Alewife Reservation

 

Learn about and help maintain this unique 160 acres of urban wild conveniently located at the Alewife T stop. Sign up your group for one of several sessions a year, or participate in our annual summer multi-week session through the Mayor's Summer Youth Employment Program. If you're interested in your group volunteering with us on the Alewife Reservation, email alewife@greencambridge.org.

The Alewife Reservation is a unique natural resource for the communities of Cambridge, Arlington, Belmont, Somerville, and Medford and is home to hundreds of species, including hawks, coyotes beavers, snapping turtles, wild turkeys, and muskrats!

Through our programming as the Friends of Alewife Reservation, we help protect and restore this wild area and the surrounding area. We research water quality, native plants, animals, and over 90 bird species. We maintain paths for recreation and use the space as an outdoor classroom.

 

River Restore

Restoring a Landscape through Education

Learn More About River Restore

 

The banks of Little River are serving as an outdoor classroom for Mayor's Summer Youth Employment Program participants and other volunteers.

In summer 2021, we kicked off the first of at least three year project to restore the riverbank between the Alewife Stormwater Wetland and the Little River. Partnering with Parterre Ecological to provide expertise in the field, and working in collaboration with Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation and the Cambridge Conservation Commission, we're creating new native habitat by removing invasives and planting shrubs and trees.

Initiated in 2015 by the previous incarnation of Friends of Alewife Reservation, and funded in part through Ellen Mass, former FAR president, this 28,000 square foot site prone to flooding and dogged by pollution will be ameliorated via biodiversity plantings that builds on the native plantings of the Stormwater Wetland area.

Green Cambridge Mayors Summer Youth Program

If you are a current high schooler or a rising freshman looking for opportunities in nonprofit work and environmentalism, our Mayors Summer Youth Program is a great way to make connections and experience a professional environment.