FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 7, 1998
Contact: Mark S. Fine (617) 722-1639
ECHO BRIDGE, HEMLOCK GORGE
TO RECEIVE FUNDS IN SENATE BUDGET
Senator Creem encouraged by Senate support
for important Newton projects
Funding to rebuild the Echo Bridge in Newton Upper Falls and to
protect hemlocks tree in the MDC’s Hemlock Gorge Preserve
was included in two Senate budget bills on the request of State
Senator Cynthia Stone Creem (D-Newton). In the Senate’s
capital supplemental budget, $500,000 was included to rebuild the
Echo Bridge, which carries the Sudbury Aqueduct across the
Charles River in the Hemlock Gorge Reservation. In the Senate’s
general budget for the fiscal year 2000, $60,000 was included to
fund the establishment of a program breeding the natural
predators of the wooly adelgild, an Asian beetle that is feeding
on and destroying hemlock trees, throughout the New England.
“ The Hemlock Gorge Reservation is one of the most beautiful
parklands in Newton. I am encouraged that my Senate colleagues
have approved this vital funding to maintain the Gorge.
Rebuilding the historic Echo Bridge and protecting the hemlock
trees that lend the reservation its name are goals we must
achieve,” said Creem, upon being notified of the projects’
inclusion in the Senate budget.
The Echo Bridge was built in the 1870’s to carry water from
western Massachusetts to the burgeoning City of Boston and its
surrounding communities. The bridge was modeled after the ancient
Roman aqueducts and includes the arched supports that gave the
Roman aqueducts their distinctive appearance. The Echo Bridge is
listed in the National Historic Registry. The $500,000 in state
funding that Senator Creem was allocated for the bridge’s
reconstruction would come out of the state’s historic
restoration grants program. The Massachusetts Water Resources
Authority (MWRA) currently maintains the historic span and has
been considering means of restoring the bridge.
$60,000 was also allocated by Senator Creem to protect the
reservation’s hemlock trees from the threat posed by the
Wooly Adelgid beetle. The Wooly Adelgid, which is native to Asia,
first appeared in the United States in 1924. Since that time, the
beetle has infested more than 25 percent of the hemlock trees in
the northeastern U.S. The beetle feeds of the hemlock tree’s
sap and after a span of eight years on average kills the tree.
Because there is no native predator to the Wooly Adelgid, Newton
residents and environmental experts fear that the Wooly Adelgid
will fell many of the Hemlock Gorge’s trees within the next
decade.
Senator Creem’s accepted budget request includes the
purchase and introduction another Asian insect, a species of lady
bug, known as the P tsugae. This tiny beetle is the
natural predator of the Wooly Adelgid in Asia. The State of New
Jersey’s Department of Agriculture has been breeding the P
tsugae to protect hemlock trees in that state. They would
provide the initial batch of P tsugae to Massachusetts
to be used to protect hemlocks.
Page last updated June 18, 1999