Brian Yates

Alderman-at-Large, Ward 5
City of Newton, MA

The Friends of Hemlock Gorge

• As a citizen and elected official, I have worked with the Metropolitan District Commission to establish an active group of Friends of Hemlock Gorge Reservation.
  

• The Friends have worked with the MDC (now the Department of Conservation and Recreation), Senator Cynthia Creem, Representatives Kay Khan and Ruth Balser, and many other elected officials to preserve the hemlocks from the predators that are destroying them, and to improve access to the reservation by building and beautifying a parking lot on vacant city land, and working with the MDC and the Army Corps of Engineers to preserve the historic Stone Building on the site.
  

• In the future, we will continue to fight the woolly adelgids, improve the Stone Building (with generous donations from members and from the foundation of Alderman Amy Mah Sangiolo and Mr. John Sangiolo), build a Friends' Bridge from the Needham to the Wellesley Bank and designate the Reservation as a National Natural Landmark, and renovate Echo Bridge. If you would like to participate in these activities, please visit our website at www.hemlockgorge.org or join us at our monthly meetings at the Emerson Community Center (Most meetings are on the first Tuesday of the Month at 7:15. See the Friends' Web Site for up to the minute details).

Friends' President Alderman Brian Yates congratulates Forester Charlie Burnham on the long anticipated occasion of the release of latdybugs to combat the wooly adelgid, May 2, 2001.

• With the assistance and advocacy of State Representative Ruth Balser and Senate Natural Resources Committee Chair Pamela Resor, the Friends have been successful in getting the Mass. Water Resources Authority to repair the Echo Station under Echo Bridge and the stairway to it.. We will continue to work with Rep. Balser to get the money to replace the metal work on the Bridge and the stairs down to Ellis Street.

• The new Department of Conservation and Recreation has reached out hold a series of meetings to build partnerships with groups like the Friends. We have also been invited to meet with the partnership staff of the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs.

• An effort by Friends groups across the region has borne fruit as Hammond Pond Parkway and other metropolitan parkways have been placed on the National Register of Historic Places by Secretary of State William Galvin.

This page last updated on Wednesday October 10, 2007

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