While biking along the Neponset River Greenway last year, Lee Toma noticed that a longstanding mural located in an expressway underpass near Pope John Paul II Park was deteriorating.
The mural, a collage of 14 nature scenes, dates back to 2008 and was created by the Boston Natural Areas Network Youth Conservation Corps. While images of bees, birds, and butterflies have welcomed bikers like Toma for 18-plus years, the mural began to fall apart over the last two years, he said.
“It was kind of a mosaic of multiple different panels of nature scenes, birds, wildlife and plants,” said the Dorchester resident who is active with the Neponset Greenway Council.
“It had weathered a lot over the years, and the boards that were holding it to the wall were degrading, and some of the wooden plywood panels were rotting out so they started to fall off the wall.
“My main concern,” he noted, “was that as some of those panels were falling, it was a hazard obviously for people going by on the trail, and we don’t want people to get hurt.”
Prioritizing safety, Toma requested the mural be removed while regretting that it had to go. In the end, his regrets weren’t needed, thanks to members of the Department of Conservation and Recreation, who restored and reproduced the Youth Corps original image.
“They can reproduce signs in multiple colors, and they reproduced the original artwork and printed it on metal panels and mounted that on the wall in the same place it was before,” Toma said.
“I think they did a great job. They basically worked from past photos and did a little bit of enhancement and cleaning up, and it looks very similar to the original and probably more durable, too.
I hope that people will enjoy it and see that it’s reflective of the nature we see around the trail and encourage them to come back and enjoy the trail more.”
