Mystic River Watershed Association

Happy New Year! 🎉 Looking for some inspiration for 2025? Here are some #RiverResolutions to add to your list: 🌿 VOLUNTEER — Help us remove invasive plants, collect data, clean up trash & more https://lnkd.in/eM7yAeiY 🥾 EXPLORE — Find a watershed spot that you've never been to before or try a new activity at one of your favorite places https://lnkd.in/e_X93YjB 📰 READ — Read our enewsletter to learn about watershed news and projects in your community https://lnkd.in/emJGTjUi 💝 DONATE — Your donation helps revitalize waterfront parks and paths, improve water quality and climate resilience within the watershed, and engage future stewards https://lnkd.in/eMiYk2uc

MyRWA's Executive Director Patrick Herron offers a year-end thank you to everyone who has contributed to our work - whether you're a member, a partner, a volunteer, a community leader, a board member, or a financial supporter. We have accomplished so much in 2024, and we have so much to look forward to in the new year. Thank you for being a part of our work to protect and restore the Mystic River.

Pulling invasive plants, getting caught in the rain, frolicking with wildflower seeds — these are some of our favorite things! Join us in celebrating highlights from the 2024 stewardship season and thanking the many partners and volunteers that make this work possible >>> https://lnkd.in/eh_DiqAp

Snow Day in the Mystic! ❄️☃️ Did you get any good photos today? 📸: Isaiah Johnson

Last summer, MyRWA was delighted to host a Forest Foundation intern as part of our Environmental Science and Stewardship team. The Forest Foundation internship program provides undergraduates with non-profit and grant-writing experience through professional development workshops and a 10-week placement with a local Boston nonprofit. Learn more and apply here >>> https://lnkd.in/e7vZnHJd We would love to host another student interested in water quality science and equitable community engagement!

This fall, we celebrated the installation of two new cooling solutions — water fountains and misters in Everett and Chelsea. These cooling solutions have come out of our Wicked Cool Mystic campaign, which brought the cities of Everett, Malden, Chelsea, and the Town of Arlington together to engage residents and workers to envision and design cost-effective, fun pilot projects to help people stay cool and healthy during heat waves. As we head into the winter months, we will continue working with residents and partners on interventions to prepare for hotter summers. Thank you to the MA Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) Program for supporting this work! Learn more about Wicked Cool Mystic here >>> https://lnkd.in/eiUR9mRp 📸 #1: A new mister and water fountain at the Everett Recreation Center. Credit: Kate Jenkins-Sullivan 📸 #2: A new mister being installed along Washington Ave in Chelsea. Credit: Emily Granoff

Join us in welcoming Shannon Collins to the Mystic River Watershed Association team! As Climate Engagement Associate, Shannon will work with community members and organizations in the Upstream Mystic region to ensure climate resilient solutions reflect their interests and needs. Read this Q&A with Shannon to find out more about our newest staff member here >>> https://lnkd.in/eyc_t7UF

This #GivingTuesday, support clean water efforts by donating to the Mystic River watershed baseline water quality monitoring program! This program supports 40 volunteer monitors that collect water samples at 15 sites across the watershed each month. Your gift will be used to purchase water quality testing kits and lab services, as well as fund the analysis and publication of the water quality results. Help us reach our goal of raising $9,187.55 to fund 5 out of the 15 water quality sites for the year! Every gift given will be matched 1:1 (up to $5,000). https://lnkd.in/ecun_9Cy 📸: David Mussina

The Mystic goes international! 🌍 This November, MyRWA Climate and Social Resilience Manager Mariangelí Echevarría-Ramos, MPH traveled to Morocco to present at the International Conference for Urban Health. Mariangelí joined our collaborator Andréanne Chu Breton-Carbonneau in sharing about our Heat, Health, and Housing project with Everett Community Growers and the Healthy Neighborhoods Study. This project explores a community-led approach to enhancing climate resilience in Everett. Traditional planning processes have perpetuated the exclusion of historically marginalized communities, imposing vulnerability to climate (health) crises. Through Heat, Health, and Housing, we showed how participatory action research as an alternative method in Everett, allowed residents to feel ownership over the changes happening in their community (development, climate change, etc) and develop their own solutions to address the problems that impact them the most. Read more about this work in our peer-reviewed publication in Health & Place >>> https://lnkd.in/exn4FdKZ

This fall has been full of joyful moments in the outdoors — a groundbreaking, a ribbon cutting, paddling with students on the river, new trees, and connecting with you at many events across the watershed. Check out some of our highlights in this Fall Photo Story and get inspired to #OptOutside today! >>> https://lnkd.in/e_e3-H-q