Mass Audubon and Partners Kick Off Inaugural Season at Magazine Beach Park April 23

CAMBRIDGE—Join Mass Audubon and community partners for the Nature in the City Spring Season Kick-off, taking place Saturday afternoon, April 23, at Magazine Beach Park on the Cambridge side of the Charles River. 

The free, 1-4 pm drop-in event is designed to encourage all who stop by to learn more about nature within the city and beyond, while celebrating spring, when birds are returning and trees and flowers are blooming. 

Programs will include nature-based arts and crafts for all ages such as animal mask-making and bird feeder-building with Cambridge Wildlife Arts, and more.

Perhaps best known as the launch site for the annual Head of the Charles rowing regatta, Magazine Beach was once the site of a 19th-century-era military gunpowder storage building—or “magazine”—hence its name.

After a period of disuse, the state Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), working with the city and Cambridge nonprofit Magazine Beach Partners, restored the historic Powder Magazine building including amenities appropriate for visitation.   

Last year, Mass Audubon introduced initial programming in the park, ranging from nature-based education to kayak trips on the river.  

That partnership has strengthened, and beginning this year the statewide conservation organization will operate a seasonal nature center from the Powder Magazine building, offering drop-in and scheduled family, adult, and school programming on and around the river, from April to November. 

Other partners for the spring kick-off event include the Charles River Conservancy, Charles River Watershed Association, and Green Cambridge.

“Nature in the City is all about collaboration and understanding that urban greenspaces like Magazine Beach Park allow people to forge connections with the natural world right in their own communities,” said Renata Pomponi, Mass Audubon Senior Regional Director for Metro Boston. 

“Access to nature for all is a priority goal of Mass Audubon’s five-year Action Agenda,” Pomponi noted, “and becoming part of the Cambridge community will not only help us meet people where they live, but foster relationships that will help honor that commitment.”