What lies beneath: trash
By Tim Wacker, Globe Correspondent  |  October 27, 2005

For two decades, the Shawsheen River Watershed Association has quietly cleaned up a river nobody really notices. Now, they want people to notice.
In the subtly worded, six-page issue of its most recent newsletter, the association announced its ''concentrated outreach" to bolster interest in the group and the river. But read between the lines and talk to the members, and a more serious message surfaces.
''We don't want your money; we want you. We want you to come out and be part of what we're doing," association president Robert Rauseo said in an interview.
''We're not getting any younger here," said Rauseo, 53. ''We laugh about it, but there's some reality to it."
During the administration of Ronald Reagan, the group started its monthly cleanups along the riverbanks. The group wrapped up this year's cleanups with a session last Saturday in Bedford.
Over the years, the association has removed thousands of tires -- 625 in one year alone, Rauseo said -- and many more bottles and cans from the river bottom.
They've uncovered a mannequin's arm and gun parts, baby carriages and shopping carts. Always with a smile worn by the same corps of watershed association faithful.
This year the smiles dipped. In May the group launched its 2005 cleanup season in one of the areas most frequently scrubbed, the Little England section in East Billerica. Three members spent three hours covering three miles of river, and their canoes were piled high with trash long before they had planned to pull out.
''The trash left in the river . . . seemed almost endless," said John Hicks Courant in an article in The Shawsheen Trib, the group's newsletter. ''The beverage containers, almost all of which were new this season, ran the gamut from juice boxes to pint bottles of the hard stuff."
In the same article, cleanup regular Sharon Lapham added: ''If this is what comes out of one of the cleanest sections of the river, it sort of makes you wonder if you really can make a difference."
Those may be rough sentiments with which to attract new members, but the group's outreach effort is as much about education as it is enrollment, Rauseo said.
The Shawsheen is easy to ignore when viewed only from the bridge crossings, he said. But seen from a canoe, the meadows, marshes, and wildlife that otherwise go unseen cast the river in a whole different light.
''People aren't out there bragging about the river because they aren't aware of it," Rauseo said. ''But once people get out there and they are aware of what's out there they will be aware that this is worth protecting."
The Shawsheen is an amber ribbon of water wandering 25 miles through Bedford, Billerica, Andover, and North Andover, before spilling into the Merrimack River in Lawrence. The public awareness of, and access to, the river is limited because much of the river runs through private or undeveloped land.
The group is putting out its message first to riverside residents, Rauseo said. They benefit more than most from the group's cleanup efforts and they should be pitching in.
''We'd like to have them take a more active role," Rauseo said. ''It's great that they clean up a couple hundred feet in front of their house, but why don't they come out with us and get a look at the bigger picture? Come out and see what they're involved in."
Hicks Courant says that same responsibility extends to riverside towns. Businesses bordering the river are the source of much of the seasonal trash and a little more town oversight is needed, he said.
The Great Road Plaza in Bedford is a particular problem because there is no buffer between the river and the parking lot where so much of the trash starts out, Hicks Courant said.
''The Town of Bedford is a virtual dumping ground as far as the river is concerned," he said.
The City of Lawrence was also singled out. Hicks Courant said the association's cleanup efforts have gone largely unnoticed by City Hall brass, especially in an area called the bayou, where fresh problems sprang up this summer.
The river was running particularly low during the group's August cleanup this year, and all sorts of old trash missed in years past came into view.
That included three cars and a home heating oil storage tank that the group needs help to remove.
There is little room in a 16-foot canoe for rusted cars, and the group would like some government assistance, something that has been scarce over the years, Hicks Courant said.
''We have no idea how to get these things out. We have tried but we are not strong enough," he said. ''There is no reason for it to be this way except for the fact that people aren't aware of the problem."
Lawrence Conservation Commission chairman Tennis Lilly sympathized. The city did work with the watershed association to improve the river where it winds through Den Rock Park in South Lawrence, Lilly said, and would like to help elsewhere.
''I'd be more than happy to sit down and talk with them," he said. ''There's a lot that Lawrence can do on all fronts. We're very stingy, and working on limited resources, but I'm sure there's something we can do."
The group welcomes all the help it can get, Rauseo said.
''People who know us and our reputation know our focus has been to get out on the water and clean stuff up first," he said. ''But we'd love to have some new members and some younger members to help us."
Those interested in joining can call the SRWA at 978-851-9505 or visit the website at Shawsheen.org. Rauseo can also be reached by e-mail at bobotter@aol.com. © Copyright 2005 Globe Newspaper Company.

