News and Insights

You’ve seen the TV ads. The one where you give an expensive car as a holiday present and it’s too big to wrap, so you put a big bow on top and drive it out among the evergreens with snow falling. Well, there are some large gifts ACES Allies bring to Greater Newburyport we want to place under your trees in the snow.

We need to put a big bow on these gifts in our area that are in the “too big to wrap” category. Greenbelt, The Trustees, the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge, the Great Marsh Coalition and Farmer John at Maple Crest Farm who all bring us open spaces to roam, marshes to explore trees and gardens, art and history preserved.

These stewards of land and other natural resources protect and share the Massachusetts places people love for their exceptional scenic, historic and ecological value.

We’ll need lots of ribbon to wrap some of these gifts. Ribbons like all the rivers and wonderful trails advocated for and supported by other steward organizations.

The Parker River Clean Water Association, The Ipswich River Watershed Association and The Merrimack River Watershed Council are all striving to have clean and healthy waters. The Coastal Trails Coalition, which is composed of citizens and communities in the Lower Merrimack Valley who work together to advocate for and develop the Coastal Trails Network, a public system of interconnected bicycle and pedestrian trails that is enhancing local recreation, conservation, education and tourism opportunities.

Like the Riverwalk in Amesbury, and the Ghost Trail in Salisbury, and others that provide environmentally sound responsible ways to live our lives in the Seacoast.

Over in the kid’s corner under the tree, we’d like to thank those rising teenagers at the Newburyport High School Environmental and Interact clubs who bring us the gifts of their activism and leadership, and who will do even more as they leave for colleges and careers. They are a smart and committed generation and we can take climate solace in the knowledge that there is a new generation that cares and is working for a healthier Earth.

We look toward the trees and hanging from the edges of green branches are beautiful ornaments like Audubon’s bird miniatures, GOMI’s seashell pendants, driftwood upcycled into charms at Tinkerhaus, handmade origami animals from the kids at Merrohawke, and sea glass “butterflies” by Pollinator PowerWorks folks.

Bells are ringing at the front door; you open it and it is a choir of clear and strong women-led voices singing holiday cheer and a new year. Women in Action Huddle, Forever Green NBPT and Climate Cafe’. Maybe, you want to add your voices too?

Outdoors, Uncle Sam has preserved for us a big present from all the parties that comprise the Great Marsh Coalition, including the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge.

It’s decorated with colorful birds, hollies and red berries throughout the year. It’s especially beautiful during the winter season as a sparkling sea and maybe snowy owls and eagles fly by. Bring your kids out there for a gift of nature up close and lovely on one of the premier birding spots in the world!

We have many big gifts to celebrate locally and ACES would like to thank all of those gift givers — ACES Allies — who make our lives happier, healthier, and we urge you to support them and we want to wish you all Happy New Year 2023.

‍

“These trees which he plants, and under whose shade he shall never sit, he loves them for themselves, and for the sake of his children and his children’s children, who are to sit beneath the shadow of their spreading boughs.” French theologian Hyacinths Loyson.

The spirit of the holiday season causes me to think about the joy that is possible from living gifts for others at any time of the year. November 12, 1996 is the birthdate of my daughter Corinne. One of the happiest days of my life. We had been expecting her for nine months and now here she was. I remember clearly that day doing the fall clean up at Atkinson Common when my beeper went off with the 911 and I jumped in the truck to go to the hospital.

Life was changing in our family and I wanted to mark Corinne’s birthday with something special that would commemorate this day forever.

I had been working at Atkinson Common for several years and was attempting to start a memorial tree planting program. What better way to remember a loved one than to plant a tree for someone’s memory. I took it a step further and decided that it would be great to plant an American Beech tree for Corinne’s memory growing up and for her to bring her friends, kids and grandkids to visit and sit under a majestic beech tree planted by her parents.

I remember the day we planted the tree. We brought Corinne in her basinet and she watched as I dug the hole for the tree and placed it in. We had our picture taken in front of it and the tree wasn’t much more than 6’ tall. As time went on Corinne grew and so did the tree. During Kids day in the Park at Atkinson Corinne would get her picture taken with her friends in front of “her” tree. I never thought much about it knowing that the tree was in a great spot and would be cared for by the Atkinson Common group in perpetuity.

When I took on the position as parks manager for the City of Newburyport I then realized just how large the tree had grown. Corinne was in college, time had passed. I just didn’t realize how quickly it had.

As word got around the Newburyport Tree Commission that I had planted a tree for my daughter 25 years earlier, they were interested in the story. Corinne and I had our pictures taken in front of the tree once more for a press release for the Tree Commission. Rather than Corinne being an infant or a teenager she was a beautiful young woman as tall as me and now the tree was 35 feet tall.

I see the tree daily. It brings back good memories of Corinne every time I walk by or pass it while mowing. It warms my heart knowing that because of a decision by her mother and I to plant the tree decades ago, it is a generational event that she will be sharing with others when as she has a picnic under its arching boughs.

It never occurred to me at the time the importance of the tree in my life. The living gift that my daughter enjoys and, looking forward, her children and her children’s children. I hope that you will consider a living gift of any type during this holiday gifting season. It can be planted at anytime and the memories last forever.

This column was coordinated by ACES youth corps member, Ana Satir. She asks, if you care about issues like these and would like to learn more and possibly do a bit more or have any questions, please send an email to acesnewburyport@gmail.com. To learn more about ACES and its Initiatives, visit https://www.aces-alliance.org.

Mike Hennessey is the City of Newburyport’s parks manager.

‍

NEWBURYPORT — Newburyport High School students got a good look at potential green internships and community service opportunities when the Alliance of Climate and Environmental Stewards presented the 2022 Environmental Stewardship Open House Wednesday afternoon at the school.

The Alliance of Climate and Environmental Stewards, or ACES, is a network of organizations and individuals dedicated to climate and environmental health.

The Newburyport-based non-profit organization organized the first Environmental Stewardship Open House, which saw 19 local ally organizations, such as the Merrimack River Watershed Council and the Gulf of Maine Institute fill the high school cafeteria Wednesday afternoon.

ACES president Art Currier said Wednesday’s open house was designed to offer NHS students a chance to discover project-based learning experiences in their local area.

“These organizations can give students rich experiences in a whole host of potential projects,” he said.

NHS junior Grace O’Malley had a chance to talk to senior Johnny Owens, who was representing the Massachusetts Audubon Society Joppa Flats Education Center.

Owens said he has been volunteering at the education center for the past six years and was telling his fellow high school students about the volunteer teen naturalist positions that are available.

“They do a lot of the education, especially during the summer time. That has been a great opportunity for the Massachusetts Audubon Society and I hope they do something similar for the little kids too,” he said.

O’Malley said she learned a lot about Massachusetts Audubon Society volunteer opportunities from her classmate.

“You can help out with a lot of family things. I wasn’t looking for an internship until I got here,” she said.

Senior Ibo Sava said he was a fan of the 3D map of the area that the Merrimack River Watershed Council brought in.

Meanwhile, high school principal Andrew Wulf said Wednesday’s open house was a tremendous opportunity for, both his school, and ACES.

“This has been a great collaboration, as we are working to strengthen internship and work experiences for our students. That way our students can experience their interests before they graduate and have a better idea of what they do, beyond high school,” he said.

Although Newburyport High School does not require its students to fill a set number of internship or community service hours, Wulf said each student can work toward accumulating service credits.

“If a student, from freshman year to senior year, accrues 75 hours of community service, that counts as 2.5 credits. That way, their schedule could be more flexible by their senior year,” the principal said.

Parker River National Wildlife Refuge visitor services manager Ella Webber said she was also letting plenty of students know about all of the internship opportunities that her federal program provides on Plum Island.

“Short-term internships and fellowships can help someone get a foot in the door for a conservation career and we also do a lot of mentorship and career building, to figure out what a long-term career would like as they think about college and what they want to do with the rest of their lives and how that might fit into a possible federal career in conservation,” she said.

Sophomore Priya Kaur, president of the Newburyport High School Interact Club, said her fellow students seem to be excited about the information she and junior Nolan Smith were providing about the club during the open house.

“They know that their friends are also doing it and it’s a really chill, low commitment when it comes to community service,” she said.

Smith said he was also getting a positive response from his fellow high schoolers.

“Everyone seems to like Interact Club. They like to participate and it is about service above self,” he said.

‍

‍

‍

Last Friday after a busy week in Boston as Prince William and Princess Kate met with Mayor Michelle Wu and Gov.-Elect Maura Healy, went to a Celtics game and toured innovative businesses like Greentown Labs, an incubator for environmentally oriented startups they announced the winners of the Earth Shot Prize.

The Earth Shot Prize was designed to find and grow the solutions that will repair our planet this decade and to regenerate the place we all call home in the next 10 years. It was a “green carpet” event with younger and older generation of performers on the stage with Billie Eilish and Annie Lennox performing at the ceremony and Prince William-founded environmental organization awarding $1.2 million prize to five winners.

Even those skeptical of the British royal family’s global position, might admit this event had glamor with the Princess in a high fashion green gown, and serious promise for the future of our Earth.

The overall winner in the “protect and restore nature” category was Kheyti, an Indian startup, that has developed a simple solution that is already having a considerable impact. Its Greenhouse-in-a-Box is designed for small-hold farmers and the crops they grow, offering shelter from unpredictable elements and destructive pests. Kheyti also trains and supports farmers to ensure their greenhouse is as effective as possible. The results are dramatic.

Plants in the greenhouse require 98 percent less water than those outdoors and yields are seven- times higher. Ninety percent cheaper than a standard greenhouse, they are more than doubling farmers’ incomes, helping them invest more in their farms and their children’s education. Using less water and fewer pesticides, they are protecting the planet too. It might be an innovation that part time New England farmers might check out to add to their own income.

But it was earlier in the week when we heard that the Royals had visited Greentown Labs that our antenna went up and we began to relate it to our ACES Newburyport foundation story. When the Newburyport Clean Tech Center [NCTC] nonprofit was formed a number of years ago, Greentown Labs was one of the first places we visited to gain insights into the evolving incubator. ACES today is the same non-profit that was operating as NCTC back then.

