Saturday, September 25, 2010

Sudbury River - Egg Rock to Fairhaven Bay & Back

Early this summer like morning I launched my boat at Lowell Road in Concord and began trash patrolling the Sudbury River, enroute to Fairhaven Bay.  Trash was fairly steady and consisted of a mixture of old glass bottles and fairly recently added plastic/styrofoam stuff.  A large piece of black plastic sheeting (construction type) was pulled from the shallow water below Nashawtuc Bridge.
Just upstream of the same bridge, while listening to The Lark Ascending, I almost paddled right by a little Green Heron.  As you can see by the photo, he is very focused on the task at hand and would shortly have a tiny fish wriggling within his bill...
Other wildlife seen today were blue herons, a great egret, Canada geese, ducks, turtles (painted and snappers), a red-tailed hawk, a small hawk, and a cardinal. 

Between the South Bridge and Heath's Bridge, 2 tires were recovered and the Heath's Bridge area itself chipped in with about 2 dozen pieces of trash.  All of it was on the upstream south side.

Most of the fishermen encountered reported less than impressive results.  However, at Heath's Bridge, one very little fellow was proudly reeling in one sunfish after another!

Earlier, while approaching the Route 2 bridge, I noticed that the crumbling masonry work has been repaired and looks much better...

This is how it looked back on March 5 th of this year...


Upon reaching Fairhaven Bay, I went briefly ashore at Brooke Island and was surprised to find a bottle and 2 cans laying on the ground.   Usually, this spot is trash free.
The trip downstream was pleasant and I soon found myself back at Lowell Road, where the unloading process occurred....

The total for the day was 85 pieces of trash.  Of these, 38 were recyclable containers (15 redeemable) and there were 47 pieces of miscellaneous rubbish such as 16 styrofoam bait tubs, plastic bags and sheeting, clumps of fishing line, cardboard packaging, and the 2 automotive tires.   YTD total stands at 4873.  The Concord DPW will be contacted regarding disposal of the 2 tires.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You are an awesome person for doing this. From a fisherman who threads lightly I appreciate you doing this and hope people learn to keep the world clean. Keep on rocking