Save Herter Community Garden
Mass. Department of Conservation & Recreation
The Mass. Department of Conservation & Recreation (DCR) is proposing the demolition of a 45 year old organic community garden along the Charles River in Herter Park, Brighton. Please use this form to sign on a joint comment to the DCR demanding that they leave the garden where it is.
While the official public comment ended on October 29th, 2021, DCR officials still need to hear from us. Read our November 2021 newsletter for the latest update - we need to keep up the pressure!
Individual comments can still be submitted directly to the state using this form. DCR has ensured us that late comments will still be read and taken into consideration. Unique individual comments will have more of an impact. If you are able to write separately, please submit a comment here and send a copy to our Policy Director so we see it! (marty@nofamass.org)
You can use THIS form (on this page) to add your name/organization on to this joint letter within seconds.
WATCH and share this video from community members, asking that their garden not be destroyed.
The Herter Community Garden, founded in 1976 with about 70 plots on about 1/3 acre, alongside the Charles River in Herter Park, Brighton, has been a hub of organic urban community gardening for almost half a century and is relied upon by local immigrant communities.
The plan to remove the garden was disclosed during a 90 minute public meeting hosted by DCR on Zoom on September 29, 2021, during which contractors spent 2 minutes discussing the Herter Community Garden (video, here). DCR contractors explained how turning the existing community garden into a “picnic lawn” would provide “an expansive view of the river.”
The proposed plan would tear apart both the garden itself and the web of community and sociability that have characterized it for all these years. In a time of food insecurity and climate destabilization we should be expanding community gardens, not “consolidating” them.
We, the undersigned representatives of food and agricultural, justice and environmental organizations and advocates across the commonwealth, demand that the Department of Conservation & Recreation (DCR) reject any plan to relocate the Herter Community Garden.
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The Herter Community Garden, founded in 1976 with about 70 plots on about 1/3 acre, alongside the Charles River in Herter Park, Brighton, has been a hub of organic urban community gardening for almost half a century and is relied upon by local immigrant communities and communities of color.
The plan to remove the garden was disclosed during a 90 minute public meeting hosted by DCR on Zoom on September 29, 2021, during which contractors spent 2 minutes discussing the Herter Community Garden (video, here). DCR contractors explained how turning the existing community garden into a “picnic lawn” would provide “an expansive view of the river.”
The plan proposes "consolidating" or relocating the garden next to another community garden, about a quarter mile up river, to a site which is sloped, wooded, with poor drainage and depleted soil and rife with opportunistic (aka “invasive”) plant species. The idea of 'moving' any established garden makes little sense--the 45 years of organic soil enrichment, and design features like fences, paths, and trellises are not transferable. The impediments to “consolidating” the garden into the highly problematic proposed site would provide a devastating blow to this vibrant community project.
The present garden is quite central to the main parking area and walking paths, and thus forms a constant attraction for many park visitors who engage with the plantings and gardeners and learn about urban food resiliency and pollinator protection. In contrast, the proposed site is isolated, largely obscured, and remote from other activities.
The Herter community gardeners are a vulnerable community of largely older gardeners, many of them immigrants and People of Color with limited English skills and few resources. These stakeholders were not adequately engaged in the planning process, many only becoming aware of the plan in recent days.
The proposed plan would tear apart both the garden itself and the web of community and sociability that have characterized it for all these years. In a time of food insecurity and climate destabilization we should be expanding community gardens, not “consolidating” them.
We, the undersigned representatives of food and agricultural, justice and environmental organizations and advocates across the commonwealth, demand that the Department of Conservation & Recreation (DCR) reject any plan to relocate the Herter Community Garden.