One finalist “LIVING SEAWALLS” developed in Australia attaches artificial marine-friendly habitat panels to existing structures to help sea life thrive. Sea defenses like walls, jetties, and groins are fitted with habitat panels which are cleverly designed. Resulting in 36% more marine life after just two years growing, adhering to the surfaces, with further increases expected through time. Many species of invertebrates and seaweed, as well as multiple species of fish thrive among the panels. So when we looked closer this one stood out as something our friends like State Sen. Bruce Tarr and the Merrimack River Beach Alliance and allies like Storm Surge and Blue Ocean might want to investigate. This one might deserve vetting or a small pilot for use locally.

It’s not too difficult to envision our Merrimack jetties and Boston harbor seawalls dampening more wave action, attracting more fish and growing seaweed that can sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Green technology was at work for this advance in Australia. Why not here? With the large-scale dredging of the Merrimack River underway both for navigation and as a sand source to protect Plum Island from sea level rise, this additional possibility for the future could be implemented with relevant technological advances as financing opportunities arise.

Because ACES tries to relate global phenomenon to what we can be doing locally to help the cause of climate this year’s Earth Shot prize seems to offer lots of food for thought. You might like to explore the Earth Shot web site (earthshotprize.org) and if you see something you’d like to help out with as part of acting locally on climate then contact us and sign up for our newsletter and we’ll try to connect you to others of like mind. Why not dive in and work with us to help.

This column was coordinated by ACES a youth corps member, Ana Satir. She asks, if you care about issues like these and would like to learn more and possibly do a bit more or have any questions, please send an email to acesnewburyport@gmail.com. To learn more about ACES and its Initiatives, visit https://www.aces-alliance.org.

‍

By the early 1900s, the continent’s wild turkey population had been reduced to an estimated 30,000 birds. It’s been written that is a smaller number than today exists for orangutans, polar bears and African elephants, all species with futures causing considerable angst among conservationists. Rampant poaching and habitat destruction offered little hope for the wild turkey’s future. But fast forward to today: 7 million turkeys room around the country, occupying almost all suitable habitat and even expanding beyond their original range. Thanks to efforts by ACES ally the Massachusetts Audubon Society to bring turkeys back to Massachusetts in the 70’s and the United States banning DDT in 1972, we now have both turkeys and eagles back in the Merrimack Valley.

Now NOAA Fisheries has developed a comprehensive fish management plan for the Merrimack River watershed aimed at restoring economically important fish, and the habitats on which they rely. The plan published in 2021 (www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/problem-plan-restoring-migratory-fish-merrimack) looks forward to a variety of strategies to restore salmon, shad and sturgeon to the river. Such a restoration, sometimes by dam removal or unblocking, a re-wilding of the river, would enhance eco-tourism as well as supporting greater numbers of eagles and osprey which feed on migratory fish.

In some cases the valley may be a bit too wild. Hunting for wild game as food has recently expanded in Massachusetts as the state has opened up the number of deer allowed to be taken in response to the dramatic over population in our forests. Its success remains to be seen, but striking the right balance between the deer population and the recreational hunting economy and now adding, if only in a small way, to regional food security would seem beneficial.

Here in greater Newburyport bees and butterfly restoration is being encouraged as networks of native plants are the focus to encourage pollination for our farmers and orchardists. ACES ally Pollinator Powerworks has been one group leading in this areas. Will that help farms grow more food and maybe become regionally self sufficient in honey? Will there be more Monarch butterflies for kids to stare in wonder at?

In Newbury, invasive tree species of Norway maple are the center of debate as some want some of them them removed as damaged and invasive and others wanting to keep every tree. In West Newbury Maple Crest Farm and surrounding the Artichoke reservoir, NHS students have researched, designed and implemented an informative “Tree Walk.” The idea is to educate people on native trees, any of which were used in earlier times for remedies, furniture, flavorings. and can the American chestnut which once filled the slopes leading down to the Merrimack be restored after a disastrous early 20th century disease carried into America by an invasive tree species? It’s possible because there are now disease resistant American chestnuts growing in select nurseries and soon ready to be replanted as a reintroduction into our local forests.

Our forebears enjoyed a much healthier and productive ecosystem before the industrial revolution. Can we allow and encourage our towns and cites to become more wild than during the height of the industrial era? Can we restore our valley ecosystems to enhance resiliency, reduce flooding and expand the potential for food security? Isn’t it time to re-wild the Merrimack River Valley? Can we bring back the salmon, herring, and shellfish to early 19th century levels? Can we do it in a way to remake it into more self-reliant food source or at least a bigger ecotourism and economic resource as a fisherman’s destination?

Can we work together to create a vision of re-wilding our local “nature stores” as a way to a better life in the valley? Can we find ways to better manage waters, fields and forests and to provide habitat for animals and native plants to thrive up and down the Merrimack Valley? We can if we find ways to better manage waters, fields and forests and to provide habitat for animals and native plants to thrive up and down the Merrimack valley. With whole ecosystem thinking and cooperation between neighboring towns and states, we think we will.

This column was coordinated by ACES youth corps member Ana Satir. She asks, if you care about issues like these and would like to learn more and possibly do a bit more or have any questions, please send an email to acesnewburyport@gmail.com or sign up for ACES newsletter here: https://www.aces-alliance.org/contact.

I’m writing about the Nov. 3 front-page article about ACES’s Merrimack River Survey written by Jim Sullivan of The Daily News. It’s good to see more attention is made concerning the condition of the river.

I’m a West Newbury resident and enjoy boating on the river. The water quality? Not so much. The brown slicks and smell of disinfectant coming from sewage treatment plants upriver is worse than all the “no wake” zones we boaters have to put up with.

Without a doubt, the biggest threat to the river are combined sewer overflows (CSOs), when heavy rains overwhelm treatment plants and they discharge untreated wastewater.

This has been well-publicized by the Merrimack River Watershed Council, who monitors the river after CSO events. Fixing this problem will take time and be a huge cost.

One pollutant, however, which is easier to fix, is to ban the use of coal tar sealcoating products used on driveways and parking lots. These products contain high concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are toxic to human health and the environment.

Coal tar is a byproduct of the coking process and has a strong creosote-like odor. If a parking lot stinks on a hot summer day, it’s coal tar you’re breathing.

Like PFAS, most people don’t know about this new emerging contaminant. Dust and fragments wash off the parking lot surface into storm water drains and wetlands and accumulate over time. PAH concentrations in coal tar sealants can exceed 100,000 ppm (mg/Kg).

I’m a scientist and expert in this field. My business, Sitelab Corp., worked with Chesapeake Bay Trust on a federal U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant with the Department of Energy and Environment in Washington, D.C., to develop a laboratory protocol to test and certify driveway sealants.

Products with PAHs below 1,000 ppm qualify for gold certification. Products with PAHs below 10,000 ppm qualify for silver certification. Regulators around the country are starting to ban the use of coal tar and other high-PAH sealcoat products to help protect their watersheds.

Sitelab is working with Austin, Texas, and Charlotte, N.C., who enforce the 1,000 ppm limit and require manufacturers to have their products tested by a certified laboratory prior to use. See this list for examples: https://site-lab.com/2022-JUNE10-CERTIFIED-SEALCOATLIST.pdf

A large number of cleaner, PAH-friendly products made with asphalt are available and contain no or very few PAHs. The bucket brands sold at retail stores are all asphalt-based.

These products are mostly used by homeowners on driveways and represent only a small percentage of the market and environmental impact. Most sealcoating is performed at the commercial level on parking lots, like shopping centers, schools and office buildings, where coal tar is most often used. Urban runoff is bound to carry these compounds into the Merrimack.

Maine recently passed a ban into law with a 10,000 ppm PAH limit, which is too high, but a good start. New York State and Canada also just passed bans and both have plans in the works to lower the limit to 1,000 ppm as a result of my outreach effort.

If our neighbors are doing it, we should, too. It’s time New Hampshire and Massachusetts take action. Ask your elected officials to get legislation started. It can only help the river.

This site is a good resource with map showing bans in US: https://coaltarfreeusa.com/bans-2/.

This column was coordinated by ACES youth corps member Ana Satir. She asks, if you care about issues like these and would like to learn more and possibly do a bit more or have any questions, please send an email to acesnewburyport@gmail.com or sign up for ACES newsletter here: https://www.aces-alliance.org/contact.

ACES is wrapping up its three-year-long survey of Merrimack River users and the insights are disturbing. Survey responses show that 95% of river users are concerned to very concerned about the current and future condition of the Merrimack River and 73% of respondents believe its unhealthy to be in the water of the Merrimack and to use it as a source for drinking water, which 600,000 people already do. ACES released the results from our user survey analyses available to civic leaders and officials and the general public in November.

The survey report may be downloaded: https://www.aces-alliance.org/post/merrimack-river-2022-survey

In 2016, the American Rivers Association listed the Merrimack as one of the country’s 10 most endangered rivers. The U.S. Forest Service has ranked the watershed as the most threatened due to forestlands development, the fourth most threatened due to water quality issues, and the seventh due to loss of habitat for at-risk species. Though there are plenty of other pollutants such as micro-plastics, chemicals and storm runoff that are of concern, addressing Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) provide a starting point for restoring the health of the Merrimack.

Combined Sewer Overflows, or CSOs, occur when there is too much rain for a community’s sewage system to handle, discharging untreated sewage into the water. Though there is increasing awareness of this problem, there are still many who do not realize that it might be best to stay out of the river or not fish or collect shellfish from the river after a heavy rainstorm in five major population centers along the river.

To better understand the public perception of the health of the Merrimack River for various non-commercial uses, ACES has conducted a three-year survey of river users to quantify what they think about the health of the river, beginning with a pilot survey of adult masters-level rowers in 2019 and a basin-wide general user survey in 2021. The surveys provide an understanding of what people are seeing and experiencing when they actively use the river, whether it is someone who paddles in the Merrimack every day or someone who just happens to live nearby and may have questions about their drinking water.

Users are demanding immediate action to control CSOs either by engineered solutions relating to existing sewer facilities and storm drain structure as well as natural solutions such as expanding conservation lands adjoining the river, establishing living shorelines and planting more trees

When asked if the periodic overflow releases of sewage into the Merrimack River causes human health hazards, 88% agreed or strongly agreed that CSO discharges into the Merrimack River do pose a hazard to human health. We also found that although over 70% of our surveyed user population say that the Merrimack is not suitable for swimming, and yet almost 10% of them regularly swim in some river sections. Regarding what actions should be taken to address declining health of the Merrimack, 66% of surveyed river users list fixing the CSO issue as their highest priority.

