Our visit to the Westport River watershed!

Today’s blogger is Shalen!

Just a stone’s throw away from Rhode Island, I visited the Westport River watershed in Westport, Massachusetts last week. Matt Patrick, the Executive Director of the Westport River Watershed Alliance (WRWA), led us around this spectacular area. Starting at the WRWA headquarters, I met Shelli Costa, the Education Director, and Gay Gillespie, who works in Development, and learned about the history and the present direction of the association.

Near the Westport Point

The WRWA was founded in 1967, after a group of concerned citizens came together to protest a proposed sewage lagoon in Westport. Since its establishment, the WRWA has nurtured its cooperative relationships with local businesses and government, residents, and its own members. The WRWA’s present focus is three-pronged: advocacy before state and local boards for the preservation of the watershed’s resources, education, and water quality monitoring. The WRWA has a significant influence on development and conservation projects in the area and staff and members attend Board of Health and other state and local meetings. Education is a big part of this organization’s mission, too, with summer camps and programs and school-based modules are among its successes. WRWA’s water quality testing program is one of the oldest continuously operating ones in the state.

The Westport River watershed is 100 square miles in size and includes parts of Massachusetts (Westport, Fall River, Dartmouth, and Freetown) as well as Rhode Island (Tiverton and Little Compton). About 85% of the watershed’s land mass drains into the East and West Branches of the Westport River, which empty into Rhode Island Sound. The remaining 15% drains into Fall River’s Mount Hope Bay. Because of its proximity to the ocean, the watershed is largely estuarial, an important saltwater habitat for shellfish and eelgrass. This watershed is one of the healthiest estuary systems in Massachusetts, because of its sparse development and low population.

To begin our tour of the watershed, we drove south from the WRWA headquarters to Westport Point and got a taste of the unbridled beauty the Westport River’s waters have to offer. From there we drove over Route 88 and down the west side of the east branch of the river to Baby Beach where the WRWA runs educational programs for children. For instance, fifth graders learn about dune ecosystems and plant beachgrass every October as part of the Watershed Educational Program (WEP), which reaches about 2,000 students in Westport schools every year and complements the schools’ science curricula. The program fosters a sense of stewardship at a young age. Each year the students learn about topic-specific watershed issues, such as the watershed drainage model (used to discuss the importance of rain gardens for stormwater runoff), and work on solving watershed challenges that impact their community, like coastal erosion.

When we arrived at Baby Beach, we found Shelli Costa, known as “Heron” to the kids, and two summer interns from UMASS Dartmouth, nicknamed “Periwinkle” and “Egret,” running a program attended by neighborhood children. The willing students began their exploration into marine ecosystems by learning about the life cycle of the Atlantic silverside and making colorful fish mobiles to take home. Following that, Shelli led them over to the water to search the shallow waters for signs of life while Periwinkle and Egret waded into deeper water to net organisms for the kids to inspect. The children were excited to see silverside fish, spider crabs (we even watched one molt its shell!), jellyfish, and one oddity, a tropical fish, which wandered in from the Gulf Stream, whose currents shift more close to shore in the summer. The kids were eager to share anything they knew about the fish they found, and I could tell they were having a great time. To see children excited about environmental education at so young an age and feeling so passionate about the watershed is refreshing. These children, as so many in the Westport school system who have been exposed to WRWA programs, recognize how integrated their lives are with their environment.

A portion of the constructed wetland the WRWA maintains.

Departing reluctantly from the excitement of the program at Baby Beach, we headed south and east to Horseneck Beach and East Beach, then, traveled north up the eastern side of the east branch of the Westport River. We visited Allens Pond, a tidal pond and wildlife sanctuary run by Mass Audubon. Our panorama of the pond and the coastal beaches was positively breathtaking.

During the course of our travels, we visited the Head of Westport, one of the three villages in Westport and the location of an historic building that may become the future office of WRWA. Behind the building and next to Osprey Sea Kayak Adventures is a constructed wetland that the WRWA designed, built, and now maintains. Its purpose is to filter pollutants from diverted stormwater runoff before allowing the water to enter the river—an engineered, yet natural-appearing solution to a common problem (stormwater runoff) that affects water quality.

Just up the street from the wetland is Westport Middle School, where we watched city workers construct a rain garden at the front of the school. Another freshly planted rain garden sits around the side of the school. The WRWA’s partnership and cooperation with the city of Westport is evident in these gardens. It’s also a good example of WRWA’s influence in conservation projects and maintenance of open space and clean water throughout the area.

We drove next to the Hix Bridge. Huge granite blocks discarded in the Westport River during the bridge’s reconstruction clog the channels, slowing the water current and promoting the deposition of sediment causing difficulties for the native oysters. WRWA is working with a former EPA employee, Ken Perez, to study the negative effects of this sediment buildup on oyster health. The WRWA works with the town (much like the Neponset River Watershed Association does), rather than against it on issues such as this. Environmental organizations’ cooperation with their local people and governments fosters positive and cooperative relations and expedites progress.

The Fork in the Road!

We wandered via the scenic route close to the river’s shores until we crossed Cornell Road and drove down the west branch of the river near Adamsville, where we saw the “fork in the road,” a literal fork statue at the intersection of River Road and Old Harbor Road. Sculptor Tom Schmitt created it in 2010 for a WRWA fundraiser. We then passed a pond near Grey’s Grist Mill that WRWA helped dredge. We briefly crossed the Rhode Island state line in our travels.

Westport Herring Run

Our final stop was the Westport herring run, just across the river from Westport Point, the first stop in our tour. In the spring, river herring swim upstream into Cockeast Pond. This is another truly unforgettable spot in the watershed. I’ve learned it’s crucial to have a view of the river, either for recreational purposes or emotional restoration, because if people can see the river, they will be more likely to have a concrete and personal attachment to its protection.

To see with my own eyes and experience these watershed areas first-hand, demonstrates to me their valuable ecological and emotionally restorative characteristics. Each watershed environment is priceless, unique, and passionately protected by those who care for it and call it home. To become a member of the Westport River Watershed Alliance, and to learn about the WRWA’s stormwater projects, volunteer opportunities, dune restoration project and more, visit http://westportwatershed.org/.