River Minutes

Text of the River Minutes by Derek Levin

BRIDGES For the first 150 years of European settlement, people used ferries to cross the Connecticut River. Today, only two ferries still operate, but 56 road bridges cross the river about one each 7 and a half miles. There are also many railroad spans. Bridge building began when turnpikes were first constructed from Boston and Portsmouth to the interior. These roads challenged the river as the only commercial highway. The first bridge to cross the river was built at Bellows Falls in 1785. The next 11 years saw new spans at Hanover, NH, Windsor, VT, and Springfield, Mass. The new railroads in the 1840's ended the turnpike era but increased bridge building. Still, the shifting mouth of the river defied engineers until the1870's, when a railroad bridge finally crossed: 240 years after the first colonists sailed in.

THE FLYWAY Under the Migratory Bird Treaty of 1918 between Canada, Japan, Mexico, and the Soviet Union, the United States pledged to protect all migrating birds while they were here. Our Connecticut Valley is an essential flyway for all kinds of birds winging between Canada and Central America. Even with the treaty, bird populations shrank drastically until the 1980s. The reasons? Disappearing and degraded nesting habitat along their entire route. The Upper Valley was no exception. To protect all birds new international global habitat conservation agreements were initiated. The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service entered into Partners in Flight, a program protecting migrating birds, involving agencies throughout the hemisphere. Now hundreds of businesses, universities, foundations and private landowners work to maintain bird populations. Research is still needed to see if it's working. But one thing's sure, if we want healthy birds, we must protect the land they nest on and the food they eat.

JET SKIS There's no denying jet-skis are fun, but according to the California Air Resources Board, a two hour thrill ride on a 100hp jet ski can emit the same amount of pollution as driving a 1998 passenger car 139,000 miles. Studies by the Environmental Protection Agency say, a single jet-ski two-stroke engine can blow out 25 to 30% of its gas and oil directly into recreation waters or up to 6 gallons of oil and gas in just two hours. Roughly half of all watercraft, and 100 percent of jet-skis, are powered by two-stroke marine engines. With that amount of unburned fuel going directly into the water one jet-ski may dump a soda can's worth of the carcinogenic gasoline additive MBTE, in two hours--that's enough to contaminate 13 million gallons of drinking water, the daily consumption of 90,000 people. It's a heavy price to pay for fun.

COMMERCE For two centuries after Europeans arrived in New England, commerce in the Connecticut Valley required boating. Rivers were the only roadways to the interior so explorers and fur traders went inland by dugout and birch-bark canoes, or bateau. By 1820, all the major rapids north to Wilder, VT had been bypassed with canals. It was then possible for flatboats up to 60 feet long and 8 feet wide to be poled and sailed from the Atlantic to Wells River, VT in just 20 days; the return downstream took only 10. While turnpikes, out of the watershed, to Boston and Portsmouth began competing for trade in the 1790s, it was the railroads in the 1840s that ended river commerce above Hartford, Connecticut. Steamboats were tried, but the small size dictated by the width of the canals and shallowness of the River made them commercial failures. Today, only the tidal reach in Connecticut still sees commercial traffic. The rest of the river is again mostly the path of canoes and the bateaux descendants, motorboats.

DAMS The Connecticut River is about 415 miles long, but only the first 4 and the last 64 miles flow freely. Everything between Moose Falls Flowage in Pittsburg NH and Enfield, CT, is controlled by dams. The first dams across the river were built to divert water into navigation canals, so flatboats could get around major rapids. The last of these, much degraded, still remains at Enfield, Connecticut. Other dams were built to provide water power for manufacturing, and 4 in the Connecticut Lakes region were built to control water flow during logging runs. These 4 now control the flow for hydroelectric dams further downstream. There are a total of 11 hydroelectric dams still in use on the river, 9 owned by power companies, and 2 by paper companies. The ponds behind all these dams create their own ecosystems, and their controlled releases of water define the character of the river and the life rhythms of the creatures in it.

DEVELOPMENT CONTROL Homes on the Connecticut River banks never got built like around nearby lakes because of the water quality. Most local folks remember the Connecticut as an open sewer before the Water Pollution laws of the 1970s. Historically, industrial development always needed running water for power and waste removal. Along our river, clothing mills, paper mills, tanneries, dumped dies which often stained the water. When the machine tool industry thrived, oily toxic slicks also mixed with lots of other industrial pollution and human waste from open septic pipes. All were dumped directly into the river. One result of all that was large fish and plant kills added their fragrance to the mess. People avoided any contact with the smelly morass called the Connecticut. However once the water clean-up laws began regulating pollution, the river gradually got healthier. By then, people had built houses away from the water. Now, when seen from the river surface, a lot of places seem blessedly undeveloped. Many pollution problems still exist from the bad old days although they were an effective development control tool.

PRIMITIVE CANOE CAMPSITES Either kayak or canoe is about the only way to travel the Connecticut River, well above or just below the Wilder Dam impoundment. The water depth prohibits easy access by motor boat. For those who want to stay on the River over night there is the beginnings of an accommodations network, a series of primitive campsites. Recently, the Upper Valley Land Trust, in coordination with its effort to conserve land along the river has been working with other organizations to find landowners willing to host these campsites accessible only from the water. At least 13 sites have been cleared along the river. While these are free, there are restrictions. All are on private property with port-a-potties, but there is no drinkable water and impact on the land is strongly discouraged. People must treat the spots like they would any wilderness campsite: carry in carry out, no fire building. So these sites are more work than a standard campground but they're worth it. For a sense of what it might have been like to travel an untamed river a century ago, this is about as close as you can get around here. And nighttime is a wonderfully different experience on the river.