With recent federal funds made available to fix our county’s declining infrastructure problems, there should be plenty of financial resources to improve the Merrimack River CSO issue. It’s important that federal, regional, and local governmental, business, and organizational leaders act on this problem. As environmental stewards, we are providing this report (see link to report below) to foster the collaboration among all stakeholders and the public in the watershed to address and “rescue” the river so we have a healthy watershed. We trust that facts in the report will marshal the impetus needed for all the above parties to secure the grants to jump start the process.

Lon Hachmeister is an ACES board member who lives in Newbury and led the survey effort.

This column was coordinated by ACES youth corps member Ana Satir. To share any comments or questions, please send an email to acesnewburyport@gmail.com. To learn more about ACES and its Initiatives, visit https://www.aces-alliance.org.

‍

In 2017, the transportation sector contributed 29% of greenhouse gases across the country. Greenhouse gases come from passenger cars, freight and home delivery trucks, trains, buses, and airplane travel.

“How can American society reconcile people’s seemingly boundless love affair with their vehicles with the need to reduce carbon emissions?” says Bruce Lieberman writing in “Yale Climate Connections”.

Getting a grip on climate change means we need to get a grip on our transportation choices. We have many tools to manage a change to less polluting transportation but a lot of it is yet ‘disconnected’. To do the right thing, do good and get a return on needed investment, we’ll need to become proactive and knit together the whole of our transportation infrastructure. Some of what it will take is changing our personal habits.

First some things are obvious. Driving less by planning trips better or choosing hybrid work from home options are good. Deploying electric vehicles is a good tool to control emissions, but that takes community wide infrastructure like building out networks of charging stations. That might include helping locally owned gas stations to make successful transitions to other business models and uses. Using other means than cars to go places can be a big help like choosing to take a fuel-efficient bus or walk or bike.

Locally we are fortunate to have the Merrimack Valley Transit Authority buses, formerly known as the MVRTA now rebranded as “MeVa”. The name stands for Merrimack Valley but also has Hispanic linguistic echoes of ‘going’. The new buses are becoming more and more climate neutral, and they charge nothing. They are free. In Amesbury, Mayor Kassandra Gove has recently worked with MeVa to move some stops around based on local knowledge of what works best for people walking to the bus stops. This is a good example of connecting their community transportation network more effectively.

Maybe plan a bus little adventure with friends to Amesbury to a brewpub to discover the local bus routes? Or head to Lawrence for real Italian cookies at Fisichelli’s on Union Street or Tripoli’s on Common Street. Have fun on the way and have fun when you get there.

Walking more is good for you and good for our climate. Strolling around the network of the Coastal Trails Coalition’s trails or The Trustees or Essex County Greenbelt properties is an excellent option. Ask yourself why not walk instead of driving to a coffee shop or to get a haircut. Maybe a supermarket is close enough for you to walk but one big shopping a week is too much to carry home. Why not consider walking two or three times a week and bring along one of those little folding grocery carts with a pull handle. Or maybe sign up for one of their home delivery options and not walk at all. This is a reasonable climate option because the delivery trucks plan efficient routes and are using electric vans for delivery more and more.

A solution to our transportation climate problems might just involve a bit of new zoning that encourages neighborhood business and safe, well-lit sidewalks that allow us to walk or bike to safely. ACES ally Newburyport Livable Streets advocates and educates the public on these issues and Mayor Reardon of Newburyport has a plan focused ran on a fix the streets agenda. Why not take the opportunity to make your mobility choices pro-climate and walk, bike, and take a bus more often more consciously? Why not make new transportation adventures an opportunity to develop your own little climate game and help the environment?

A resident of Newburyport, Ron Martino is an ACES advisor/mentor and member of the communications team.

This column was coordinated by ACES youth corps member Ana Satir. To share any comments or questions, please send an email to acesnewburyport@gmail.com. To learn more about ACES and its Initiatives, visit https://www.aces-alliance.org.

After the enthusiasm of COP 26’s prospective gains and commitment to climate actions, the COP 27 summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, starting this Sunday will take place amid confusion and backsliding in implementation of needed climate action.

When Russia invaded the Ukraine with all its terrible climate harming missile and munitions blasts, the world went into a period of disbelief and shock. Then it scrambled and improvised to cope with the auxiliary economic and health blow back from the war. Many of their responses and strategies crosscut differently in the way they effect climate.

With Russia using oil and gas as a weapon to squeeze Europe forcing them to abandon Ukraine, many market participants sought for ways to cope by urging reductions in energy use, or perhaps to make war time profits by opening up more oil and gas leases, keeping coal generating plants scheduled for shutdown operating for longer.

While these pro-fossil fuel actions seem like a short-term good idea given inflation and the coming cold winter in Europe, in the long run, they are terrible for climate.

Germany continued burning more coal than its plan and its commitment to COP26. Britain changed prime ministers and welcomed a new King Charles. The former a Tory seen as somewhat ‘soft’ on climate issues and the later, a long-time climate advocate. But in the arcane, a least to us Americans, way of British government the prime minister said he wasn’t going to go then changed his mind as is going. And the King face into his obligation to remain a-political and is forecast to not be there and to lower his advocacy voice for climate, at least in public. President Biden will be there and whatever the election noise next week back home, his presence will send a strong signal that America wants to do the right things about climate.

Meanwhile, giant fossil fuel corporations like Exxon Mobil took it as an opportunity to lobby harder for more oil leases and drilling permits. While other companies, like General Motors, decided they are ‘all in’ for electric vehicles and are rolling out a full range of EVs.

In the United States, the COVID relief bills and the Inflation Reduction Act are bringing lots of funding for projects to cope in various ways with global warming and its resulting processes including sea level rise and worsening flooding and droughts. On a regional basis, the Merrimack River’s issues in Newburyport and Lowell are, as of this week, getting project money committed as are many other Massachusetts and U.S. cities and states. It helps that Massachusetts Congressional members, like Richard Neal and Katherine Clark, held key positions in the last session of Congress. It’s another proof point that elections have consequences for all residents of this region.

One is tempted to overuse the quote from “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens about our time being both “the best and worst of times”.

The COP27 sessions start this weekend and lasts until Nov. 18. Coincidentally, between local, regional, and national elections next Tuesday and the final counting and perhaps run-off, you may be hard pressed to see this global gathering at the top of your news broadcast or running in banner headlines in the local papers. But please try to follow it a bit. Please plan to vote if you haven’t already. Every vote for a candidate who understands the importance of pro-active environmental stewardship for the well-being of our future generations – more exactly our children and theirs – is very important.

Accordingly, while you are making your choices, please consider the matter of the long-term health of our planet and the environment as one of your personal priorities.

This column was coordinated by ACES youth corps member Ana Satir. To share any comments or questions, please send an email to acesnewburyport@gmail.com. To learn more about ACES and its Initiatives, visit https://www.aces-alliance.org.

ACES is wrapping up its 3-year, opinion survey of Merrimack River users to determine how they feel about the health and condition of the river and the insights are disturbing.

Survey responses show that 95% of river users are concerned to very concerned about the current and future condition of the Merrimack River and 73% of respondents believe it's unhealthy to be in the water of the Merrimack and to use it as a source for drinking water, which over 600,000 people currently do!

Most Merrimack River users (84% of responders) want sustainable action taken to find and fix CSO hot spots either by engineered solutions relating to modifying existing sewer facilities and storm drain structures and nonpoint source areas by natural solutions such as expanding conservation lands adjoining the river, establishing living shorelines, and planting more trees. ACES is making the Merrimack River User Survey report from our survey analyses available to you and to legislative leaders, local officials, stakeholder organizations, and the general public with the following link.

There is an increasing awareness in the Merrimack River Basin of “occasional problems” with the quality of Merrimack River water due to Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs). CSOs occur when too much rain enters an outdated combined sewer and stormwater system, and it is necessary to discharge untreated sewage into the river to prevent the system from backing up into residential homes. However, many river users still do not realize that if they are using the river downstream of one or more of the five major CSO sources along the river it might be best to stay out of the river and not fish or collect shellfish from the river after heavy rainstorms. To better understand the public perception of the health of the Merrimack River for various non-commercial uses, ACES has conducted this survey of river users to quantify what they think about the health of the river. The survey provides an understanding of what people are seeing and experiencing when they actively use the river, whether it is someone who paddles in the Merrimack every day or someone who just happens to live nearby and may have questions about their drinking water. When asked if the periodic overflow releases of sewage into the Merrimack River cause human health hazards, 88% agreed or strongly agreed that CSO discharges into the Merrimack River do pose a hazard to human health.

We also found that although over 70% of our surveyed user population say that the Merrimack is not suitable for swimming, and yet almost 10% of them regularly swim in some river sections.

Regarding what actions should be taken to address the declining health of the Merrimack, 66% of surveyed river users list fixing the CSO issue as their highest priority. With recent Federal funds made available to fix our county’s declining infrastructure problems, there should be plenty of financial resources to improve the Merrimack River CSO issue. It’s important that federal, regional, and local governmental, business, and organizational leaders act on this problem. As environmental stewards, we are providing this report to foster collaboration among all stakeholders and the public in the watershed to address and “rescue” the river so we have a healthy watershed. We trust that the facts in the report will marshal the impetus needed for all the above parties to secure the grants to jump-start the process. ACES BOD and the River Survey Team

‍

Newburyport has been a leader in the adoption of clean energy and sustainable practices with a strong commitment to advancing renewable energy sources. The city’s Energy Advisory Committee and its designation as a Green Community have helped residents, businesses, and municipal operations save money while driving a responsible transformation in the way energy is generated and consumed.

Several years ago, many Newburyport residents and some of the city’s municipal operations enrolled in the Nexamp community solar program. That program, which offers discounted solar credits to subscribers, helps to both reduce electric costs and promote the expansion of clean energy on the grid.

Now, thanks to the strong relationship with Newburyport, Nexamp has chosen the city for its new home energy storage pilot program. As part of this limited program, and with the support of the Newburyport Energy Advisory Committee, Nexamp is offering free home energy storage systems exclusively to Newburyport residents. For those who choose to participate in the program, Nexamp will install a battery in your garage or basement at no cost. This battery provides homeowners with access to an automated source of backup power while also helping to reduce the utility upgrades needed to meet area electricity demand.

