New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff
Needed rain and the Second Annual Suncook River cleanup.
Monday 08/16/2004
The remnants of Hurricane Charley hardly gave us a glancing blow but another front is quenching a thirsty ground this early Monday morning. My rain gauge registered a pittance from Charley and we had no wind to speak of. The soaking rain from Bonnie or Charley, that my mother had hoped for to give her huge garden a much needed rain, never happened. Bonnie provided no moisture and Charley took a right out to sea. The corn in my mothers garden as well as the fields of corn planted by the local farmer is forming ears right now and needs a good soaking to flesh out the ears. I hope there is enough rain in this mornings storm to do that. I think the wild fruits need moisture right now to plump up for the late summer. For the seemingly cool rainy summer that we have had very little has actually accumulated in my rain gauge. So we've had a cloudy cool damp/dry summer.
Saturday was the second annual Friends of the Suncook River "River Cleanup Day." Volunteers combed the banks and several used canoes to scavenge trash scattered along the banks and in the river from Barnstead to Allenstown. About a dozen of us arrived at Rip Cannons on Oxbow Road in Barnstead to heap the trash into a pile before tossing it into the huge dumpster donated by Waste Management again this year. Members and volunteers celebrated with a cookout and held our brief annual meeting and election of officers.
Everything, including a kitchen sink, was heaped in the pile this year. This was a big year for tires. Twenty-one were collected this year. It's hard for me to reason how someone could dump old tires off along a river. The local trash station does charge for taking them there so I suppose these folks just find it cheaper to dump them.
I collected four of the tires. This year I chose to pick up trash along part of the Little Suncook River beginning at the Northwood Lake dam. I stopped at the pull offs and rest areas and headed down into the woods along the stream and actually ignored a heap of trash bags left by travelers near the "No Littering" sign at the rest area. But plenty of trash had been blown well away from the roadside to the stream edge. And plenty was deposited there as well. Two huge truck tires had been recently rolled down the road edge well into the woods. I found another on an island as it had been washed there from upstream. I figured it was tossed off the bridge and washed up on the little island. It was so out of place surrounded by the babbling clear water and moss covered stones. Beer and soda cans and bottles were plentiful. But, by far the most numerous trash, was empty coffee and colada cups from the Dunkin Donuts shop at the Epsom Circle. I guess folks traveling east have finished their drink by this area or stop to enjoy the beautiful view of the stream; then toss out their trash. Go figure.
I plan to continue the river cleanup by floating my section of the river from the Epsom swimming hole to the dam in Pembroke when I have enough time to do it. Unless someone out there would volunteer. Any takers? Let me know if you will do it so I'll know it was done.