Piscataqua Waterfront Festival, June 4, 2011

http://www.moffattladd.org/calendar.html

One week from tomorrow the Winnicut River Watershed Coalition will be attending this event.  From the Moffatt-Ladd website:

"The festival features music, traditional maritime artisan demonstrations, free museum tours, hands-on children’s activities, boats, booths, and displays by area businesses and non-profit organizations, and an heirloom plant sale of plants from the Moffatt-Ladd garden.  The festival is designed to heighten awareness of our maritime history, contemporary water quality issues, boat building heritage and opportunities, marine management, water recreation, and conservation."

Curious how you'll manage to move back and forth between the PWF and the Chowder festival?  Portsmouth Harbor Cruises will be providing free boat shuttles between the Ceres Street Wharf and the Chowder Festival in Prescott Park! 

Stop on by our table and say hello!



Winnicut Coalition to Conduct Water Quality Monitoring

In addition to the critical grant from the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation to form the Winnicut River Watershed Coalition, and a generous grant from the Fuller Foundation to assist work in the towns within the Winnicut River watershed, the WRWC has just received a substantial grant from the New Hampshire Coastal Program to conduct some great work. Our press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 17, 2011

Contact: Jean Eno, Winnicut Project Director, New Hampshire Rivers Council, at 603-431-7009

Local Coalition Receives Funding for Water Quality Testing

North Hampton, Stratham, Greenland Communities to Benefit

Greenland, NH — The Winnicut River Watershed Coalition, an initiative of the New Hampshire Rivers Council, has received a two-year grant from the New Hampshire Coastal Program at the Department of Environmental Services to conduct water quality and biological monitoring on the Winnicut River and its tributaries in the towns of North Hampton, Stratham, and Greenland, NH, beginning in June, 2011.

Several sections of the Winnicut River are affected by one or more pollutants that impact swimming, fishing and boating, as well as, aquatic wildlife habitat. At as many as twelve sites, testing will be conducted for nitrogen, harmful bacteria, and water quality parameters including dissolved oxygen, turbidity, and pH (acidity). The Winnicut River is the only main tributary unimpeded by dams
that flows directly to Great Bay.

“With a larger snapshot of the river’s condition throughout the watershed—the area of land that drains to the Winnicut—we hope to gain a greater understanding of the local impacts of stormwater runoff, which in turn will allow us to provide even greater water quality education and outreach to our citizens,” said Jean Eno, Winnicut Project Director.

“Ultimately, people and wildlife need and benefit from the Winnicut and Great Bay being clean and healthy,” said Michele L. Tremblay, President, New Hampshire Rivers Council. “Our state’s economy and the health of its people depend on it, and involving citizens in these initiatives is cost effective and creates long lasting results.”

Those interested in volunteering should contact Jean Eno at jeno@nhrivers.org. Further information can be found online at www.nhrivers.org.

Grant funding was provided by the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management under the Coastal Zone Management Act in conjunction with the N.H. Department of Environmental Services Coastal Program.

Trail Walking Within the Winnicut River Watershed

NOW'S the time to get out and see spring coming to life at the Weeks Brick House conservation trails. Turkeys are strutting, fox are hunting small prey to feed their kits, the earliest of migratory birds are appearing...and if you look hard, you may even see trout lilies emerging up from the earth underneath the hardwoods!

Click here to view the Weeks Brick House trail map online

STRATHAM hosts wonderful trails at the Stratham Hill Park area, a fun place to take the family, including the family dog (please remember the 'leave no trace' concept and bring dog poop baggies!). On clear, sunny days, you can see the peak of Mount Washington! Dare to climb the fire tower!

Click here to view the Stratham Hill Park trail map online

LASTLY, behind the North Hampton Elementary School on Atlantic Ave., there is a fanstastic network of nature trails that allows users access to many wonderful aspects of the Little River watershed (an adjoining watershed to the Winnicut's): from owl habitat in the uplands where there are gorgeous red pines, to wetland pools, and eventually to an extensive marshland...beautiful stuff.  Mike Caron, an Enrichment Coordinator at the school, has been instrumental in developing the trails and a unique nature program, and has a wonderful vision for implementing learning platforms to accomodate the inquisitive minds that utilize the trail network (in the past the trails were maintained by the North Hampton School students as part of their service learning component).  The public is allowed access to this school property dawn to dusk during non school hours.  There isn't a map, per se, for the trail system, so you'll need to rely on a compass and your smarts:  From behind the school, head to the northwest corner of the fields (diagonally to your left as you stand behind the school, with your back against the building where the swings are).  There you will find the entrance to the trails.  To see a map of North Hampton's conservation lands, including the Little River area that these trails fall within, click here (pdf - large file).

Happy trails!  Don't forget your binoculars, and don't forget to wear your Bean boots - it's mucky out there in some of those parts!

NH Homeowner's Guide to Stormwater Management DIY Solutions

The WRWC participated in a watershed managers roundtable last October hosted by NHDES' Watershed Assistance Section, and has since stayed informed on future restoration grant opportunities and other management tools through a blog for watershed managers (the WRWC is not a "manager," but rather a source for creating a local advisory committee which will act as a steward for Winnicut River watershed (the entire area of land that drains to the Winnicut River)).

