| Blackstone
River Watershed Association |
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| TIP OF THE MONTH
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Plant a Tree
Trees provide many important benefits to our
Watershed.
- Trees absorb and store rainwater which reduces the
amount, and speed, of stormwater runoff and sediment
deposition that ends up in our waterways.
- Trees remove many pollutants from the atmosphere,
including nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2),
ozone (O3), carbon monoxide (CO), and particulate matter of
ten microns or less (PM10).
- Trees protect drinking water supplies; their canopies,
trunks, roots, and surrounding soils acting as natural
pollution filters.
- Tree roots hold soil in place and fight erosion.
- For adults, views of trees and vegetation can reduce
stress, improve recovery from surgery, and even reduce
aggression. Children who play in green spaces display a
lower incidence of ADHD symptoms and demonstrate improved
academic performance.
For tips on how to select and
plant trees, go to the American
Forests website or visit a local nursery.
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| BRWA NEWS |
BRWA NIP Aquatic Invasive
Plant Program
The BRWA has
launched it's NIP (No Invasive Plants, NIP them in the bud) program, a new
initiative to promote awareness and management of invasive
aquatic plants!
 DCR
Lakes and Ponds staff recently conducted a hands-on training
forum that enabled BRWA Board members to learn how to
identify, monitor, and remove plants that can choke waterways
and destroy important habitat. The training will be repeated
on September 22. This session is full, but please contact us
if you would like to be put on a waiting list or to be first
in line for our next training in the spring.
A new web
page is currently being created to offer easy access to
reference materials and resources. It will also host
information and tools that will be used to inventory areas of
concern. Stay tuned for more developments around this
important program.
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BRWA River Cleanup - Sign
Up Now!
Save the Date! October
24th from 2 to 4pm. The 4th Annual Blackstone Valley Riverways
Cleanup day as part of “Make a Difference” day. Volunteers
needed at several locations (to be announced) within the
community to help us clean up the rivers. Also, if you know of
an area along the river or it's tributaries that needs
cleaning up, please contact
us and we will follow up with you.
Check locations
at www.thebrwa.org
coming soon! Pizza and refreshments will be provided at River
Bend Farm Visitors Center , Oak St, Uxbridge, MA after the
cleanup.
For further info or to sign up, e-mail info@thebrwa.org
or call 508-278-5200.
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Thank
You-Taft Public Library
The
BRWA would like to thank the Friends of the Taft Public
Library in Mendon for their generous donation of $200 and Dean
Bank for $56.75 in conjunction with the Summer Reading Program
entitled “Go Green.” Each child participating in the program
earned a token for every book read. These tokens were matched
with dollar amounts and a percentage of the proceeds were
donated to the BRWA.
During the summer, the BRWA
presented a “Watershed Model”, a 3-D landscape, to the
participants of the “Go Green” program. The watershed model
shows the impact that pollution has on our river ways and what
we can do to prevent it.
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| CALENDAR OF EVENTS |
| 9/19 |
International Talk Like A Pirate
Day info |
| 9/20-9/26 |
National Pollution Prevention
Week info |
| 9/26 |
BRWA at the Farmers Market-Daniels Farmstead,
Blackstone 11AM - 3PM info |
| 10/3 |
Concert-TBA 3:30PM |
| 10/3 |
BRWA Member Paddle-River Bend Farm
12:30-4PM |
| 10/9 |
BRC Water Quality Sampling |
| 10/14 |
BRWA Board Meeting |
| 10/16 |
National Treehugger Day info |
| 10/24 |
4th Annual Blackstone Valley Riverways
Cleanup |
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| IN YOUR
COMMUNITY |
Help Shape Your
Community's Future
This Fall,
Massachusetts Audubon will present area workshops in their
Shaping the Future of Your Community series. The Shaping the
Future of Your Community workshop series is designed to give
individuals the tools they need for active involvement in
guiding their community to a sustainable future and
maintaining a high quality of life. Learn how you can make a
difference in protecting and enhancing your community and our
Watershed. Visit the Blackstone
River Coalition website for the schedule, locations and
links to program descriptions.
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| OF GLOBAL INTEREST
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National Tree Hugger
Day!
Haveyou ever hugged a
tree, or just sat back and admired a tree for all of the
amazing attributes it may have? Have you ever planted a tree
and watched it grow and flourish year after year? On October 16th 2010,the 2nd annual
National Tree Hugger Day, organized by American Forests and
IKEA invites all to show their appreciation for trees and the
benefits we receive from them.
Throughout human history, trees have
provided us with basic essentials such as, food, oxygen,
shelter, medicine and tools. Trees continue to satisfy us, as
our demand for their benefits increases, and have proven to
have a community and social value, an ecological and
environmental value, and a personal and spiritual value.
Log on to imatreehugger.org to find
out more about National Tree Hugger Day and how you can be
involved. Have a special tree already? Send us a picture and
the story along with it, or take a picture of you planting a
tree and tell us what kind you’ve chosen and why! Send your
pictures and stories to info@thebrwa.org.
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Rachel
Carson Sense of Wonder Contest
The finalists have been announced in the Rachel
Carson Sense of Wonder Contest, a poetry, essay, photo and
dance contest sponsored by the EPA, Generations United, the
Dance Exchange, and the Rachel Carson Council, Inc. Teams
consisting of at least one young and one older person were
asked to share their "sense of wonder" felt for some aspect of
their natural surroundings. Click here
to view the work of the finalists and vote for your favorites.
The deadline for voting is November 1.
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America's Great
Outdoors-Last Chance to be Heard
Time is running out to join in the President's
national dialogue about conservation. To learn more about the
program, submit ideas, or join the conversation, go to the America's
Great Outdoors website. The deadline to be heard and to
help shape the future of conservation in America is at the end
of September.
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Views & opinions expressed
in linked websites do not necessarily state or reflect those
of the BRWA.
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Your input is
crucial to this eNewsletter. If you have a local watershed-related
story, information of interest to our subscribers, or comments about
this publication, drop an email to the editor.
The Blackstone
River Watershed Association (BRWA) has a mission to enhance and
preserve the Blackstone River system and its watershed; its
objectives are to:
- