The River Current ~ December 16, 2009 ~ Issue 103

The e-newsletter of the Charles River Watershed Association
...bringing our backyard river to your door...

 

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In this issue

• Happy holidays from CRWA
• Fall fundraising energized
• Thank you volunteers

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Happy holidays from all of us at CRWA!

 

Dear Friend of the Charles,

As 2009 draws to a close, we'd like to say "Thank You" to you and our entire community of supporters and friends of the Charles River. This year, we've seen tremendous progress in water quality, stream bank protection, and habitat restoration. Read more about this year's accomplishments, including installation of a rain garden in Waltham, below and in our 2009 Holiday Update. Thank you so much for your partnership in these important endeavors!

Best,
Robert L. Zimmerman, Jr., Executive Director
And all of the staff at CRWA

Photo by Maury Eldridge.

1) Fall fundraising energized by CRWA members

Special thanks to the 14 volunteers who spent hours folding, stuffing, stamping and sealing letters for our fall Annual Appeal in early November. The goal for this year's appeal is $480,000. If you haven't given yet, please consider supporting our work to restore the Charles River. Click here to donate online through Paypal, or call Leigh at 781-788-0007 x231 for more information.

 

2) Many thanks to our valuable volunteers

This year more than 3,600 volunteers participated in a wide variety of projects to help us protect and restore the river. 

• 85 monthly water quality monitors took 374 river samples over the past 12 months.
• 540 volunteers went out in canoes to pull invasive water chestnuts from the river in July & August, removing a record total of 6500 baskets of water chestnuts.
  
• 9 volunteers constructed 35 new sampling baskets for our water monitoring program.
  

Find out more about what CRWA volunteers have done this past year in our 2009 Holiday Update!

Photo by Julie Wood: Two of over 500 volunteers who helped hand-pull water chestnuts from the river this summer.