NSRWA to honor Hanover YMCA for dam removal 11-3-14
NSRWA to honor Hanover YMCA for dam removal
Posted Nov. 3, 2014 @ 7:43 am
The public is invited to the North and South Rivers Watershed Association's Annual Meeting on Friday, Nov. 7 at 7 p.m. at the South Shore Natural Science Center.
The association will celebrate the removal of the Mill Pond dam from behind the South Shore YMCA in Hanover and the beginning of the restoration of the Third Herring Brook.
The SSYMCA, which owns the Mill Pond dam, will be this year's recipient of the NSRWA's Barbara Pearson Memorial Award in honor of their efforts to remove the first dam within the watershed. Each year the Barbara Pearson Award is given to an individual or group that has made exemplary progress in furthering the NSRWA's mission to protect, educate and restore the watershed. Removal of the Mill Pond dam represents the opening up of the first of three Industrial Revolution-era dams that are not longer functioning. NSRWA scientists hope the restoration of free-flowing waterways will be beneficial s for native populations of herring, brook trout and American eel.
The guest speaker at the meeting will be Brad Chase, senior fisheries biologist for the state Division of Marine Fisheries. Chase will present the status of the river herring populations regionally and in the area's local rivers. NSRWA volunteer herring-count monitors collected some of the data. River herring are but one of the species that are in decline that dam removal and river restoration will help.
This year's Volunteer of the Year Award recipient is Jencie Stewart of Marshfield. For more than a decade Stewart has worked behind the scenes helping with the NSRWA's accounting and often sitting for hours at the Crotch (the area that forms the headwaters to the North River), during the Great River Race to ensure racers don't get lost in the upper marshes of the river.
"Jencie is one of those rare volunteers, quietly working on behalf of our rivers, reliably year after year, doing the incredibly important work needed to keep an organization like this strong and functioning", NSRWA Executive Director Samantha Woods said.
Stewart comes from a long line of riverhuggers – her uncle Reed Stewart was a founding board member of the NSRWA in the 1970s.
"Obviously her commitment to the rivers runs in her blood," Woods said.
In addition to the awards and guest speaker a student, Callie Bianchi, who lives on the North River, will present her summer science research project, which was guided by NSRWA staff scientist, Sara Grady, on the predation of blue mussels by the invasive green crab.
The meeting, to be held at the South Shore Natural Science Center in Norwell, will also feature a reception with clam chowder, wine and cheese. As an added bonus attendees will be able to tour the science center's Eco Zone.
For more information about the NSRWA's annual meeting, please call Paula at 781-659-8168 or visit nsrwa.org.
