Bill Ackerly and Ellen Mass of the Friends of Alewife Reservation (FAR)  have sent the following letter sent to Cambridge Mayor Henrietta Davis, Vice Mayor Denise Simmons and City Councillor Minka vanBeuzekom, chair, council's environmental committee.

The Friends of Alewife Reservation (FAR) and its Board of Directors wish to inform you of our growing concerns surrounding the Alewife Reservation and its development proposals from the McKinnon Company and its many subsidiaries, and any additional real estate developers that the City is permitting in the area. 

FAR is a group that affirms the priority of smart-growth affordable housing development. Our goal is environmental open space protection in the age of climate change for Cambridge, because we are in a low-lying plain near the Atlantic ocean, and because we enjoy the great gift of inhabiting an urban wild as part of our municipal property on the Mystic River watershed, which is protected by US-EPA and by our Mystic River Watershed Association and its Mystic Steering Committee which meets regularly with state agencies about the watershed.

The following was written by Lourie August of Arlington and submitted by Ellen Mass of the Friends of Alewife Reservation (FAR) 

On a recent Sunday, around noontime and under sunny skies, we entered Alewife Reservation in the back corner of the newly landscaped area - that would be near the intersection of Acorn Park Drive and the sign for "Forrester," past the "Sanitary Pump Station" heading toward Little River.

At a wooden foot bridge at the head of the path, we headed west on the trail along Little River. After crossing the third wooden footbridge that FAR Ecology Campers had made, the trail curves to the right and there is a large tree stump on the left and a large hollowed-out log on the right.

The minks may have been in the log when we first approached but if not inside the log they were certainly near it.

The following was submitted by Ellen Mass, of Friends of Alewife Reservation (FAR), one of the groups opposing the Belmont Uplands project

Maintaining open spaces at the Alewife Reservation is a battle that shows no sign of abating.  Even as global warming ensures more heavy precipitation frequently flooding the entire area (March 2009), the multimillion-dollar development plan for “Discovery Park,” situated on a delicate “floodway,” continues to move forward.

That development along with four others planned for the area occupy the FEMA floodway and 100-year flood zone, increasing the likelihood of more frequent flooding and threatening the Reservation’s biodiversity and increasing displaced water runoff.