Kayaking on the North River!

Today’s Blogger is Shalen Lowell!

I’m always diving into new things, so last week I went kayaking for the first time! As part of the 2013 Wampanoag Paddle Fundraiser, Dorie and I paddled the 12.5 mile first leg of the Wampanoag canoe passage to experience first-hand the North and South Rivers watershed.

This watershed comprises 12 towns including Norwell, Scituate, Hingham, Hanover, Pembroke, and Weymouth, is an expansive watershed, and was known for shipbuilding. Used as channels for melt water when the glacier moved north around 10,000 years ago, the North and South Rivers surround 3,000 acres of salt marsh and 2,000 acres of endangered species habitat. The North River rises the from marshes and springs in Weymouth, Rockland and Hanson, emptying into the Atlantic, and the South River’s source is Round Pond in Duxbury.

The watershed’s topography is dynamic: for instance, as the rivers deposited silt, the salt marshes extended, keeping up with the sea level rise. The watershed lowlands contain fresh and salt water marshes, crucial for stormwater runoff and habitats for local wildlife, whereas a small section for the uplands is used for agriculture.

The NSRWA is working on Third Herring Brook, a tributary of the North River. As of now, herring can only access the bottom part of the watershed system, and have trouble moving upstream. There is only a 26% passage outflow in the fall. The Third Herring Brook has four dams that traverse its main stem. The NSRWA is working to take out one dam, funded by the YMCA, which is hesitant to go through with the dam destruction because of a lack of funds.

Peter Kelly-Detwiler and Nik Tyack once again paddled the 72-mile long passage mentioned above to raise money for the North and South Rivers Watershed Association. In a statement about their fundraiser, Peter and Nik said, “We hope to both raise awareness of Massachusetts' beautiful rivers and also support the North and South Rivers Watershed Association in their pioneering efforts to preserve and restore the watershed we grew up in. Recent successes of the organization include bringing river herring back to Scituate's First Herring Brook and re-opening shellfish beds on the South River.”

(http://www.crowdrise.com/WampanoagCanoePassage2013/fundraiser/peterkellydetwiler)

We kayaked down Herring River from the Driftway Park in Scituate, to where the Herring meets the North in proximity to the ocean. We then entered up the North River. I traveled with Dorie half the time, and the other half by myself; as a writer some reflection time suits me well.  Upon reflection, the journey seems a blur of riverside docks and waterfront properties, sprawling forests, and tall grasses. I do, however, remember feeling exhilaration as I swept down the river and jetted right under a highway overpass. Nothing pumps me up like the adrenaline of emerging under a bridge and into the open for a new adventure. I tired quickly by the end of my journey and my arms ached the entire day after! The repercussions were well-worth the experience though.

This journey was a unique one. So far, I’ve been viewing the southeastern MA watersheds and their main waterways from their shores, looking at the rivers. But instead of touring the watershed land, we were actually on the water, where I was able to gain a different perspective. We literally traversed the land as if we, too, were the North River.

This perspective led to an overwhelming contemplation about the North River: I thought about just this one river, and the countless ecosystems it encompasses, which broadened to the North and South Rivers watershed, to the millions of waterways in this country and in the world, the minute and fragile, interlocking environments. Each environment is its own, and also connects to all others; each one is vital to its environment and to the lives of organisms around the world. I also imagined what it was like for the Wampanoag Native Americans to have to traverse the waters, how taxing, frustrating, and rewarding it must have been.

Thanks to this experience, I’ve found that kayaking is something I could see myself doing long-term. A big shout out to the NSRWA for sponsoring this fun and successful event and for their ongoing work on ecosystem restoration in the watershed! If you want to learn more about the North and South Rivers watershed or NSRWA’s advocacy, history, and volunteer opportunities, visit http://www.nsrwa.org/ or log onto http://watershedaction.org/.