Monday, July 30, 2012

An Assabet Afternoon in Hudson

Finished up work in Hudson today and decided to launch into the Assabet River at the municipal parking lot near the Washington Street Dam.   I headed upriver in a southwesterly direction and found it to be a beautiful day to be on the water...any water...anywhere.

There was quite of bit of trash at the pedestrian bridge in Riverside Park.  However, this was nothing compared to the large floating trash bag containing several day's worth of some family's rubbish...
It was apparent that the family who generated this bag doesn't recycle.  The bag contained plastic containers, a milk jug, plastic bags, garbage, and a Rite-Aid Wellness Card.

End result was similar to a scheduled 15-round fight that ends in the 2nd round with a knockout...

My boat was pretty much full to the gills and I'd only traveled about 1 mile from the put-in.
There were 56 recyclable containers (19 redeemable) and 126 pieces of miscellaneous rubbish. 
YTD = 4485.  This photo shows the need for expanding the Massachusetts bottle bill better than anything I could say.

For the remainder of my short journey to just downstream of Route 495, I enjoyed some of the forget-me-not flowers on the riverbank...

...and this watchful hawk...

...and for my return trip I had the company of this dragonfly who seems to be staring at me from behind his cool shades...
He stayed in that spot all the way to the takeout.



6 comments:

Mark Mayall said...

Thought you would find this piece interesting:

http://www.outsideonline.com/blog/river-snorkeling-a-way-to-enjoy-and-protect-your-local-rivers.html

don't think one would be able to see anything in our local rivers, or want to snorkel near the polluted sediment, but interesting stuff.

Al said...

Mark, Enjoyed the article on river snorkeling. Saw a large snapping turtle yesterday that, at least for my preference, is best viewed from topside!

BaffinPaddler said...

OMG. It breaks my heart to see so much of this in U.S. waterways. In all the lakes and rivers I've paddled in Canada, I've never seen as much trash as that. I usually pick up only a few items like a beer can, coffee cup, or plastic bag or plastic bottle.

Paddlers always seem to be the ones picking up after everyone else! Thanks for your dedication.

I think of you each time I see garbage in or near the water, and I stop to pick it up and haul it away.

Lately, I've started to take a few pictures of my small haul. When others ask, why are you taking a picture of that, I say, "Have you ever heard of the Trash Paddler in the U.S?" I'm a follower now. I have to pick this stuff up. And some of them join me and pick up a trash item and say, "Look, I picked this up for you!."

Also, recently, after getting out of my kayak and taking photos of abandoned beer cans along a river shoreline in Canada, I saw a young guy walk across the beach and take them away before I could go back and retrieve them.

Hopefully the paddle patrol will spread and do more good.

Thanks for your inspiration. Otherwise, I would just get mad.

Al said...

Thanks Baffin Paddler for your comments and also your efforts in removing the trash you encounter. I agree with you that Canada doesn't have the litter problem that we have. On my visits to Canada's Atlantic Provinces, I've seen very little of it.
I'm still trying to think of how someone's household trash ended up in the Assabet River. Perhaps it's best to think it blew off the back of a pickup truck on the highway and leave it at that.

Unknown said...

Hi Mark, Nice job!
Check out our project "Out of Sight, Out of Mind http://www.facebook.com/teamosom
http://www.seatrash.blogspot.com
http://www.twitter.com/teamosom

We have a never ending cleanup contest on our FB page....Pick up trash using any human powered craft, post a pic to our wall. The person/group who pics up the most each month wins prizes from our sponsors.

Al said...

Thanks Team OSOM. Like your "Out of Sight, Out of Mind" project title and your blog. Facebook? What's that?