University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Open Access Dissertations 9-2009 More Than One River: Local, Place-Based Knowledge and the Political Ecology of Restoration and Remediation Along the Lower Neponset River, Massachusetts Simona Lee Perry University of Massachusetts Amherst, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/open_access_dissertations Part of the Earth Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Perry, Simona Lee, "More Than One River: Local, Place-Based Knowledge and the Political Ecology of Restoration and Remediation Along the Lower Neponset River, Massachusetts" (2009). Open Access Dissertations. 117. https://doi.org/10.7275/zm36-a676 https://scholarworks.umass.edu/open_access_dissertations/117 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Open Access Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. MORE THAN ONE RIVER: LOCAL, PLACE-BASED KNOWLEDGE AND THE POLITICAL ECOLOGY OF RESTORATION AND REMEDIATION ALONG THE LOWER NEPONSET RIVER, MASSACHUSETTS A Dissertation Presented by SIMONA LEE PERRY Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY September 2009 Wildlife and Fisheries Conservation © Copyright by Simona Lee Perry 2009 All Rights Reserved MORE THAN ONE RIVER: LOCAL, PLACE-BASED KNOWLEDGE AND THE POLITICAL ECOLOGY OF RESTORATION AND REMEDIATION ALONG THE LOWER NEPONSET RIVER, MASSACHUSETTS A Dissertation Presented By SIMONA LEE PERRY Approved as to style and content by: ___________________________________ Robert M. Muth, Chair ___________________________________ Charles M. Schweik, Member ___________________________________ Martha E. Mather, Member ___________________________________ Krista M. Harper, Member ___________________________________ Rodney R. Zwick, Member _______________________________________ Paul R. Fisette, Department Head Department of Natural Resources Conservation DEDICATION To dad and mom who have never given up on me or my dreams, and The residents of Port Norfolk, Cedar Grove, Lower Mills, Mattapan, Hyde Park, and Readville who showed me where to find Boston’s hidden river, and the many ways of knowing her. “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it’s the only thing that ever has.” -Margaret Mead “Happily he looked into the flowing river. Never had a river attracted him as much as this one. Never had he found the voice and appearance of flowing water so beautiful. It seemed to him as if the river had something special to tell him, something which he did not know, something which still awaited him.” -Herman Hess ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my sincere appreciation to all who anonymously contributed their time, memories, images and words to this project. I am forever indebted to their kindness in allowing me into their homes and lives and sharing with me their baked delicacies, seafood creations, wine, tea, newspaper clippings, historical documents, photographs, canoes, sailboats, stories, but most of all their friendship and inspiration. I’d also like to thank everyone who helped me with the logistics of doing field work in a major metropolitan area where rent is not cheap and getting around can be treacherous if not downright life- threatening, especially Paula Cantor and Magic for giving me the space I needed when I needed it and the comfort and friendship I needed most of all, and to Libby Hopkins for connecting me up with a temporary living situation in Boston in a pinch. And, to the Sarah Pautzke-Christopher Hawkins-Utu-Mikhala household, Margo Shea, Kristin McClendon, Martha Mather, and Linda Deegan and Chris Neill who gratiously offered me accommodations when I was out in Western Massachusetts. I’d like to also thank the professional staff of various State, city and town agencies, and non- governmental organizations, who all at one time or another over the past four years assisted me in locating information, providing me with copies of documents and providing general background information about the history, ecology and management of the Neponset River, including: Joan Kimball and Gabrielle Stebbins of MassRiverways, Cathy Garnett of the MA Department of Conservation and Recreation, Rob Breault of the USGS, Carly Rocklen, Steve Pearlman, and Ian Cooke of the Neponset River Watershed Association, Candice Cooke and Valerie Burns of the Boston Natural Areas Network, and the librarians in the Boston Public Library’s Hyde Park Branch, especially Barbara Wicker and the late Ellen Peterson. For his patience with my impatience, and confidence in my abilities even as I doubted them, I want to acknowledge the love of my life, Ernesto Brown. And, for their unconditional love and never-ending support, my parents, Charlie and Dianne Perry. To all the teachers and intellectual guides who have assisted me in large and small ways over the past five years. Of these guides, I would especially like to thank Jack Finn for providing encouragement and advice about the usefulness of my research to ecological and natural resource management applications, and Julie Graham and my fellow students in her “Rethinking Economy” seminar, for v introducing me to feminist modes of inquiry and encouraging me to rethink my own research project and providing me with courage to push beyond disciplinary bounds. And, to each of my committee members – Martha E. Mather, for hours of conversations over coffee and dinner, Krista M. Harper, for inspirational and helpful readings and so much more, Charles M. Schweik, for his technical acumen and never forgetting to ask the really tough questions, Rodney R. Zwick, for making me feel like a colleague and showing me new ways of thinking – who all contributed something very unique and different to this project, and whose critical questioning of my ideas and methodology greatly improved this project and its usefulness. And, last but certainly not least, to my chair, Robert M. Muth, whose willingness to take a chance on me and support my unconventional ideas (within limits, of course!) helped me see this project to completion. vi ABSTRACT MORE THAN ONE RIVER: LOCAL, PLACE-BASED KNOWLEDGE AND THE POLITICAL ECOLOGY OF RESTORATION AND REMEDIATION ALONG THE LOWER NEPONSET RIVER, MASSACHUSETTS SEPTEMBER 2009 SIMONA LEE PERRY, B.S., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST M.M.A., UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Robert M. Muth This research is an exploration of the local, place-based knowledge surrounding a degraded urban river, the Lower Neponset River and Estuary in southern Boston Harbor, Massachusetts, and its environmental restoration. Through a mixed-methods approach to sociological inquiry that included 18-months of ethnographic interviews and participant observations, Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping, archival document research, and critical environmental history, it explores the different ways local citizens interpret the river as a place of historical importance, personal nostalgia, social and family networks, neighborhood legacies, aesthetics, economic security, danger, psychological refuge, ecology, and political power. Using an interpretive analysis of the narrative, visual, and spatial data related to those meanings, it then explores how such different local, place-based interpretations can be used to inform the theory, practice and politics of urban river restoration. The research shows that recognition of the socio-cultural diversity in local citizen interpretations of the Lower Neponset River’s restoration is important for environmental managers, planners, and local decision-makers to recognize alongside ecological and economic development “best-practices” (e.g., holistic watershed management, anadromous fish re- introduction, flow and function, ecosystem services, affordable housing quotas, “Smart” growth, etc.). The research recommends that environmental managers, planners, and local politicians and decision-makers give equal consideration to the socio-cultural, political, economic, and ecological factors surrounding urban rivers, and the diversity of meanings that their “restoration” conjures, in order to make strides towards ethical environmental restoration and management practices that are socially, as well as environmentally, sustainable. vii CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS........................................................................................................................v ABSTRACT...........................................................................................................................................vii LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................................................xii LIST OF FIGURES...............................................................................................................................xiii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION TO THE RESEARCH PROBLEM........................................................................1 More than One River: Restoration of the Lower Neponset River.....................................................2 One River with Many Stories............................................................................................................8