A.J. & M.D. Ruggiero Memorial Trust Awards Grant for Auburn Lake Wildlife Habitat Restoration

The Friends of Mount Auburn is pleased to announce that the A.J. & M.D. Ruggiero Trust has awarded a $122,000 grant for the restoration and planting of the emergent shelves of Auburn Lake.

In 2024, the Ruggiero Trust awarded the Friends of Mount Auburn with a grant to complete a full assessment of our waterbodies in addition to supporting a restoration of Willow Pond. The waterbodies assessment, completed by SWCA Environmental Consultants in August 2025, informed findings report that will be integral to the design and execution of the restoration of Willow Pond (to be completed later this year).

Building off of that assessment, Mount Auburn will now be able extend its waterbody restoration work to Auburn Lake with this new, generous support. Auburn Lake is not simply a landscape feature, but an urban freshwater habitat—a place that provides sanctuary for birds, amphibians, insects, and other wildlife in a densely developed region. Mount Auburn’s last restoration of Auburn Lake in 1998 sought to balance the Cemetery’s historical aesthetic with modern ecological priorities as laid out in the Cemetery’s 1993 Master Plan—incorporating native species, reshaping the lake's edge to support habitat complexity, and prioritizing water clarity and quality. Today, Auburn Lake is a popular destination for birders eagerly seeking out herons and spring migrants that use the Cemetery as a stop on their journeys. The hillside mausolea along Auburn Lake also have remarkable historical significance, including the family tomb of Isabella Stewart Gardner. Maintaining the ecosystem of this space is pivotal for Mount Auburn as a wildlife refuge and an educational landscape.

Auburn Lake was recently the setting of Artist-in-Residence Lonnie Stanton's culminative project, "Grief to Gratitude." Photo by Nell Mancini.

This work will be in the planning phase in 2026. In the meantime, if you're interested in helping support a current wildlife restoration project, please consider making a gift to our upcoming work at Willow Pond!

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