Monday, July 21, 2008

Birdies and Birdmen

By Chip Young

Anything can happen when you get out of the house

Here’s what can happen if you tear yourself away from HD digital cable (and your ‘utes from their Facebook and video games) and all get out into the wonderful world of nature and open spaces and blue skies.  (Reminded me of the Mickey Mouse Club’s “Anything Can Happen Day,” for those of you approaching a certain age.)  This is a true story.  Honest.

We were just minding our own business, playing a golf match in the Wednesday night Twilight League at Jamestown Golf Course. Me along with two fellow Jamestowners, my partner Kevin Welch and opponent Dale Buckey, and his Newport teammate, Ed Schene.  There was a perfectly clear blue sky, you could see the planes and going to and from T.F. Green Airport, and we were laughing about our golf balls nailing them when we hit our shots and followed them as they looked like they were flying right past the aircraft in the sky. That little pretend game got chuckles all round long.

Little did we know. 

On the ninth and final green, about 6:30 p.m., three of us were standing with the Newport Bridge at our backs gazing down past the hole at Dale, who was putting up the hill towards us.  He was sizing up his putt, and then suddenly stood up and pointed over our heads, and shouted “Look!”  We figured something had happened on the bridge, or there was another big cargo plane from Quonset going by worth our attention.  We turned, and about 150 yards behind us and 80 feet up, a guy in an ultralight solo glider (not a parasail, where you hang down, but one where you are lying flat out in a sort of sheath that encloses your body and legs) with about a 50-foot wing span was coming down right towards us.  He flew just over the treetops, sneaked over the telephone wires, and went about 20 feet directly over our heads—you could have said “Hi” and chatted and he would have heard you, but we were just gawking with our mouths open and arms outspread like welcoming the Messiah as we followed his flight.

He landed just past the sand traps in front of the green in the fairway on what was essentially his stomach, and then rolled on the landing wheels under his body to a stop halfway down the heart, like a perfect tee shot in reverse.  We were screaming at our friend Doc Barrett, another local boy, who was standing in the adjacent parking lot, only 20 yards away from getting run over, with his back turned, filling out his scorecard, totally oblivious, thinking the hubbub was because Dale had sunk his long putt for an eagle. 

When Doc finally responded and turned towards us, we all furiously pointed behind him where Birdman had come to a rest. Doc spun another 90 degrees, saw the glider, jumped about a foot in the air, and then raced over to the mysterious flyer to see if he was all right. (We had to putt out and finish the match, of course. First things first, and we do have priorities.) 

Our foursome went back in to the clubhouse, shaking our heads in amazement, leaving the mystery pilot to caddy his own glider off the course.  Doc eventually brought Birdman in and bought him a beer. When I asked him from across the room where he had started out his journey, figuring possibly a high spot in the state, like the Johnston Landfill, he announced he took off that morning in the Catskills (!?!?!?!).  This was met by a slight indication of disbelief (expressed by a roaring cascade of “Bull-___t!“), but it was true, and he had the GPS tracking to prove it.

It turned out that Birdman (since identified as one Stan Roberts, who is a professional drummer as well as hang glider pilot) took off six and a half hours earlier from upstate New York off a 1,300-foot cliff with two other gliders who he left in his slipstream 40 or 50 miles back. Riding the thermals in his cocoon-like little body suit and harness, with steel rods to support his legs and keep them outstretched behind him, he got up to 7,000 feet at one point as he headed east, before he landed at the Jamestown golf course because he knew it was here, having pulled the same stunt to little fanfare 10 days before.  (One of the witnesses to that appearance said Roberts’ first words were, “Where am I?”)

The point-to-point trip was 157 miles, which he claimed was a record for his hang glide club.  Birdman said he knew when he soared down over Narragansett Bay he was too low to reach his goal of a 200-mile flight, which would have been White Crescent Beach on Cape Cod, so he put down at the now familiar and wide-open links.

It was all fairly unbelievable.  Our awe-inspiring Birdman of a half hour earlier was standing there in the clubhouse with a Heineken, having doffed his flying duds, wearing a polo shirt, shorts and sneakers like some schlub who wandered in off the street for a beer and a burger.  He was awaiting one of a glider team network from Narragansett to pick him and his wings up, like he took just a quick stroll downtown and now needed a ride home.  Just a day in the life.

Oh, and that’s my excuse for three-putting the ninth.

