Muddy River

Fens on fire

adamg — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 20:40:55 +0000

Masstreehugger took this video: "From my window looking west toward the Muddy River/Back Bay Fens Victory Gardens. The fire here is burning past the Fire Dept Communications Hdqrtrs parking lot, the wind blowing it down stream toward Boylston St."

What turned out to be a two-alarm fire on both sides of the Muddy River was reported around 3 p.m., the Boston Fire Department reports.

Smoke from the fire, which rapidly jumped from brush to trees, could be seen as far away as Hingham.

Firefighters say the Fens is one of three areas in Boston primed for brush fires following our snowless winter. The area along the Neponset had a brush fire last month; Stony Brook Reservation on the Hyde Park/Roslindale line has yet to have one.

Fenway fire from Hingham. Photo by Michael Page.

They paved paradise and put up a Storrow ramp

adamg — Fri, 20 May 2011 03:36:12 +0000

Nowadays, Charlesgate mostly brings to mind the crumbling ramp system connecting Storrow Drive and the roads of the Fenway - its underside a transient homeless camp next to a mucky "pond."

But once it was a bucolic connection between the Muddy and the Charles rivers, part of Olmsted's creative plan for both creating a key part of the Emerald Necklace and flushing out the Muddy.

Compare the above photo, from the Library of Congress's collection, and taken sometime between 1890 and 1901, to this Google Street View. The only thing the two have in common is the still standing residential building.

Some people want to tear down the Bowker overpass, built in 1967, and restore Charlesgate to its Olmstedian ideal.

Not ready to taxi

adamg — Wed, 18 May 2011 16:20:16 +0000

Photo by BFD.

A Brookline cab driver who lost control exiting Storrow Drive at Park Drive wound up in the Muddy River this morning, the Boston Fire Department reports.

The cabbie got himself out of his vehicle OK; a tow truck and a hazmat crew responded to remove the cab and clean up anything it might have left behind.

Esplanadization of the Fens on hold: City unlikely to get permission to mow down the reeds

adamg — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 21:08:40 +0000

Mike Mennonno, who has a plot in the nearby Fenway Victory Gardens, explains.

Carps diem

adamg — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 22:42:44 +0000

Ladybug's Leaf looked down from a bridge over the Muddy River in the Back Bay Fens yesterday and spotted a pair of fish.

Muddy River now also oily river

adamg — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 16:53:21 +0000

The Globe reports officials are investigating and trying to contain an oily spill in the little river that apparently came from somewhere on the Brookline side.

In 2008, you may recall, several thousand gallons of fuel oil spilled in Brighton wound up in the Muddy River.

Muddy River flooding: Double dam

adamg — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:37:53 +0000

The MBTA provides this photo of the temporary dams now in place at the Fenway portal where the Riverside line goes underground. The T had been running Riverside service this morning after the Muddy River receded below flood stage, but it's back above it again and there's no service between Fenway and Kenmore.

MBTA cuts Riverside service to protect Kenmore station from Muddy River floodwaters

adamg — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 02:41:32 +0000

MORNING UPDATE: The Muddy River dropped below flood stage, even if barely, so Riverside service is running this morning - although river levels have started rising again (hourly river-level data).

LATER MORNING UPDATE: The Muddy River got all floody again, so the T put the dam back and stopped Riverside service.

Around 9 p.m., the MBTA blocked off the Fenway portal used by the Riverside line to prevent a recurrence of the 1996 floods that left Kenmore station submerged in 20 feet of water and required $40 million in repairs.

The move means Riverside commuters can expect delays tomorrow as they ride shuttle buses instead of trolleys between Reservoir and Kenmore, the T advises.

A federal monitoring station on the Muddy reported the normally docile river reached flood stage around 8:45 p.m. A T alert announcing the suspension of service between Kenmore and Reservoir went out not long after.

Why they call it the Riverway

adamg — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 20:12:01 +0000

The start of the Riverway this afternoon, along the floody Muddy near Park Drive, where a BWSC crew was trying to unclog a pipe that brings the river under the road to the Fens.

Upstream, on the Brookline side of the Big Muddy:

USGS data show the Muddy's almost at flood stage (that thin red line at the very top of the chart):

Tbobtubb photographed flooding downstream along the Fens.

Man vs. wild at the Riverway and Brookline Avenue

adamg — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 15:23:14 +0000

Jef Taylor shows us the dramatically different views you get at that intersection just by turning one way or the other.

Balancing rocks along the Muddy River

adamg — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 23:27:51 +0000

Now everybody's doing it.

Keep your dog out of the Muddy River

adamg — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 15:40:05 +0000

That blue-green algae (which isn't really algae) can kill.

Might be best to hold off on that Muddy River swim trip

adamg — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 20:51:25 +0000

Toxic algae blooms!

Step away from the duck

adamg — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 01:09:13 +0000

Brookline officials want well intentioned people to stop trying to scoop up oily birds from the Muddy River following yesterday's bizarre oil spill, because most people don't really have a clue how to get oil off a duck's back.

Several thousand gallons of oil spilled in Brighton wind up in Muddy River

adamg — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:38:02 +0000

The Tab reports that up to 5,000 gallons of mineral oil that leaked out of an electrical conduit at Sutherland and Strathmore roads in Brighton this morning got into a drainage pipe that then dumped it into Leverett Pond and the Muddy River on the other side of Brookline on the Jamaica Plain line.