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The Muddy River Restoration Project discussed in this report has been in the planning process for 10 years. My love of and concern for the river, the park area surrounding it, and the creatures inhabiting and passing though, led me to question the adequacy of the environmental impact study for the project. In searching, what I found was 30 pages, an appendix, among the tomes. In it were a few sentences on, for instance, bird habitat, turtle loss, tree damage, but then it went on to justify or dismiss these impacts as negligible, acceptable, replaceable, and, it assumed recovery. The studies of the real impact on real living beings: impacts both immediate and over time; impacts, that consider climate change and its effects on recoverability; impacts on the inherent environmental values of place were not there. This is an invitation to discuss and explore ways of tending the area, of increasing biodiversity, of forming community through participation and shared work, of fostering appreciation and love for urban wild areas. It seeks participants in serious, long-term ecological studies - trees, plants, birds, reptiles, amphibians, mammals, insects and micro-organism. Air, water, soil, sediment, in the shared communities in which they exist. Bioremediation services, wetland services, air quality services, ecosystem services. And it seeks to re-value urban wild places. Muddy River is not a pristine place. It is a myth that any place is. Given its urban setting, "pristine" would not be a realistic goal. However, it should not be subject to the continual degradation caused by the encroachment of development and accommodation to the automobile, and to the short-sighted remedies that condemn the area to perpetual disruption and destruction. One of the many reasons the project as proposed makes no sense is that none of the storm drains, acting as tributaries and emptying directly into the river, will be diverted away from the river. Thank you for entering this discussion with me. This precious urban wild-ness needs our awareness, caring, participation, protection, gratitude and love. If you have questions or comments, or would like a copy of the report sent to you via the postal system, contact: muddybemuddy@yahoo.com or write to: z.zsido, p.o. box 230684, boston MA 02123 |