I read with interest both Judge Dolan’s recent post on Pope John Paul II Park and the response by Maria Lyons. I have some differences of opinion with the judge, with all due respect, and am in accord with Maria. To the neighborhood, this is our park, whether or not we take advantage of the other sections of the linear park along the Neponset. As members of the Neponset Greenway Council we look at all the parkland along the Neponset to fulfill the vision of linking Boston Harbor to the Blue Hills.

After the failed proposal to put a football stadium along the river, we waited for 25 years. Many were very cynical about the park proposal at first, hardly imagining that we would get a community amenity like the one we have today (even without the bathrooms). The bike path actually was constructed first because of federal dollars and the fact that the Boston Natural Areas Network (BNAN) held title to the abandoned rail line.

We do need a Friends Group. The resources needed for the upkeep of “the first Neponset Park,” always an issue, have been marshaled over time to get the “missing links” constructed. Time and circumstances have changed and now we have to figure out how to get the care and attention that is needed for PJPII Park. There shouldn’t have to be a trade-off between new dollars and resources for maintenance, but that’s a reality.

Make no mistake: This is an urban state park with restrictions, and the state Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) should be held accountable for its upkeep, an expense that is one of the most tangible uses of our tax dollars. I don’t want to think about the use of a property management firm hacking away at trees and plants inappropriately. The plant materials selected were installed with the long-term conditions of the sites in mind, and maybe some have not weathered time the way we wished they had. After the horrible winter, there is definitely more to be done.

There was a time when we would have had Department of Corrections crews to pick up trash or spread mulch. We have been blessed along the way to have terrific DCR operations managers who shared our vision of the natural areas along the river. But after five commissioners who offered varying degrees of support; at least three internal reorganizations; shuffling staff; the cutting of state budgets over the years; and early retirements of staff, we are basically left with a skeleton of what used to be, and with more reclaimed acreage.

There is not a lot of creativity going on at the site currently. Maintenance is a burden even when it comes to the basics. Good relationships with, and among, the agencies and staff are needed to move things in the right direction. Also, we need volunteers to spiff up the park when it’s most needed, in the spring and the fall. It’s too bad that these articles didn’t come out in time to organize a cleanup for DCR Park Serve Day; maybe next year.

Although the comparison between the Charles River Esplanade and the Neponset River Park is justified for other reasons, the Charles River does not have the designation of an ACEC – an “Area of Critical Environmental Concern” – and as result there is a broader range of activities that can happen there. An ACEC is not some made-up notion; it is a mapped boundary, in effect a zoning for natural areas. It gives the Neponset the highest level of protection to support the natural functions of the river and its wildlife.  Most people aren’t aware that the entire edge of the river from the Baker Dam to its mouth below the Neponset River bridge and into Boston Harbor is an ACEC. As Maria has indicated, this stretch has the highest level of protection to support the natural functions of the river and its wildlife.

Did you know that the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC), the precursor of the DCR, was established more than 100 years ago by the Legislature to protect the Neponset River Reservation? This was the first land protected by the commission.

As you may remember from grammar school, there are three rivers that run through Boston: the Neponset, the Charles, and the Mystic. The Neponset is the only one that has retained its natural tidal flow; the other two have been dammed. Our river has served as spawning areas for shad, herring, and smelt for 300 years.

In 1995, the Neponset Greenway Council was formed under the auspices of the Lila Wallace Reader’s Digest Fund, part of a grant that created the structure and activities for the Council. We wouldn’t have gotten any government attention without organizational support from the Boston Natural Areas Network and the Neponset River Watershed Association.

The council has held DCR’s feet to the fire to get what we have, and BNAN and its network of volunteers, including members of the council, did the plantings that were supplemental to those included in the contract for PJPII Park. Nothing was planted at Hallet Street in the beginning. It was only later, when we got the shade covers and picnic tables, that more plantings were put in on the hummock-like hills that were engineered for that purpose. Volunteers planted the median and the circle at the Hallet Street entrance and parking lot, too. Those areas have not been kept up, and it’s a shame.

The grass at Hallet Street park is un-mowed due to the need to replace field and wet meadows for the migratory birds that were displaced by the intense development at Marina Bay. The birds need resting places along the Great Atlantic North-South Migratory Route.

What I am trying to get across is that there are reasons for why things are the way they are, which is not to say that certain additional activities cannot meet the environmental requirements and be incorporated at a later time.

Those of us who were there from the beginning have agonized, waited, and have been frustrated waiting for Milton to act on the so-called “missing links” elements along the park’s way, but we have marched on to complete sections of the trail linking the park to Hyde Park and out to Port Norfolk.

We have attended meeting after meeting. We have produced one of the first “resources management plans” to be published by DCR and two master plans. And numerous site assessment plans have been drawn up to try to meet cleanup needs at the parks. A Dam Removal panel met for a year and half to tackle fish passage up the river and the removal of PCBs in the estuary. Corporate sponsorship helped restore wetlands by removing phragmites (tall, invasive reeds), and growing more natural grasses that support a fish and bird habitat. Doing all this built the park, but keeping the park in good shape takes personal responsibility: Let’s pick up the trash before it becomes trash!

I invite anyone that would like to join this endeavor to come to a Neponset Greenway Council meeting, which are held on the first Wednesday of every month at 7 p.m. The meeting location rotates among the neighborhoods adjacent to the river. The July meeting will be held in St. Brendan’s Lower Church Hall. If you want to support the establishment of a Friends Group for PJPII, please call 617-875-0761. If you want to do both, that’s great!

Ellie Spring is a member of the Cedar Grove Civic Association, the Neponset Greenway Council, and the Neponset River Watershed Association.