The Neponset River connects the communities of Dorchester, Hyde Park, Mattapan, and Milton. These neighborhoods have a long and fascinating history that starts with the indigenous communities that lived along the Neponset 11,000 years ago (and eventually gave Mattapan its name) to the area’s importance in New England industry to the dramatic and difficult ethnic transitions created by real estate and development interests and finally to the emergence of these neighborhoods as vibrant cultural centers. Mattapan today, for example, plays a major role in Haitian and Caribbean culture and leadership in Massachusetts.

These neighborhoods also offer important examples of how environmental risks disproportionately impact immigrant communities and contribute to environmental racism. Intensive unchecked and ongoing industrialization led to the lower section of the Neponset being declared a Superfund National Priority site with high levels of toxic and carcinogenic PCBs in 2021. Air and water pollution have concerning affects human health. In Massachusetts, asthma rates, for example, are about 30% higher in the state’s immigrant communities than they are statewide. Clean up efforts are already having a positive results but here is much more to do.

As birders, we can do our part by supporting efforts that focus on environmental justice and local organizations. We can also bird in underbirded urban parks, and participate in community science. See you out there.