Nexamp looked at several communities for this pilot program but selected Newburyport because of its existing relationship and the high percentage of aging grid circuits​ in the area. Home energy storage systems will help address grid demand while offering a number of resiliency advantages across the service area.

Interested residents do not need to be Nexamp community solar subscribers to participate in this free pilot program, but there are some requirements and restrictions to ensure a successful installation. If you are interested in participating and would like to learn more, schedule a time to speak with Mike Spiro, Director of Consumer Products for Nexamp at https://calendly.com/mspiro-nexamp/intro-meeting.

‍

Fifty years ago, on Oct. 17, 1972, Congress passed the Clean Water Act. Since its passage, the Clean Water Act has opened the way for restoring our rivers and preventing pollution around the country.

The Merrimack River has been a big beneficiary of those changes in law and corporate behavior. Dyes and chemicals from textile and vinyl fabrication plants in Manchester, Lawrence, and Lowell have been curtailed. Heavy metals from chrome plating facilities and strong chemicals from paper mills upriver have also been reduced dramatically.

Sturgeon have slowly returned to the river to spawn in Haverhill. Salmon have yet to be well restored as dams, especially at Lawrence still seem to be an obstacle to their spawning runs. But there is hope now. Fifty years on from the passage of the Clean Water Act, the Merrimack has made progress toward restoring its glory days.

And as we celebrate let us toast the Ipswich and Parker rivers locally too. ACES Allies Ipswich River Watershed Association and the Parker River Clean Water Association have stood as guardians of those rivers. They monitor them and they advocate for them and have kept ‘eyes on the prize’ of cleaner water and healthier watersheds.

And we are lucky locally to have the Marine Biology Lab of with its headquarters in Woods Hole continuing its research on the estuary and marshes of the Merrimack River via it long standing Plum Island Ecosystem LTER [ long term estuary research]. Plum Island is a fitting place to speak of because the great grandmother of world environmentalism, Rachael Carson whose books like the Silent Spring galvanized environmental awareness worldwide, wrote one of her first short pieces on the health of Plum Island’s birds.

The Merrimack is lucky to have advocates and researchers like the Merrimack River Beach Alliance, ACES Ally the Merrimack River Watershed Council, governmental entities, and advocates such as the Merrimack Valley Planning Commission and elected officials including Senators Tarr and DiZoglio and Mayors Reardon and Gove and numerous selectmen from Salisbury, Newbury, West Newbury and other river communities.

But threats remain! Increased population growth and development of riverside lands have added more non-point storm run-off pollution to the river’s burden. Plus, climate change has apparently made rain events more potent with combined sewer overflows (CSOs) now an all too frequent occurrence.

New technologies and products have created newer 21st century threats to the river’s health. Disposable plastic containers and the resulting water-bourn micro-plastic fragments are showing up in studies as detrimental to human health. PFAS, so called ‘forever chemicals’ that are used in many products and processes today such coatings and fireproofing are showing up more too. Pharmaceutical residues such as from antibiotics and birth control pills are not filtered out easily and can potentially cause human health concerns and disrupt fertility and endocrine systems. Warming temperatures mean that the river’s temperature will likely be changing and that can have effects on fish populations as well.

Industrial pollution of the 19th and 20th centuries has largely been dealt with as new pollution from those sources have largely been forestalled both by the Clean Water Act and changes in global trade and automation that moved those jobs away from our local river, the Merrimack. But riverside development has meant that natural wetlands have been disrupted and we need to ask ourselves how development too close to the river can be discouraged. There is a need in the whole river watershed to focus on rebuilding wetland water storage capabilities. Perhaps even by new farm ponds being encouraged as part of needed local food production capability in the face of climate change.

Yes, 50 years after the passage of the Clean Water Act new work is needed. But let’s take a pause at least during this week in 2022 to celebrate its great accomplishments and the leaders of the past who help that happen.

This column was coordinated by ACES youth corps member, Ana Satir. To share any comments or questions, please send an email to acesnewburyport@gmail.com. To learn more about ACES, visit website https://www.aces-alliance.org.

‍

The image of the earth as one whole organism and the realization of which human beings are an integral part can be a challenge for us to envision.

Many of us see ourselves as outside nature and maybe even as masters of nature. For those living in cities who purchase their food in air-conditioned grocery stores where each item is carefully placed in shiny stainless steel refrigerators or neatly stacked shelves, we have created an “other worldly” place.

Nature is our world. It is messy, uncontrollable, beautiful and difficult to understand. If we have the means to visit national parks, we know the power of waterfalls, rivers and the great ocean itself.

But we often live in constructed communities where humility about our fragile lives is difficult to keep in perspective. We forget how each of our choices to use the resources of the earth has an impact on the lives of others, significantly those in more fragile places on our globe. In Kenya right now, families struggle to have water to drink, cook and wash. Goats and giraffes are dying.

What can we do? Small Solutions Big Ideas is using the abundant natural resources we have here in Greater Newburyport – our marshes, rivers, small forests, and seashore to bring youth closer to curiosity and eagerness to understand nature.

We are doing this by creating a public wildlife mural created by local youths and with contributions from our youth community in Kenya, Africa.

There are two more art workshops available free to the public for children ages 7 to 11 at the Parker River Wildlife Refuge Center, July 9 and 16.

You can sign up or just show up at 9:30. We are grateful for the stewardship of the Parker River Wildlife Refuge Center for their welcoming this project to their facility and for the support of the Newburyport Cultural Council and Massachusetts Cultural Council in understanding the significance of nature to youth via artwork.

Newburyport is abundant in artists who spend hours contemplating the changing colors of the marshes, the sky and the flight of birds. Experts acknowledge that their creative work offers opportunities for all of us to be reinforced by the beauty that they share.

We need to ensure we provide opportunities for our youths to feel that close to nature.

Research by the British RSBP group documents: That people with a greater connection to nature are more likely to behave positively toward the environment, wildlife and habitats … and may be critical for future nature conservation.”

Bill McKibben in a recent Atlantic article calls this destructive heat the “fire” we have created digging coal, extracting oil which we now depend on.

We don’t yet know all the solutions to greening our environment, but we can assist youths in understanding the complex web of life and be prepared for the future.

This mural will be celebrated on Aug. 6 (1 to 6 p.m.) in the outdoor areas of Pleasant Street’s historic Unitarian church.

Youth art will be displayed, Megan Hiango’s sculpture made of broken lobster pot grates will be an interactive art piece. Our Kenyan youths will be present through their videos and art to provide a global perspective.

We invite other environmental groups to join us, contact us to set up a table and let the public know of your work. A highlight of the afternoon will be a 3 p.m. performance by a nationally known spoken word poet, Jordan Sanchez, along with our local NHS “Poetry Soup’ geniuses, who performed at the Juneteenth celebration, and knocked us all off our feet.

Jordan’s poem “Climate Denial” can be previewed online: https://thejordansanchez.com/tag/climate-denial/. Please join us.

If you are a youth and have your own art, bring it along. Contact us on Facebook /smallsolutionsbigideasafrica, website: http://smallsolutionsbigideas.org or email: sandra@smallsolutionsbigideas.org.

Sandra Thaxter is a founder and president of Small Solutions Big Ideas.

This column was coordinated by ACES youth corps member Caleb Bradshaw. To share any comments or questions, please send an email to acesnewburyport@gmail.com. To learn more about ACES and its Youth Leadership Initiative, visit https://www.aces-alliance.org.

If you are like me, you have a lot of friends that have either bought second homes in Florida or moved there permanently. Like many others, I like to go to Florida for at least a week or two every winter – just to warm up from our cold New England weather.

But little did I think of Florida as the front lines of our battle against climate change. Hurricane Ian changed that.

During Ian’s landfall, I sat snugly in a Firehouse Center theater seat, watching a movie, “2040,” that was hosted by the local group Storm Surge. It was a surreal experience.

While western Florida was getting battered by 150 mile-an-hour winds and 17-foot storm surge (in communities 5 to 10 feet above sea level), I sat cozy and dry, and kept comfortable by a climate control system that helps storms like Hurricane Ian form more frequently and become more deadly. I heard the air conditioner come on, fueled by fossil fuels. and then I started to feel guilty.

The movie comes on, a tribute to the producers, and the sponsors in that it’s not another gloom and doom, we’re screwed, “it’s too late” epitaph. “2040” is a story presented through the eyes of children – those young folks that will be adults in 20 years. It’s a different portrayal of climate change and what we can do about it.

“2040” was less about guilting us into action, and more about showing us that technology – and incentives – that can save us are ready for the planet. Sure, in my lifetime climate change and frequent extreme weather events have gone from a probability to a certainty.

As the movie explained, we have crossed the tipping point, and the conversation is no longer how do we reduce our carbon emissions, but now must include how we extract carbon from the atmosphere and remove the carbon that we have already emitted.

Our ability to do that might mean life or death for our species. Real solutions highlighted in the movie were things like “marine permaculture,” which includes seaweed farming that can provide food, fuel, and fertilizer while reducing carbon emissions, and in some cases removing carbon from the ecosystem.

My favorite was the eco awareness dashboard – a way that a community can watch the climate effects of what we do in real-time – on an online webpage, or a continuously updated billboard. This is what has allowed Oberlin, Ohio, to be proactive about many changes needed.

To view the Oberlin dashboard, click on this link: https://oberlin.environmentaldashboard.org/cwd

With the movie’s emphasis on technology and practices that are here today, I came out of the theater feeling hopeful. Hopeful this is a battle that can be won. Hopeful that our country realizes that we are all on the front lines – not just Florida, or Puerto Rico. Hopeful for my grandchildren.

Our turn in Newburyport to experience severe climate-change induced weather will come, I am sure – but “2040” left me with a sense of a path forward.

Thank you, Storm Surge, and the Firehouse for providing the space, for helping our community understand what’s at stake, and what a way forward is.

We now have an opportunity to have many individuals in our communities engage with and contribute to environmental stewardship types of organizations and municipal initiatives/projects to support collaboration and have a local positive impact.

Punta Gorda, Puerto Rico, Bangladesh – we’re in this together, worldwide. and we can do it.

