Nashua River Clean Up - Oxbow

On Saturday, my girlfriend and I went over to the Oxbow. I knew we had made great strudes toward cleaning it up this year, and really wanted to finish it up.
Until now, she hadn't really carried much in the way or trash - she's new to kayaking this year and I didn't want to have her grossed out right away;-). But Saturday I picked up a new laundry basket and bungied it to her kayak and we were off.
A couple of weeks ago we had the rain from T.S. Hanna, so generally that type of floodwater moves the debris downstream. Some of the debris found it's way back into the Oxbow, so we got to work.
I'm really proud of how she did. Especially since that was her first experience with a basket full of pungent trash. She didn't puke, so that's good!
Well we went from the Oxbow downstream to Hospital Rd. and collected just about everything! There are probably a few bottles here and there, and one large plactic thing - like a Barbie play house or something, but it's all clear of tires, propane tanks, etc. Now with that effort, we're basically all clear to Rte. 111 in Hollis, NH.
I understand there was an effort on Sunday to clean up between 117 and the Oxbow - that's a good thing because the last clean-up effort wasn't very thorough. That should make next year's cleanup a bit easier.

Nashua River Clean-Up - Rt. 117

A few weeks ago I went to the Oxbow and there were signs posted about a clean-up project that some volunteers had done. I say good job, thank you for the assistance! However, I went back on that stretch on labor day and discovered that perhaps their claim of "all-clear between the Oxbow and 117" was not quite what they said. I DO appreciate the effort they must have put in, and the river does regularly deposit new material, but check out this stuff - it's NOT brand new - and all of it was between Rt. 117 and the Depot. And this wasn't even all of it - I didn't even start taking pictures for more than a mile or 2.

A tire and some trash...

Big pile of trash...

Paint bucket and a fire extinguisher..

A sled...

Another tire and a propane tank (I took one with me too.)

And another big pile of trash...

Now, I want to repeat that I'm sure the volunteers put in a good effort, but don't claim to have cleaned it all up if you have not.

Still River Depot

Saturday I went to the Oxbow - I've been working on getting the downstream side toward Rt. 2 cleaned up this year. I made a couple of runs and pulled out a lot of debris. We went out again Sunday and made one large run - nearly finishing it up! Once I finish that last bit - the Nashua River will be clear from The Oxbow to Rt 111 in Hollis NH. And now up to Rt. 117

There was a group of volunteers that had posted some signs stating that they'd cleaned up the stretch between Still River and 117. That's very cool, but also reminds me of a few things. Last year I had cleaned that stretch of river completely. This year I'd made several trips through. I'm sure the volunteers worked really hard to clean up the mess.

What we all need to take a way from that is this: Last year I had the river clean from past 117 all the way to Rt. 113. This year I had to start all over again. This project will never end. You can feel as though you've cleaned up the river, only to discover new trash the very next day - as was the case today.

I applaud the volunteers - thank you for your help. But I ask you to remember stewardship isn't like Earth Day, it needs to happen all year round. Keep up the good work!
-Ed

Would you believe...

Today we went out on the Nashua River in Hollis, NH. It's a nice stretch of river and there's a couple of mild rapids right at the put-in point, so it's fun. We paddled upstream for a couple of miles, and I collected what I found. There wasn't that much trash, so that was encouraging.
After we came back downstream, my girlfriend was sort of sitting there staring with wonderment at the shore. I came around the weeds and there was an exercice bicycle - like the modern kind standing up right at the shoreline. Very strange.
OK, so bottles, cans, styrofoam cups, etc. all have some level of plausible deniability that they ended up in the river accidentally. Not an exercise bike! I wonder if they have serial numbers that can be traced back to the owner?
I'll go drag that out of there one of these days and see.

North Pacific Gyre

If you don't know about this, you need to. The North Pacific Gyre is an enormous vortex of plastic debris roughly twice the size of the United States. Check out this article.
I do my little part to keep the debris I find from reaching the ocean, but I was horrified when I saw this. There's no way my little kayak can have an impact of this, but I think people need to seriously think about the use of plastics in our society.
Sure, plastics help with sanitary things like medicine and food, but everything from the petroleum used to the energy needed to process it, to the disposal of it is a serious ecological disaster. Think about this: A glass bottle can be recycled, melted down and made into another glass bottle, the same goes for metals. Plastic however, cannot. A plastic bottle gets re-manufactured into something like a fleece jacket or sleeping bag stuffing. And from there it certainly won't get recycled.

Here's a couple of sobering facts:
- Plastic debris kills more than 1 million seabirds and 100,000 marine animals every year
- Plastic pellets soak up chemicals and DDT they are then ingested by fish and eaten by us
- It is estimated that each square mile of ocean contains 46,000 pieces of plastic
- Degraded plastic particles resemble zooplankton and are consumed by marine life
- Plastic particles outnumber zooplankton by a factor of 6 in this area
Additional Information: from Wiser Earth

Nashua River at the Oxbow

Last Sunday I went back to one of my favorite spots - the Oxbow National Wildlife Refuge. When I got there I saw a man, woman and a boy of about 13 or so pulling something up the boat ramp. It was a large rubber raft - like those you'd pull behind a boat for recreation. I had seen this thing in the river just past the firing range, but I couldn't budge it from my kayak.

They were in a canoe and a kayak and between them had managed to wrestle it free and remove it. Thanks to those folks! I very seldom see any involvement like that, but it was great to see. So I went out and made a couple of trips to clean up some of the logjams down near Rt. 2, and the whole day I felt happy knowing others shared my passion.

Nashua River - Hospital Road

We went kayaking on Memorial Day from the Still River Depot at The Oxbow National Wildlife Refuge, down past the new bridge at hospital road. During construction, which appears to be nearly complete, they had a barrier strung across the river to catch debris. I had feared that when they removed the barrier, a huge pile of rubbish would be set free downstream.
I was very pleasantly surprised! I looks like when they pulled it out, they must have taken the time to clean up the trash first. Kudos to those involved with that! So for all the stuff that's newly acumulated in the Oxbow, there's very little from Rt. 2 down to Shirley.
We did pull another tire and a basket full out of the Oxbow, and there's still probably 5 or 6 more trips needed to get that back into shape, but you know, one basket at a time...