Science &
Conservation
The Battle for Fenwick’s Shoreline
September 1, 2021Surrounded by water on three sides -most dramatically by the Connecticut River to the north and east and by Long Island Sound to the south—the Borough of Fenwick is on the front lines of climate change....
Japanese Barberry
September 1, 2021By now, knowledge that invasive plants are bad news is pretty widespread. Numerous articles and agencies cite “billions of dollars” in damages annually to agriculture and fisheries; they are the “leading cause” of population decline and extinction in animals....
My Forest Romance With Nyssa
September 1, 2021Nyssa was a Greek nymph, and sylvatica means “of the forest.” So I will use feminine pronouns in this arboreal essay....
Dam Removals
September 1, 2021It seemed like just another spring day when we stopped at the Salmon River, a tidewater tributary of the Connecticut River that splits the towns of Haddam and East Haddam, Connecticut....
Mother Trees
May 31, 2021“Happy families are all alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way,” began Tolstoy in his novel Anna Karenina. Take a walk in the woods and you will see trees of different sizes and species reaching up towards the sunlight. One would think that there is a fierce competition between the trees to get to the top of the canopy....
Plant a Tree Help a Fish
May 31, 2021Fish restoration in the river depends, to a significant extent, upon its forests and the management thereof....
Wild & Scenic Eightmile River
May 31, 2021Bingham, 80, has spied many splendored things along the Eightmile River through the decades: such as otter and mink, cerulean warblers and bald eagles, bobcat and black bear scat....
A Beauty and A Beast
May 29, 2021By now, knowledge that invasive plants are bad news is pretty widespread. Numerous articles and agencies cite “billions of dollars” in damages annually to agriculture and fisheries; they are the “leading cause” of population decline and extinction in animals....
A Once and Future Sanctuary
May 28, 2021In summertime, looking across the Sound, my thoughts turn to Plum Island, New York. I believe this island could be designated a public park and nature sanctuary into perpetuity if accompanied by various restoration imperatives....
Field Notes from the Osprey’s Garden
March 1, 2021For a week, I “mirrored” the contents of 24 nest poles in the Great Island osprey colony. I use a light convex bicycle mirror on the end of a long, curved bamboo wand. Standing on the salt marsh below a 12-foot-high nest platform, with my arms raised, I could check the progress of each nest....
The Perils of Japanese Knotweed
March 1, 2021It would be hard to proclaim which plant wins as the worst terrestrial invasive species in the US, but Japanese Knotweed, Polygonum cuspidatum, is a clear contender....
Hydropower
November 29, 2020We are publishing two articles about the hydropower industry in this issue of Estuary. The first offers an overview of, or a peek at, the hydropower industry, an important but largely behind-the-scenes stakeholder in the Connecticut River watershed....
Dams, Fish, & Relicensing Major Power Plants
November 29, 2020Believe it or not, there are more than 3,000 dams on the mighty Connecticut River and its myriad tributaries....
From the Publisher:
September 1, 2020My wife and I had just spent the night in a tent high up in the Tien Shan Mountains of eastern Kyrgyzstan, just down the road from where the Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin prepared his physique for space flight....
Land Trusts in the Watershed
September 1, 2020Land trusts as a mechanism for preserving land for public use have existed for thousands of years. However, most land trusts in the United States established for conservation purposes were created after World War II, starting in the 1960s and 1970s, and continuing today....
Preserving & Appreciating Estuaries
September 1, 2020This magnificent estuarine expanse is both an aesthetic and utilitarian asset. Estuaries sequester about 20 percent of the world’s carbon, cleanse our waters, and provide comfort and sustenance to countless species, including our own. If you haven’t experienced this salty idyll, up close and personal, put it on your “to see” list....
Vermont Center for Ecostudies
June 1, 2020SPONSORED CONTENT Just about a mile as the crow (or cardinal, or chickadee) flies from the Connecticut River’s western bank in Norwich, Vermont, sits a nondescript building that houses one of the most effective wildlife conservation organizations in the Northeast that you’ve probably never heard of: the Vermont Center for Ecostudies (VCE)....
A Rude Awakening and Call to Action
June 1, 2020This fall, scientists at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology spearheaded a sobering report, “Decline of the North American Avifauna,” Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.aaw1313 (2019), that forces us to moderate our pride in environmental regulations at home....
Where Have All the Birds Gone?
June 1, 2020A recent study by Cornell University found that there are nearly 30 percent fewer birds in North America than there were in 1970...