ABENAKI Abenaki lived primarily in Northern New England, from Lake Champlain and southern Quebec, east to Maine and south to Western Massachusetts,. They traveled much of their territory by water. There is strong archeological evidence that even many centuries ago, the Abenaki planted and harvested crops in the Connecticut River Valley. The strong oral traditions, culture and history of the Abenaki people were taught without written language. Customs, skills and crafts were passed on through stories which helped people understand why the world was ordered the way it was. Celebrations like pow-wows and harvest suppers were important times for native people to gather. Bringing harvest foods like corn, beans, squash, and game like moose, turkey, deer, bear, Abenaki gave thanks for the harvest. Elders and children had a special place in Abenaki society, with a great bond between the elders knowledge, and the children's need for it. When Europeans settled here, practical Abenaki families found need for their children to be acculturated. The young Abenaki were encouraged to hide their nativeness and to marry Europeans as a way to survive.

PHRAGMITES Everywhere along our roadsides and our wetlands we're becoming overrun with Phragmites Australis, the common reed. No one's sure if it's native or foreign and why it's recently becoming aggressive but it's land coverage is suddenly exploding. This plant which may grow to over 15 feet tall has woody stems with puffy, plume-like seed heads. It is difficult for some wildlife to move around in, produces little nutrient value, and lessens the value of a wetland overall. It spreads by sending out rhizomes, a kind of extended root as well as through the seeds. For this reason, common reed grows quickly and thickly, making it difficult to control. In fact, in some wetlands where people have tried to control the reed, by the end of the growing season it's multiplied faster than people were able to remove it! Oddly the reed has uses. In many areas it is an important and valued commodity, most commonly used for thatched roofs. It's also used for boats, jewelry, pen tips, mats, baskets, food, medicine, clothing, and most intriguingly paper. Perhaps in the future it could be harvested instead of trees.

MEANDERS Given enough time, a river would carve a perfectly even gradient from its source to the sea. Variations in soil and rock make that a practical impossibility, but the reality still follows a surprisingly even pattern. The Connecticut River starts at 2600 feet above sea level, then falls two-thirds of that height in just 60 miles. It takes 350 more miles to fall the remaining 870 feet. Major drops were marked by cataracts and waterfalls, most of which are now the site of dams. In the flatter stretches, the river follows a more even undulating path broken into riffles and pools. Surprisingly, the riffles in these stretches occur at regular intervals measured at between five and seven times the width of the channel. Where the river meanders, in wide reaches of the valley, the surface drop is more regular than in the straight stretches, with fewer obvious riffles and pools. But it is also actually steeper.

TWO CYCLE ENGINES More and more pleasure boaters are drawn to the Connecticut River each year as its water gets cleaner. Unfortunately, the increased boat traffic is slowing the recovery that's brought them. Roughly half of all motorboats - and all jet skis - use two-stroke marine engines. According to the EPA, one hour of operation by a 70-horsepower two-stroke emits as much hydrocarbon as driving 5,000 miles in a modern car. Also some two-strokes can spill a quarter of their gas and oil directly into the water. In fact, a single jet ski can dump 6 gallons in two hours. These petroleum emissions float on the surface micro layer and settle in the shallow ecosystems of the river, right where most fish eggs and insect larvae are found. Even extremely low levels of hydrocarbon will cause chromosomal damage, reduced growth, and high mortality in fish. New research has also shown that fish growth is reduced by up to 46% when larvae are exposed to petroleum pollution. All this says, we need to replace the two stroke engine with a cleaner alternative sooner rather than later.

EVOLUTION OF TRANSPORTATION Transportation systems in the Valley have come a long way in 200 or so years. There are a few places left up and down where from one spot it is easy to see the evolution of travel. It began of course with the river. The Abenaki used dugouts and birchbark canoes to travel to important gatherings on the river as well as to migrate to other places. They also made walking paths along the banks. When Europeans arrived working their way up the river from Long Island Sound, they continued to use the river, but they began to build small winding roads on the river banks. Frequently the Europeans used the logs they cleared to surface the road and add firmer footing. These roads were close to and followed the river courses. When traffic increased, in order get away from mud and frequent floods, the colonists built larger roads higher up. Many of these highways later became state numbered roads. However the roads were still dirt and difficult to travel much of the year. Then came the railroads, a considerably faster, surer way to move people and freight, which until then had been moved either boat or animal drawn wagon. The railroads remained the most important means of travel until the 1960s when came the superhighways, or interstates, built well above flooding and storm damage and finally in a few places came the airports to fly above it all.

KNOTWEED The expression about a problem which has you tied up in knots probably has nothing to do with the Japanese Knotweed plant. But it should. This "exotic invasive" a bamboo look-alike, once established, sends out root-like rhizomes that spread as deep as 4 feet underground. From those, shoots will grow to 15 feet with large broad leaves that completely shade out other plants. Since any piece of root starts a new plant it's practically indestructible. In the Connecticut River Valley, knotweed is spreading fast and destroying the habitat needed by plants and animals key to the local ecosystem. There are different stories about who brought it here from Japan, but why-ever it was brought, it escaped into our valley and dumped its knotty problem on us all. Research has found that to contain it, knotweed must be hacked to the ground 4 times a growing season - more often to kill it. There is one great blessing; it's a tangled mess on which you can freely take out your frustrations with an ax.

EAGLES In the early 20th century, hunting bald eagles was a popular sport. Hunters shot birds for feathers and because of a perceived threat to fish and young livestock. Meanwhile water pollution further reduced the species by killing the birds and their food supply. Then pesticides like DDT nearly completed eagle extinction in the lower 48 states. DDT buildup in female birds caused very fragile eggshells. From about 50,000 US Eagles in 1900, by the late 60s there were only about 800 breeding pairs. Eagles were long gone from the Connecticut River watershed by then. In 1972 reintroduction began. Today at least two pair of eagles breed in the Upper Valley alone where they nest on the largest trees, usually at least three quarters of a mile away from human activity. They feed happily on warm-water fish like dace and suckers. Even so, despite strong protection laws, habitat loss, toxicity of the fish they eat, occasional shooting, electrocution, and poisoning still threaten eagle survival.

