PESTICIDE REDUCTION

The Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf is an award winning education and certification program that helps golf courses protect our environment and preserve the natural heritage of the game of golf. By helping people enhance the valuable natural areas and wildlife habitats that golf courses provide, improve efficiency, and minimize potentially harmful impacts of golf course operations, the program serves an important environmental role worldwide. Audubon International has developed Standard Environmental Management Practices that are generally applicable to all golf courses. These standards form the basis for ACSP for Golf certification guidelines. 

Natural Resources Commission

ORGANIC INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT POLICY for

Land Owned by the Town of Wellesley, Massachusetts

Wetland Resource Areas

The entire Brookside Area is located in a Well Head Protection Area, a Water Supply Protection District, and sits atop the Rosemary Brook alluvial aquifer. Much of the area is also Riverfront and Wetlands, which have special protection under the 1996 Riverfront Act and our Town's Wetlands Protection Bylaw. Learn more about the Area.

TOWN OF WELLESLEY NATURAL RESOURCES COMMISSION & WETLANDS PROTECTION COMMITTEE:

Wetlands Resource Protection Information

Protecting Water & Wildlife:

IMPORTANCE OF BUFFERS

 Greenbelts, or Buffers, absorb fertilizers, pesticides, sediments and floodwater. They stabilize shoreline and provide wildlife habitat.
 

Vegetated Buffer Strips are the single most effective way to prevent contaminants from entering bodies of water. Wellesley's Natural Resources Commission, the Charles River Watershed and the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America all advocate for the establishment and widening of vegetative buffer strips to protect water quality. 

WHY ARE RIVERFRONT AREAS SO IMPORTANT? 

Riverfront Areas provide many free services to the community and to the environment.  The Riverfront Area, in its natural condition, provides a natural flood storage area, slows down surface water runoff, and can limit flooding and damage caused by storm events. Rivers, including their abutting 200 foot upland areas, are important wildlife habitat areas, providing food, shelter, breeding sites, migration, and overwintering areas, for both wetland and upland species of mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians.

The Wetlands Protection Act identifies eight protected riverfront interests, including: flood control, prevention of storm damage, prevention of pollution, fisheries, land containing shellfish, groundwater, public or private water supply, and wildlife habitat.

Public Hearing Continued to Thursday July 11, 2013, 7:35PM, NRC Office (lower level)

WCC Request to Amend the Order of Conditions for the Academy Brook Restoration Project

Plans - Request for Amendment DEP #324-565
To provide periodic maintenance of the restored channel to maintain its design capacity.
5.31.13 Academy Brook Request for OOC Am[...]
Adobe Acrobat document [3.8 MB]

The Amended Order issued August 12, 2013.  It added two conditions in perpetuity to allow maintenance of the Academy Brook restoration.

MA DEP #324-565 - The Restoration of Academy Brook

In 2007 an Order of Conditions was granted to Wellesley Country Club by the Wetlands Committee for the Restoration of Academy Brook, MA DEP #324-565.

January 11, 2011 an Enforcement Order was issued to the Club from the Town of Wellesley Wetlands Protection Committee for the dumping and stockpiling of landscape debris within the Riverfront Area and Lands within 200 feet of Rosermary Brook and buffer zone of wetlands ...

May 24, 2011 an Amendment to the Enforcement Order was issued. It called for Additional Stockpile Removal, Additional Debris Removal, and Site Stabilization via the temporary installation of a gravel tracking pad at the entrance of the lot and a gravel driveway installed to the exiting portapotties.

January 2011 Enforcement Order
Issued to WCC by Wetlands Protection Committee
WCC Enforcement Order January 2011.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [7.1 MB]

May 2011 Enforcement Order Amendment
Additional action items required of the Club
WCC Enforcement Order Addendum May 2011.[...]
Adobe Acrobat document [215.4 KB]

Street View of Brookside Road at Academy Brook Staging Lot

This area is the location of the fiberglass reinforced grass pave driveway permitted by the Wetlands Protection Committee on October 4, 2012: MA DEP #324-647, Proposal to install utilities for Comfort Station and Restoration and Drainage Improvement in the Riverfront Area.

Evolution of Brookside Road at Academy Brook Area
Showing changes to the Riverfront Area
Evolution of Wellesley Country Club lot [...]
Adobe Acrobat document [2.5 MB]

Aerial Photographs of Brookside Road through the Years

The section of Brookside Road adjacent to the Community Gardens at Oakland Street is shown below, facing North.

Four Slides - Arerial and Street 2006 - 2011

WCC Evolution Aerial View Facing East
Years 2004 through 2010 showing the area off Brookside Road adjacent to the Community Gardens.
WCC Aerial Facing East.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [726.6 KB]

WCC Evolution Aerial View Facing West
Years 2004 through 2010 showing the area off Brookside Road adjacent to the Community Gardens
WCC Aerial Facing West.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [588.8 KB]

Curb Cuts through the Riverfront Area along Brookside Road

Curb Cuts along Brookside Road
Aerial and Street Views of 4 curb cuts through the Riverfront Area
WCC Curb Cuts Aerial Ground.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [2.8 MB]

The Riverfront Area along Brookside Road Provides Valuable Wildlife Habitat

See photos of turtles using the area
 

Brookside Road in Needham - (0 Forest Street, NGWP #16) – Notice of Intent

June 9, 2011 Wellesley County Club Wetland and Buffer Zone Restoration Project,

2.3: Proposed Activities, Impacts and Mitigation

.... the WCC is proposing to remove the stockpiled materials from the buffer zone and the eroded materials within the wetland and buffer zone. (See complete NOI Narrative below.)
 

NOI NGWP #16 Cover Letter
NOI Needham Cover Letter.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [78.6 KB]

NOI NGWP #16 Narrative
NOI Needham Narrative.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [744.5 KB]