Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area

Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area
Location	Norfolk, Plymouth, and Suffolk counties, Massachusetts, USA
Nearest city	Boston, MassachusettsNearest city: Boston, Massachusetts
Coordinates	42°19′7″N 70°56′45″W / 42.31861°N 70.94583°W / 42.31861; -70.94583Coordinates: 42°19′7″N 70°56′45″W / 42.31861°N 70.94583°W / 42.31861; -70.94583
Area	1,482 acres (6 km²)
Established	November 12, 1996 Established: November 12, 1996
Governing body	Boston Harbor Islands Partnership which includes the National Park Service together with other federal, state, city, and nonprofit agencies.

Map of the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area.

Ferries of the Harbor Islands Express link downtown Boston with some of the islands.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area

The Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area is a National Recreation Area situated among the islands of Boston Harbor of Boston, Massachusetts. The area is made up of a collection of islands, together with a former island and a peninsula, many of which are open for public recreation and some of which are very small and best suited for wildlife. The area is run by the Boston Harbor Islands Partnership.^[1] It includes the Boston Harbor Islands State Park, managed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Twenty one of the 34 islands in the area are also included in the Boston Harbor Islands Archeological District.

Attractions include hiking trails, beaches, the Civil War-era Fort Warren on Georges Island and Boston Light on Little Brewster Island, one of the oldest lighthouses in the nation. Georges Island and Spectacle Island are served seasonally by ferries to and from Boston and Quincy, connecting on weekends and summer weekdays with a shuttle boat to several other islands, Hull, and Hingham.^[2]

In 1996, there was a project proposal by Boston's mayor Tom Menino and Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Clifford A. Goudey to revitalize the aquaculture and fish population in Boston Harbor. This would have involved using the old tanks and granite canals on Moon Island.^[3]

List of islands and peninsulas

The Boston Harbor Islands National National Recreation Area is made up of a series of discrete islands and other places on and around Boston Harbor. These include:^[1]

• Bumpkin Island
• Button Island
• Calf Island
• Deer Island
• Gallops Island
• Georges Island
• Grape Island
• Great Brewster Island
• Green Island
• Hangman Island
• Langlee Island
• Little Brewster Island
• Little Calf Island
• Long Island
• Lovells Island
• Middle Brewster Island
• Moon Island
• Nixes Mate
• Nut Island
• Outer Brewster Island
• Peddocks Island
• Raccoon Island
• Ragged Island
• Rainsford Island
• Sarah Island
• Shag Rocks
• Sheep Island
• Slate Island
• Snake Island
• Spectacle Island
• The Graves
• Thompson Island
• Webb Memorial Park
• World's End

Two islands (Castle Island and Spinnaker Island) in Boston Harbor are not part of the National Recreation Area, and two former islands (Apple Island and Governors Island) were obliterated by Logan International Airport before the area was designated.

Management

The Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area is managed by the Boston Harbor Islands Partnership, a statutory body established as a federal operating committee by the park enabling legislation. The partnership consists of individual members who represent a range of federal, state, city, and nonprofit agencies, including:

• United States National Park Service
• United States Coast Guard
• Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation
• Massachusetts Port Authority
• Massachusetts Water Resources Authority
• City of Boston
• Boston Redevelopment Authority
• Thompson Island Outward Bound Education Center
• The Trustees of Reservations

Additionally the partnership includes members representing the Island Alliance, a fund-raising body dedicated to raising funds for the National Recreation Area, and the Boston Harbor Islands Advisory Council. There are 13 members in total, together with 13 alternates. Apart from the representative for the Coast Guard, who is appointed by the Secretary of Homeland Security, all the members of the partnership are appointed by the Secretary of the Interior after consultation with the appropriate agency or other body.^[4][5][6]

In practice, day to day management of each individual island or other site is the responsibility of one of the partner agencies or other bodies. The partnership provides a consistency and coordination across the whole park.^[7]

Boston Harbor Islands State Park

Boston Harbor Islands State Park is a Massachusetts state park comprising 13 islands located in Boston Harbor, which now forms part of the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area.