BIRCHBARK CANOES Indians in northern New England perfected birchbark canoe building centuries ago. These very light resilient boats enabled them to penetrate and live in trackless forest regions. They could navigate any stream or river system to it's source. Using only Stone Age tools, they constructed small craft of huge trunk sized sections of paper-birch bark stitched together, glued and caulked with pitch onto a frame, ribs and gunwales usually of cedar. The Bark canoe while extraordinarily light, a 15-footer might weigh less than 40 pounds, also had a surprising carrying capacity. Some could carry almost a ton. It is said that a 15-foot canoe was often used to transport an entire Indian family with several children, plus all of their belongings and dogs. They weren't of course the most stable boats having a rounded bottom with no keel, but they could float in only a few inches of water. That would have been useful in dry years to keep the water highways and tributaries passable.

VETCH There are a few things the Upper Valley ought to be famous for, but perhaps we're only truly unique for one, Jessup's Milk Vetch. This small pink flowering plant of the pea family only grows in a couple of spots in a 15 mile stretch on the banks of the Connecticut in Hartland VT, Plainfield, NH and down to Claremont. That puts the plant on the endangered species list. It not only doesn't grow anywhere else in the US, but nowhere else in the world either. One problem though is the plant makes it's own survival difficult. Jessup's vetch grows only on rock ledge outcrops which are ground over by ice every year. Some people are trying to help the plant survive by gathering seeds, raising seedlings and planting them back in their native territory, but that's had only minor success. The plant is actually so hardy so that it ought to be relatively easy to preserve. It happens that the primary threat is feet. People have to avoid trampling on the vetch when they take a break from canoeing or kayaking. That's all it'll take to keep ours a unique place in the plant world.

DUGOUTS Dugouts of the Abenaki The Connecticut River was a main travel route for the Abenaki in northern New England. For centuries they lived in villages along the river and in nearby hills. Because of their dependence on the land and water for food, Abenaki made boats for hunting and fishing, communication and transportation between their river villages. The boats were either birchbark canoes or dugouts carved from huge tree trunks. Carving a dugout was a long hard process since until Europeans came the Abenaki had no metal tools. Instead they used stone tools and fire. Once a tree was felled and the top cut off, small controlled fires were built in the middle of the great log and fed so that an indentation could be made. Then, with stone axes they chopped at the scorched wood to form a larger hole. The process was repeated many times until the interior hull was carved out. The outside also had to be hacked into shape. Then scraping techniques would smooth the job. They must also have kept the wood wet to control seasoning to avoid cracks. Cracks would surely have been caulked with pine pitch, but it must have been heartbreaking to see a crack after all that work.

FISHING The Connecticut River is a nationally recognized trout fishing river. Hundreds of people from across the US and Canada visit the river each year to fish for trout of which the state of New Hampshire stocks about 34,000 yearly. Three varieties of Trout, rainbow, brook and brown are only a few of approximately 32 freshwater species that live in the River. Warm water species include white and yellow perch and walleye, actually a perch too. There are at least 5 kinds of bass: small mouth, large mouth, rock bass, blue gills and 2 sunfishes. There are also Northern pike 3 pickerels, five catfishes, several chub, various dace, many darters, Burbot, Northern brook lamprey, Sea lamprey, Pumpkinseed, Longnose sucker, white sucker, and even a Slimy sculpin. And that's to name but a few. There are also the ana-dromous fishes including shad, alewife, sturgeon and Atlantic salmon, some of which still migrate from the sea this far north. For the fishermen and ichthyologists, there are few waters in the northeastern US with such an abundance of species. So the cleaner the water stays, and the better we treat the habitat, the more fish will stay around for us to enjoy.

ALIEN INVADERS Warning, warning, warning. Alien Invaders. Rivers, streams, lakes, and ponds throughout the Connecticut River watershed are under attack by water-clogging foreign plants. Our local waterways support many native plants important to a healthy ecosystem. They filter and oxygenate the water and represent the bottom of the food chain giving food and hiding places to water animals from midges to minnows to bass. Unfortunately, the escapees from home landscape ponds and aquariums are choking out the native flora at an alarming rate. Water chestnut and Eurasian milfoil, the biggest culprits, root easily in backwaters, then through broken shoots and prolific seeding spread quickly in the current. Boats and waterfowl also ferry plants from fishing hole to fishing hole. So what's to be done? Learn to identify these plants. Notify the US Fish & Wildlife service if you spot any. Clean your boat carefully when you remove it from the water. And buy only native plants for your pond or aquarium.

LAKE HITCHCOCK While the body of water we call the Connecticut River has been here for a very long time, it hasn't always been a river. In fact about 18,000 years ago, during the last ice age, it was a lake. When the glaciers melted, all the rocks, dirt, trees and assorted stuff that had been picked up by the scouring action of the ice in motion got left sitting where the glacier stopped, near Middletown, Connecticut. Over the next 3000 years the water of glacial melt was trapped behind a natural dam and backed up in our river valley. The lake that formed is called Lake Hitchcock by geologists. It was one large lake stretching from Connecticut all the way to St Johnsbury, Vermont over 200 miles. It was never very wide, but at times probably got as much as 115 feet deep in spots. As water continued to flow into the lake with its sediment, and the land began to spring back up after the huge weight of the glaciers, the lake spilled over the damn and eroded it. Then about 14,000 years ago the change was complete. The lake was gone. The river flowed freely again. But the story of the lake is still recorded in the rocks.