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Partnerships in Preservation Work

By Chip Young

Looking at the big picture reaps dividends

If there is one generalization I would make regarding most environmental initiatives, it is that partnerships do indeed work.  (I would also argue that all “environmental” efforts are also economic endeavors, so please read it that way every time one evokes an environmental cause.)  Sure, there are instances of groups having a falling out with one another, but nothing along the lines of restaurant partners chasing each other through the kitchen with butcher knives (which I have personally observed), brothers Adi and Rudi Dassler breaking up to form the archrival Adidas and Puma athletic shoe companies, or the Beatles breaking up.  That damned Yoko.

Despite the fact the environmental community has a reputation for standing for peace, love and Kumbaya, people and organizations can get very protective of their little corner of the world, state or neighborhood.  Dare we say “turf”?  As cynics remind us, if we all ever worked as a single unit, there could only be one executive director. Oops.

But things are looking up.  It is getting to the point in Rhode Island and nearby Massachusetts where not only do groups talk the economic talk, when they walk the environmental walk they aren’t out for a stroll on their own.  There is still a ways to go to reach nirvana in my mind, but slowly the folks who deal with land are addressing water issues with a little more interest and knowledge, and vice versa for the watery sorts and their soil-oriented colleagues.  Add to that the economic seasoning, throw in a healthy dose of alternative energy and global climate change, and, voila!—we have a full course meal.

A group I am associated with recently formed the Sakonnet Conservation Coalition.  It is comprised of the five leading open space and farmland preservation organizations in Tiverton and Little Compton who have been working alongside each other for decades, saving fairly amazing parcels of land in their very special little place.  Realizing that when they pulled back and looked at what they had accomplished, they have decided to promote the bigger picture of what all their individual efforts have achieved, while continuing to maintain a focus on their own organization’s site-specific priorities.

It is a first step in partnering and collaboration, but a very good and important one.  Their past successes and future goals are spelled out in this recent opinion piece by the group, of which it is worth taking note.  This from The Sakonnet Conservation Coalition, a partnership among the Little Compton Agricultural Conservancy Trust, Sakonnet Preservation Association, The Nature Conservancy, Tiverton Land Trust and the Tiverton Open Space and Land Preservation Commission:

CONCERTED CONSERVATION SERVES THE COMMUNITY
By The Sakonnet Conservation Coalition

Preserving land and open space is a shared responsibility.  No more so than in the region on Newport’s quiet side, east of the Sakonnet River in Tiverton and Little Compton.

Over the past decade, land and farm conservation groups in this area—the Little Compton Agricultural Conservancy Trust, Sakonnet Preservation Association, The Nature Conservancy, Tiverton Land Trust and the Tiverton Open Space and Land Preservation Commission—have been working shoulder-to-shoulder to protect and preserve open space in the region.  Thanks to this cooperative effort, which frequently involves partnering with the R.I. Departments of Environmental Management and Transportation, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, local municipalities, and the Champlin Foundations, the individual benefits provided by each of the groups are significantly enhanced.

The fruits of those collaborative efforts are readily evident just by taking a drive south down Route 77 through the two communities that make up the Sakonnet landscape through the communities that line the eastern shore of the Sakonnet River. 

You first pass Pardon Gray Preserve on the left, a huge expanse of meandering meadow set against a wooded ridge, the largest forest in the East Bay, known as Weetamoo Woods.  This area is a major touchdown spot for forest birds that migrate and disperse over the entire region.  Further south, also on the left near the Little Compton town line, is the Eight Rod Way Management Area, where farming continues to serve local needs and provide an economic boost on land now open for visitors. 

More roadside farms continue on both sides of Main Road, from Hathaways’ farmland across from Pardon Gray Preserve to the area surrounding Sakonnet Vineyards, past Peckham Road and to Walker’s Farm Stand and The Last Stand, where customers literally eat up the local corn, fish and produce. Many of these have been preserved for continued family farming by the Youngs, Peckhams, Samsons, Richmonds, Lebreuxs and others.  Some of the colonial era stone walls here have even been restored by conservation efforts. 

Just past The Last Stand, on the right, is historic Treaty Rock Farm, still and forever destined to be another vibrant, contributing working farm, as well as a cultural and educational icon.  And beyond the turnoff to Little Compton at Meeting House Lane, the iris meadows at Taylor’s Lane have all been preserved as has the Middendorf farm, which from Main Road provides the first view of Sakonnet light and harbor, long a commercial lobstering landing point.