Riverside Residents
by John Hicks-Courant
johnhc@theworld.com
and Bob Rauseo
bobotter@aol.com
With this issue of The Shawsheen Trib, the Shawsheen River Watershed Association (SRWA) begins a concentrated outreach program to the river's human residents. It has often puzzled us that so few riverside residents are members of the SRWA. We have decided - admittedly perhaps a bit naively - that most Shawsheen riverside residents simply don't know who we are. Many riverside residents have noticed us paddling on the river as well as conducting cleanups. It seems they know we're there, but don't know who we are. If you live next to the river, and you received this newsletter, please accept this copy of The Shawsheen Trib as our introduction.
As a new recipient of this newsletter, you could be excused for supposing that this is a bald-faced attempt to gain your membership dues. I have to admit that it would be nice if you were to read this far, continue to read further, and then decide to join the organization, but this is not why we want you to know who we are.
There are two reasons:
First, we know that many riverside residents do great things to preserve and protect their short sections of riverfront. We want you to know that SRWA is available as a resource do help you deal with trash removal and any other issue that is important to you. We would also like to invite you to take a paddle with us on your section of river. We have boats, paddles, flotation vests, and guides to lend at no charge.
Second, we want you to be our eyes and ears on the river. A recent event at our last monthly meeting illustrates why we want you, the riverside resident, to know about us and what we do..A woman attended the meeting; she had never been to an SRWA meeting before but had heard about our group. When her item came up, she described herself as a "riverside resident" who had come to our meeting because of a problem she and her neighbors had noticed. She thought we might be interested. Then she pulled out some large color photographs taken from her yard uphill from the Shawsheen River.
Those photographs showed septic service trucks from several different companies parked in an old industrial section of Andover that borders the Shawsheen River. She was concerned about this. We listened to her concerns; several members of the SRWA executive board are looking into this matter. If they discover any problems, they will inform the local and state authorities.
So, If you see any unusual activity alondg the river or see somebody dumping anything into the river that does not belong there, please let us know about it. To get in touch with the SRWA, you can call us and leave a message for Bob Rauseo at (978) 851-9505; you can go to our website (www.shawsheen.org) and send us mail by clicking on the "Contact Us" button at the bottom of the page; or you can send e-mail to any one of the addresses you see at the beginning of each article in this newsletter.
If you live next to the Shawsheen River, we assume. that you like being near it, recognize its unique beauty, and would like to participate, however actively or passively as befits you, in the restoration and preservation of the river. The people of the SRWA also like being near the river, recognize its unique beauty, and participate in the river's restoration and preservation.
Please, let us hear from you.

May Billerica Cleanup
by John Hicks Courant
johnhc@theworld.com

On May 21, 2005, I dropped my canoe off at Middlesex Turnpike at 8:00 and then drove to the Little England section of East Billerica, where I met Bob Rauseo and Sharon Lapharn. Bob moved his canoe onto the roof of the Laphams' station wagon, and Sharon ferried us back to Middlesex Turnpike.
We were covering only about three miles of river, but it took us more than three hours. The trash left in the river from the temporary trout fishery and the weekend soccer celebrations at Akeson Field seemed endless. The beverage containers, almost all of which were new this season, ran the gamut from juice boxes to pint bottles of the strong stuff.
By the time we pulled out around noon, we had seven tires and four contractors' trash bags full of miscellaneous garbage. Sharon voiced Bob's and my thoughts when she commented, "If this is what comes out of one of the cleanest sections of the river, it sort of makes you wonder if you can really make a difference." Sometimes it just feels that way....