LOOSESTRIFE That people travel freely around the world now seems commonplace. Sometimes without proper consideration, though, they also move plants which can spread far beyond their typical eco-patterns. Many of these "invasive exotics," are serious pests. One of the most invasive in the Connecticut River Valley, is a European flower of such striking, tall, purple spikes that we almost want to salute its fields waving regally and resolutely in the wind. But in this case, beauty is as beauty does. With no natural enemies, Purple Loosestrife grows in such abundance that its rapid reproduction and dense root system is quickly crowding out native plants on our roadsides, riverbanks and meadows and also our native animals and insects. Many are studying ways to control this invader. So far, there are a few insects which show promise but there is only one proven way to reduce the problem: to dig up loosestrife and destroy it where it is found. It is sad, though, that what was brought here as a spectacular ornamental flower has become a monumental ecological nightmare.

CURVINGS Through much of its northern run, the Connecticut River flows through a narrow rift between parts of 3 ancient tectonic plates, whose bedrock edges control the water's path. The valley likely formed millions of years ago when the African, European and North American Plates collided. Further south, the valley widens. The river then curves in oxbows snaking back and forth across the wider lowland.. Over the passing of decades, the course also changes as ground is carved away from the outside of bends by flood waters, and builds up on the inside. Though the curves seem to change randomly, surprisingly, there is a mathematical formula that predicts them. It happens that the straight stretches of the oxbows are never longer than 10 times wider than the channel. In northern New Hampshire, where the river is still relatively narrow, it loops back and forth many times in just a few miles. In the southern valley above Holyoake, Mass, the much wider river carves out long, sweeping loops. Then, once in a while, the curves will get so sharp and the water force grow so great that the river will jump it's bank, cut cross country and form a whole new channel.

LOGGING The earliest European explorers of northern New England were in search of many things, but towards the top of the list was logs. Oak was used for ship hulls and timbers, huge pines for masts and spars, and pitch for seams. All of this came from the Northeastern forests. Building their own vessels and sailing them to ports all over the world, the shipmasters of the Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut laid the foundation for a trade that was to grow steadily in importance. By the end of the colonial period, one-third of British military ships the largest navy in the world, were built in New England because most of the European trees suitable for these purposes were long since used. In the old growth forests of New England there was a whole new treasure trove. Finding it was easy. Felling it and getting it out was much harder. For transportation, they used the rivers. The Connecticut, being the largest became a highway for huge log drives bringing wood to where it could be loaded on ships and hauled to anywhere or turned into ships, houses, furniture, horse drawn wagons, barns and the myriad other wooden products that were made and sold in early America. Then it was shipped around to the more populated areas of the colonies and the world.

MUDPUPPIES There may be no stranger creature in the Connecticut River than Mud Puppies. This harmless salamander grows as long as 15 inches. Aside from the size, the thing that makes this an odd amphibian is that it spends all of it's life underwater. It shelters by day in deeper pockets under rocks, driftwood, overhangs, and other objects, but no mud. It feeds at night on fish, crayfish, and aquatic insects. Males search out females in autumn, mate in depressions under sunken debris, where the female attaches her 50-130 eggs. Larvae hatch in 1-2 months and mature in 5-6 years. Unlike all other salamanders in New England mudpuppies keep their gills and develop only rudimentary lungs. Then they stop development and breath only through gills. They are active year-round and are sometimes caught by ice fishermen. This is not the only place mudpuppies are found; they're pretty widespread up north here and there is another similar species that lives down south around Louisiana. There they call them water dogs. Guess they're not as warm and fuzzy as our puppies.

NAMING RIGHTS The name Connecticut is derived from the Mohican-Algonquin word Quonehtacut, meaning "long tidal river" or "long estuary." It seems the river gave the state its name rather than the other way around. The River was first discovered by Europeans when Dutch explorers found the mouth in 1614. They were sailing on what we now call Long Island Sound named that because coincidentally there is a long island out there. It protects the mouth of the river from the harsh Atlantic storms and tides. Inside the island towards the shore there is the long stretch of water folks 350 years ago called a sound which came from the Old English & old Norse word sund meaning swimming. A sound is a parallel inlet of the ocean separating a mainland and an island. Long Island sound had another distinction, it was some of the most productive coldwater fish spawning grounds in the world. It must have seemed like paradise for the first Europeans both the abundance of the sea and working upstream, the clean, clear river running through probably the most fertile agricultural valley they'd ever seen. No wonder they came to stay. And then the names just stuck.

RIPARIAN BUFFERS Riparian Buffer is not a term which flows trippingly from the tongue, but to prevent erosion damage to riverbanks, and riverfront property, to help protect against runoff pollution, to help the survival of fish and wildlife and to keep our rivers beautiful, riparian buffers perform magic. Simply put, riparian buffers are plantings on river banks of trees, hardy bushes, grasses and other flora that afford a whole host of services for the river environment and the land along it. They prevent general erosion, prevent ice and flooding damage, save large chunks of banks. They offer refuge for terrestrial wildlife of all sizes from deer to mink to frogs, they filter pollution runoff, collect floating debris, give shade for fish and all other water animals, keep livestock and bacterial laden manure away from the water's edge. In fact there is nothing so simple and effective in preserving healthy rivers as to let the plants along their banks grow and prosper. Natural magic at its best.

SALMON Atlantic Salmon, historically abundant in the Connecticut River, were driven to extinction by pollution and dams in the 19th century. Now, restoration programs, raising strong salmon that will instinctively return to our rivers, are releasing fry, baby salmon, into local streams. Although, we have fish passages and catch limit regulations, there are still problems impeding their return including large electric turbines, pollution and erosion. Three federal agencies and numerous state and local organizations are working to increase adult salmon returns to recreate a more natural environment as well as a sport fishery. To support the Salmon Restoration Program based at the Conte Anadromous Fish Research Lab and the University of Massachusetts stocking program, it is our job in the Upper Valley to protect the salmon fry and smolts, the pre-adult stage, and let them find their way to the sea so they may come back again to the places where they ran upstream into what were used to be their rivers.