This column was coordinated by ACES youth corps member Ana Satir. To share any comments or questions, send an email to acesnewburyport@gmail.com. To learn more about ACES and its 4 Initiatives, visit https://www.aces-alliance.org.

‍

NEWBURYPORT — A local nonprofit organization will be very busy over the next couple of months promoting fall cleanups in the local area and beyond.

The Alliance of Climate and Environmental Stewards, or ACES, is a Newburyport-based network of organizations and people dedicated to climate and environmental health.

The organization, which facilitates a weekly column for The Daily News of Newburyport, has been working to create a more sustainable planet by connecting and amplifying local organizations since 2018. It is also promoting a number of area cleanups as part of its 2022 Fall Cleanup Campaign.

“If somebody can’t go to one cleanup, they may be able to participate in another,” ACES President Art Currier said.

Among the events, ACES is promoting is a cleanup of Crane Beach in Ipswich on Saturday, Oct. 22, from 10 a.m. to noon. In addition, the Seacoast Paddle Board Club will kick off a cleanup at the Peirce Island boat ramp in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on Sunday, Oct. 30, from 10 to 11:30 a.m.

The Coastal Trails Coalition will host a pair of cleanups Saturday, Nov. 19 – the first at Lions Park in Salisbury and the second at the Riverwalk Trail entrance in Amesbury. Both begin at 9 a.m.

Currier said the Salisbury Department of Public Works regularly gives people the opportunity to organize a cleanup at a local site.

“Efforts like this require collaboration,” he said. “So supporting all of these cleanups is vital for all of these communities. Together, we can make a much bigger dent because of the teamwork involved.”

ACES has worked with Jim McCarthy of Newburyport, who heads up the Greater Newburyport Plogging group, which regularly uses handheld devices to pick up trash year-round.

“Jim is a phenomenal environmental steward who is self-motivated,” said Brenda Hoover of ACES. “People clean up every day, all year long, it is endless.

Hoover said the spring is typically the best time for local cleanups, which often coincide with Earth Day in April, and ACES hopes to work with a local student group to develop an all-school cleanup in the area, possibly next spring.

“Nothing has been set in stone at this point because schools are about a month in,” she said. “But we’re hoping some of the students will be able to spearhead that project.”

For more information, go to the Alliance of Climate and Environmental Stewards website at www.aces-alliance.org/.

Staff writer Jim Sullivan covers Newburyport for The Daily News. He can be reached via email at jsullivan@newburyportnews.com or by phone at 978-961-3145. Follow him on Twitter @ndnsully.

In addition to melting glaciers, forest fires, droughts, and floods because of climate change, we also are seeing people on the move around the world.

Hurricanes Fiona and Ian, in addition to flooding vast swathes of Puerto Rico and Florida, will be bringing a tremendous surge of people heading north due to the cataclysmic climate damage. We will begin seeing a “storm surge” of refugees.

NBC News on Wednesday afternoon estimated that over 100,000 homes will be uninhabitable in Florida. and Reuters with a New York dateline on Wednesday also wrote, “An estimated 349,000 homes and businesses were still without power in Puerto Rico on Wednesday after Hurricane Fiona hit on Sept. 18, causing an island-wide power outage for its 3.3 million people”

A large portion of these Americans are going to be displaced people they are American climate refugees, and they will be surging north to friends and family, some of which are in the gateway cities of Springfield and Lawrence.

Also, many of which are retirees from leafy suburbs who will be trying to move back. For a state with too little housing affordability, or even availability at any price, we are going to feel that wave of people forcefully arriving. We are not prepared to accommodate the potential impact of this chaos.

As society works to mitigate climate change longer term, we also need to have emergency plans at the ready. Should there be a Massachusetts emergency zoning waiver to start filling the housing needs of these American refugees?

They will become climate refugees due to two hurricanes in the early weeks of a very big season of storms. They will have been big and energetic due to very warm waters and rising sea levels as the glaciers of the north melt. But more will be coming in months to come.

Each of ACES’ Allies has been working and preaching about climate change for years.

Storm Surge – of Newburyport – is one of those groups which has specifically educated the public, including a long-planned film, “2040,” about opportunities of what can be done to counter the climate crises that just aired at the Firehouse.

They have taught us over the years the whys and hows of storm surges. They have let us know that as The Washington Post recently described, that “when a hurricane travels over the open sea, its powerful winds act like a giant bulldozer collecting water and pushing it forward.

When this buildup of water runs into land, the sudden rise in sea level above normal tides is called storm surge, and it is sometimes the most deadly and destructive part of a hurricane.”

Our immediate issues from these two hurricanes will be absorbing people moving back to be sheltered with family already here. Important next steps should be anticipated ASAP.

Our next governor’s leadership on this issue to engage all our elected officials and departments ranging from mayors to MassDOT to support new housing production and new protections at our water’s edges is critical.

Worcester and Holyoke, Lowell and New Bedford, will all need state aid to deploy to housing in new and innovative ways. We need everyone to step up and start putting aside NIMBY instincts and creatively confront this significant challenge through collaboration at all levels.

Bureaucratic logjams should be cleared away and work start soon – we do not want to be swept away in the chaos that may ensue.

This column was coordinated by ACES youth corps member Ana Satir. To share any comments or questions, send an email to acesnewburyport@gmail.com. To learn more about ACES and its 4 Initiatives, visit https://www.aces-alliance.org.

Monarch butterflies only lay their eggs on milkweed. It is the only plant the monarch caterpillar can eat. As open fields are lost to development, homeowners using pesticides, and their cool winter forests are warming, the monarch population is losing their areas to land and reproduce.

You can help this magnificent insect, as well as other native pollinators, by planting native milkweeds and fall nectars such as goldenrods and asters and stop using pesticides on your property including plant-based mosquito sprays.

Along with fall nectars, types of local milkweeds you can plant are swamp milkweed, butterfly weed, whorled milkweed, and poke milkweed and the best time to plant milkweed seeds is after foraging wild critters hibernate in late November.

Every fall, monarchs that emerge from chrysalises in the northern United States. and southern Canada migrate all the way to their wintering grounds in the cool mountain forests of central Mexico. The following spring, they begin their journey north where four generations breed and die along the way before the southern migration begins again. It’s up to us to help provide shelter and nutrients for this long journey to Mexico.

Kattie Banks Hone, known as the “Monarch Gardener” in Ipswich spoke recently about monarch butterflies at the Newburyport Senior Center. The presentation offered insight into the Monarch’s natural history, migration, the reason for its decline and the many conservation efforts that are currently underway along its migration pathway.

Recently classified as an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, homeowners are perfectly positioned to help them.

Katie listed an entire season of blooms that you can plant in your own yard to help monarchs and other pollinators and can be found at themonarchgardener.com under Nursery Info.

An effort worked on over the summer by ACES Ally “Pollinator PowerWorks” was noteworthy as Ellie Volkhausen notes: “we’re proud to report that PPW planted 10 gardens with more on waiting list for next year”

Greater Newburyport has recently become a hot spot for bee, butterfly and hummingbird conservation with pollinator gardens popping up around the region and more people keeping bees too. and the city is teaming with ACES “Pollinator PowerWorks” to plant some of its conservation lands especially for pollinators like the Monarch butterfly.

You, too, can become part of the butterfly conservation movement too. Plan your own pollinator garden with appropriate fall planting of native perennials and subscribe to ACES’ newsletter to stay in touch with local environmental and climate news.

Colby Farm meadow seeking help to plant milkweeds and other pollinators.

If you want to help with the Pollinator Field on Colby Farm Lane, we need volunteers. Contact us at pollinatorpowerworks@gmail.com to sign up.

This column was coordinated by ACES YOUTH CORPS member Ana Satir. To share any comments or questions, please send an email to acesnewburyport@gmail.com. To learn more about ACES and the Youth Leadership Initiative, view the website – https://www.aces-alliance.org.

“A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit”

This ancient Greek proverb signifies much of my environmental thought process. As a horticulturalist and a lover of trees, I have luckily seen many events thru my career. In thinking about this column and what I am sharing, I believe reflections on the past lessons will shape the future for the better. “We learn from our mistakes” is an important axiom.

In Newburyport, there are 26 beautiful parks with trees, turf, plantings, and nature all around. Atkinson Common is a wonderful seven-acre flagship that is on the verge of becoming its own arboretum. I have had the privilege of working in Atkinson Common since 1992 as a contractor and then in the Parks Department.

People connect with the urban forest in parks and nature. There is a need for healthy strong trees in the community. Parks trees and street trees are anchors for the look and feel of the community. We learned from planting monocultures in our city parks, such as, the Bartlet Mall’s majestic elms which have been decimated with the invasion of Dutch Elm disease. We also learned that the Joppa Park’s double knock out roses were almost wiped out by the harsh winter of 2015. Now we avoid monocultures all together.

Our larger forested parks provide great escapes for children to go into the woods and use their imagination to connect with what they see and feel. Likewise, a dog owner can connect with many aspects of nature when they walk and exercise their pet. These are essential elements to a community short on space and long on pavement.

The use of the parks by the community during the COVID-19 pandemic reinforced the public’s need to gather in the outdoors while maintaining distance. I often found it difficult to have our crews do the mowing and landscaping in the parks because of all the people in the parks. A good challenge to have!

Looking forward, the city and community need to ensure that the natural resources that bless the city are safeguarded and reinforced. It needs to happen in an efficient and effective manner for the long term benefit of the entire community. This involves caring for the trees: maintaining the lawns, shrubs, and plantings; ensuring optimal use of the parks and facilities by and for the community, and planning future designs, plantings maintenance, and use.

Climate change is here and requires our younger generations to continue evolving and safeguarding our natural resources. New arboriculture methods are being taught that prepare us to work with this changing climate. The use of trees and plants that are acclimated to a warmer climate such as that of Pennsylvania or Virginia is now being stressed to Arborists and Horticulturalists in this region. The life span of an urban tree can span almost a century. However, we need to consider what kind of climate we will have in a 100 years. What do we need to consider for our parks and forest with this backdrop?

It seems that there are increasing educational opportunities abounding thru grass roots efforts as well as university and governmental programs to encourage our youth to take part in the changes that are needed in society for their well-being. One example is the Mass Department of Conservation and Recreation program involving their sponsoring a calendar poster contest.