June Bayou Cleanup
by John Hicks-Courant
johnhc@theworld.com
It was back to the Bayou for the first time in -2005. I put in below the Balmoral dam in Andover, while everybody else worked upstream from Costello Park in Lawrence. The water was middling, clear, and moving slowly enough that it was not a tremendous battle to back-paddle to retrieve a piece of recently passed trash.

We had put so much time, energy, and effort into cleaning up this section of the river in the last three years that I felt something close to a vendetta against every piece of trash I caught sight of. (It's only at the end of a cleanup, when you're emptying your canoe, that it occurs to you that every foam peanut you pull out of the boat cost just as much effort to collect as every bottle.) It was a long, slow trip from Andover to Lawrence.

There's something to be said about the first cleanups in a new season. I began my part of this cleanup with an evangelical zeal. This year would be the one in which we finally banished old trash from the Bayou. This was the first cleanup in the Bayou this year, and it was going to be the best one. I set off ambitiously.

Half a mile downstream, my canoe was already half full. It was then that I encountered the first two sheets of foam foundation insulation. Each sheet was about five feet by nine feet, and the only tool I had other than my paddle was the hook. I dislodged the two sheets that were hung up in the strainer and sent them downstream. When I saw how nicely they floated, I decided I would just push them downstream for two miles to the take-out.

By the time I reached Rte. 114, I was herding nine sheets of foam foundation insulation, and they were becoming unwieldy in my increasingly heavy and decreasingly controllable canoe. I abandoned all nine sheets just below the Hampton Inn, vowing to come back later in the year to retrieve them.

When I reached the take-out at Costello Park, the other three canoes in the cleanup had been emptied, and there were at least a dozen hands waiting to unload my boat. We Get Rid of it showed up the following Monday and hauled away the trash pile for a reasonable fee.

The amount of trash we removed from the river in the course of three hours, and the very little amount I saw in the river after I passed under 495, left all of us with the feeling that this cleanup was an auspicious beginning to this year's campaign in the Bayou. Oh, how foolish we would feel about that sentiment two months later in low water....

June 21 Solstice Trip
by Sharon Lapham
LawrenceLapham@aol.com
The evening was perfect for a paddle on the Shawsheen. No wind, blue sky and the river was full with a slow current.

