Cheesecake Brook 1

Cheesecake Brook, a once meandering stream surrounded by wetlands, was filled, straightened, and channelized in the 1800s and 1900s. Today, the urbanized tributary, which flows from its headwaters near the Brae Burn Country Club, is culverted and buried beneath the Mass Pike, and emerges into a narrow masonry channel before entering the Charles River. 

Since 2020, CRWA has partnered with the City of Newton to work towards a community vision of a restored urban stream by addressing urban drainage challenges and improving riparian habitat. In 2024, Massachusetts funded the installation of nature-based project elements, including a stormwater infiltration basin and about an acre of restored bank plantings.