On
the evening of Wednesday, June 22, the Neponset River Watershed
Association held its Annual Meeting.
NepRWA
offered special thanks to Marie Hanna, NepRWA's long-time
Membership Coordinator who is retiring, and to Karen Pelto,
River Restore Coordinator at the Massachusetts
Riverways Program.
Marie dedicated many years to
keeping NepRWA organized; she will be strongly missed. Karen will be leaving the Riverways Program after years of
working to conserve rivers throughout the state. Her work has enabled the restoration of the Neponset
River - and has been a great help to NepRWA. NepRWA wishes both Marie and Karen well in their
new endeavors!
Featured speaker Christopher
Swain described the ins and outs of his Swims for Clean Water. -
Mr. Swain swims entire rivers and
massive lakes - many of them
badly polluted and degraded in sections - to focus public
attention on the health of these waterbodies and to urge their
protection.
Mr. Swain described his experiences as
well as the reasoning behind his swimming
routes, diet and equipment. He even touched upon the tastes
and color of the water (often determined by local pollutants)
and his run-ins with aquatic wildlife
(e.g. attacking Sea
lampreys!).
Mr.
Swain also spoke of people who've been affected by the
degradation of local rivers - from the decimation of fish
populations due to the construction of dams, to the flooding of
towns - also via dam construction, to the pollution of
waterways from local industry and raw human sewage.
He
noted the sense of hopelessness he'd witnessed in people as
they realized the degraded state of the local environment they
were leaving for their descendants. But he also described the pride and satisfaction individuals
had expressed at their ability to leave behind a healthy and
good-looking local environment for their children and
grandchildren.
Mr.
Swain emphasized that everyone can and should help to restore
their local environment. For example, everyone can get
involved with river
clean-ups - by removing trash from the water's edge and
from the water, itself. And, anyone can make their daily
actions more environmentally
friendly! Mr. Swain decided to help improve the environment
for his young children by going on Swims for Clean Water and talking with
audiences throughout the USA.
Mr.
Swain reminded us that we're all tied to the environment - and
to waterways, in particular. Our actions affect them and they
in turn affect us - our health, the aesthetics of our local
environment, and our recreational, drinking water, and food
resources!
Mr.
Swain advised us to work toward the ideal of a cleaner and
healthier Neponset Watershed and make this ideal our reality!
*
* * *
Many
thanks to all who attended our Annual Meeting and to all who
volunteered their time and resources! Many thanks to Java
Jo's Coffee House of Milton for donating delicious pots of
coffee, to Ward's Berry Farm of Sharon for providing such
amazingly sweet strawberries, and to the Blue
Hills Trailside Museum of Milton for enabling us to hold
our celebration at their facility. And finally, many thanks to
Christopher
Swain for providing such an enlivening and inspiring
presentation. We hope to see everyone at September's RiverArt
and October's Fall
Fest events!