The park was developed from the 1970s by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management (DEM). In 1996, the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area was created, including the State Park's islands and many others. However, due the unusual partnership management arrangements of the National Recreation Area, the State Park still exists as a low profile administrative entity. It is now managed by the DEM's successor, the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, from a park headquarters near to the ferry terminal in Hingham.^[7]

The islands of the Boston Harbor Islands State Park are:^[7]

• Bumpkin Island
• Calf Island
• Gallops Island
• Grape Island
• Great Brewster Island
• Green Island
• Hangman Island
• Little Calf Island
• Middle Brewster Island
• Outer Brewster Island
• Raccoon Island
• Sheep Island
• Slate Island

Transportation

Harbor Islands Express offers ferry service from Long Wharf at Christopher Columbus Park to Georges and Spectacle Islands. Free service to additional islands is available from Georges Island.[1]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "Boston Harbor Islands Visitor's Guide - The Islands". Boston Harbor Islands Partnership. http://www.bostonislands.org/isle_profiles.html. Retrieved August 9 2006. 
2. ^ "Boston Harbor Islands Ferry Schedule" (PDF). National Park Service. http://www.nps.gov/boha/parkdocs/boatschedule.pdf. Retrieved July 29 2006. 
3. ^ Cf. Best; Cf. Marcus
4. ^ "Islands Partnership - Governance". Boston Harbor Islands Partnership. http://www.bostonislands.org/manage/manage_admin_partner.html. Retrieved October 6 2006. 
5. ^ "Islands Partnership - Membership". Boston Harbor Islands Partnership. http://www.bostonislands.org/manage/manage_admin_partner2.html. Retrieved October 6 2006. 
6. ^ "Public Law 104-33, 110 Stat. 4093 Sec. 1029. Boston Harbor Islands Recreation Area". http://www.nps.gov/archive/boha/parkdocs/PL104-33.html. Retrieved October 6 2006. 
7. ^ ^{a b c} "Boston Harbor Islands - General Management Plan" (PDF). National Parks Service. http://www.nps.gov/archive/boha/parkdocs/fgmp/BOHA_gmp.pdf. Retrieved October 19 2006. 

Bibliography

• Best, Neil A., "Preliminary Design of a Recirculating Aquaculture System in Boston Harbor", Masters Thesis, Ocean Engineering, MIT, February 1997. Technical Advisor, Clifford A. Goudey.
• The Boston Globe, "Harboring recreation", Guest Editorial, June 3, 2006.
• Kales, Emily, Kales, David, "All About the Boston Harbor Islands", Hewitts Cove Publishing, 1983.
• Marcus, John, "Scientists Test Once-Polluted Harbor’s Crop Potential", Los Angeles Times, Sunday, January 11, 1998
• Mikal, Alan, "Exploring Boston Harbor", Christopher Publishing House, North Quincy, Massachusetts, 1973. ISBN 978-0815803034
• Northeastern Naturalist, Volume 12, Issue sp3, July 2005. Articles on the Boston Harbor Islands. [2]
• Richburg, Julie A., Patterson, William A., III, "Historical Description of the Vegetation of the Boston Harbor Islands, 1600-2000", Northeastern Naturalist, v.12, Special Issue 3, 13-30, 2005.
• Sammarco, Anthony Mitchell, "Boston's Harbor Islands", Images of America series, 1998. ISBN 0-7524-0900-X
• Sherman, Annie, "The Other Islands: The Harbor Islands make for an easy day trip for sunbathers, history buffs—and especially the traffic-weary", Boston magazine, May 2007 issue.
• Snow, Edward Rowe
  • "The Islands of Boston Harbor", 1935. ISBN 0-396-08349-8 [3]
  • "Sailing Down Boston Bay", Yankee Publishing Company, 1941.
• "Some Events of Boston and Its Neighbors", printed for the State Street Trust Company, Boston, Massachusetts, 1917.
• "The Islands of Boston Harbor", in "Some Events of Boston and Its Neighbors", Chapter 4, printed for the State Street Trust Company, Boston, Massachusetts, 1917.
• Sweetser, M.F., "King's Handbook of Boston Harbor", Moses King Corporation, Boston, 1882; reprinted in 1988 by Applewood Books, and The Friends of Boston Harbor Islands. ISBN 9999021565. This book was written about the time when the first Boston almshouse was being built on Long Island.

Further reading

• Metro (Boston edition) newspaper, "Boston Harbor Islands", Boston Neighborhood section, August 1, 2007, p. 14.

External links

• Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area
• Boston Harbor Islands Visitor Guide
• Boston Harbor resources site
• NOAA Soundings Map of Boston Harbor
• Island Alliance (Boston Harbor)
• Boston Harbor Islands - Massachusetts Department of Conservation & Recreation (DCR).
• The Boston Harbor Association resources
• Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area travel guide from Wikitravel