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the property from Stevens St., Brechin Terrrace, Shawsheen Rd., and Cuba St., as well as AVIS members and folks from the newly formed SRWA.
Wild Harvest Market of Andover sent a dozen workers, and later provided sandwiches, drinks, and desert for over thirty people!
On the site they found the ruined foundation of the former boarding house that was home to the women who worked the mills,"down in Abbott Village", which included the homes along the river in this area of town.
In those days there was no trash pickup; what couldn't be burned was tossed on the pile.Many folks in Abbott Village simply carried their glass and metal to the bridge at Essex St. and dumped it in for the river to carry it away.
To this day broken glass is strewn all over this property and worse, all along the riverbed all the way to Marland Dam. No doubt other bridges in the area were used in the same way, alas they still are.
Besides these piles of glass and rusted metal, a loop trail was cut through the dense brush,(mostly thorns) that brings you down to the river past what could well be the largest oak tree in Andover.
Down at the river all were alarmed to see the encroachment on the river that is happening directly across from this site, on what is called Gradall Lane (but thats a story for another page).
In all, enough trash was pulled off of this property to fill a 30 yard dumpster.
SEED
In August of '99,we(the Talbots) were lucky enough to work with two groups of young adults. One was Youth Services of Andover, led by Bill Fahey and several very energetic and extremely hard working counsellors who were introduced to us by Carol Chanler, and who will get their own story of how they helped the Shawsheen when they get around to providing me some pictures,(and names),hint...hint.
The other outstanding group of youths that we were priveleged to work with, (and who sent a picture, and a big thank you poster, thereby getting them top spot in this story) were a group of about twenty young people from as far away as Kingston NH,(who from Kingston NH would be interested in the Shawsheen?), whose only common thread is that all of their parents work for Lucent Technologies in North Andover, and who joined this Service Experience Education Dialogue.(I think that's the correct acronym).
On our first meeting we got together and hiked and picked up trash along the Shawsheen and Vale reservation Trails.There was not much trash actually, so it was an excellent time to talk to them about the river.We talked about the old mills and dams and why they were there, and how they provided many families with a means to support themselves.
We discussed non point source pollution, and looked at examples, such as parking lots and rooftops along Dale St. We discussed what happens when you flush the toilet, how some people have septic systems, and when they fail they can pollute the river and its tributaries.
We discussed non native invasive plants such as loosestrife, and its effects on the birds and animals along the river. They were all amazed at how high the river had risen to wash the soil from around the roots of this oak tree.
When we got to Horn Bridge we turned around and headed back to the Dale St. parking lot where we had lunch. Along the path we unfortunatly found a nest of moles which had been crushed by an all terrain vehicle, the tiny dead bodies sparking much discussion of how irresponsible towards the environment some people are, and how devastating off road vehicles can be to natural areas.
After lunch, they continued to ask excellent questions about what a watershed is, and what sort of things can effect it. All in all, it was a great day, but the best was yet to come.
On August 26th we met again, this time at Brechin Terrace.Wandering up from the AVIS proprty on Shawsheen Rd. to meet them, I found them already hard at work cleaning up trash and such discarded items as a sink, numerous auto parts, a plastic sled, and a shopping cart,(and yes, lots of broken glass).
Moving down to the Shawsheen Rd. Reservation they picked up lots of trash along Brechin Terrace and Shawsheen Rd. Then it was time to clear much brush which had begun to take over again.
In a little over two hours these guys cleaned up the neighborhood, and cleared the overgrown trail,even raking the trail to remove as much of the incredible amount of glass which is still scattered all over this site.
The best part of all of this? These kids did this gladly! No attitudes, no one trying to get out of doing any work, nothing out of line at all. I was very proud of them and told them so, and that they had done something for the community, the environment, and most importantly for themselves.
I look forward to working with them again!
Coming soon, the story of the other excellent group of kids, who didn't send me a picture!
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