It was won by a fifth-grade student at Newburyport’s Nock Middle School. The prize included the planting of a crabtree at the rear of the school with all the fifth-grade students participated in the planting of this tree. I believe programs like this set an example for students, as well as adults, about the importance of our natural resources. They can set the stage for future arborists and new members of the green industry.

This column was coordinated by ACES youth corps member Ana Satir. To share any comments or questions, please send an email to acesnewburyport@gmail.com. To learn more about ACES and its 4 Initiatives, visit https://www.aces-alliance.org.

Mike Hennessey is parks manager for the City of Newburyport.

‍

Post-COVID, pre-election, with a jittery economy and in the face of multiple climate disasters, motivation is high worldwide for more dramatic climate action. It can all feel so disheartening and dire. But ACES is feeling a bit more optimistic lately.

A “green reset” is happening at every level and in every corner of the political, business, and nonprofit ecosystem as it regards climate. And money is beginning to flow via the Inflation Reduction Act to solve multiple problems by transitioning to cleaner energy sources to totally new ways of making and transporting things. And it’s change that is really needed.

In general, the United States. And other countries will do this by leveraging the pent-up demand for upgraded and new forms of infrastructure and the jobs that they generate. Building that new infrastructure will be a great investment opportunity and it will generate good, new jobs. Jobs that may require new job skills.

A big investment in much-needed new infrastructure, designed with green needs in mind, will energize community colleges and high schools to work with employers and business groups along with trade unions to invent new forms of apprenticeships for young America. Working to alter the course of climate degradation isn’t harmful to our economy. Rather, it’s the way forward to better jobs and a better economy. New investments in our economy can have a big payback both financially and in terms of climate.

Locally, Greater Newburyport has climate and environmental challenges of its own. Consider rising seas, a river that floods when moderately big storms hit. Consider the vulnerability of Plum Island and our sewer and water systems. Fortunately, our city leaders have worked to address some of these issues with upgraded sewer systems on Plum Island and coastal armoring at our wastewater treatment plant.

Intergovernmental things are needed too like working with other cities and the state and the Merrimack Valley Region Planning Commission to plan a river clean-up and rescue. We need regulators to press utilities to fix the gas leaks all over our cities. They may not be explosive, like in Lawrence, but they certainly add to global warming and affect the air we breathe.

As a new generation of aspiring politicians emerge on the local scene, we might ask them what they see they can do to create this needed “green reset.” How can they help make every neighborhood safe for biking and walking? How can they encourage and zone for walkable destinations like corner stores, coffee shops, meeting places and lunching in the neighborhoods as many more people telework and are in town during the day. What are the new green jobs that will emerge? How can the community arrange apprenticeships and internships to help young people get started? How can we, as a community, support them? Let’s push the big green reset button now for Greater Newburyport.

Green lights the color of money – they are flashing and it’s time to conceive of significant and important projects and apply for grants to roll forward towards a healthier future in the Merrimack Valley.

A resident of Newburyport, Ron Martino is an ACES advisor, and he publishes “GreenTalk Daily” on Twitter @ronmartino4

This column was coordinated by ACES youth corps member Ana Satir. To share any comments or questions, please send an email to acesnewburyport@gmail.com. To learn more about ACES and its 4 Initiatives, visit https://www.aces-alliance.org.

During the mid-1800’s several million horseshoe crabs were annually harvested to feed pigs, chickens and fertilize the fields around Delaware Bay. Today those same horseshoe crabs would be worth over a billion dollars and be protecting millions of people from COVID- 19.

At its peak there were five companies producing what they called “cancerine fertilizer,” and the eggs of the crabs were so numerous that farmers would fill their hay wagons with billions of eggs and feed them to their farm animals. But they stopped a few weeks before slaughter so their chickens and pigs wouldn’t taste like dead fish. One would like to think that the industry was banned for conservation reasons, but it was more because of the introduction of chemical fertilizers and the fact that developers’ concerns that they couldn’t sell new bayfront homes because of the stench of millions of rotting horseshoe crabs.

But the crabs themselves seemed inexhaustible. Harvesters collected 750,000 crabs along a half-mile beach in 1855 and 1.2 million crabs along a mile-long stretch of beach the following year. But as would be expected, the population finally crashed along with the millions of shorebirds dependent on horseshoe crabs to fuel their migrations from South America to the Arctic Circle. By the late 1960s harvesters had only been able to collect 100,000 crabs a year. and birds like the endangered red knots were arriving on their Arctic nesting grounds too emaciated to start laying eggs.

The problem had not been so much that fishermen collected too many adult crabs, but that they had collected them in shallow waters before the females laid the eggs that would produce the future generations of the ancient arthropods. Now, horseshoe crabs are facing a similar crisis but this time the stakes are significantly higher, and their depletion is threatening millions of human lives.

Everyone has heard of Anthony Fauci and Francis Collins, but horseshoe crabs are truly the unsung heroes of the COVID pandemic. All the syringes, vaccines and antibody kits used to fight COVID-19 have to be tested for bacterial contamination and the way that is done is with a preparation of bright blue horseshoe crab blood called limulus lysate. A quart of the raw lysate is worth about $1,500. By the same token each crab is worth about $1,500 if you keep it alive and only use it for biomedical purposes. But now the pattern of over-harvesting and depletion is repeating itself. The COVID pandemic has increased the demand for horseshoe crab blood, so collectors are starting to harvest the crabs when they are laying their eggs in shallow waters, the way they did during the heyday of the fertilizer industry. This will lead to a precipitous decline in future generations of crabs — but the biomedical companies think it is worth the risk.

A scientist in Singapore has used gene-splicing technology to produce a recombinant form of lysate that doesn’t require killing live crabs. So far, the Food and Drug Administration has not approved this synthetic lysate because it didn’t want to switch horses in the middle of a pandemic. They had 30 years of experience using the more sensitive and cheaper natural lysate but only two years of trials with the synthetic version, so they turned it down.

But the writing is on the wall. The lysate companies can see that the synthetic lysate will probably be approved after the pandemic quiets down and the multi-million-dollar lysate industry will come to a rapid end, along with the lucrative horseshoe crab fishery that it depends on. Perhaps the companies can justify sacrificing a few years’ worth of horseshoe crabs because once the synthetic lysate is adopted, the 450-million-year-old species will have another million years or so to recover.

Can the same be said for humankind?

Bill Sargent, an Ipswich-based author of numerous books, provided this column from “Crab Wars: A Tale of Horseshoe Crabs, Ecology, and Human Health.” He can be reached at sargb@earthlink.net This column was coordinated by ACES youth corps member Ana Satir. To share any comments or questions, please send an email to acesnewburyport@gmail.com. To learn more about ACES and its 4 Initiatives, visit https://www.aces-alliance.org.

‍

In Waipoua Forest on the northernmost tip of New Zealand there is a tree 177-feet-tall and over 2,000 years old. Impressive, yes. Even more impressive is the reverence that the Maori show this primeval giant. It is named Tane Mahuta, “God of the Forest,” after the Maori god who pushed apart the sky father and earth mother to create a place on Earth for humans to live. The tree is so sacred that it is considered taboo to touch it. Tane Mahuta, in terms of sheer scale, is awesome, inspiring, and sublime. It stood in New Zealand before the first humans arrived on the island. No wonder it is considered a god.

Imagine if we treated our local trees with such reverence. Would we dare cut down even a small god if it shaded our pool or its leaves became a nuisance to rake? Of course, I’m not advocating that we deify the trees. But I do believe that we have lost a connection to them.

American consumer culture has taught us that trees on our property are exactly that, pieces of property, and we can do with them what we please. Imagine, instead, if we treated trees as the long-lived organisms that they are. That they are not something we own but living things that we must care for as stewards and protectors, just as we care for a loved one or a family pet. How would you feel if your property was home to a 2,000-year-old giant?

Such giants do exist. A bald cypress in a North Carolina swamp is 2,624 years old. A little closer to home, Mohawk Trail State Forest is home to Massachusetts’ oldest trees, a grove of 500-year-old hemlocks. This gets me thinking. Where is Newburyport’s oldest tree? How old is it? What species? Who planted it? Is it in danger of being cut down? There’s a hemlock in my yard, maybe 40 or 50 years old. Will it live 50 more years, much less 450? and what sort of effort will it take to safeguard this tree?

Working in collaboration with ACES, we have been assembling a group of individuals dedicated to ensuring our residents and visitors have a greater awareness and are educated about the importance of our local trees. This Tree Walk Coalition has representatives from Newburyport’s Tree Commission, Parks Commission, Belleville Improvement Society, the Friends of Newburyport Trees, and others as well as local city officials and naturalists. It is our hope that this coalition will help Newburyport live up to its promise and potential as an Arbor Day Foundation-designated Tree City USA.

Local youth are also getting in on the act of tree preservation. ACES Youth Corps interns recently created signs for a Tree Walk at the Indian Hill Reservoir in West Newbury to educate visitors about the importance of trees. I have been mentoring a passionate group of Newburyport High School students to bring similar interpretive signage to the trees of Atkinson Common. We hope our signage will not just be informative, but inspirational.

Earth Day may have passed, but it’s never too late to appreciate the vital role that trees play in our community. They give us the air we breathe. The shade us on the hottest summer days. They are universes unto themselves providing habitat for countless insects, birds, and animals. They are also a vital resource and commodity, providing one of the world’s most valuable building materials and harboring a wealth of medical cures and treatments. Trees offer us so much. Lately, I’ve been asking myself, “What do we owe trees in return?” Is clean water and a quiet place to grow enough? Or do they deserve more?

Ted Boretti is chairperson of the Newburyport Parks Commission.

Today, rising household costs have increased the severity of local food insecurity beyond that of 2020. Families with children are relying on Our Neighbors’ Table for 33% more food than they were in 2020. Working individuals need more from ONT to make ends meet.

Eight years after the 2008 recession, local food insecurity rates were still on the rise. As we look at the horizon after the 2020 crisis, we see it takes more than a village to tackle the challenges of food insecurity in our communities.

It takes many villages – each connected at the local, grassroots level to the specific needs of its members and interconnected to each other and the regional and state resources that can leverage the economies of their larger size. Creating a “hub and spoke” structure, in which local organizations can better access local and regional sources of fresh food, produces a more efficient and seamless result for all those needing food, support and hope.