All along the way, you will have passed innumerable smaller tracts of forest, shrub, orchard, meadow or pasture, each protected in their own right along with these larger properties for nature, farming, or public benefit.
If you veer off the beeline of successful projects displayed on Route 77, there are similar efforts taking place throughout the neighboring area.  They include Middle Acres Farm, with 238 acres of farmland, wetlands and forest along Crandall Road heading from Tiverton to Adamsville that have been conserved by a similar joint effort.  This area preserves the wetlands area of Adamsville Brook which feeds the west branch of the Westport River and also protects the cranberry bogs and other farming activities on this land for the future.

As the summer of 2008 arrives, the Sakonnet landscape partners have their eyes set on more preservation and conservation efforts for farms and open spaces through separate projects and as a supportive team.  The Ferolbink farm is looking to join in being preserved with its neighboring working agricultural lands. Across the road from the Sakonnet Vineyard, efforts are going on to preserve 55 acres of Peckham family farmland.  Protecting the Watson Reservoir watershed and buffer and the Nonquit Pond reservoir and greenway are high on the list of priorities.  Preserving land in Pocasset Ridge, the forestland north of Weetamoo Woods and Pardon Gray Preserve, is also a key ongoing effort to the challenge of preserving the largest, and last remaining, unfragmented forest in the East Bay.  The initiatives are moving forward with full backing of all the area organizations.

The value added being brought to the region through this collaborative effort is immeasurable, and the diversity of interests and the backing of hundreds of local residents continues to be considerable.  The return on these strategic, mutually supportive initiatives is appreciated just by taking a “windshield survey” of the accomplishments as one moves through the Sakonnet landscape.  Hopefully this cooperative work can serve as a model for other ongoing conservation efforts of Rhode Island’s farms and open spaces while they can still be preserved for generations that follow, as the opportunity to do so was handed down before.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

They’re Hee-ere! Early Influx of Menhaden Positive Sign

By Chip Young

Narragansett Bay undergoing significant changes

Twenty-four million menhaden.  Say it again: Twenty-four million.

That’s a lot of anything—M&Ms, paper clips, pennies—never mind fish.

But that’s how many menhaden, a prized baitfish, there are right now in Narragansett Bay, predominantly in the Upper Bay and Providence River.  The average size of the fish is just about one pound.  The estimate is based on net surveys and aerial flyovers by Department of Environmental Management fisheries scientists who are part of the Bay Window Monitoring Partnership.  Said one of the DEM researchers who did the aerial reconnaissance, “It’s harder to find water where there isn’t menhaden than where there is.”

Early readings from the Bay Window program, a partnership of state and federal agencies and academia that provides a ongoing broad data-gathering, research and assessment of the health of Narragansett Bay, indicate positive signs in the Bay fisheries to date this year, while the warming of the Bay and incidences of low oxygen levels in the Upper Bay remain an area which needs constant oversight. (Full disclosure: I am a member of the Bay Window project’s steering committee, so at least I know of what I speak, but the scientists do have to speak slowly when they explain things to me.)

That 24 million total is nearly double that at this time in 2007, a year which drew all sorts of public attention as the fish were sighted in large numbers well up into the Upper Bay and Providence River.  This is very good news on many fronts, as the current location of the fish in Upper Bay areas is helping to greatly reduce high-rising fuel costs for commercial fishing boats going after the desirable bait.  It is also encouraging for the rest of the summer, because menhaden are an important fish for other food supplies, and they are bringing striped bass and bluefish into Bay after them, as in 2007, which was a tremendous season for recreational fishermen. The size of some of the stripers being caught this year in the Bay are enough to make experienced eyes pop.

On other fronts in Narragansett Bay, warming and climate change have been a growing concerns in recent years, as they have many wide-ranging impacts. The average Bay temperature is up 2 degrees Fahrenheit in the past 20 years, winter average temperature is up 4 degrees F, and the Bay is moving towards becoming like a southern estuary—think the Carolinas.  This will not only affect fisheries, but is a major catalyst for possible fish kills, because warm temperatures are a contributor to a of lack of oxygen for marine life, which becomes depleted in part due to large nutrient loadings. 

The Bay Window partners had accurately predicted from its past timeline of research information and that summer’s data the infamous 2003 fish kill in Greenwich Bay, which sparked a concerted state and federal effort to pinpoint the causes of the event and take management steps to avoid a repetition in the future.  Rhode Island is investing millions of dollars into upgrading wastewater treatment plants and increasing storm drain protection to reduce nutrient loadings, a $400 million investment in mitigation in Upper Bay alone.