SHIFTING ISLANDS It is well known that for much of it's length the Connecticut River is the boundary between New Hampshire and Vermont. Many may not realize that the river is legally New Hampshire property, or at least mostly. The boundary was established by a US Supreme Court decision in 1933 and surveyed in '34 but the river refuses to obey surveys, real estate laws or the supreme court. The bed of the river can shift quite radically in spring runoff. For instance, during a number of years a large gravel island near one bank with grass and even trees may get built up. Then in a few flooded spring days, the entire land mass could be washed away. The boundary line is, according to the court, supposed to be the western , quote, point of water to which the river recedes at its lowest stage without reference to extreme droughts. There is however, at least one chunk of land in Bradford, VT that's violating the law. This 20 acres of Vermont was for many years a sharp oxbow bend. Then one spring the river crossed it. Though still officially and legally in Vermont it is now attached to New Hampshire - at least for now.

SOURCE Where does a river start? The Connecticut River officially begins at a remote place in Pittsburg, New Hampshire, Fourth Connecticut Lake. That lake is actually a wetland in a hilly area fed mostly by ground water. The ground water is a mix of underground springs and rain or snow runoff. The lake is also fed by small brooks and streams from out of southern Quebec, which could be considered a source. Once the river leaves fourth lake it passes through the other 3 which are dam controlled and grow progressively larger. Up there and later throughout its run, it gathers tributaries from brooks and rivers along the way, draining wide areas of New Hampshire and Vermont. This is the Connecticut River watershed, anyplace form which water flows downhill from rain or snowmelt. Finally, it all gathers together into the one big river and soon after flows into the sea more than 400 miles from the beginning. But then weather systems develop, pick up sea water, blow in our Nor-easters, and the rain or snow drops to the ground to start the cycle all over again. So where does a river start? It's an interesting question.

STURGEON There were once large schools of short-nosed sturgeon in the Connecticut river, though they probably didn't migrate this far north. Sturgeon are one of the oldest and most primitive of the bony fishes alive on the East Coast of North America. But beginning in the 1800s their populations were devastated by the industrialization of rivers and by overfishing. Today, the few fish passages at dams and poor habitat conditions continue to stand in the way of re-establishing sturgeon populations. So why is the Upper Valley affected at all? Unless you like caviar or enjoy sturgeon meat, it isn't. Rather it could be the other way around. What we do might affect the sturgeons. They are now a seriously endangered species. It seems Sturgeon are large, long-lived fish that grow slowly and so they are more likely to be affected by short or long-term pollution and runoff. Since what happens here ends up in their Massachusetts home waters, we could make life very hard for the few remaining sturgeons and never know about it.

TROUT Surprisingly, trout is kind of a catch all term for the fish found in the Connecticut River. Technically, there are no native trout in the River or its tributaries. That's because the only native species, brook trout, is actually a char. Brookies, New Hampshire's state fish, are different from trout because of a bone in the mouth, black spots, and smaller scales. It's a welcome sign to see Brookies still living in a stream or river because they require cold, clear, clean swift-moving water to survive. Rainbow trout are native to the Pacific coastal states and provinces and the western Rockies. They were probably introduced here in the 1880s. More tolerant of warmer and somewhat dirtier water, though they need good current, they've become more widespread and dominant in the Connecticut crowding out brookies. Brown trout are the true immigrants. Native to Europe and western Asia, they were brought to North America in the mid 1800's. Browns are far more tolerant of warm, slow water and seem to prefer muddy conditions. Unlike the other two species which will eat mostly insects and crayfish, browns concentrate on smaller fish. Though all three species are edible, many anglers are practicing catch and release these days to ensure plentiful populations.

WATER CHESTNUTS European Water chestnut (Trapa natans) is a prolific aquatic weed that can form dense floating mats across shallow bodies of water, making boating, fishing and swimming nearly impossible. This weed also shades out native aquatic plants and offers little value to wildlife. And the seeds have sharp spines that can inflict puncture wounds. It spreads like a very contagious disease only needing a carrier, once it infects new water. The water chestnut is an annual plant, germinating seeds in early spring. One seed can explode into 10-15 rosettes, each of which can produce 15-20 seeds. So one seed can produce 300 new seeds in a single year. Fortunately the plant has not yet found its way into the Connecticut in our area, but like a dread disease, once it's infected a part of the body, it's about impossible to get rid of and not many therapies will work. Medicine strong enough kill the disease can also kill the patient, the river we know. Right now it's fairly simple, what we need do is prevent it. An ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure.

WATERSHED POLLUTION Every drop of water that falls onto the ground must go one of three places, further into the ground, evaporated into the air, or into a nearby river or stream. Any little trickle that flows from brook to river and into the Connecticut River makes it part of the Connecticut River watershed, or drainage basin. The Connecticut River watershed includes about 7.2 million acres of VT and NH, CT and MA. That includes about half of Vermont and a third of NH. Because of the simple fact that water flows down hill, anything put into the staff of life that drops onto the ground or is buried under it will very likely sooner or later end up in our Connecticut River. This means that how we live has a direct impact on the health of the streams and rivers where we live. Whatever we put on our lawns, pour down into our septic systems or storm drains, eventually finds its way to our river. So next time you're washing your car, fertilizing your lawn, or dumping some paint thinner or other chemical behind a bush, think about whether dipping into that one hot summer day is the stuff you want to bathe in or eat fish from or maybe even drink.

DWARF WEDGE MUSSEL One of the ten federally endangered species in the Connecticut River watershed may seem insignificant, but it is an indicator of the status of pollution and human population. The dwarf wedge mussel- once lived in large masses on muddy sand and gravel bottoms along much of the mainstem of the Connecticut River and all of its tributaries. It was an important food source for many animals aquatic and terrestrial and also helped clean the water. Now the wedge mussel survives in only three sites in the entire watershed. Around here only 18 miles south from the Ottaquechee River mouth, to Weathersfield Bow still supports the mussel. A major problem is that unlike many other mussel species, it reproduces sexually using only the water current. It thus needs a concentrated population in order to survive. But the population has shrunk because of damming and channelization, siltation from construction, agricultural, and forestry activities Industrial and agricultural pollutants have also impacted mussel populations which are sensitive to pesticides, chlorine, potassium, zinc, copper, cadmium. Unless it's habitat is strongly protected it will soon go extinct in our area. Leaving it in very few places in the US and life around us less diverse.