We left Akeson field in Billerica at 7 PM. There were three canoes with two paddlers and two kayaks. John Hicks-Courant put in first, paddling under the Rte. 3A bridge yodeling at the pigeons that make their home on the ledges. The startled birds whooshed out, and we followed, ducking under the low beam that is inches above the water, without fear of birds landing or perhaps relieving themselves on our backs.
Paddling upstream did not seem like a hard chore as we turned corners in the meadows. The bright green sedge grass was growing higher, so now we could not see any birds (or coyotes or bears or whatever). When there was rustling nearby, I strained to catch a glimpse at what was hiding there but couldn't penetrate the thickness of greenery. Reflections in the Shawsheen's dark water of flowering bushes and soft clouds in the blue sky were beautiful as we rounded bends. After a few turns the traffic noise from Rte. 3A subsided, and we could hear the birdsong everywhere: redwing blackbirds, chickadees, finches, catbirds, blue jays, swallows and occasionally a hawk. I couldn't actually see many of these birds except the redwing black bird that Jack spotted up in a small tree on the river's edge. The water was strewn with patterns from swirling pollen, flowers and feathers. Duckweed leaves dappled the surface, their long stems combed by the current. Backwaters held water lily pads with bobbing round yellow flower buds and hulking frogs. We skulked back when we spotted two bright green eyes observing us as we moved past.
Jack and Suzanne, Larry and I poked along, taking photos and observing the trees, darkening sky, and waves of grasses. We found ourselves occasionally wondering which river path to follow. What a difference in the river's appearance since last May, when the marsh looked large and you could see where the river turned so were less likely to get lost! We were behind John H-C, Bob R. and Frank P. and the second kayak, and I didn't know how far away we were from our turning point, the Middlesex Turnpike.
Along one long, narrow stretch between bends that was overhung with new growth, John H-C surprised us, whizzing skillfully past us, maneuvering his kayak around our canoes. Shortly after John came Bob and Frank and then the other lone kayak, all speedily slipping past us toward home. It wasn't long before we reached our turnaround point, too. We documented that we actually were there by taking photos near the two corrugated tubes that the river must somehow squeeze itself through.
There was a big difference in current when we turned around, so we could sometimes let it carry us along by itself. We searched the sky for the full moon's debut but the tall pines blocked the view to the south where we thought it would pop up. We checked north, east and west just to make sure we wouldn't miss its rising. While we were so engaged we were startled by a fearsome howl from under a tree on the bank up ahead.
I had seen many places close to the water on the banks where the grass had been padded down and hoped we hadn't disturbed some wild beast. Boy, were we relieved when Bob Marsh appeared in his kayak! He had gotten a late start and was returning with us.
We passed the hanging bird's nest in the button bush that we had observed on our way up, and a small swallow-type bird flew out and hovered around in the air. We steered to the far side of the curve and passed by.
As we came closer to Rte. 3A, we heard Jack call back to us, "Did you see that?" What we saw was a swirling in the middle of the river next to Jack's canoe. Jack said a snapping turtle had bumped into his paddle then dived underwater. It was a big one, so we made sure Bob M. passed the spot without incident.
