The Charles River Watershed Association (CRWA) organized a walking tour of Wellesley’s 23-acre Fuller Brook Park as part of an awareness effort to show the public, and municipal employees from nearby towns, the benefits of stream restoration. On a hot and sunny mid-summer day, over 25 people gathered at Phillips Park in Wellesley Hills to set off on a one-mile tour to State Street Pond.
The walk was led by Wellesley Natural Resources Commission (NRC) director Brandon Schmitt, who discussed interventions made to naturalize the stream channel, restore native plant communities, and reduce stormwater pollution. The NRC oversees the use, preservation and protection of Fuller Brook Park, and other areas in Wellesley.
Because Fuller Brook is a tributary of the 80-mile long Charles River, and the CRWA’s mission is to “protect, restore, and enhance the Charles River and its watershed using science, advocacy, and the law…” representatives from the organization pay visits to any trickle of water that eventually makes its way to Boston. Wellesley is one of 35 towns in the Charles River watershed the non-profit keeps tabs on. Although not a state agency, the environmental advocacy group partners with governmental entities on multiple projects at any given time.
CRWA River Science & Restoration program manager Lisa Kumpf said because the agency has efforts going on in a few communities on the watershed to do similar projects, it seemed like a good time to tour Fuller Brook Park and “see such a great result of a stream restoration project.”
And so it begins
In 2014 after nearly a decade of planning, the town broke ground on a $6 million restoration of the 100-plus-year-old Fuller Brook Park. One of 11 Wellesley areas listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the park was established in 1899 and designed by John Charles Olmsted (nephew of Frederick Law Olmsted and a noted landscape designer in his own right). The Fuller Brook Park path runs roughly 2.5 miles parallel to Washington Street along Fuller Brook and Caroline Brook, and ends at Dover Road.
After 100 years of growth, the park’s original natural look had started to look neglected and foreboding in parts. Invasives such as bittersweet were doing their best to pull down mature shade trees. Knotweed had infested stream banks, contributing to erosion. Norway maples with their rapid-growth habit had sprung up and shaded out slower-growing saplings such as native oaks, pines and sugar maples.
In the end, it took over a decade of planning and years of construction by Wellesley DPW crews and outside contractors to bring back the area to a tended-but-natural look. The cost: $6 million—Town Meeting appropriated nearly $5mil to complete the project, and the rest came from grants. The natural look doesn’t come cheap. And now that the work is done, Fuller Brook Park isn’t exactly a turn-key operation. The Town is responsible for ongoing maintenance of the area such as occasionally cleaning out drainage areas that have been blocked with silt, sediment, and vegetation.
As for those invasive species, it was conceded as unwise to remove all of them. “If we cut down every Norway maple in the park, there would be no shade left,” Schmitt said.
The Natural Resources Commission has been granted about $20k per year by Town Meeting to hire an outside contractor to come in regularly and remove invasives. “We’ve seen success in that,” Schmitt said. “The woody species are now at a manageable level. We’re hoping we can shift from just extracting plants to adding more native plants.”
In late 2017, work was completed on the previously eroding 2.5-mile route. Work included installation of two bio-retention basins filled with native plantings; changes to the water flow; new boardwalk sections, and a regraded and resurfaced the now-ADA compliant path to crushed stone for a more natural look. A tour member recalled that during stakeholder meetings, park users—including many of the 120 direct abutting households–insisted on that natural look. An original plan for a “12-foot wide asphalt swath” was shot down fast, he said with satisfaction.
Refurbishing the area wasn’t all about looks. The main goals of the project were to “improve stormwater capacity for the park and stormwater conveyance and improved water quality. It was to make it safer and more accessible for the public, with better pathways for accessibility,” Schmitt said.
The project included plenty of now unseen parts such as roadway drainage work to protect the park from pollutants and remove contaminants from stormwater before it enters Fuller Brook and eventually flows to Boston and into the Charles River basin.
It’s hard to believe that it’s been six years since the Fuller Brook Park restoration project was completed. Abutters and other park users feel very protective of the area. Last year when a proposal was put forward to raze a house on the path to make way for something drastically larger, the project was abandoned after strenuous objections. Neighbors and park users didn’t want to see the character of the historic area changed with a huge house they said would loom over the area.
Schmitt knows without such public such buy-in, the town will fall short of achieving the goals set for the Fuller Brook Park project. “It’s Wellesley’s second-largest watershed. It’s a critical stormwater infrastructure system for the town,” he said. “I think people probably take this for granted now as they walk along it. And if it fails, people will think of it as a loss.”
Fuller Brook Park project punch-list
Here are many of the components performed by the town and outside contractor R. Bates & Sons, Inc.
- installed raised walkways and new boardwalk sections
- installed bioretention basins to filter stormwater and improve water quality in Caroline and Fuller Brooks
- improved roadway drainage to protect from spills and other pollutants from stormwater before it enters Fuller Brook
- installed granite curbing, stone markers, benches, and interpretive signs
- reduced standing water
- stabilized banks
- removed invasive vegetation such as knotweed
- planted over 25 different species of grasses and herbaceous flowering plants to create a diverse habitat attractive to insects, birds, and small mammals
- installed boulder clusters to enhance stream habitat
- created a path to link the Park, Wellesley High School, and the WHS athletic fields
- upgraded drain pipes and culverts
- installed road end drainage and curbing at the dead end streets abutting the park at Tappan St., Benton St., Winthrop Rd., Vane St., and Appleby Rd.
- constructed new paths connecting those streets with the main Brook Path
- installed manholes between catch basins and the Brook outfall
- installed deep sumps in catch basins, and stone at the ends of outfall pipes
- reconstructed four pedestrian bridges
- repaired five masonry structures—either bridges that carry roads over the Brook, or culverts that channel Brook water under the roads. Work was done at Forest St., State St., Wellesley Ave., Brook St., and Cameron St.
The CWRA’s work flows ever onward
The CWRA’s most pressing projects are restoration of the Muddy River, which runs through Boston’s Emerald Necklace and is the most polluted tributary to the Charles River; Canturbury Brook in Mattapan, which runs through the Boston Nature Center; and Cheesecake Brook in Newton, which has a very similar “before” look to it as Wellesley’s Fuller Brook Park, pre-construction.
Support local journalism and contribute what you can to Swellesley. Thanks!
There is a group of us in the Wellesley COA who walk the Fuller Brook pathway twice a week throughout the year, rain or shine. We really appreciate and comment on how nice this path is and thank the NRC and Town for their foresight and efforts in significantly upgrading this natural resource.