Newsletters
February 2009 - Bioreserve, Quequechan River, LNG
WELCOME TO GREEN FUTURES !
FEBRUARY, 2009
“Population, when unchecked, goes on doubling itself every 25 years or increases in a geometrical ratio.”
-Thomas Malthus (1766 – 1834)
“And you may ask yourself
How do I work this?
And you may ask yourself
Where is that large automobile?
And you may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful house!
And you may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful wife!
Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the moneys gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.
Same as it ever was...same as it ever was...same as it ever was...
Same as it ever was...same as it ever was...same as it ever was...
Same as it ever was...same as it ever was...”
-Once in a Lifetime – Talking Heads (David Byrne, Brian Eno)
THE BIORESERVE ZONE (key in the spooky music here) -
Comments heard from an ill-informed, arrogant, insulting whack-job:
“That biosphere[sic] land is of no economic benefit.”
“There are tens of thousands of acres out there going to waste.”
“No one even knows where the biosphere[sic] is. I’ve asked around and no one knows.”
“Has anyone seen a map of the biosphere[sic]? No! …because no one knows where the biosphere[sic] really is.”
“Ha! Green Acres[sic] wants to save the land for what …chipmunks and weasels.”
“We are in tough economic times and my development will create hundreds of direct jobs and thousands of spin-off jobs.”
“These will be $500,000 homes where people can have a horse. This is economic development.”
“My development will provide $50 million dollars in future tax income.”
Enough already!!! It’s tough being a bioreserve in urban Massachusetts. Seems there’s always a new threat about to pop-up over the forested horizon.
Here’s the latest looming over the southwestern border of the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve …and it’s nothing special.
Just another nasty, greedy, property developer who purchased for cheap …since it was a foreclosure sale …a large completely landlocked parcel adjacent to the Bioreserve. A portion of the property consists of streams and a wooded swamp that flow, eventually, to the Westport River.
Along with this parcel, the surrounding landscape comprises an intact and unique ecological unit providing ideal interior forest habitat for neo-tropical songbirds far removed from feral house cats and other alien-invasive predators/competitors.
Our nasty developer, attempting to sell his development scheme to local officials and hoping they’ll provide him access across public land, has made many ridiculous statements and uttered half-truths attempting to present them all as fact. He is a bad joke and most wouldn’t take his bluff and bluster seriously, but then we have the gullible …and worse …in public office.
This latest Bioreserve threat is just beginning and we will expand on this story in future e-newsletters.
To stop this, we may need your help. Stay tuned.
QUEQUECHAN RIVER INITIATIVE (QRI) –
Although we have yet to receive more than “lip service” from our local, state, and federal political leaders for the restoration of the Quequechan River and daylighting of its falls, we keep advocating and educating for firm commitments to get this project moving. We constantly hear from many local and distant Quequechan enthusiasts, all hoping to one day see the Quequechan free once more.
Following is another wonderful article on the Quequechan and its potential from the February 13th The Herald News by Linda Murphy:
Restoring the Quequechan to its former glory -
The city named for its falls is missing something, and Green Futures would like to see it restored as an overall plan to daylight the Quequechan River, unite several neighborhoods along the waterway and bring ecotourism to the city.
Everett Castro, director of community affairs for the nonprofit environmental group, said Fall River is the only city on the East Coast to have had a naturally occurring waterfall that flowed into tidal waters. While other industrial cities dammed rivers to create waterfalls, the Quequechan River met with a 130-foot granite drop, creating a series of six cascades in the area of Gromada Plaza that eventually spilled out into the Taunton River.
When Interstate 195 was built, the falls were diverted underground through a series of culverts, but a smaller waterfall remains today behind the last surviving granite, water-powered mill on Anawan Street.
Green Futures’ plan also calls for daylighting the Quequechan River, which was largely covered up as textile mills converted from water to steam power in the late 1800s.
“There was very little awareness back then about the importance of wetlands,” said Al Lima, Green Futures research director.
The river, named for the Native American word for “falling water,” is fed by several bodies of water that flow into South Watuppa Pond.
Devol and Sawdy ponds feed into Stony Brook and into the South Watuppa from the east, and from the north, it’s fed by North Watuppa Pond and from the south, it’s fed by Stafford Pond through Sucker Brook.
