From Jams to Mink

Hello Captains! A few updates and interesting news bits for you:

LOG JAMS: tomorrow I'll be meeting with Mike Wilkinson of NYSDEC, along with Ellicott Creek captains, at a big old log jam on Ellicott Creek to discuss the ecological issues of dam removal. Removal helps water flow, boat access and trash removal, but can be destructive to the shoreline habitat if done with a heavy hand (or heavy equipment). If you'd like to add your two cents, or just listen in, join us at 4pm at the car pulloff on North Forest Road in Amherst, just north of the Weinberg campus, where the bike path begins.

STORM DRAIN STENCILING: if you missed the first one, we will be holding a repeat performance for the benefit of our staff. This time we all get to wear snappy highway vests! Join us NEXT THURSDAY, August 3 at 4pm on the north end of Tonawanda St. near Vulcan in Riverside.

WARNING: NYSDEC has found dead birds contaminated with Type E botulism on Lake Ontario shorelines. Remember not to handle dead or sick wildlife or fish!! For details see the notice on the front page of http://www.bnriverkeeper.org

WILDLIFE SIGHTING: Mike Schlicht and I saw a mink on the shore of Ellicott Creek while checking out the log jam! Also present were several sunning painted turtles. What's your interesting wildlife sighting this week?

Please respond if you plan to join us on one of these events - and let us know if you have questions about the blog. Have a great weekend!

PS: I thought you'd get a kick out of this painting, from London street artist Banksy. Reminds me of some of our creeks around cleanup time!

Welcome to the Riverwatch Captains Log!

As the director of the Riverwatch program, I’m thrilled to welcome our dedicated captains to this new web log. You each have so much to offer – now you have the opportunity to share your ideas and experiences immediately with the entire group of captains. I hope you’ll make thorough use of this site to post your questions, thoughts and photographs for everyone’s benefit! If you have any problems with the blog, please call us right away at the office (852-7483) or email me at rdrake@bnriverkeeper.org. Don’t be shy – this is my first attempt at “blogging”, too!

Take a moment to look through the earlier posts and get to know our hard-working interns. Robin, Shannon and Megan never rest in their efforts to make Riverkeeper a more effective environmental advocate. Their efforts and enthusiasm have supported the growth of our Riverwatch volunteer monitoring program from a mere idea into a functioning project with enormous potential to improve our waterways.

As for me… I’ve been involved with environmental issues for just about as long as I can remember. As a small child, I recall taking early morning fishing expeditions with my brother on Tonawanda Creek. I was entranced by the chilly morning stillness, the drifting of fog banks across the water, the crackling of our little campfire on the shore. As a teenager, I worked with family, neighbors and friends to preserve my favorite place in the world, a 1200-acre tract of woods in north Amherst that came to be known as Natureview Park. After nearly 10 years, these efforts bore fruit this spring when the Town finally signed a contract with the WNY Land Conservancy to preserve the land.

I had the opportunity and good fortune to work with NYS Parks – Niagara region and Earth Spirit Educational Services as I was earning my bachelor’s degree at UB. With NYS Parks, I fell in love with the Niagara River and spent many fond days developing the nature center at Fort Niagara and exploring the mysteries of the Niagara Gorge. I also traveled a bit during this time and made friends with some great rivers and wild places around the country.

In April 2003 I came to Riverkeeper, then called Friends of the Buffalo Niagara Rivers. Like Robin and Shannon, I served as an intern through the Americorps program as I deepened my understanding of our watershed learned the issues facing us. I must have proved my mettle because I was eventually hired on as staff by the end of 2004. I have worked on many Riverkeeper projects, but developing the Riverwatch program and seeing the enthusiasm of our captains has been the most rewarding and enjoyable of them all!

We’ll all be posting regularly with useful news and updates, as well as our thoughts and impressions of the work we do here at Riverkeeper. See you here!