Mosquitoes were starting to come out, and we were grateful to the couple of bats we saw flying erratically across the wetlands. The sky was turning a soft turquoise, and with the deep dark green outline of pine trees. It reminded Suzanne of a Maxfield Parrish print with his extraordinary use of color contrasts, and we agreed.
Bob R. and Frank P. were waiting to help us take out our canoes and kayak. Ah, yes, the days will be getting shorter now. Soon WINTER will be here!!!
As Larry and I turned south onto Rte. 3A, we saw, above the neon signs, streetlights, headlights and traffic, a huge low orange MOON! If I had seen such a big bright moon while paddling on the river I might have fallen overboard, it was so magnificent!

The July Andover Cleanup
by John Hicks-Courant
johnhc@theworld.com
On July 23, the good people of the Washington Park Condominiums in Andover hosted an SRWA cleanup. They not only provided us with a place to deposit the debris we pulled from the river, they also treated us to grilled hamburgers and hot dogs after the cleanup.
This particular section of the river has a storied history within the SRWA and its previous incarnation SWEAT (Shawsheen River Environmental Action Team). Situated as it is between the Stevens Street dam and the Balmoral dam, this section of the river is seldom paddled. It has, however, been consistently trashed for the past three hundred. The trashing of this section continues due to its proximity to the shopping plaza on its eastern bank. One of the two cleanup videos we have is from a 1998 cleanup in this section of the river. Among the many memorable scenes from that video is one of five or six guys stabilizing a canoe that is packed bow to stern several layers high with shopping carts pulled from the bottom of the river.
Several people began the cleanup by putting in about half a mile upstream from the Washington Park Condominiums. I put my canoe in the water at the take-out and spent the next three hours working the same hundred feet of the river. I filled my boat with bottles, bicycles, and shopping carts within two hours. Somebody then lent me another boat while they emptied mine, and I filled that one, too. There is still five cleanups worth of trash still lodged in the bottom there.
The two most "interesting" things pulled from the river on this cleanup were one of those EPA mandated pollution booms and a heavy-duty dolly from the nineteenth century.
The pollution boom is a floating tube about six to eight inches in diameter and is about a hundred feet long. These booms are usually put in a stream just below a construction site to catch any detritus from the site. After the construction is complete, the company leaves the boom and all the trash it has collected. The interesting thing about pulling one of these booms out of the water is that it is wet, extremely heavy, and singularly awkward to handle. Getting it up the steep bank from the river to the deposition area was an exercise in physical comedy.
The dolly was a very heavy wooden platform with slatted wooden walls that folded down onto the platform. Wheels were at the four corners and the center of the platform. The dolly was about six feet long and four feet wide and weighed at least two hundred pounds. (Given a decade in arid conditions, it probably would have dried out to weigh only a hundred pounds, but as full of water as the wood was, it was seriously heavy.)
Getting rid of the trash we collected that day cost us $750.