WHAT IS A WETLAND A wetland is a low-spot that collects water part or all of the year. It has wet or submerged soils like silt or clay and may support aquatic or semi aquatic plants for a certain part of the year, but the general definition ends there. Some wetlands are wet all year, while others are wet only part of the year, like spring. Because wetlands are so hard to describe, it is difficult to write laws to protect them. But protect them we must. Wetlands provide unique habitats that are absolutely essential to many species at certain stages of their development. Vernal pools are breeding habitat for many different types of insects, salamanders, frogs, toads and turtles. Near the ocean, salt water marshes are important nursery habitat for most types of fish. Though we used to disdainfully call them swamps, wetlands serve very important human related functions. As productive habitats, they collect a lot of the excess nutrients in our environment and hold onto them, thereby acting like a septic clean-up system for our environment. They also provide reservoirs against flood. They even affect climate and reduce the amount of the greenhouse CO2 gas in our atmosphere. As it turns out, the more we know about how life grows, the more wetlands are a most essential part of the process.

WHY OF THIS PATH? Why does a river follow it's path? The Connecticut River officially begins at a remote place in northern New Hampshire at what's called the Fourth Connecticut Lake. That lake is not much more than a mile long swamp in a hilly area fed mostly by ground water, a mix of water from underground springs and runoff from rain. But the lake is also fed by small brooks and streams that come out of southern Quebec Province and could be considered sources of the river too. The river hits it's stride when it reaches the great rift valley between Vermont and New Hampshire that once were parts of the North American and the African/European tectonic plates which collided here breaking a piece off many millions of years ago. Now, the bedrock edges control the path of the water in the upper reach of the river. Then in the wider valley further south, the river curves in oxbows across the width of the valley. . In the northern valley where the river is still relatively narrow, it loops back and forth many times in the space of just a few miles. In the lower southern valley above Holyoke, Mass, the much wider river carves out long, sweeping loops until it straightens out in the plains of Connecticut. With the carving of the current the bends will grow ever wider because the dirt is washed away from the outer bends and deposited on the inside. Still, surprisingly, these oxbows are never longer than 10 times the width of the channel which over time shifts radically when the river may well straighten again.

AMERICAN HERITAGE RIVER The Connecticut is only one of 14 rivers in the country designated as an American Heritage River, a federal program to help river communities seeking federal and other resources to improve the life of the river by cutting red-tape. There are three AHR priorities: natural resources and environmental protection, economic revitalization, and historic and cultural preservation. The Connecticut River Action Plan highlights the desires of communities in the four-state River Valley to extend public education and outreach about the river in five interest areas: Urban Riverfront Revitalization; Tourism, Recreation and Access; Agricultural Preservation and Natural Resource Protection; Connecticut River Education; Habitat Restoration, Riverbank Stabilization, and Water Quality Protection. The goal is to ensure that our river plays the role in the region that its central location deserves.

GREAT EGRET Floating around the bend on the Connecticut, even on shores this far north, it's possible to come upon a quite unexpected vision. Standing in the shallows on one leg or two might be a very tall white bird, almost as big as a great Blue Heron, feeding on the local smorgasbord of small fish, frogs and crayfish. The Great Egret seems to belong in more tropical places like the southern US, or Central and South America. Indeed it's range covers much of the tropical semi-tropical world. But some will also migrate this far north. The Egret's showy plumage was once almost a cause of its destruction. During the breeding season it wears a train of about 50 narrow plumes that extend from between the shoulders to and beyond the tail. This display captivated the women's millinery industry in the 1800s and birds of the Gulf of Mexico were slaughtered by the millions to adorn those fanciful women's hats. By 1900 the birds were all but wiped out and only the establishment of sanctuaries and protection programs saved them. Their populations are still slowly rebounding. Meanwhile most of the women's hats that nearly did the birds in, at least in the US, have come close to extinction.

RIVER BEAVERS Most everyone in the Connecticut River Watershed has seen the incredible work of Beavers in our brooks and streams. We've admired their industry building dams and lodges to create homes areas large enough to accommodate their vegetarian needs. They eat woody shrubs and trees including alder, aspen, birch, maple, willow and also some aquatic plants. Few may know that trapping nearly eliminated Beaver from the area by the late 1800s. Not only were the animals considered a nuisance, but the pelt was extremely valuable. Much exploration in the US came about because of trapping beaver to make the tall beaver hats that were all the rage for men in Europe. Beaver, though, were an early success story in the reintroduction of a species into the wild. Six beavers were released in New Hampshire in the late 1920s and by 1955, the entire state was repopulated. You may not notice beaver so much in our larger rivers since they make no dams. Rather than the domed pond lodge, in the river, a pile of sticks and brush piled against a bank near a deeper pool camouflages the lodge location. Still spring floods must keep them quite busy.

COMMON MERGANSERS Rare as hen's teeth? This is called the Common Merganser, and it is. But one of the things that distinguishes this species of duck from others is it has a kind of teeth. It needs these serrations on the sides of the bill because while most ducks are strictly vegetarian, the merganser primarily eats fish. You can find the female in early summer floating up and down the Connecticut River with a bevy of babies trailing behind. Mergansers can fledge as many as a dozen in a clutch. Swimming on the surface they'll suddenly disappear diving for fry and fingerling fish. While the female has a reddish head and crest, the male has a striking black and white pattern. Sometimes it's even possible to see a bird with more than one head because ducklings will take a ride on mom's back. The departure of a flock of mergansers can be quite a site too. Because the wings are small for the body, they take a very long stretch of water to get airborne. To see 10 or twelve ducks propelloring the water with their feet for a hundred yards makes for quite an amusing splash.