The Bay Window ongoing surveys and monitoring show that the Narragansett Bay quahog population remains stable compared to 2007, which is an encouraging environmental and economic sign. An abundance of clams is a valuable indicator of good Bay health.  It is believed that a combination of management area actions and use of spawner sanctuaries, and fewer rainfall closures and quahoggers, has contributed to this stability.  This is encouraging for shellfishermen, but rainy days mean shellfish closures, so hopes remain for a dry summer.  But overall in recent years, shellfish closures are flattening out, which scientists see as a good sign for all involved.

The Bay Window monitoring has been funded since 1997 thanks to the efforts of Rhode Island Congressional delegation, who came through last year with $916,000 in federal funds for the 2008 program, a real coup in these bleak budget days. 

For information on Bay Window and its data, people are encouraged to go to: Bay Window, which is designed to serve as a clearinghouse for scientific and general information on Narragansett Bay.

Meanwhile, here is a quick snapshot of what is being seen as emerging trends out in Narragansett Bay heading into the summer of 2008:

EMERGING TRENDS IN NARRAGANSETT BAY - 2008

OVERALL:  The picture is good to date.  Narragansett Bay is holding steady if not improving with its fish populations, it’s just that the species have changed.  Where most of the fish used to be bottom dwellers in the past (1980s - e.g., winter flounder), they are now those that swim in the water column (scup, menhaden).  That is likely to be the case as long as low oxygen levels in upper Bay and climate change (Bay water warming) continue.

Change from bottom-dwelling to water column fish has commercial and recreational impacts.  Winter flounder (once so abundant they were “the first fish you caught in the spring and the last fish you caught in the fall”) are no longer there for fishermen, commercial or recreational.  This has an economic impact, as winter flounder are worth $2 per pound to commercial fishermen, while menhaden and scup only get $0.10 to $0.75 per pound

BAY WARMING:  Yes, that’s climate change, and we are seeing it in Narragansett Bay.  Average Bay temperature is up 2 degrees Fahrenheit in past 20 years, winter average temperature is up 4 degrees F, and we are moving towards becoming like a southern (South Carolina, Georgia) estuary.  This will not only affect fisheries, but is a big catalyst for possible fish kills, because of lack of oxygen which gets depleted due to large nutrient loadings.  Rhode Island is investing millions of dollars into upgrading wastewater treatment plants and increasing storm drain protection to reduce nutrient loadings ($400M investment in mitigation in Upper Bay alone)—all actions driven by Bay Window data on temperature, nutrient level and oxygen levels after disastrous 2003 Greenwich Bay fish kill, which scientists predicted down to the actual date, but could do nothing about at that time.  That is why new management actions were immediately begun.  The state cannot eliminate or predict the possibility of a major fish kill (minor ones are the norm every year) at this point due to the number of variables involved. 

MENHADEN: Combined with last year’s abundance, the 24 million menhaden seen in Narragansett Bay at this point provides a good feeling that this shows improved water quality, and their presence also contributes to a healthy ecosystem which can be appreciated by non-consumptive users, conservationists, and the general public. Menhaden are also in the Bay early as in 2007, and that effects commercial fisheries movement. The location of the fish (Upper Bay areas) is helping greatly with fuel costs for recreational and commercial boaters alike.  It is also good sign because menhaden are an important fish for other food supplies, and they are bringing striped bass and bluefish into Bay after them, like last year, which was a tremendous season for recreational fishermen.

QUAHOGS: The population remains stable compared to 2007, which is an encouraging environmental and economic sign. Abundance of quahogs is an indicator of good Bay health.  This is encouraging for shellfishermen, but rainy days mean shellfish closures, so you hope for a dry summer.  But overall over recent years, shellfish closures are flattening out, a good sign for all involved.

LOBSTERS AND OTHER FISH TO DATE:  Looking up.  Trawl survey in June 2008 provided a mixed bag of highs and lows.  But mostly highs. Lobster, winter flounder, summer flounder, sea herring, scup, and squid numbers were up compared to June of 2007, with sea herring and scup up considerably. 

UP TO THE MINUTE INFO:  Overall, all species of recreational (and commercial) importance are present throughout Rhode Island coastal waters, with the Sakonnet River offering the widest diversity of both predator (stripers, bluefish) and prey (menhaden, scup) species.  Time to get the rod and reel out.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Life’s A Beach, Ain’t It?

