Pope John Paul II Park Reservation, also known as Pope Park, is a
state park
State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use "state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on account of its natural ...
bordering the
Neponset River
The Neponset River is a river in eastern Massachusetts in the United States. Its headwaters are at the Neponset Reservoir in Foxborough, near Gillette Stadium. From there, the Neponset meanders generally northeast for about to its mouth at ...
in the
Dorchester section of
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
. The park has been reclaimed from the former site of a
landfill
A landfill site, also known as a tip, dump, rubbish dump, garbage dump, or dumping ground, is a site for the disposal of waste materials. Landfill is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of the waste ...
and the Neponset
Drive-In as part of the Lower Neponset River Master Plan and the development of the
Neponset River Reservation
Neponset River Reservation is a Massachusetts state reservation along the Neponset River in the towns of Milton and Dorchester, near where the river flows through an estuary into the Boston Harbor. It is adjacent to the Dorchester-Milton Lower ...
.
The park is managed by the
Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR).
DCR has restored a
salt marsh
A salt marsh or saltmarsh, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. It is dominated ...
area and planted native trees and shrubs. The area now attracts an increased variety of birds to the habitat, including
snowy egret
The snowy egret (''Egretta thula'') is a small white heron. The genus name comes from Provençal French for the little egret, , which is a diminutive of , 'heron'. The species name ''thula'' is the Araucano term for the black-necked swan, app ...
s and
great blue heron
The great blue heron (''Ardea herodias'') is a large wading bird in the heron family Ardeidae, common near the shores of open water and in wetlands over most of North America and Central America, as well as the Caribbean and the Galápagos ...
s.
Activities and amenities
*Trails: The park includes a number of trails for walking, hiking and running, including the
Lower Neponset River Trail
The Lower Neponset River Trail is a rail trail running along the Neponset River in the Dorchester section of Boston, Massachusetts. It roughly follows the path of the eastern part of the Dorchester and Milton Branch Railroad from the Port Norfo ...
.
*The park offers bird watching, fishing catch and release in some parts of the park , open space fields for soccer, picnicking, restrooms, and playgrounds, and it is home to many road races.
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References
External links
Pope John Paul II Park Reservation
Department of Conservation and Recreation
Neponset River Greenway Map
Department of Conservation and Recreation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pope John Paul Ii Park Reservation
State parks of Massachusetts
Massachusetts natural resources
Parks in Suffolk County, Massachusetts
Pope John Paul II