Eventually things thawed and many new waterways were visited over the course of the past year: Neponset River, East Branch of the Ware River, North Branch of the Nashua River, Littleville Lake, Nemasket River, Green River Reservoir (VT), Great Chazy River (NY), Assonet River, Pawcatuck River (RI), Thames River (CT), Fort Pond Brook. Additionally, new sections of the Charles, Connecticut, Nashua, Merrimack, and Taunton rivers were experienced.
However, if there could only be one favorite day on the water it would have to have been a spectacular Sunday in June when along with friends Capt'n and Mrs. Dangerous the waters of Mystic River, Boston Harbor, and Charles River were explored. This photo, for me, captured the city of Boston in a new and better light...
Two encounters with wildlife were memorable: An August 25th encounter with this American Bald Eagle who shared my interest in a dead skunk-containing plastic bag afloat in the Merrimack River in North Chelmsford...
...and a July 30th eye to eye with this velvet-antlered white-tailed buck along the Assabet River in Damondale...
The year saw a good number of glass bottles but I believe the oldest man-made item found was this clay pipe bowl found on April 25th by a small island in the Swift River near Belchertown...
Trash statistics for the year:
Recyclable (but not redeemable) containers equaled 39% (35 in 2013, 34 in 12, 35 in 11, 34 in 10, 32 in 09)
Recyclable and redeemable containers equaled 13% (13 in 2013, 16 in 12, 13 in 11, 18 in 10, 23 in 09)
Miscellaneous rubbish equaled 48% (52 in 2013, 50 in 12, 52 in 11, 48 in 10, 45 in 09)
Here's the pieces of trash per mile paddled statistics for the past 7 years:
2014 = 8.2 per mile (6067 pieces over 736 miles)
2013 = 8.6 per mile (5921 pieces over 686 miles)
2012 = 9.9 per mile (6358 pieces over 643 miles)
2011 = 9.4 per mile (6410 pieces over 681 miles)
2010 = 12.4 per mile (6357 pieces over 511 miles)
2009 = 7.7 per mile (5584 pieces over 725 miles)
2008 = 3.2 per mile (2689 pieces over 841 miles) (was just acquiring an eye for it)
It was on this day seven years ago Trashpaddler.com was born. It was conceived as an experiment of sorts
premised on answering the question “What would happen if this avid paddler
decided to pick up the trash encountered rather than paddling past it?”
My first post was on New Year’s Eve 2007 and in it I laid out my
course which, for the most part, I’ve adhered to.
By the end of year one I’d settled on a system of sorting
recovered trash into three categories:
·
Recyclable containers having no redemption value
·
Recyclable containers having a redemption value
of five cents
·
Miscellaneous rubbish such as Styrofoam, plastic
bags, nip bottles, etc.
Maintaining a scientific approach was not always easy as
some containers were sold with a redemption value but, because of their present
condition, were no longer redeemable.
This included plastic bottles that no longer retained their
flimsy plastic labels showing their redemption status (water had dissolved the
glue). It also included aluminum cans
that had been crushed or damaged. As a
rule containers were sorted based on my best guess as to what they were when
sold.
At any rate, the end result of my experiment is as follows:
·
Number of trash patrols: 726
·
Miles covered: 4,823
·
Total pieces of trash: 39,386
·
Pieces of trash per mile paddled: 8.2
Now perhaps it’s because of some Irish blood flowing within
my veins that I pause at this point and recognize the significance of the number
seven: The Seven Year Itch, Seven Seas, Seven Continents, Seven days of the
week, Seven Deadly Sins, Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, Seven Notes of the
Diatonic Scale, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, Seven Dwarfs, Seventh Heaven, Seventh
Inning Stretch, Seventh Seal, Seven Samurai, Seven Cities of Gold..…well, you
get the picture.
This significance, combined with Massachusetts voters having
recently laid to rest any reasonable hope of an expanded container redemption
program, tells me it’s time to reset my compass heading before paddling beyond the
seven year mark. Don’t get me wrong,
I’ll still be a trashpaddler in so far as orphaned and drifting trash will
always find safe haven aboard my vessel.
But from this point forward I’ll no longer be counting the trash, and
the only sorting I’ll do will be to separate recyclable material from
non-recyclable.
In order to portray the amount of trash encountered I’ll
continue my practice of snapping a hullside photo of the day's haul.
The title of my blog will now be “Trashpaddler’s Waterway
Wanderings” and, if all goes as planned, folks will be able to find me at
either trashpaddler.com or waterwaywanderings.com. Above all else, I am a waterway wanderer and would
like to broaden the discussion to the other wandering ways of water such as the
water we allow to flow into our gullets.
I hope to explore alternative containers other than plastic
for bringing along drinking water. These
days my drinking water resides in a stainless steel bottle and accompanies me
most anywhere I go. How about other
folks? How do you bring along your
drinking water?
How about treating your water? Do you provide treatment over and above the way it's delivered to your tap?
How about treating your water? Do you provide treatment over and above the way it's delivered to your tap?
At any rate, a Happy New Year to all my fellow aquatic and terrestrial travelers!