By Chip Young

Why we love beaches and keeping them clean

I have always thought that a beach is the world’s cheapest psychiatrist.  It’s free, and you just sit down, watch the water, listen to the waves and mentally veg out, letting your blood pressure drop as fast as ethanol stock shares.  Nine out of 10 therapists, life coaches and any other of today’s self-styled stress messiahs invariably begin their soothing mantra with “Close your eyes and pretend you’re on a beach…“

On the more actively involved side, I have also found that body-surfing is an excellent way to clear out the mind after work. Get a good long ride with only the sound of the rushing surf churning in your ears as you shoot through the water at full stretch and you forget about every annoying person and thing that bothered you all day long.  Although this particular health treatment plan does come with the occasional unexpected head-over-heels, somersaulting flip from a big wave that runs about two gallons of seawater through your sinus cavities and fills your swimsuit with incredibly aggravating and abrasive sand and seaweed.  Just nature’s way of making it real.

And as we encounter weather like that of the recent “Where did this come from?“ sizzling temperatures, it is also nice to sometimes merely walk into the chilly water up to your neck and stand there, to try to put out the flames erupting all over your head and body.

Beyond the mental and physical benefits, beaches are also a huge economic boost for The Ocean State. Tourism brings in millions of dollars every year, and on a given summer day, largely because of our shore and beaches, our population can nearly double as out-of-staters head for the water like a motorized march of the penguins. So it would figure that given those benefits, it would be a good idea to make sure that both residents and visitors know that Little Rhody’s beaches are clean and safe.

No worries, Rhode Island is on the job.

The state Department of Health’s Beach Monitoring Program begins testing the state’s 126 monitored beaches each spring, as they begin their collaborative work with local beach owners, volunteers, cities and towns, and other state agencies to collect samples, monitor water quality and protect the public health.  The program samples coastal beaches five days a week, and receives sample results from its partners seven days a week.  The DoH constantly refines its sampling strategies to focus on areas of greatest concern and when bacteria counts are most likely to be present.  Read: After a heavy rainfall. (For updated info on your local beach or destination site, you can call the DoH Beaches Hotline at 401-222-2751.)

The number of beach closure days is directly related to the amount of rain we get.  In 2006, a heavy year for precipitation, individual beaches were closed for an alarming total of 351 days. In 2007, a moderate year for rain, the closures only numbered 96 all summer.  That’s better.  But it is what happens in the entire watershed, inland as well as right at the shore, that dictates how clean our beaches are.  Stormwater runoff and storm drains deposit oil, gas, and crowd favorites such as pet and wild animal waste directly into our rivers and streams, which then carry those elements down to their natural endpoints at Narragansett Bay or the Atlantic Ocean.  So what you do inland as far as disposing of waste and toxics can be just as important as if you did it while you’re standing up to your ankles in water at the beach.

Fortunately, the Beach Monitoring Program has a 24-hour turnaround time for sampling, so communities who have their beaches closed because of a heavy rain can find out ASAP when they are cleared to re-open by taking daily samples to be assessed.  This doesn’t negate the fact that beaches in the Upper Bay, which are near more populated urban areas with nastier runoffs impacts and flush out more slowly than South County ocean beaches, aren’t more likely to take a heavier hit from the rain, but it does speed up the process of getting folks safely back into the water.

And if you are like me, you are always looking for that sign that says, “The Doctor is in.“

A video feature on the DoH Beach Monitoring Program can be seen on the Channel 10/URI Watershed Report by clicking Watershed Report.

 

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

The Sun Rises in Olneyville

By Chip Young

New fish ladder signals Woonasquatucket resurgence

There was a time not very long ago when city kids thought the only wildlife that existed in urban rivers was shopping carts and used tires.

Not so these days, thanks some remarkable restoration projects going on statewide.  The most recent success story to emerge into the spotlight is the opening June 2 of the Rising Sun Fish Ladder in the Olneyville section of Providence.  The fish ladder, located at the the newly redeveloped Rising Sun Mills on Valley Street, will restore a vital link between Narragansett Bay and the Woonasquatucket River watershed 140 years after it was severed.  It is only the first step in a sequence of activities that will allow migratory fish such as alewives, blueback herring and shad—“anadromous” fish that spawn in freshwater and live in saltwater—to return to their place of birth in the spring to produce a new generation that will live in the river until the fall, when they will depart for the Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. The unerring ability of the fish to return upriver to where they were born to spawn after months in the ocean remains one of Mother Nature’s little tricks and treats to ponder when you’re daydreaming.  Especially when it involves an often forgotten and invisible river.

