The Malden River is a long river that runs through Malden and Everett. Millions of gallons of fresh, serene water fill it. The river is home to a diverse amount of wonderful life, such as the trees and flowers that grow along the bank. In addition, there are millions of pieces of litter falling into the river banks.
Animals like ducks fly past the river, and fish swim through it like its own breeze. Thousands of microplastics are hidden in the soil, which leaks into the river. Yards of thick, beautiful sea plants like algae flourish in the area, leaving a majestic sight to many passersby.
Did something about that description catch your attention?
Despite what some may assume on the surface level, the Malden River is unfortunately not in its best state due to human pollution. However, that is not to say that the river is hopeless and destined to remain polluted, especially with the help of its friends.
A Brief History Of The Malden River
The Malden River stretches for 2.3 miles, and there is a good chance you have seen glimpses of it while riding through Everett or Malden. However, it has changed a lot in its thousands of years in Malden, mainly due to human intervention.
It started as a source of trading and food for Native American tribes. Centuries later, during the 19th century, engineering advancements started to grow dominant. Many factories polluted the river and the groundwater. To make room for roads and industries, the river was paved over and essentially buried, driving away its vast water into the background.
Decades later, the Malden River continues to suffer some “environmental degradation” due to everyday litter and waste. From the surface level, the Malden River appears to be an average river, but when you learn more of its history and the human impact on it, it starts to become more than just “a river”. No one would like to imagine the river and all of the natural beauty behind it being destroyed over time, especially with all the wildlife there.
Thankfully, even with all that’s happened to the Malden River, there is much being done about it.
Source: https://www.maldenriverworks.org/river
Meeting the Friends of Malden River
Karen Buck is the current president of the Friends of Malden River (FOMR), a local group that has been dedicated to giving the river renewed life for years in the future.
Buck, originally from New York, “spent a lot of time on the urban waters,” where she learned about the Malden River and why “it needed a lot of help.” When she found “people who are very engaged with the Malden river,” they worked together to form the Friends of the Malden River, with help from the Mystic River Watershed Association (MRWA).
The Friends of Malden River have “been working towards a healthier river for over 12 years.” They organize a multitude of public events advocating for climate action and environmentalism for the Malden community. They work together to study the rivers’ acidity level and make plans to physically remove pollution. This includes annual clean-ups in Spring, which they have done “5 years in a row.”
This Years’ CleanUp
This year’s annual clean-up was on April 12th, located at 177 Rivers Edge in Malden. There were two shifts people could sign up for, the first from 12 to 1:30 and the second from 1:30 to 3:30 PM.
There was a board set up for volunteers to walk on and clean near the riverbank, and a myriad of tools to help clean up, like trash bags, reach extenders, gloves, and so on. In addition, many volunteers chose to get onto boats and kayaks in order to travel further into the river and clean up pollution that may be deeper into the sea.
A diverse number of people gathered together for this year’s river cleaning, ranging from strangers to students and even school teachers. All of them have their individual reasons, but they all boil down to the same basic goal: cleaning up the river.
For instance, Erika DeRouche learned about the event on her “Facebook feed,” as she follows the FOMR on Facebook. DeRouche is “interested in helping clean up the rivers,” and “separating storm and sewer waste” from the Malden River.
One major reason why she wants to help is that she is “a big proponent of open water swimming”, and because of the rivers’ poor water quality right now, that is not too safe. She imagines one day, with a cleaner river, everyone “will be able to swim all down the river.”
In addition, volunteer Amy Rinaldo came with DeRouche because she had told her about the event. Rinaldo has also done some of the MRWA “runs and some of their other cleanup events”, which demonstrates how sharing the word about the Malden River can encourage others to clean it as well.
A Malden Catholic gym teacher and spring sport coach also participated in the event for the athletics community. Roach shared he also wanted to get the “student athletes civically involved and out in the community. We’ve been running this Malden River cleanup in conjunction with the Friends of Mystic River Watershed Association for 5 years now.”
“I helped organize these types of events and promote it through the athletics department so that our student athletes show up,” the coach added. “A lot of the people here today are top rowers, so they use these rivers for their faces for their practices, so it just allows them to see the river in a different light.”
Likewise, Malden Catholic High School students Benjamin Winkler and Alex Kuntz also “want to help out our river”, because despite the river’s improvement over the last few years, they still “want to make sure it stays as clean as possible.” Winkler also added some of the students in the athletics department rowing in the river, adding to their desire for it to be clean for all.
Send-Off
The Malden River is still a 2-mile river going through Malden and Everett, it is still home to animals and plant life, and it is still home to dozens of pollutants that we can work together to get rid of. It might not be easy to see how significant one person’s actions can be to an entire river. However, it is easy to see how significant a lot of people’s actions can be to the entire river.
Buck believes it is “important that people come to the river to realize that they have a river.” A lot of people in Malden don’t know enough about their own river, “because they walk on top of it; it’s culverted under the city behind chain link fences under the ground.”
It is easy to forget the Malden River is not just in the background when we live in such an urbanized neighborhood, but “it’s very important that the neighborhoods come together to keep their neighborhoods clean,” Buck reminded.
When we, as a community, can unite to help clean up a beautiful ecosystem, even just a little bit, it can make a big difference. It is time we reclaim what made the Malden River a natural beauty in the first place.
Next time you pass by the Malden River, don’t just see it as a body of water. See it as a home, a family, and a community. After all, the Malden River is for us and everybody.
To learn more about the Friends of Malden River and what they do, visit their social media, like their blog, Facebook, and Instagram. Also, look into their associated organizations, like Malden River Works and Mystic Water Shed Association.
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