The river flows above ground under I-195 in several areas including Britland Park in the Flint neighborhood behind the police station, off Brayton Avenue in the Maplewood section and behind Wattupa Heights in the city’s Niagara neighborhood. Chase Pond is also a part of the Quequechan.
Despite the river’s high pollution levels, Lima said it is host to an amazing array of wildlife including ducks, deer and osprey. When the city’s ongoing combined sewerage overflow project is completed, it will improve the condition of the river.
Green Futures’ plan would create a greenway along the river and extend the bike path that winds through Westport to the Fall River line on Martine Street along railroad tracks that follow the river through city neighborhoods. The falls would be restored on Pocasset Street just below Gromada Plaza, where the Chamber of Commerce is located.
“The river has divided the north part of the city from the south part,” said Lima, author of “A City and its River,” a book about the Quequechan. “We want to see it as a uniting feature.”
The two-faceted project, according to Lima and Castro, would bring tourists and economic prosperity to the area as it has done in other cities where rivers have been restored, including Providence, San Antonio, Texas, and Chattanooga, Tenn.
“Look at what diverting the river has done for Providence,” said Lima.
“This is not some utopian idea — it’s been done in other places successfully. The river and the falls are the heart and soul of the city; it’s the right thing to do.”
The idea of restoring the river and the falls was conceived several years ago and was the subject of state urban rivers initiative conferences in 2002 and 2004, but little progress has been made since then.
While Lima and Castro agree the project itself would be expensive, they’re calling for a less costly feasibility study to at least give the proposal a chance of being accomplished.
They also said the proposal has the potential of being funded as a public works project under President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus plan.
One obstacle, they said, is overcoming the mindset in the city that this proposal isn’t important because the city has more pressing economic woes. But they envision the plan as an economic generator that would attract tourists, increase property values along the river and lure businesses.
Lima said the project would also benefit the city by creating what is known as a “third place” — an area outside of schools and work where people from the community gather.
“This is a community-building project that could bring people in the city together,” he said.
Lima, a member of the city’s master plan committee, said the proposal is included in the almost-completed master plan, which will then be submitted to city leaders for approval.
“We created a vision, now the city needs to get behind it,” said Lima.
LNG –
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) hearings, on Hess/Weaver’s Cove Energy’s latest incarnation of their ill-conceived proposal, will soon take place. Don’t really know why they hold these hearings since the outcomes have already been decided.
It is telling that no political leader, from either Rhode Island or Massachusetts, endorses Hess/Weaver’s environmentally disastrous proposal …yet FERC does.
Hess/Weaver’s must have friends in high places …you think?
Above is a view of Fall River looking at the south end of the city that will be close to the LNG supertanker unloading site.
Watch for future “ACTION ALERTS” on this issue.
Winter Winding Down –
What’s to do outdoors in windy March?
For one, don’t forget to pick some pussy willows …just about the first flower of spring. Don’t worry, pussy willows can handle the loss of their branches. All willows are fast growers and a heavily pruned pussy willow comes back much thicker and with more pussies the next year.
Also, keep watch for the first crocus. They are beginning to stir right now.
“Though it’s cold as winter, snowy, blowy
little Pussy Willow came to town last night.”
After a March snow storm is the perfect time to visit a local nature sanctuary or wooded area. See who’s been walking around in the woods and fields. Most mammals are now paired up so plenty of tracks should be available.
Who made them, how many were there, what were they doing, where were they going?
Here are a few easy tracks to find. Most folks recognize heart-shaped deer tracks. Canines, wild and domestic, show four toes, the toenails showing in the track. Red fox leave a small dog track as do gray fox. The red fox has hairy feet and leaves a fuzzy, less distinct track. Gray fox foot pads lack hair and their tracks are sharp with more detail. Locally, if you find a fox appearing track without toenails showing, it was made by a feral cat. In western Massachusetts and northern New England it could have been left by a bobcat.
Red and gray fox and coyote tracks usually run in a straight line. Domestic dogs ramble around, digging in the snow and snuffling about, and their gait and track pattern is usually more haphazard than that of their wild cousins.
Weasel family members have five toes in their tracks. Locally, depending on location and size, they could be from long-tailed weasels, mink, striped skunks, fishers, otters.
Identifying tracks and following to see where they lead is a fun winter activity. There are a number of good tracking books available to aid you in this activity.
Visit our
for interesting indoor and outdoor things to do.
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