Summer 2005 SRWA Events
by Jack Brady
KayakJack@comcast.net
The spring and early summer seasons continue to be a busy time of year on the water.
Thirteen people participated on May 22 when we had our first "Family Paddle" of the season from Lowell Junction Road to the Ballardvale Dam. Other people had expressed a real interest, but the threat of rain kept them away. The four families and SRWA members who did participate were rewarded by the break in weather. This is a short trip that has a very diverse landscape. Starting just past the Route 93 bridge, the river first twists and turns through wooded areas and then passes under two railroad bridges. The arched bridge made of large granite blocks has an unusual feature; a 6-foot pine tree is growing right out of the side of the bridge. I don't see how the tree will be able to develop any kind of root system, so if you want to see it for yourself you'd better do it soon. Just before the trip entered the Ballardvale "flats" we passed an inactive and breached beaver dam. The dam offers a great example of what a "downstream V" looks like and allowed the experienced paddlers to show how to "read" the river to find the safest course.
All the elements were in place to make our June 4th trip everything a canoe and kayak paddle should be. The weather could not have been more perfect. After five weekends of rain, the sun was out and the sky was a deep blue. The Andover Townsman had recently published a great article on our May 22 trip, and people who had never joined us before showed up in record numbers. The SRWA's recent purchase of extra canoes and a trailer allowed us to accommodate all those who called in advance and wanted to borrow equipment. We started this trip with a land-based demonstration to familiarize everyone with the correct technique to use to efficiently navigate the twists and turns that this section offers. Because of an early afternoon commitment, I was not able to take trip from the Knights of Columbus to the Ballardvale dam but did have time to drive ahead of the convoy and take pictures of them as they passed Strong Water Brook.
Our June 12th Family Paddle went from Dale Street, detoured through Pomps Pond, and ended at Abbot Bridge Drive. Because of the hazy, hot, and humid weather only six people ventured on this short but picturesque trip. I was able to talk Kathleen, a co-worker, into joining us under the condition that she could use our kayak. She stayed at the launch point while we shuttled some vehicles to the take-out. By the time we returned, she had practiced enough and was anxious to go. She is now referred to as "KayakKat " A recent Tuesday night cleanup removed a large maple that was blocking the river. The wood is neatly stacked on the right bank of the river and would be great for fireplace burning, but you'll need a boat to get to it and it needs to be split.
The Spring Solstice trip on June 21 started and ended at Route 3A in Billerica. This is our "sunset cruise," where we start at 7:00 PM and plan to be on the river when the moon rises. Because the moon rose at 9:00 PM and didn't clear the tree line until 9:30, I didn't see it until the ride home.
Suzanne Robert was in the bow of my canoe, and she spotted a huge snapping turtle swimming in the middle of the river. We must have closed to within ten yards before the turtle dove and disappeared from sight. The mosquitoes were not a problem until we reached the parking lot at the end of our trip. There is another phenomenon that only seems to happen on our Solstice trip in Billerica. The last two years someone, I have no idea who, shoots skyrockets over the floodplain.
On June 25th the SRWA tried something we had never done before. In cooperation with Boy Scout Troop 53 of Billerica and Troop 511 of Burlington, we tried to qualify the Scouts with as many of the requirements as they needed to earn the Canoeing Merit Badge. The Andover Department of Community Services (DCS) made the Pomps Pond facility available to us. This location had all requirements that were needed. There was ample parking, a large sandy beach area for the shore-based instructions, and the pond itself for the water based requirements. Joe Moore, the lead instructor, and I started with a one-hour land-based discussion of the different parts of a canoe, necessary equipment, and the correct techniques for the different paddling strokes. This part of the event was like broadcasting a sporting event with Joe and me alternating between the play-by-play announcer and the color-commentator. Between the two of us I think we covered everything. The next three hours were spent in canoes and on the water. This event took place right in the middle of a near record-breaking heat wave. Because of the hot and humid weather, the Scouts looked forward to getting wet. The most difficult requirement a Scout had to fulfill was re-entering a canoe in deep water without swamping it. The trick to accomplishing this is to use the thwarts to pull yourself up far enough so that you can grip the opposite gunwale. Once inside the canoe the Scout would roll over onto his butt and take a well-deserved breather. All the Scouts, with varying degrees of effort, did it.
There were some lessons learned from this first-time event. I don't think that four hours is enough time to satisfy all the requirements. I found out later that Scouting Camps make this a weeklong activity. We also should have had someone present who was certified by the Scouts to "sign off' on their accomplishments. It would also have been a good idea to have all gear clearly marked. Finally, there were no real preplanned job assignments given to the SRWA members. When Sharon arrived, she had no idea that she would be photographing the land-based activities and recording the water-based requirements. Bob Rauseo didn't know that he would be doing individual instruction on whatever particular requirement a Scout was having trouble with. When Brian Moore arrived, he might have suspected that he would be demonstrating the water-based activities as his father commented from the shore. Nadynne did know that she would be taking the digital pictures. Bob Marsh didn't realize he would have to do everything else.
The future of this type of event will be discussed in the near future, and we would love some feedback from the Scouts and Scout Masters.
Burt Batcheller and the DCS organized this year's first "Family Canoe and Kayak Paddle" at Pomps Pond on June 28. Burt and three other SRWA members outfitted the twenty-five participants with properly fitted PFDs, paddles, and boats. Five paddlers were able to try kayaks for the first time. To their surprise they realized that the low center of gravity made them very stable.

