Clean river, healthy communities

Welcome to the advocacy and educational clearinghouse for Boston’s Muddy River. Environmentalists, stakeholders, and stewards of our vital urban waterway, we support climate-resilient projects that keep our River clean and our communities healthy. In so doing, we are honoring the legacy of Frederick Law Olmsted and his visionary design of a sparkling Emerald Necklace.

We invite all friends and neighbors to jump in. Let’s work together for a #cleanmuddy!

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Project #1

Muddy River WATERGOAT Pilot

Flowing through the heart of Boston, the Muddy River is one of the top two most polluted tributaries of the Charles River and a critical link in urban Boston’s flood control system. With the approval of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), and the active engagement of water quality experts, water scientists, trash boom providers, engineers, and a host of eco-activist volunteers, we are embarking on a pilot project to rid the Muddy River of the trash—old bottles, clothing, shoes, balls, scrap plastic and fencing, and other toxic and unsightly debris—that currently pollutes the ecosystem.

The WATERGOAT Pilot Project will install a safe, heavily tested, and effective raw trash barrier and clean-up device at the critical Charlesgate East and Ipswich Streets juncture of the Muddy and Charles Rivers. This will be the 92nd WATERGOAT system implementation in the US and a model for ongoing river clean-up efforts in Boston and beyond.

We are grateful to New England Grassroots Environmental Fund for their fiscal sponsorship.

Photos: Courtesy of BIGWATER Rescue

MEET OUR FOUNDING DIRECTORS

Caroline Reeves

has lived next to the Muddy River for 25 years. Trained as a historian of China, she is an environmentalist at heart. In between her work as a researcher at Harvard’s Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies and fishing with her husband and two sons, she advocates for cleaner and safer water for our planet. As a specialist in the history of charity, she knows that charity begins at home. She loves that Muddy Water.

Caroline Reeves

has lived next to the Muddy River for 25 years. Trained as a historian of China, she is an environmentalist at heart. In between her work as a researcher at Harvard’s Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies and fishing with her husband and two sons, she advocates for cleaner and safer water for our planet. As a specialist in the history of charity, she knows that charity begins at home. She loves that Muddy Water.

Jacqueline Royce

has been an environmentalist since Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and has never met a watershed or wetlands or benthic macroinvertebrate she doesn’t love. A retired medical sociologist with a background in City and Regional Planning and Health Promotion Research and Policy Analysis, she is an active member of Gas Leaks Allies, Boston Clean Energy Coalition, and the Green Committee of the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay (NABB). Author of “Many Mind Creek/Sandy Hook Bay: Planning Habitat Restoration of an Estuarine Ecosystem and its Adjacent Greenway,” Jackie received New Jersey’s Environmental Stewardship award in 2006. She looks forward to walleye ice fishing in the Muddy.

Jacqueline Royce

has been an environmentalist since Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and has never met a watershed or wetlands or benthic macroinvertebrate she doesn’t love. A retired medical sociologist with a background in City and Regional Planning and Health Promotion Research and Policy Analysis, she is an active member of Gas Leaks Allies, Boston Clean Energy Coalition, and the Green Committee of the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay (NABB). Author of “Many Mind Creek/Sandy Hook Bay: Planning Habitat Restoration of an Estuarine Ecosystem and its Adjacent Greenway,” Jackie received New Jersey’s Environmental Stewardship award in 2006. She looks forward to walleye ice fishing in the Muddy.

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The Muddy Water Initiative appreciates your financial contributions. Our climate-resilient projects will clean the Muddy River today and for future generations. Join your neighbors in climate action!

Here’s how to jump in:

Visit grassrootsfund.org. Select Fiscal Sponsorship Group, then Muddy Water Initiative.

Or send your donation to:

Muddy Water Initiative, PO Box 990906, Boston, MA 02199

For tax-deductible contributions, please make your check payable to New England Grassroots Environmental Fund and note Muddy Water Initiative in the memo line.

Or, you may make your check payable to Muddy Water Initiative. Note: we are not a 501(c)3 organization.

Questions? Contact info@muddywaterinitiative.org