That is why ONT, as part of the Seacoast Food Provider Network, is building a regional center to meet the challenges on the regional “spoke” connected to the larger “hub” of the Greater Boston Food Bank. This regional center then becomes a localized “hub” for the multitude of regional agencies providing access to food in our communities.

This regional center addresses our network’s two immediate challenges to delivering regional food security: Inadequate food inventory and inadequate logistical infrastructure. More specifically, there is limited distribution space and limited food storage for both dry and refrigerated food. We also share need for a pipeline of able-bodied volunteers as well as appropriate vehicles to transport food.

For the 15 members of our network, our new Salisbury-based repurposed 24,000-square-foot facility will create significant dry and cold storage; include fruit and vegetable storage for crops gleaned from local farms; house regional volunteer recruiting and training; and create a GBFB cross-dock to increase access to food for local agencies in the broader Lower Merrimack Valley who currently have limited or no access to GBFB food. ONT will also make our trucks and vans available to transport food across partner sites.

The pandemic only increased challenges to accessing food in the state and region. It also highlighted the importance of finding more ways to share knowledge and resources and working collectively.

Access to the GBFB cross-dock will expand the reach of the centralized food bank without adding the pressure of more demand at their central warehouse and will reduce the number of trucks traveling from our region to Boston. The shared storage facility and coordinated truck routes will allow our network to redirect even more locally grown and produced surplus foods from landfills to homes.

Delivering food security to this region does start at the village level and will only be successful with local leadership and involvement. But success at the local level depends on leveraging limited financial resources to not only deliver food but create a sustainable infrastructure across our communities with effective underpinning from the larger regional and state partners. That’s the goal of the Seacoast Food Hub – move forward, together.

For more information, please visit our website: https://www.ourneighborstable.org/.

‍

The Merrimack River drains a watershed of 5,000 square miles that sustains over 2.5 million citizens, supplies drinking water to 600,000 Merrimack Valley residents, and provides major recreational opportunities, diverse fish and wildlife habitat, and stunning scenic beauty to more than 200 New Hampshire and Massachusetts communities.  

Recently, there has been heightened concern for the health of the Merrimack due to the long-term effects of industrialization, population growth, CSOs, increased upland runoff, and a variety of point and nonpoint source pollutants.  

These are big problems and for the past 2-3 years ACES has been supporting the creation of a broad-based, multi-state coalition that can raise community, state, and federal awareness of the urgency for a clean, safe Merrimack River. 

In 2019/2020, ACES conducted a highly successful Pilot Survey of one hundred-twenty-eight Master Level Rowers on the Merrimack requesting their observations and thoughts on the state of the Health of the River.  The results of that survey project are available on our website.

In 2021, the Alliance of Climate and Environmental Stewards is conducting a more general survey on the experiences of a broader range of recreational and commercial users of the Merrimack River, and we need your input!  By sharing your observations and familiarity with the river, you can help us gain valuable information about the health and true value of the river throughout our many Merrimack Valley communities.

‍How can you help?

‍Please visit the link below to take our free 10-15 minute river use survey ... and then forward the link to others who may also be interested in sharing their comments!

‍Share your unique experiences on the Merrimack River: 

‍

‍

The anecdotal information collected in this survey will complement the scientific data gathered by other organizations to provide a comprehensive picture of the health of the Merrimack River.  

We are looking for people who want to get involved in this project NOW, including HS and College Students and young and older adults.  Get in touch with us if you are interested in being part of the Merrimack River General Survey Team.

Question: What percentage of the earth’s surface can be used to raise crops?

In 1917 my grandfather, Albert Elwell, drove his dairy cattle up from Ipswich to Maple Crest Farm. Back in those days most of the roads were dirt and gravel with few vehicles on them, so driving your cattle was somewhat easier, but it was a long trip for the cattle.

My grandfather raised milking cows with some steers for family food, as well as tree fruit and chickens. A garden supplied food for the family all year long. In the fall vegetables were cooked on the kitchen woodstove to be canned and bottled for use during the winter and early spring months. I also recall the wooden ice boxes that a local ice man would deliver ice to several times a week. Back in those days, most of the farming was truly organic in practice. Commercial granular fertilizer was used rarely, if at all. Fields and gardens were enriched with cow, pig, and chicken manure, and manure spreaders were common equipment. Buckwheat and winter rye were popular green crops used to enrich and build up the soil.

With my grandfather’s retirement, the farm transitioned from a dairy, chicken, and fruit tree operation to a zucchini squash and strawberry operation. During that time some commercial fertilizer was used to grow the crops. Chemicals to kill weeds were not used; everything was hand or machine weeded.

When the Indian Hill Reservoir was built in the 1980s, 70 acres of farm land were taken for the reservoir and in several farm fields the good rich top soil was stripped off and not replaced. Around 1990 the farm basically ceased growing crops and remained fallow for 10 years.

In 2001, Carol and I bought the family farm and committed ourselves to bringing it back to life using environmentally sustainable methods. We took Newburyport’s bagged leaves along with local horse manure to enrich the sites where the soil had been removed. Currently, we take grass clippings and leaves to create needed compost. This year we have offered to take more of Newburyport’s bagged leaves – recycling in practice! We also plant sorghum Sudan grass, buckwheat, and winter rye to enrich the soils.

Maple Crest Farm now raises strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and Christmas trees. Our strawberries and raspberries are free of insecticide, pesticide, and weed killer. Our blueberries are only sprayed with an insecticide, Imidan, in early spring to fight off the winter moth, which would strip the blueberry bushes of their flowers.

Weeds are controlled among the blueberry bushes by lining the rows with pine bark chips which restrict weed growth, maintain a wet soil, and help create a needed acidic soil of 4.5 to 5.0. Unfortunately, we currently have to spray limited amounts of glysophate between the Christmas trees to control weed growth, but we continue to explore more organic methods, such as vinegar, which turned out to be too costly. We will continue to experiment because Christmas trees are essential in converting carbon dioxide into oxygen. One full-size tree can create enough oxygen for four people for a day.

Maple Crest Farm also can provide an educational experience in environmental stewardship for today’s youth. We are available for tours of the farm and farming activities to introduce what growing crops entails. We would love to have K-12 school classes come to the farm for hands-on learning activities.

Now to answer the opening question: 75% of the surface is water 25% land, and half of the 25% are mountains or deserts. Three-quarters of the remaining 12% is already built on with houses, roads, office buildings, factories, rocky soil, etc. Thus only 3% of the earth’s surface can be used to grow crops to feed the world. And with global warming that 3% can be reduced to 2%. Sustainable farming and education about respecting farmlands and planet are essential for the well-being of our future and the future of our children.

John and Carol Elwell own and operate Maple Crest Farm. Visit the website at http://maplecrestfarm.biz/index.html or reach John at johnelwell@verizon.net.

‍

The Trustees of Reservations’ Saving the Great Marsh Project is the largest ecological restoration project on the coast in the 131-year history of the organization. The project seeks to restore the health of depleted salt marsh and to strengthen its ability to serve as a critical buffer against the effects of climate change.

Located on the North Shore and stretching from Salisbury to Gloucester, the 20,000-acre Great Marsh is the largest continuous salt marsh in New England, providing ecological, economic, recreational, and cultural value to millions of Massachusetts residents and visitors. It is a state-designated Area of Critical Environmental Concern.

Healthy coastal marshes support biodiversity and critical wildlife habitat, sequester carbon from the atmosphere, and serve as a barrier against storm surge and sea level rise. However, historical agricultural practices dating back to the colonial era have compromised marsh health. Ditches that were dug to spur salt marsh hay production have altered natural marsh draining processes, leaving it increasingly vulnerable to flooding. Sea level rise, accelerated by climate change, will lead to more flooding, eventually causing the loss of marshland and its conversion to open water. This loss will have tremendous local and regional impacts to biodiversity and climate resiliency on the North Shore.

The Trustees Great Marsh restoration project uses innovative nature-based methods and organic materials from the marsh itself. By harnessing the power of nature to heal itself, this process can restore natural tidal flow, and rebuilt marsh peat naturally, thereby keeping the marsh from sinking—known as subsidence. A healthy marsh can support critical habitat for wildlife and continue to build in elevation, keeping pace with sea level rise. In a multi-phase approach over a period of three to five years, The Trustees and partners aim to restore more than 1,200 acres of the Great Marsh.

The Trustees protects over 120 miles of coastline in Massachusetts—more than any other private landowner in the state. In 2016, we completed a comprehensive coastal vulnerability assessment of all our coastal properties, identifying beaches and salt marshes as our most at-risk natural areas. Active restoration of the Great Marsh began with a pilot project on 85 acres at the Trustees’ Old Town Hill reservation in Newbury in 2019 and positive results from this work are already evidenced by a significant decrease in standing water levels in the remediated marsh area year over year.

With the support of federal grants and other supporters, The Trustees is proceeding with Phase 2 of the project, restoring several hundred more acres of marsh, including 30 acres in Newbury at the William Forward Wildlife Management Area. Phase 3 of this project will scale up this work even more, working with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Mass Wildlife, Greenbelt, and other partners to restore an additional 916 acres of the Great Marsh, with hundreds more acres to follow. Active monitoring will continue for several years to measure the outcomes of the ongoing work.

This Great Marsh restoration project is at the necessary scale to make a real and lasting impact for future generations. To read more about the Saving the Great Marsh project, watch a recent Chronicle segment, and learn how you can support this work, visit onthecoast.thetrustees.org/marsh

For more information about projected marsh loss on the North Shore explore our inaugural State of the Coast Report (2020), focused on this region: thetrustees.org/coast or Contact: Kristen Grubbs, Coastal Project Manager, The Trustees kgrubbs@trustees.org, 978-607-1130

For many of us, thinking about the threats to our wildlife and ecosystems can be overwhelming. It might feel like the momentum is too great, that we can’t change the direction we’re heading in. But that’s not the case.

I’m writing today to let you know about an easy, rewarding way for you to make a very big impact. It’s not difficult or costly, and it happens locally, maybe in your own backyard.

Ready? Here it comes … you can help by taking care of the turtles who live in your neighborhood.