CRAWDADS Down south they call em crawdads and eat em like popcorn. Up here they're crayfish. Whatever you call them, these little freshwater lobster-like crustaceans are an essential species in our waters. They're a tremendous source of food for the bigger fish like the trouts and basses and they are also the best vacuum cleaners we've got for scarfing up organic left overs drifting down across the river's bed. The problem is that the predominant and possibly native crawdad Orconectes virilis in the Connecticut River is being crowded out by another. The odd thing is that this invasive, Orconectes rusticus, rusty for short, comes from only a few states away like Michigan and Ohio. It was introduced here as a fishing bait. Rustys create a major problem because of a harder shell, less meat per total weight and a more aggressive nature than virilis. Rusty is crowding out virilis and since it's harder to digest for the fish, it's likely slowing their growth. Also since each aggressive Rusty takes more territory than virilis it's not as effective as a clean-up worker. Rusty is also spreading it's way up tributaries and eventually could take over the whole watershed. Pity is it's doesn't make a tasty crawdad either.

ACCESS & ETIQUETTE Legal access to the river in our Connecticut Valley can be relatively easy. Although there are not many publicly owned access points or boat launches, laws in the twin states limit liability for private landowners who open their land for recreational use. As a result, many landowners permit people to cross their property in order to get to the river for fishing, swimming, even non-motorized boating, like canoeing and kayaking. Still there are some very important practices we need to follow in order to continue this kind of access. First, there is posted land limiting access without permission and that must be respected. For open land, strict adherence to leave no trace practices must be followed. *All trash brought into a place should be brought back out, carry in carry out. Especially important are cigarette filters which will not break down*Bushes, trees, wildlife and farm animals should be left alone.*Fires are forbidden*When the earth is soft, care should be taken to avoid disturbing the dirt with your feet which might cause erosion. We all benefit when we respect the land and keep open access.

MOREY'S INVENTION Crossing the Connecticut River is now something we do with hardly a thought, but in the 1700s it represented quite an obstacle. When transportation was done by horse or ox, getting to a river crossing could use up quite a lot of time. In those days, the main way to cross was by ferry. Oddly enough it was the ferry between Orford, New Hampshire and Fairlee, Vermont that spawned one of the most important inventions of all time. In 1765, General Israel Morey, moved from Connecticut to Orford, NH. He was granted the first ferry charter to cross the River there. In those days, ferries were transportation and commerce since there was always a fee. Israel's son Samuel got the ferry charter from his father and Samuel Morey is the acknowledged inventor of the Steamboat. Morey began his use of steam power with a spit to turn game birds in his fireplace. It is easy to see Samuel spending many long hours on the river ferry dreaming up the steam powered boat to transport people and goods across the river faster. It is known is that the first steamboat trip ever run in the world, crossed from Orford to Fairlee in 1792. Transportation having been the mother of invention.

CLUSTER HOUSING Various sites along the eroding mud bank of the Connecticut reveal some very busy apartment house holes. All day and well into the evening and the night busy apartment dwellers dart out and return constantly on their various errands. These bank swallows gobble up in large numbers small soft-bodied insects like mosquitoes, black flies, mayflies, and stoneflies flying over the river. Generally very widespread, summer breeding colonies are scattered across the northern hemisphere, from western North America to eastern Eurasia. These small birds will winter in either Central and South America or Africa and Central Asia respectively. Each spring they return to breeding colonies to dig new holes as much as three feet deep in eroding banks to stuff grasses in where they will hatch 5-7 eggs. A colony may house from a dozen to several hundred breeding pairs. Although the erosion of banks destroys some nests, it is a hard place for raccoons and other predators to get a meal although raptors like the American Kestrel and the Peregrine falcon find these bird cities attractive places to shop for dinner. Unfortunately, recently, populations of bank swallows are declining. Many believe this is caused by the loss of breeding sites to development and the food in summer habitats due to pesticides.

ELIZABETH MINE The Elizabeth Mine is an abandoned copper mine on the east side of Copperas Hill in South Strafford, Vermont. Metal deposits at Elizabeth Mine were discovered in 1793. Extraction of ore ran from the early 1800s until business stopped in 1958. Iron was the first ore mined. Mostly replaced in the 1830s by copper. Between 1830 and 1930 approximately 250,000 tons of ore were mined from which about 5,250 tons of copper were made. Then from 1943 to 1958, about 3 million tons of ore were mined producing more than 45 thousand tons of copper. While use of these metals was an important economic boost for the area, it also made for serious long term problems. When mining stopped, mine facilities flooded. Now the ground water laden with sulfuric acid and dissolved metals empty into Copperas brook, which then discharges into the West Branch of the Ompompanoosuc River which flows into the Connecticut. The Elizabeth mine is one of 11 Superfund sites in Vermont.

ONE TRIBUTARY - THE AMMONOOSUCS We talk about River tributaries not realizing how complex the story of named contributors to the waters of our river can be. We're all well familiar with Mount Washington, at nearly 6,288 feet, the largest mountain east of the Mississippi and North of the Carolinas. It sits within 50 miles of the Maine border far away from the Upper Valley. Right? Not so fast. Those who do not live in near Washington, may not know that much of the eastern side of New England's largest peak is drained by brooks feeding the Ammonoosuc River which flows through much of northern New Hampshire picking up water from the famous Presidential Range of the White Mountains running through such towns as Bethlehem, Lisbon and Bath before it picks up with the Wild Ammonoosuc branch coming up from the south combine dump into the Connecticut River at Woodsville. So should a person drop a stick into the waters near Mount Washington, it could find itself drifting down to Long Island Sound. But that's not all the Ammonoosuc story. Seems that further north the, another smaller river, the Upper Ammonoosuc, flows into the Connecticut at Groveton.

