Teens Clean Up Belle Isle Marsh

Boston Natural Areas Network’s Youth Conservation Corps at the Belle Marsh last week during their efforts to clean up a portion of the Marsh. The Corps has spent the past few weeks restoring a portion of the Belle Isle Marsh behind the Boston Casket Company.

Boston Natural Areas Network’s Youth Conservation Corps is at it again and has spent the past few weeks restoring a portion of the Belle Isle Marsh behind the Boston Casket Company.

The Corps’ work has included minor landscaping of paths and walkways, mowing grass areas, laying mulch, and, above all, identifying and removing invasive plant species that has chocked off the natural plants.

The group has spent the summer working two days at the Belle Isle Marsh and three days at the East Boston Greenway doing similar work.

Over the years this forgotten portion of the Marsh has been overgrown with invasive weeds, tall grass and unkempt trees.

The crews worked tirelessly learning about how to prune trees, remove weeds and plants that did not belong in the area and clean litter and other trash from area while defining pathways.

The Corps’ work coincides with last year’s announcement that the community will get to use a piece of Port Authority owned property, a 25 ft. corridor near Wood Island MBTA station, as a connector that will extend the Bremen Street Park to a path to Constitution Beach.

Ultimately, residents will be able to walk, bike ride, job or rollerblade from the area the Corps did their work all the way to Constitution Beach without ever touching a busy city street.

The area the teens worked on this summer at the Marsh may one day become a future extension of this park system allowing for one seamless path from Eastie’s waterfront to the Marsh.

The Youth Conservation Corps, which will enter its 18th year of operation in 2011, will have served over 540 girls and boys ranging in age from 15-17. This year, four teams worked along the East Boston Greenway, Belle Isle Marsh, the Neponset River Greenway and in Boston’s Urban Wilds. The teens learn teamwork and job skills while engaged in environmental improvement projects involving environmental restoration, trail building, landscaping and more.

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