The convoy started by paddling across the pond to the far right side of the marsh, where Burt explained how the dam allowed the depth of the pond to be controlled. The armada then paddled past an active beaver lodge and around Foster's Island. As if on cue, a great blue heron took flight. When these birds fly, they look prehistoric. This part of the marsh has a large quantity of water lilies. We did notice a large truck tire that someone had thrown on the bank. It will be re-cycled at a later date.
After paddling back across the pond everyone gathered around a campfire and cooked s'mores.

The August Canoe Trip
by Jack Brady
KayakJack@comcast.net
For me, the canoe and kayak trip of Saturday, August 6th, started on Friday night. Four groups had accepted our invitation to borrow gear. I have an extended car roof rack that allowed me to transport two canoes at a time. Friday evening, I loaded the two biggest of four canoes borrowed from other SRWA members. On top of the widest canoe, I mounted a kayak. As early as I could get out of bed on Saturday morning, I transported the three boats to the launch point and returned home for the last two canoes.
People started to arrive by 8:15 Saturday morning. This was fortunate because we were able to match the needs of the four groups with the available equipment. I had never had to outfit this many groups, so it took some re-evaluation.
As more and more people arrived, I was delighted to see that we have started to attract a younger group of participants. This was the first time that I can remember that the people under 15 outnumbered those over 60.
Bob Marsh was probably the first to get wet. He went dawn the riverbank and stood waist deep in the river. This way he could stabilize the boats as people got into them. Thanks to Bob, everyone stayed dry.
About a quarter mile down the river, the convoy made a 20-yard portage into the marsh behind Pomps Pond. By paddling the river, marsh, and pond, everyone was able to experience three distinctly different types of waterway. While on the river, the first boat will disturb the wildlife and prevent the group from viewing it. One of the nice things about the marsh and pond sections of the trip is that everyone was able to
see the wildlife. During these sections at least three great blue herons were seen. Also sighted were red-winged blackbirds, cormorants, some yellow birds, and hawks. Clark saw a 6-inch perch.
Even though it was a gorgeous Saturday morning, the public beach at Pomps Pond was empty. I can only speculate that the beach may have been closed because of some vandalism the previous night.
When we portaged back into the river, Warren switched from a canoe to a kayak. He is an adventurous sort of person and had always wanted to try kayaking. He took to it very well and quickly. His main problem was that he is six feet tall and was replacing someone who was five feet eight inches tall and we didn't have time to adjust the equipment completely. If Warren enjoyed this kayak experience, then he will be ecstatic if he ever uses a kayak that is properly fitted to him.
Now our excursion started to take on the aspects of an adventure. An inactive (I believe) beaver dam along the left-hand channel around an island made this route impassable and increased the current through the right-hand channel. To my great delight, everyone was able to successfully navigate the sharp right and left turns and pass the island. However, when we tried to paddle back up the left-hand channel, one canoe hit something and overturned.
Our synchronized swimmers escaped from their capsizing unharmed but very wet. To get them back into their boat I did a "canoe-over-canoe" rescue. In all honesty, I had never done this in a non-training environment before. If Joe Moore hadn't shown this a few weeks before, I might not have been able to do it.
To set the scene: Everyone was back in their boat, the convoy started again, and clear sailing was expected.
WRONG! Five hundred yards further, we encountered a beaver dam that was 80% complete. There was only a two-foot-wide passageway through the dam, which had overhanging branches that allowed only a two-foot clearance. To get the boats through the opening, I had to stand in chest-deep water and pull them.
Oh yeah ...we also disturbed a hornets' nest while we were loading the boats, and I took a two-hour nap as soon as I got home.

In the Lessons Learned department: One of the swimmers will be taking a group out this fall, and I think that the need for a "practical paddling" session would be beneficial.
Bob and I want to thank Sharon for all the pictures and logistical support. When we portaged back into the river, Warren switched from a canoe to a kayak. He is an adventurous sort of person and had always wanted to try kayaking. He took to it very well and quickly. His main problem was that he is six feet tall and was replacing someone who was five feet eight inches tall and we didn't have time to adjust the equipment completely. If Warren enjoyed this kayak experience, then he will be ecstatic if he ever uses a kayak that is properly fitted to him.
Now our excursion started to take on the aspects of an adventure. An inactive (I believe) beaver dam along the left-hand channel around an island made this route impassable and increased the current through the right-hand channel. To my great delight, everyone was able to successfully navigate the sharp right and left turns and pass the island. However, when we tried to paddle back up the left-hand channel, one canoe hit something and overturned.
Our synchronized swimmers escaped from their capsizing unharmed but very wet. To get them back into their boat I did a "canoe-over-canoe" rescue. In all honesty, I had never done this in a non-training environment before. If Joe Moore hadn't shown this a few weeks before, I might not have been able to do it.
To set the scene: Everyone was back in their boat, the convoy started again, and clear sailing was expected.
WRONG! Five hundred yards further, we encountered a beaver dam that was 80% complete. There was only a two-foot-wide passageway through the dam, which had overhanging branches that allowed only a two-foot clearance. To get the boats through the opening, I had to stand in chest-deep water and pull them.
Oh yeah ...we also disturbed a hornets' nest while we were loading the boats, and I took a two-hour nap as soon as I got home.

In the Lessons Learned department: One of the swimmers will be taking a group out this fall, and I think that the need for a "practical paddling" session would be beneficial.
Bob and I want to thank Sharon for all the pictures and logistical support.

