SWCPC Notes

Welcome to the first post on the Southwest Corridor Park Conservancy (SWCPC) Blog!

My name is Dan d’Heilly and I moderate this space. I’m active with the SWCP Conservancy board. Other board members, volunteers and guests will also provide blog entries, and opinions expressed here represent the author(s) du jour.

By way of introduction, the SWCP Conservancy was founded in 2004 with the mission of “restoring, maintaining, and enhancing” the park. It grew from the work of volunteers who have traditionally maintained the gardens in the South End section of the park, between the Back Bay and Mass Ave MBTA stations on the Orange Line. The Conservancy, as a nonprofit, can do fundraising and volunteer organizing, as well as collaborating with other organizations on communciations and events, and other work to support the park.

The Southwest Corridor Park stretches 4.7 miles from the South End to Jamaica Plain, and the Conservancy has connected in different ways with each section of the park, from volunteer days throughout the park (planting, weeding and pruning), volunteer stewardship of gardens, working with DCR to identify needs in the park, and collaboration with other organizations on events.

DayDuring 2010 we celebrated the 20th anniversary of the hand-over of the park to the state for management. Lots of stories of the year, but I’ll leave you with just one of the highlights today: During 2010, SWCPC held 12 volunteer days, with over 200 volunteers, who planted, pruned, weeded and more throughout the corridor. Volunteers also worked throughout the spring, summer and fall maintaining garden areas as “stewards” as well as doing general watering, weeding and bulb planting throughout the corridor. We enjoyed participation from formal groups of volunteers from many organizations, as well as individual volunteers from the Southwest Corridor neighborhoods. Take a look at the gallery on our website to see some of the many photos of volunteer days.