On July 9, the Charles River Conservancy and MIT Sea Grant partnered to share hands-on activities and an up close look at the Charles River Floating Wetland. Hosted by MIT Open Space programming, the Leap Lap event engaged with families and individuals as they engineered their own floating wetland models and viewed daphnia and water samples from the Charles River under microscopes.

Greater & Greener Presentation

Last month, the CRC was excited to share our floating wetland project by presenting with groups from Chicago and Baltimore at the City Parks Alliance's Greater & Greener Conference in Philadelphia. Executive Director Laura Jasinski and Project Manager Taylor Leonard attended and enjoyed learning from parks professionals at this biennial event held.

The CRC is proud to be a recipient of a grant from Takeda's Corporate Social Responsibility program, part of the company's commitment to health, education, the environment and access to nutrition/food. Takeda is "looking forward to growing our U.S. CSR Program over the coming year and proud to partner with organizations located in the communities where many of our employees live and work who share our commitment to improving people's lives for the better." The grant will support the Charles River Floating Wetland, located near Takeda's Kendall Square offices. Thank you to Takeda for supporting environmental stewardship and resiliency for the Charles River and in its parks!

Saturday, August 13, 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. We will be working along Soldiers Field Road, between the N. Beacon Street and Arsenal Street Bridge area, painting benches, removing litter, and weeding. Please email Sasha at svallieres@thecharles.org to RSVP.

Saturday, September 17, 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Save the date for our annual CoastSweep Cleanup!

Schedule a Conservancy Volunteers event for your company or group this fall! Reserve your day by contacting Sasha at svallieres@thecharles.org.

Louisa, the CRC's new Northeastern co-op, comes to the role after working with the Massachusetts Promise Fellowship as a program assistant and at the Massachusetts Archives’ Commonwealth Museum, where she facilitated and planned programs about Massachusetts history and trivia for elementary school students as a museum education assistant. Additionally, Louisa has experience in pet care and classical voice. In Louisa’s free time, she can be found playing card games, mending clothes, or cooking. We're so excited to add Louisa to the team!

The CRC is hiring for two positions: Communications and Outreach Coordinator and Land Stewardship Coordinator (TerraCorps Position). Please feel free to pass these postings to anyone interested! The deadline for the Communications and Outreach Coordinator position has been extended to July 22, 2022.

CRC Executive Director Laura Jasinski and Project Manager Taylor Leonard were excited to take part in a @foundryjukebox story to be released July 12th! They joined Jukebox creator @elisahhamilton at the Lynch Family Skatepark to talk about its history and future.

Celebrate the web release of 25 new Jukebox stories by heading to the Cambridge Public Library July 12th from 5:30pm-7pm. When the @cambridgefoundry opens in September, make sure to visit to play the stories on the physical Jukebox! We're looking forward to visiting the Foundry then and enjoying the new stories online next week.

Cambridge Commits $1.8m to Park Improvements (Magazine Beach)

We're thrilled that the City of Cambridge committed $1.8m of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to make much needed improvements to Magazine Beach Park: replacing the parking lot with a beach, dock, and outlook. This winter, the Department of Conservation and Recreation will also redo the pool and decks, with $2.7m invested in updating the pool and its bathhouse over two years. Magazine Beach Partners have been pushing for these critical updates since 2019. Congratulations and thank you to Magazine Beach Partners for their continued advocacy for these improvements!

DCR Strategic Readiness Roadmap (DCR)

In response to the Special Commission Report, the Department of Conservation and Recreation undertook an 8-week "sprint" planning process to create a Strategic Readiness Roadmap to guide critical next steps for the agency. The plan was presented at the June 23rd Stewardship Council meeting. The CRC looks forward to continuing to support DCR, particularly in the development of an improved partnership strategy as detailed in the Roadmap.

The Charles River Conservancy is happy to announce that we were selected as a recipient of the @buffaloexchange Tokens for Bags® program from July through December 2022. You can now donate to the CRC just by shopping at Buffalo Exchange Brookline! Instead of a plastic bag, the Tokens for Bags® program offers every customer who makes a purchase one “token” valued at five cents (the cost to produce a bag) to donate to one of several local charities selected by the store. The program has generated over $893,860 for hundreds of local nonprofit organizations since 1994 and has saved over 17.87 million plastic bags from the landfill.

business partners, and leadership corporate sponsors, please visit our website.