The August Bayou Cleanup
by John Hicks-Courant
johnhc@theworld.com
At 8:45 in the morning on August 20, 2005, Kevin Talbot and his dog Emma put in right behind me just below the Balmoral dam in Andover. I had decided to ignore everything I saw but the sheets of foam foundation insulation I had been unable to pick up on the June cleanup. I knew there was too much for me to collect in one canoe, but I was determined to start the process. I picked up my first piece right at the put-in. I also encountered several smaller pieces shortly after the put-in, but I encountered no more until I reached the spot where I had stopped herding them two months earlier.
As I paddled along - seeing but not stopping for more than fifty tires, a dozen shopping carts, and uncounted miscellaneous manufactured debris - I realized that this was the first time in a long time that I had been in this section of the river when the water was low. The water was very low. I had to get out of the canoe and shove it along to deeper water at least five times in three miles.
We have been congratulating ourselves for the last two years on how much of a difference we have made in the Bayou with our iterative cleanups. In middling to high water, the Bayou looks almost pristine. In low water, things show. For example, we all know about the Volkswagen that ran off 1-495 and landed in the river decades ago. It has rusted clear down to its chassis and engine block at the edge of the channel just upstream from Costello Park. On August 20, Kevin Talbot and I discovered two more automobiles in the river, also corroded down to the chassis and engine block. One was a sedan of some kind, and the other looked as if it had once been a truck. There simply is no way we are ever going to get those cars out of the bottom of the river.
There are places in the Bayou where the bottom seems almost paved with sheets of plywood and assorted metals. It is on days like this that you regain the embattled perspective from which we viewed every cleanup only ten years ago. The Bayou is still in awful shape after more than twenty cleanups in the last three years.
The one comforting notion in this otherwise grim reminder of the scale of the job is that none of the visible trash - not the tires, shopping carts, embedded metal sheets - was new. Everything I saw had been in the river for a very long time, which suggests to me that a storm or two has rolled through since our last cleanup in June and uncovered yet another layer of trash. In this sense, the sighting of ubiquitous garbage could be taken as another sign of progress. Maybe this one will be the last layer we clear away in the Bayou. There's always hope.
Shortly after I passed the Hampton inn on Rte. 114, I came upon the spot where I had abandoned my sheets of insulation two months earlier. Armed with a brand new hatchet and a brand new long-handled "hook," I approached the first sheet of insulation with a vengeance. I quickly discovered that a methodical approach was required. Hooking onto the nine-by-five-foot sheet, I maneuvered one end across the gunnels and chopped a three-foot section off with the hatchet. This short section then had to be halved. That's how I figured out that each sheet would create six stackable sections. My 19-foot canoe was full by the time I had chopped up the fifth sheet of foam. I paddled past three others on my way to the take-out. This suggests that there are at least five other sheets either further downstream or floating in the ocean.
I noticed three additional things as I paddled through the shallow water of the Bayou that morning.
The first was the number and variety of fish in the river. The only fish that sat still long enough for me to examine and recognize was a mature largemouth bass, the first one I've seen in the Shawsheen River. I saw at least six other species of smaller fish, all of them behaving as if they were in schools, jetting past me so fast I barely had time to register body and tail-fin type. Just relying on the body shape and tail fins, I'm sure I saw at least six different species that day.
The second thing, consistent with the high fish population, was the large number of great blue herons I encountered. Varying in size and skittishness, the herons I saw numbered no fewer than a dozen in the three miles I paddled. The other common bird that day was the sandpiper, a
species that seems to have found the entire length of the Shawsheen River to be a congenial habitat.
The third thing I noticed was the complete absence of any waterfowl. That is, there were no ducks or geese of any kind to be heard or seen in the Bayou. I wonder where they've gone.

The 2005 Grants
In May of this year, the SRWA received word that the Greater Lowell Community Foundation (GLCF) had awarded both of our grant proposals. The GLCF gave the SRWA $1,600 to fund the publication and distribution of three issues of The Shawsheen Trib. The GLCF also gave the SRWA $1,400 to cover our cleanup expenses in 2005.
In July, the generous people at Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing, Inc., (3M) granted the SRWA $1,800 to explore the issue of "Coexisting with beavers" within Andover, MA. 3M also provided the SRWA with another grant for $3,600 for our Watershed Education Program, which would include presentations at schools and other public places about the flora, fauna, and habitat of the Shawsheen River.