Newburyport and surrounding towns are hotspots for turtles crossing roads. We’ve got fantastic habitat and a healthy respect for wildlife here. Our turtle populations are certainly threatened, but they are in better shape than many. We can keep it that way, and we should.

Why? Protecting turtles is a big win. Turtles play a significant role in keeping our water clean and our wetlands healthy.

Our Eastern painted turtles are studied by researchers all over the world because of their potential to teach us how to keep someone alive in the aftermath of a heart attack or stroke.

These interesting, beautiful creatures also deserve our respect just for being what they are, regardless of what they do for us.

The life strategy of turtles is completely different from many of the mammals we are familiar with. They are built to live very long lives and are slow to reproduce. The dead turtle you see in the road may never be replaced by another turtle. Take a moment to think about that.

How can you help? Easy! Look out for them while driving, especially in May and June. Move a turtle across the road in the direction it is heading when it is safe for you to do so. and absolutely, contact a licensed wildlife rehabilitation organization like Turtle Rescue League (turtlerescueleague.org) when you find an injured turtle.

With proper treatment, turtles often survive injuries that make their finders think “there is no way in the world this turtle is going to make it.”

These are things we can all do. They are easy, they will make you feel good, and they are a tremendous “bang for the buck” as saving a single turtle is an enormous benefit to that turtle’s entire population.

This letter also serves as an announcement that Turtle Rescue League is launching our Guardians Program, right here in Greater Newburyport. With ACES, we’ll educate members and the community and coordinate efforts to maximize our impact protecting turtles.

If you’re interested in learning about the many ways we can help our turtles, once a year or all the time, I urge you to contact us today at guardians@turtlerescueleague.org. We want you, no matter your age, experience or skills, and you don’t need to live next to a wetland. I sincerely look forward to growing this program with you.

Right now, a new generation of turtles are hatching from their eggs. Perfect timing for us humans to start a new generation of Turtle Guardians, too. Join us to protect our turtle neighbors.

To finish, some amazing people need to be thanked. They have helped many, many turtles this year. David, Trey and Toby Scott of Boxford; Pam, Jason and Jerry Koen in West Newbury; and Mark Marroni of North Andover all deserve our thanks when we enjoy a clean drink of water, a walk on a wetlands trail, or a moment enjoying the company of a turtle basking nearby on a log. Thank you!

Nicolas has been a driving force for the Pollinator Powerworks (PPW) organization, a small multi-generational group dedicated to augmenting a pollinator pathway through the greater Newburyport area.. PPW partnered with 10 individuals and the River Valley Charter School to plant native pollinator gardens in yards and on the school property, totaling approximately 3,000 square feet. PPW is also partnered with the Conservation Commission of Newburyport to convert a hay field on Colby Farm Lane to a pollinator meadow. Volunteers created a list of native plants which Nicolas edited and expanded, based on his extensive knowledge of native north shore, MA plants. We created sample garden plans for small, medium, large, wet, and shade native pollinator gardens and launched a web page on our parent organization site.

Nicolas contributed to an op-ed for the Newburyport News which helped PPW find local gardeners and supporters interested in this cause. https://www.newburyportnews.com/opinion/commentary-planting-a-garden-can-help-save-the-planet/article_88349646-850c-11ec-8f68-4b14955a79ac.html. After this op-ed was printed, we received many emails. Nicolas responded to each respondent and organized a meeting with each interested party. He has spent countless hours designing people’s pollinator gardens. Over $2500 was raised through the PPW web page. He has spent the spring prepping garden space, delivering plants, and planting gardens.

Ellie Volckhausen, who nominated Nicolas, states, “Nicolas has shown up for every activity, bringing his passion for pollinator gardens and native MA plants. Nicolas has literally gotten his hands dirty and has removed hundreds of square feet of sod, weeds, and invasive plants. He has taught the members of our group, our gardeners, and a group of 4th and 5th graders at the River Valley Charter School best practices for planting, creating water wells, and mulching. He has taught us all a lot about native MA plants, as well. He is by far the most knowledgeable of our group! He is an impressive 17 year old and I think everyone involved in Pollinator Powerworks and ACES would be proud to see him acknowledged for how he’s gone above and beyond in his volunteer work. Nicolas is a Junior at Newburyport High School who moved to Newburyport from San Francisco in 2019. He enjoys spending time outside hiking and observing plants and wildlife, taking pictures, observing the weather, and gardening with native plants. His native plant garden is slowly expanding and has successfully attracted lots of pollinators and other wildlife.”

‍

A researcher puts a frog into a pot of boiling water and it hops right out. But if she drops that frog into a pot of tepid water and gradually raises the heat, the frog will stay put until it’s too late.

While factually dubious, the story is a metaphor for how we tend to deal with threatening change. An immediate, pervasive threat, like the coronavirus, grabs our attention, compelling us to respond, while an equally global, dire danger like the ecological crisis is something we feel we can put on the “back burner.”

Of course, for the present our focus needs to be on keeping everyone safe by following best practices. We keep informed, listen to CDC guidelines and comply with sensible government directives. and in navigating our way through coronavirus, we may discover connections that can help us change the course of global warming.

Extinction Rebellion (XR), an international movement to safeguard life on earth, draws parallels, noting “Both [the coronavirus and ecological crisis] reveal our global interconnectedness and vulnerability. Both require truth telling and cooperation to reduce suffering and save lives.” XR’s foundational demands and principles point to these areas of intersection.

In times of a national emergency, we need facts. Only then can we break through the fog of denial that permeates human nature. We saw this as most countries initially downplayed the contagion but soon came to their senses.

Monica Maggioni, journalist and executive with Italian Public Television, explained, “For many Italians, the normal warnings about this virus were simply not enough to change behavior. Denial comes too easily, perhaps. It was more convenient to … pretend that the news was unreal.”

How similar this sounds to our approach to global warming! When wildfires, floods, droughts and food scarcities happen elsewhere, it’s too easy to see them as unrelated misfortunes that do not impact us. When our government and media treat them the same way, our potential to respond remains untapped. But temperatures continue to rise, ice caps continue to melt and species continue to go extinct.

The scientific community has convinced us to face coronavirus even when we are not sick. We are taking their advice to slow down the rate of infection. This is not so with global warming.

For decades, our governments have ignored scientists’ warnings that we are tumbling toward an uninhabitable planet. Just as with COVID-19, we need to heed the science, tell the truth and act now.

Only then can we mobilize the resources to turn away from fossil fuels, and to develop sustainable, cost-effective energy sources. The good news is that solutions already exist; they have been developed by applied scientists and entrepreneurs around the world. The way lies before us. We need only the will to act.

The twin emergencies of pandemic and global warming remind us that life is precarious and precious. If we plow through in emergency mode, we risk forgetting what it is we defend. Extinction Rebellion urges us toward a regenerative culture, which is “healthy, resilient and adaptable,” caring for the planet and for life, reminding us of what we value.

We can emerge from the coronavirus crisis even stronger than before. The invitation then will be to apply the lessons learned to tackle the climate crisis. Let’s not be like those frogs waiting until it’s too late to act.

For more on Extinction Rebellion, go to xrmass.org. Nancy Ledoux can be contacted at nancyledoux@comcast.net.

‍

The Merrimack River is not only one of the region’s greatest assets, it is a barometer of the region’s environmental health. It provides a glimpse of what is happening from the White Mountains of New Hampshire to the foothills of central Massachusetts.

Though the river is far cleaner than it was a half century ago, the greatest environmental challenge of our time – climate change – is becoming more evident.

Toxic algae blooms are becoming common in the ponds, lakes and streams that feed into the Merrimack. They’re caused by warmer water and more nutrients, such as lawn fertilizer. These algae blooms are dangerous to humans and animals alike.

Weather patterns are changing – more droughts, punctuated by intense rainstorms. Plumes of polluted runoff enter the river after these intense storms.

Trees and undeveloped lands are our best natural allies in the battle against pollution and erosion, but they, too, are facing stress from both climate change and development. The U.S. Forest Service has named the Merrimack one of the nation’s most endangered rivers due to development pressures, primarily in the river’s vast New Hampshire headwaters.

New pollutants are entering the river, such as PFAS. Along the banks of the Merrimack in New Hampshire, hundreds of homes have PFAS levels that are so high residents can’t drink out of their own wells.

The cause is an industrial plant close to the Merrimack that has pumped PFAS residue into the air and water. In Massachusetts, the highest levels of PFAS have been found in the Shawsheen River, which feeds into the Merrimack in Lawrence.

And the Merrimack still faces a pollution problem that’s two centuries old – raw sewage. When we get intense rainstorms, Haverhill, Lawrence, Lowell, Nashua and Manchester don’t have the capacity to handle the flow that comes into their treatment plants. In 2021, they released about 750 million gallons of untreated sewage into the river. This sewage can contain unsafe bacteria levels.

These are a few of the issues that the Merrimack faces.

The good news is a lot of work is underway to mitigate these issues. In New Hampshire, a coalition of groups, including Merrimack River Watershed Council, is working to conserve large swaths of land to preserve the tree buffer that protects the Merrimack, and planting new trees to replace the fallen. We are also pushing for a new initiative to study and solve the toxic algae blooms that poison New Hampshire’s lakes and waterways.

Right now, there is a golden moment to solve the Merrimack’s sewage problem. Billions of dollars have been funneled to Massachusetts and New Hampshire for infrastructure and COVID relief funding. A portion of this money could be used to help Merrimack River cities fix their sewer systems.

Issues such as PFAS are harder to come to grips with. While it can be removed from drinking water, thus far there’s no solution for cleaning PFAS from rivers.

Many of the solutions to these problems will happen if the public gets involved. Keep up with the news, visit websites such as the EPA’s Merrimack River site, and join environmental groups like ACES, Storm Surge, Merrimack River Watershed Council, and Essex County Greenbelt to name just a few of the locals. Find out what your local, state and federal elected officials are doing about these issues, and encourage them to stay on top of it. Get your friends, family and neighbors involved. There is strength in numbers.

John Macone is an Amesbury resident and the education and policy specialist for the Merrimack River Watershed Council. He can be reached at jmacone@merrimack.org.

This column was coordinated by ACES Youth Corps member Caleb Bradshaw. To connect with ACES and share comments or questions, send an email to acesnewburyport@gmail.com or kbripper@icloud.com. To learn more about ACES, visit https://www.aces-alliance.org.