MEADOWSCAPING FOR BIODIVERSITY GIVES NATIVE WILDFLOWERS??TO MAGAZINE BEACH
Cambridge, MA ??? Waltham-based Meadowscaping for Biodiversity (MS4B) is gifting approximately 100 perennial native wildflowers to Magazine Beach Park. The pollinator-friendly, deep-rooted flowers will be planted on the berm along the east side of one of three stormwater rain swales in the park.??
Meadowscaping for Biodiversity (www.meadowmaking.org) is an organization that delivers model outdoor, project-based, environmental-enrichment programs to youth, age 7 ??? 19. The students transform turf lawns and ornamental gardens into pollinator-friendly meadows and gardens filled with native plants that soak up stormwater and sequester carbon. While planting their meadows, students learn about biodiversity, habitat restoration, and how their positive actions benefit their communities and themselves.??
The donated native wildflowers come from a 700 sq. ft. urban meadow on the east lawn of Waltham???s Christ Church Episcopal, which MS4B and Cub Scouts started in 2014. Over the past four years, the site has been used as a teaching tool and contemplative place for summer campers, congregants, and passers by.
??As the season progresses on Magazine Beach, look for bees, butterflies and birds alighting on these newcomers. Cambridge students will help to water the plants as an activity of the Morse Elementary afterschool program. During the summer, high school students involved in MS4B???s Youth Environmental Entrepreneurship Program (YEEP), a program within the Cambridge Mayor???s Summer Youth Employment Program, will use the site to strengthen their understanding of ecosystems in the city. YEEP also addresses a timely socio-economic challenge that affects many communities when youth develop skills they can use to get jobs and to advance their personal, academic, and career directions.
?????We are proud of the beautiful and functional meadow at Christ Church in Waltham that Cub Scouts and other students created in 2014. This meadow has been good for the environment and this community,??? said Barbara Passero, Founder and Director of Meadowscaping for Biodiversity.
Passero continued, ???We are happy to share these plants with other communities. All students who have worked here in Waltham and those who will be involved at the Magazine Beach site will develop a deep understanding of the relationship between plants and pollinators and the positive steps citizens can take to help their local ecosystems and ultimately the planet.?????
Cathie Zusy, President of Magazine Beach Partners, added, ???We are thrilled at the opportunity to receive these plants and look forward to observing how the plants and students who care for them flourish. This has been a nice collaboration for us.?? In fact, many groups and naturalists have contributed to this meadow movement. They include: MS4B, Magazine Beach Partners, the Charles River Conservancy, the City of Cambridge, Green Cambridge, and the Cambridge Plant & Garden Club.
Meadowscaping for Biodiversity (MS4B, www.meadowmaking.org) is an outdoor, STEAM-learning, project-based environmental education program that exposes youth to the benefits of being outdoors in nature and empowers them to be good environmental citizens. Its mission is to ???heal the earth ??? through education ??? one meadow at a time.??? MS4B offers two program lines: Out-of-school-time Meadow Clubs and environmental enrichment courses for youth, age 7-14, and the ??Youth Environmental Entrepreneurship Program (YEEP), a summer employment program, for teens age 15-19. For more information, visit:?? www.meadowmaking.org, or www.facebook.com/Waltham YEEP.
Magazine Beach Partners, a newly created 501c3, is dedicated to working with the Massachusetts Department of Conservation & Recreation (DCR) and the City of Cambridge to revitalize Magazine Beach Park???the City???s second largest park. They support the preservation of this wonderful green open space. For more about efforts to revitalize Magazine Beach Park, visit: www.magazinebeach.org.