NFC Presents Findings in Regard to Newton's Urban and Suburban Streams...

After more than a year of fieldwork in Newton, Massachusetts, on heavily altered suburban and urban streams, NFC Executive Director Bob Mallard presented NFC’s findings on a live webinar sponsored by Newton Conservators. While NFC has looked at a lot of different things in regard to overall stream health, the focus of the presentation was on fish…

Most in attendance were unaware that the buried, walled-in, dug down, culverted, and otherwise manipulated streams they drive and walk past and over on a regular basis and have done so for years are home to fish, including wild native fish.

Post presentation viewer comments were extremely positive proving that folks care about these often overlooked and underappreciated suburban and urban natural resources. And as the presentation focused primarily on fish, it shows that people care about what lives in these waterways as well:

“Last night’s zoom meeting about fish in Newton’s under-appreciated lakes and streams was a revelation; it was a really exceptional presentation.”

“I’m so happy that you’ve reached these folks in an important way.”

"Last night’s zoom meeting about fish in Newton’s under-appreciated lakes and streams was a revelation; it was a really exceptional presentation."

"Excellent webinar"

"[NFC’s] work is very important!"

"As Bob said, if you get people interested in fish, it can be the catalyst for larger conservation efforts."

"Hope we'll hear more from NFC in the future."

"Thanks for inviting NFC!"

"This was very cool, an aspect of biodiversity we are not thinking about usually."

"Great talk!"

"Great presentation!"

"I enjoyed learning about a vastly overlooked part of our local ecosystem."

"I look forward to more discussions of ways to restore riparian habitats and keep native biodiversity flourishing (or get it to flourish in the first place!)"

"This was really eye opening and made me want to go see this landscape with new eyes!"

"I had no idea there were shiners and eels in the water in Cold Spring Park!!"

“Thank you for an informative and inspiring presentation!”

"I will look at these waters very differently from now on."

"Would definitely be interested in a walk to look for eels."

"Wonderful topic, and a superb presenter."

"Inspiring."

"Overall, a great and informative seminar."

"Thank you for holding this."

"I really enjoyed your talk last night to the Newton Conservators."

"NFC are heroes for poking around and finding such an extensive collection of fish and eels in places where I never expected they would be." 

"I wanted to thank NFC for not only doing the 'muddy work,' but presenting such an engaging and informative (and well-illustrated!) talk.” 

"The first step is to become informed, and NFC did a great job of that."   

Special thanks to Beth Wilkinson and Barbara Bates from newton conservators for hosting the webinar, all of the organizations, agencies, and businesses that have supported NFC’s work in newton, Massachusetts, to date, the MA NFC board members who did the often difficult fieldwork, and members of national NFC who provided subject matter expertise…