 26
10:00 am - 10:30 am

6th annual “Plunge for Elodie”

Mar 26
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Historical lecture: The Whartons’ War

Mar 26
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm

History talk: The Whartons’ War

Mar 26
2:00 pm - 4:30 pm

The Lightning Thief, The Percy Jackson Musical

Mar 26
3:00 pm - 4:30 pm

Wellesley Symphony Orchestra family concert

View Calendar

Popular pages

  • Wellesley’s 2023 Boston Marathon charity runners
  • Wellesley’s 7 official scenic roads

Recent Comments

  • Nancy Slamin on Remembering Bailey’s in Wellesley
  • nancy calderwood on Wellesley High Principal Chisum a finalist for superintendent/principal job at Lincoln-Sudbury High School
  • Richard Pirozzolo on Wellesley Club gets update on town affairs
  • Rory Strunk on Delicious gluten-free Italian classics a reality in cookbook co-authored by Wellesley resident
  • Charles on Wellesley High parents pan standards-based grading, school leaders say improvements planned

Links we like

  • Danny's Place
  • Great Runs
  • Jack Sanford: Wellesley's Major League Baseball Star
  • Tech-Tamer
  • The Wellesley Wine Press
  • Universal Hub
  • Wellesley Sports Discussion Facebook Group

Categories

  • 2021 Town Election (24)
  • 2023 Town Election (13)
  • Animals (429)
  • Antiques (49)
  • Art (596)
  • Beyond Wellesley (53)
  • Books (381)
  • Business (1,568)
  • Camp (12)
  • Careers/jobs (53)
  • Churches (82)
  • Clubs (241)
  • Construction (301)
  • Dump (131)
  • Education (3,221)
    • Babson College (252)
    • Bates Elementary School (18)
    • Dana Hall School (37)
    • Fiske Elementary School (11)
    • Hardy Elementary School (48)
    • Hunnewell Elementary School (47)
    • MassBay (57)
    • Schofield Elementary School (26)
    • Sprague Elementary School (19)
    • St. John School (2)
    • Tenacre Country Day School (11)
    • Upham Elementary School (35)
    • Wellesley College (615)
    • Wellesley High School (1,009)
    • Wellesley Middle School (208)
  • Embracing diversity (97)
  • Entertainment (824)
  • Environment (779)
  • Fashion (145)
  • Finance (15)
  • Fire (174)
  • Food (360)
  • Fundraising (650)
  • Gardens (165)
  • Government (625)
    • 2020 Town Election (47)
    • 2022 Town Election (15)
  • Health (870)
    • COVID-19 (203)
  • Hikes (6)
  • History (403)
  • Holidays (442)
  • Houses (164)
  • Humor (47)
  • Kids (869)
  • Law (8)
  • Legal notices (10)
  • Letters to the Editor (90)
  • Media (72)
  • METCO (4)
  • Military (13)
  • Morses Pond (109)
  • Music (584)
  • Natick Report (30)
  • Neighbors (282)
  • Obituaries & remembrances (86)
  • Outdoors (658)
  • Parenting (63)
  • Police (786)
    • Crime (398)
  • Politics (560)
  • POPS Senior Profile (10)
  • RDF (7)
  • Real estate (348)
  • Religion (139)
  • Restaurants (345)
  • Safety (156)
  • Scouts (2)
  • Seniors (128)
  • Shopping (164)
  • Sponsored (6)
  • Sports (1,025)
    • Athlete of the Week (14)
  • STEM (109)
  • Technology (165)
  • Theatre (397)
  • Town Meeting (26)
  • Transportation (242)
  • Travel (17)
  • Uncategorized (1,246)
  • Volunteering (351)
  • Weather (180)
  • Wellesley Election 2019 (21)
  • Wellesley Free Library (282)
  • Wellesley Holiday Gift Guide (2)
  • Wellesley's Wonderful Weekend (20)

© 2023 The Swellesley Report
Site by Tech-Tamer · Login