No one has ever mistaken Olneyville for the Left Bank in Paris, but slowly and surely the area, with an influx of the local arts community, and a rejuvenated Woonasquatucket River winding through as it runs from North Smithfield down to Providence and the head of Narragansett Bay, has been making a comeback.  You may not see the Woonasquatucket as it winds around Merino Park, hidden by the bushes and trees along its banks as it flows past the abandoned mills, but the natural, indigenous wildlife of fish and birds is gradually returning to replace the shopping carts and tires.

This ecological renaissance in the Renaissance City is being led by partners that include the Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council, the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Coastal Resources Management Council, the R.I. Saltwater Anglers Association, The Armory Revival Company and the owners of the Rising Sun Mills, Streuver Bros. Eccle & Rouse, all of whom contributed to the project’s funding and sponsorship.  The job is far from over, however, as the dam at the site, which the fish ladder allows the returning fish to circumvent as the head upstream, is just one of others still remaining on the path back home.

Dams along the river, which resulted from the the development of Providence’s historic textile mills in the late 1800s, are still in place upstream from Rising Mills.  They present a problem, because while everyone has a vision of salmon making great airborne jumps as they forge up a Northwest River to their spawning ground, alewives and herring are not NBA-level leapers.  Instead, the fish ladders give them a set of stairs up and around the dam that they can do a little fish hike to eventually get to their destination on the other side. Some of the other dams on the river are in bad condition and slated for removal.  The next challenge will be the Paragon Mills dam, due to be removed this summer, which will provide 40 new acres of spawning waters, while having the added benefit of reducing flooding problems that now regularly occur in the neighborhood.  A combination of removal and building new fish ladders at three other upstream dams will clear the way all the way to Johnston for the watery intrepid travelers.

Twenty years ago, the idea of fish returning to spawn was a dark prospect.  The sun is indeed rising on the Woonasquatucket River these days.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Major Shellfish & Eelgrass Transplant to Benefit Salt Ponds

By Chip Young

Increased clam population, cleaner water expected results

Two large transplants of shellfish to Ninigret and Quonochontaug Ponds in Charlestown, and the relocation of eelgrass into test sites in both coastal salt ponds marked the start this spring of a new project designed to increase the ponds’ shellfish populations while improving water quality.

A total of 40,000 pounds of shellfish, which is about 200,000 individual clams, was divided between Ninigret and “Quonnie” and put into “spawner sanctuaries” in the South County ponds on May 8 and May 20, respectively.  In between those shellfish-shifting operations, on May 15, eelgrass harvested from Ft. Getty in Jamestown was moved to test sites in the two South County ponds.  This will be followed by a full-scale eelgrass transplant this September.

The project is called The National Partnership Between the NOAA Community-based Restoration Program and The Nature Conservancy, and includes a boatful of partners including the Department of Environmental Management, Save the Bay, the Salt Ponds Coalition and the University of Rhode Island.  The always helpful R.I. Shellfishermen’s Assn. also chipped in, digging up the quahogs in Greenwich Cove under DEM supervision on the two transplant dates, before they were loaded on to a huge flatbed to be trucked down to Ninigret and Quonnie.  At the sites, volunteers loaded the 50-lb. sacks onto boats contributed by Salt Pond Coalition members, DEM and Save the Bay, which took them out to be dumped overboard into the sanctuary areas.  Sore backs, muddy clothes and wet feet all around, please.

The clams were taken from “uncertified waters” in Greenwich Cove, where they are not allowed to be harvested for eating, and were tested to ensure they were healthy before they took their ride down to Charlestown.  The spawner sanctuaries where they were transplanted are also off-limits to harvesting, but they will serve as a breeding ground for the shellfish, which will eventually increase the number of clams in the entire pond area outside the sanctuaries.  As a bonus, since the clams filter water to feed, they reduce excess plankton, and contribute to overall improved water quality in the ponds.  That cleaner water will then help the eelgrass grow.  (Ah, it all eventually comes together, doesn’t it?)

The partnership’s objectives are to show how this cooperative effort can help the overall health of the ecosystem, while exploring the impacts and potential future benefits of combining shellfish and eelgrass restoration right next door to one another.  Hopefully, the lessons learned here can be used elsewhere.  Believe me, there is a lot going on across this country and around the world that went to school on Little Rhody when it comes to coastal issues.

“TNC, NOAA our partners and volunteers have done a great job, and we are all eagerly anticipating seeing the results of this transplant effort,“ said Janet Coit, director of the Rhode Island Chapter of TNC.  We’ll be on the lookout in September to to see just how well this big move by the shellfish and eelgrass pays off.  For more information, contact Chris Littlefield or Caroly Shumway of The Nature Conservancy at (401) 331-7110.