Initiatives
Hotel on Park Land? Not Happening!
Proposal to build a hotel on Little Blue Hill conservation land: thwarted! You probably don’t think of a hotel when you think of parkland, but that didn’t stop an individual from proposing to build a hotel on DCR conservation land near Little Blue Hill. Luckily,...
Cleaning the Park by Updating the Bottle Bill
The Friends of the Blue Hills worked with a statewide coalition to update the state bottle bill. Updating the bottle bill would have increased recycling and would have helped clean up the Blue Hills – and all our parks. Unfortunately, despite a statewide effort of...
Advocating for Park Resources
The Friends of the Blue Hills is part of a statewide coalition of environmental groups called the Environmental Collaborative. As part of this coalition, we advocate for statewide policies that help the Blue Hills, such as increased funding for environmental...
Healthy Forests; Healthy People
Updated October 16, 2015 The Friends of the Blue Hills is working to help protect you and your family from a growing problem that faces our community: more and more people are getting sick with Lyme disease. Through our Healthy Forests; Healthy People campaign we are...
Protecting Wetlands in Fowl Meadow from Development
A private company proposed building 276 housing units right next to the portion of the Blue Hills called Fowl Meadow on Brush Hill Road in Milton. The five-story buildings would have severely damaged the sensitive wetland habitat in Fowl Meadow. We are exceedingly...
Balancing Recreational Use with Environmental Concerns: Canopy Tour in the Quarries
A canopy tour proposal has been approved by the Quincy City Council. This approval starts a process with the City of Quincy and the Department of Conservation and Recreation to review the proposal and evaluate the environmental impacts and its affect on current...
Blue Hills Resource Management Plan
Posted July, 2012 In 2011, Friends of the Blue Hills collaborated with the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) to make sure all park visitors and people who care about the park could participate in setting priorities for maintenance, repair and...
Protecting Wetlands: Blue Hills Reservoir
In 2003 the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority began developing plans to convert the eastern half of the Blue Hills Reservoir into two 10 million gallon buried drinking water storage tanks. The reservoir, built in the 1950’s had been inactive as a public...
Demonstrating to Candidates that their Constituents Care about the Blue Hills
As part of our continuing efforts to keep our members informed and our political leaders responsive, Friends of the Blue Hills held a forum for candidates running in 2010 for the position of State Senate. About 100 Blue Hills advocates attended the forum to meet...
Why is the Incidence of Lyme Disease Increasing?
One reason for the dramatic increase in Lyme disease is that we’ve created ideal habitat for deer; forests like the Blue Hills are crisscrossed with roads and spotted with houses, creating ‘edge habitat’ where deer thrive. Unfortunately, we’ve also removed many of...
Cell Tower: Milton
Updated March, 2010 Milton Zoning Board Votes to Deny Cell Tower: Progress that you can't see During the summer of 2009, Green Mountain Communications (GMC) of New Hampshire proposed building a 140-foot cell tower on the triangular parcel of land on the Houghton's...
Route 95-128 Bridge Project
Posted April 2002 ; Updated January 2010 FBH is closely following the progress for the planned reconstruction of the Route 95/128 bridge over the Neponset River by the Massachusetts Highway Department (MHD). MHD recently submitted a Notice of Project Change as part of...
I-95/I-93/University Avenue Interchange
Posted October, 2002 ; Updated January, 2010 FBH Comments on Major Highway Redesign Project Friends of the Blue Hills has been working with MassHighway on the major redesign of the I-95/I-93/University Avenue interchange and on October 11, 2002 submitted comments on...
Lantana Land Swap: Anatomy of a Giveaway
Updated April, 2009 The Lantana Land Swap is a scheme intended to convey over three acres of undisturbed Blue Hills Reservation woodlands on High St. in Randolph to a commercial abutter for a 408-space parking lot. Background FBH has vigorously questioned this plan...
Indian Line Farm
Updated April, 2009 Indian Line Farm, a 44-acre parcel of land within the Blue Hills Reservation, is a historic landscape with enormous cultural and natural value. Yet the open fields and woodlands of this parcel remain at particular risk of development. The Farm is...