Harvard Finds a Trout Stream

January 8, 2008 By: Marshall Cutchin

Somehow it’s hard for me to imagine a trout stream issuing forth from the paved and blackened bowels of Allston, Mass, but if local conservationists have their way, Harvard will participate in bringing at least one stream back to life there. The concept, called “daylighting” by proponents, is a hopeful but expensive idea that’s already taken hold among urban planners in places like Berkeley, California and Kalamazoo, Michigan. Why not?
“Using old maps of the area, some dating back as far as the mid-1800s, Bowditch and her colleagues have pinpointed several waterways that once drained the area. One stream, which the group has named Allston Creek, formerly ran from near the Everett Street Interstate 90 overpass to the Charles, just north of the Western Avenue Bridge. Technically, Allston Creek is still there. It’s just out of sight, running under North Allston in a series of branching pipes.” Jeremy Miller in the Boston Globe.