Medford Conservation Commission Approves Five-Year DCR Invasive Plant Order for Middlesex Fells

MEDFORD -- June 15, 2022, Medford's Conservation Commission unanimously approved a five-year Order of Conditions allowing the state Department of Conservation and Recreation to remove invasive plants from the Bellevue Pond section of the Middlesex Fells Reservation. The 4-0 vote at the June 15 meeting covers wetland resource areas including bank, bordering vegetated wetland, and the 200-foot riverfront area of Floyds Brook, with Japanese knotweed, woody invasive shrubs, and Asiatic bittersweet among the target species. DCR Inland Ecologist Alia Chandy described a range of management tools including repeated cutting, an English mesh-barrier technique, solarization, and targeted herbicide applications by licensed applicators only, glyphosate and triclopyr as the primary agents, with no broadcast spraying proposed. The project is funded in part through a matching-funds grant with the Friends of the Fells, and the Mystic River Watershed Association submitted a letter of support. DCR is required to submit annual plans to the commission detailing completed and upcoming work throughout the five-year term.