The River Current

|| The River Current || March 21, 2006 || Issue XXIII ||

The mostly monthly e-newsletter of the Charles River Watershed Association

...bringing our backyard river to your door...

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In this issue:

1) CRWA Open House on March 29th

2) Call for Volunteers!

3) Brown Bag Lunch Series

4) CRWA communications update

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1) Open House Reception

When: Wednesday, March 29 at 6:00pm

Where: 190 Park Road, Weston MA 02493

The Charles River Watershed Association moved into our new headquarters on

January 6, and we invite you to join us on the evening of Wednesday, March

29, 2006 to celebrate with us! DCR Commissioner Stephen Burrington will

speak, and there will be a dedication to honor Rita Barron, CRWA’s Executive

Director from 1972 - 1987.

2) Call for Volunteers - three opportunities!

Charles River “Find it and Fix It” Stormwater Program

Upcoming Shoreline Survey Work

Though we had a good response from volunteers last month, we need many more

volunteers to sign up for conducting comprehensive shoreline surveys this

spring from Farm Road in Dover to the mouth of the Charles at the New

Charles River Dam! The visual monitoring effort will cover over half of the

80-mile river corridor. These surveys will act as a baseline assessment,

noting unmapped outfall pipes, erosion problems and other indicators of NPS

pollution problems and help identify and prioritize problems of an urgent

nature requiring immediate action.

Training for the volunteers will be held at the following dates/times and

locations:

Upper Watershed training: Middle Watershed Training: Lower Watershed

Training:

March 29th at 4PM, CRWA Office 

April 11th at 6PM, CRWA Office 

May 10th at 6PM, Honan Allston Library, 300 North Harvard St, Allston

For more information on the “Find it and Fix it” program and the volunteer

opportunity, contact Pallavi Mande at 781-788-0007 x232 or via email.

You can also visit:

http://www.charlesriver.org/projects/METwMyRWA/METFF.html

7th Annual Earth Day Charles River Cleanup on Saturday, April 29, 9am-12noon

Come join more than 1,000 other volunteers picking up trash at different

locations along the entire length of the Charles River. To participate or

for more information, please contact Rebecca Scibek of CRWA at (781)

788-0007 x 231 or via email, or Marianna Hagbloom at

massart@waterwatchonline.org or 617-879-7735. This event is sponsored by

CRWA, MCWW, the Charles River Stream Team, Senator Steven Tolman's Office,

the Clean Charles Coalition, the Charles River Conservancy, and the

Esplanade Association.

Monthly Water Quality Monitoring

Help CRWA monitor the health of the river. Become a water quality

monitoring volunteer and collect river samples once a month - usually the

third Tuesday morning. Currently we need volunteers at sites in Bellingham,

Millis and Dover. If you live in or near these communities and are

interested in volunteering, please contact Dave Kaplan at (781) 788-0007

ext. 224 or via email.

3) CRWA Brown Bag Lunch Series

On the second Tuesday of each month from 12:30 - 1:30 pm CRWA scientists

invite the public to informal, in-depth discussions about their work in

protecting and preserving the Charles River. Bring your lunch and learn

about the important work of CRWA. All lunches take place at CRWA’s office,

190 Park Road, Weston. 

The schedule is as follows:

April 11: Flow Trading - Senior Environmental Scientist - Kate Bowditch

May 9: TMDLs - Senior Environmental Engineer - Nigel Pickering and

Watershed Scientist/Rita Barron Fellow - Margaret Soulman

June 13: Blue Cities - Urban Restoration Specialist - Pallavi Mande and

Senior Environmental Scientist - Kate Bowditch

July 11: MET Project/Target Fish - Environmental Scientist/Project

Manager - Anna Eleria

4) CRWA’s phones are working… but trouble with email.

After more than 40 days without phone service, CRWA is now connected to the

outside world with (hopefully) solid wires. Thank you for bearing with us

through our communication difficulties, and remember that you can now easily

reach us at 781-788-0007 with questions, comments, or compliments.

Unfortunately, last week our email server had not been working properly, and

CRWA was only receiving some of the emails being sent to us. If your email

bounced back last week, please resend your message and try us now, and/or

redirect the message to scibecca@gmail.com. This problem has been resolved,

yet issues may still linger. We appreciate your patience.