Riverkeeper Intern- Contact Me About Blogging

As an environmental studies major at the University at Buffalo, I had the opportunity to be the first intern for the Riverkeepers from my program. The Riverkeeper team has graciously embraced my willingness and enthusiasm to be a part of the group. Even though I grew up in Buffalo, I never experienced or even learned about the Buffalo River until the end of last semester in one my Great Lakes Ecology classes. The knowledge that I have obtained is something worth sharing and promoting; therefore, I have concentrated my work with the group as a community outreach coordinator. Along with Shannon and Robin, we have focused our efforts on tabling local events, web updating and design, upcoming cleanups, and even this blog. The need for clean water is not only important for the ecosystem but also for the local residents. The Riverkeepers relentless work has provided Western New York with the hope that the waterways will be restored and preserved for many years to come. With our outreach efforts, the goal is to reach the uninformed and I can admit that I was once one of them!

It is with my best intentions that this Blog works out for the Riverwatch Captains. Riverwatch Captains can only post on this blog, but the public can view it anytime to check it out and can make comments too. To all members of the blog, if you have any questions please contact me. After your first post, you will not be able to stop!

Giant Hogweed Sighting

Dear Riverwatch Captains:
I have met many of you at captain trainings and hope to get to know you all better through our new Riverwatch blog. I would like to thank you all for your hard work and dedication to your local streams and rivers.

I'm not a Buffalo native--I grew up in northeastern Pennsylvania (near the great Susquehanna River) and attended Houghton College in Allegheny County, New York. I majored in music, with a concentration in voice, and sociology. I moved to Buffalo last June and joined AmeriCorps in January with a placement at Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper.

I love my job! I have learned so much about Buffalo-Niagara region's history and the environmental challenges it faces. It's also given me an interesting perspective on other cities' water-related efforts. I recently visted Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington while on choir tour. In Portland, I saw a sign along the waterfront detailing the city's struggles with combined sewer overflows on the Willamette River. In Seattle, I saw a billboard questioning the quality of the water supply since the incidence of multiple scleorosis in the Northwest is the highest in the world. Even though these cities are environmentally progressive and popular places to live and visit, they are still dealing with the same issues that we face in our watershed.

The Northwest even has Giant Hogweed, too. Mike Goehle, one of our Riverwatch captains, recently reported a giant hogweed plant along the Buffalo River near the Harlem Rd. fishing access site. Robbyn Drake and I visited the site to get a close-up of this invasive species from Asia. Giant Hogweed is a rather nasty member of the parsley family, which includes Queen Anne's lace and cow parsnip. In appearance, it closely resembles cow parsnip but reaches herculean proportions--hogweed can grow as high as 15-20 feet with leaves 3-5 wide and umbles 2 feet wide. Its sap is most worrisome, however. Hogweed sap causes blistering and sensitizes the skin to ultraviolet radiation. Sun exposure on sap-coated skin can ultimately lead to purplish, blackened scars and outbreaks that can persist for years. Giant Hogweed is classified as a Class A Noxious Weed and a public health hazard. Check out Michigan state's online brochure about hogweed on
http://www.michigan.gov/documents/
MDA_Hogweed_Brochure_2_115074_7.pdf
Please see the picture above.

See you all at the next training and please blog!

Hello Riverwatch Captains! This is Shannon, one of the interns working for the Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper as an Americorps intern. I have been interested in environmental issues since elementary school when I would drive my parents nuts telling them to recycle. I majored in Environmental Policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology so I am so happy that I found a job related to my field in Buffalo.

When I first started with Riverkeeper, Robbyn took us on tours of different sites along the Niagara River, Buffalo River and their tributaries. She pointed out potential areas for habitat restoration that I never knew existed. I have since become very interested in habitat restoration as well as invasive species. I am looking forward to the Captain's training where we will be learning to remove invasives such as the purple loosestrife. I think that restoring indiginous plant species will help to restore air and water quality, which will help everyone.

Buffalo River Boat Ride

On Monday, July 10, Caleb (Riverwatch Captain) from the Great Lakes Center took us on a boat tour of the Buffalo River. Although the morning was filled with thunder and rain, the weather turned around making it a beautiful trip. Attendees were Jill Jedlicka, Robin Douglas, Shannon Holland, and Robbyn Drake. We spotted major overgrowth of Japanese knotweed, two great blue herons, and many Canada geese and their goslings. Other than a drum of unknown substances, the river looked pretty clean from debris and litter. I am looking forward to the progress and improvements made by the RAP, as well as the findings of the Riverwatch Captains.