The forum and blog were created for the purpose of providing additional resources and opportunities to network for those involved with NHDES' Watershed Assistance and Restoration Grants.

A recent post was deemed worthy of posting on WRWC's blog:

"Two new stormwater management tools have been created for homeowners and local building officials to help identify cost effective methods to offset potential impacts to water resources.

The “New Hampshire Homeowner’s Guide to Stormwater Management Do-It-Yourself Stormwater Solutions for Your Home” was developed to help homeowners better manage stormwater on their properties. It can also be used by communities as an outreach tool to encourage better stormwater management on private properties.  [See page 54 of this pdf for using the model below.]

DES has also created a modeling tool for homeowners to estimate their nutrient footprint called “The New Hampshire Residential Loading Model.”  [This is an Excel file, and you'll be best served if you refer to instructions on page 54 of the pdf document above!]

This model is based on the Center for Watershed Protection’s Runoff Reduction Method. It is designed for property owners to estimate the loading of nutrients, specifically phosphorus and nitrogen, running off of their properties."

2011 New Hampshire Water and Watershed Conference

On behalf of the WRWC, I will be exhibiting and participating in this comprehensive event.

"Conference participants will enhance their capacity to understand, protect, and manage New Hampshire’s water resources by:

1.Learning about ground-breaking research and its application.
2.Receiving latest updates on water related policies and agency programs.
3.Gaining knowledge about effective water education and outreach.
4.Participating in training sessions to improve organizational skills and functioning.
5.Sharing understanding, concerns, accomplishments, skills and perspectives with others.
6.Contributing to state-wide planning efforts for New Hampshire’s water future."


The talks I will be attending:

~Making instream flow protection work: the Lamprey Water Management Plan – Wayne Ives, NH Department of Environmental Services

~Introduction to social marketing ‐ Julia Peterson, NH Sea Grant & UNH Cooperative Extension

~Land resources management permitting – enhancing the local role ‐ Carolyn Russell and Steve Couture, NH Department of Environmental Services

~Status Update: 2011 Surface Water and Wetland Legislation and the 2010 Legislative Water Study Commissions ‐ Rene Pelletier, NH Department of Environmental Services

~The Southeast Watershed Alliance – building intermunicipal cooperation to improve water quality ‐ Alison Watts, Ph.D., Southeast Watershed Alliance


The conference is taking place at Plymouth State University.

Rivers Management Program

Happy Spring to All!

Here's an update on the various river nominations as they went through the House last week:

HB44, the bill to nominate the Oyster River, HB336, the bill to nominate the Mascoma River, and HB555, the bill to nominate the Exeter-Squamscott stretch, were passed on the House floor on February 23.

HB 149, the bill to nominate the Lamprey and its tributaries, passed in the House on March 17, but it was significantly amended. For those who fought long and hard for this bill (pre-amendments), the outcome is bittersweet: 1. the amendment was significant and weakened RSA 483, in that the very tribs that feed the river were not permitted to be included, and 2. the municipalities involved who wrote letters of support for the designation based on the statute as it existed BEFORE it was weakened are now not getting what they wanted.

View each of the nomination bills:

Bill text: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2011/HB0044.html
Bill text: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2011/HB0336.html
Bill text: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2011/HB0555.html
Bill text: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2011/HB0149.html


Even more concerning, the House approved additional plans that weaken RSA 483 in bill HB 27, in which dreaded restrictions to septage and sludge land applications will not have to apply for another 5-1/2 years.

You are asked to help keep up the good fight in preserving the integrity of RSA 483 (which is also under attack via major budget cuts**--cuts that could virtually eliminate the program!). The next step is for all of these bills to be heard in the Senate Energy and Environment Committee:
Who's my legislator?

As pertinent info comes my way, it will be posted here. And, as Michele Tremblay noted in her Legislative Alert email, "Thank you to everyone who stepped up and made calls, sent letters and/or emails, and provided personal testimony at the hearings."



**House Division I will "exec" (vote) on these cuts on Monday, March 21, 2011 so it is essential that you call today:
Who's my legislator?

Very Good News for river conservation in New Hampshire

NH State House Representative Lawrence ‘Mike’ Kappler sent out notification today that three bills pertaining to the protection of certain rivers passed out of the House today and are on their way to the Senate: HB-44 Oyster, HB-336 Mascoma, and HB-555 Exeter. A fourth is soon to be following suit if all goes well:

“Congratulations to all involved in these three rivers.... Lamprey will be ex'd on 3/1/11 and I think it will be fine...,” said Rep. Kappler in an email received by the New Hampshire Rivers Council today.

For those unfamiliar with the recent legislative action pertaining to these bills, try these links:

Bill text: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2011/HB0336.html
Bill text: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2011/HB0336.html
Bill text: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2011/HB0336.html
Bill text: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2011/HB0555.html

Interested in showing your support for the Lamprey?

House RR&D: committee membership - http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/house/committees/committeedetails.aspx?code=H22
Who's my Legislator? (search by city/town): http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/house/members/wml.aspx
House calendar and journal: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/house/caljourns/default.htm
NEW resource: state Rivers Management Advisory Committee blog with documents posted: http://xml2.des.state.nh.us/blogs/rmac/?p=350