NORWAY MAPLES Many of us are aware that there are some invasive plants like purple loosestrife and Japanese knotweed that are taking over our landscape. Yet on the banks of the Connecticut, there is another much larger invasive plant, originally an ornamental, and unfortunately still sold by some plant suppliers. That is the Norway Maple tree. Native to Europe, Norways were desirable for the fall colors, pale yellow, or deep reddish purple in one cultivated subspecies. Unfortunately the Norway's beauty is offset by some characteristics which allow it to crowd out other plants. It tolerates air pollution well. It produces large quantities of windblown seeds which displace other trees along the river's edge including native sugar maples. It produces a dense-canopy which shades out even grasses. It leafs out early in the spring and drops its leaves late in fall, giving it another advantage over native species. With these advantages there are far too many places along the river where aside from these trees not much else grows. For control, only hand removal of small Norway Maples, and girdling of larger trees are workable.

MERCURY In May 2002, the New Hampshire Department of Health posted a special warning against eating fish on three water bodies including the Moore and Comerford reservoirs on the Connecticut River near Littleton, NH. From there, pregnant or nursing women, and children under age 7 should avoid eating all fish species; others should eat only two meals a month. Generally, Connecticut River fish have high levels of Methylmercury, a toxin naturally occurring through processes in surface waters. Obvious manmade sources of environmental mercury include emissions from coal-fired power plants, municipal waste incinerators, and home heating systems. For these aforementioned women limit intake to 8 ounces of fish per month, children under 7, 3 ounces per month. Other adults and children 4, 8 ounce meals per month. Since mercury accumulates over time to further limit toxic ingestion, eat smaller fish because older, larger fish have more mercury in their bodies. Largemouth and smallmouth bass and chain pickerel should be no larger than 12 inches. Seems like one more reason to catch and release fish on the Connecticut.

PEREGRINE FALCONS "We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, have determined that the American peregrine falcon is no longer an endangered or threatened species." With those 1999 words an environmental success story 50 years in the telling was concluded. It was first noticed in 1947 that Peregrines were disappearing rapidly from the eastern US. Research found that DDT was causing thinning and breaking of wild bird egg shells. With the ban of DDT in 1972 and an active reintroduction program in the East in 74 which ended in 91, the peregrine in 2002 is back. Peregrines live mostly along mountain ranges, river valleys, and coastlines. Historically in the east, they were most common in parts of the Appalachian Mountains and New England south to Georgia where they nest in depressions dug in gravel on cliff ledges as along the Connecticut River. Around here, Peregrines feed primarily on songbirds, shorebirds and ducks. Flying high above, peregrines can dive at more than 200 miles an hour killing prey in mid-air. In all, more than 4,000 peregrines were released to their former habitat with reintroduction. Now the strikingly beautiful birds are as common as they were before DDT and the Connecticut River Valley is much the richer for them.

RIPRAP Riprap is a curious word for what it is, a permanent cover of massive rocks used to provide stabilized stream banks, channels, and outlets below a heavy flow. At the ocean, riprap construction is used for breakwaters. There are many places on the Connecticut where riprap was used, most especially where installation of the railroad tracks came close to the river. One excellent example of riprap is a long stretch of about two or three hundred yards in Windsor, VT, of rocks easily more than a ton each, cut in sharp geometric shapes and stacked into the fast deep channel there, and up onto the bank to the railroad tracks about 30 feet above. There is no question that riprap is effective in stopping erosion in its particular area, however it can also create problems. Every stream including larger ones like our Connecticut have energy in their flow which must expend itself somewhere. Rigid banking like riprap, means that the energy flow must be dissipated elsewhere which may account for altered or increased erosion and deposition further downstream. Rivers don't like control.

CEDAR WAXWINGS Who says there is nothing new to discover? I find new things myself when I just pay attention. "Over most of North America, the Cedar Waxwing is the most specialized fruit-eating bird," states the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology 0nline web page "This bird's primary foods are fleshy fruits that are high in sugar content." Because of their crest, distinctive coloring and markings of brown, gray, mustard yellow, black and white mask, either yellow or orange tail stripe, it is easy to distinguish waxwings from other birds around here. So it was with some astonishment that I read the Cornell report. Waxwings may vary their diets elsewhere too, but I have no doubt that I have witnessed waxwings, zooming low over the Connecticut River around the Windsor/Cornish covered bridge in the summer at dusk, mixing with swallows, scooping up flying insects in mid-air. That was insects, not fruit. I and friends with whom I've been canoeing have seen them many times. I have no proof of course that the birds were actually eating, but they were changing course like the swallows chasing bugs. This feeding flight goes well into the late evening when the waxwings and swallows will be joined by bats, all swooping after prey.

THE NUMBERS OF TRIBUTARIES According to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, from North to South there are 38 major tributaries which contribute their waterflow into the Connecticut River. Of those 35 are rivers, two are brooks, one is a stream. This, of course, is a very deceptively limited number because, in addition there are practically countless other runs of water which empty into the big river in the 11,250 square mile watershed. When water is plentiful, especially in spring, small depressions in the ground (vernal pools) which you'd probably not notice normally become active reservoirs, distributing their waters into temporary grassy runs which will in turn flow into tiny brooks flowing into ponds, larger brooks or rivers all emptying into the Connecticut and finally Long Island Sound. If we could see a map of only watercourses, it would probably look a lot like an extraordinarily complicated system of arteries and veins we have in our bodies. To add perspective to the numbers, all of the major tributaries placed end to end would measure 6870 miles. Or about twice the distance from the coast of Maine to California. Who knows what the length might be for the rest of the tributaries. And then it can change year by year. In 2001 and 2002, through much of it's length the watershed has been experiencing drought conditions. Many of even the medium tributaries dried up during the summer months. Still it's a tremendous amount of water.