“Now you see it, now you don’t: Canterbury Brook could be key to flood mitigation efforts in Mattapan” —Dorchester Reporter

We identified Canterbury Brook, a tributary of Stony Brook, which flows underground through Boston to the Charles River, as a priority site for stream restoration within the watershed. Flowing inside an artificial channel since the early 1900s, the brook suffers poor water quality from years of neglect, and experiences flooding and habitat degradation. We are collaborating with Mass Audubon’s Boston Nature Center, the City of Boston, and community members to reimagine and restore Canterbury Brook. We were happy to read this recent Dorchester Reporter article about the ongoing restoration of the brook,

“A check last week of the severely compromised culvert running under Morton Street showed thousands of plastic water, juice and soda bottles floating in the water and clogging the flow into the culvert. Some of the bottles appeared to be a decade or more old, and all a result of runoff from the roadways and sidewalks. The conditions are common for the Brook, where visible trash, stagnant water, sediment buildup, and poor water quality are the norm...Yet there remains hope that the Brook can be restored according to the organization’s mission and the historic flooding problems alleviated at the same time. To do both, the hurdles are high.”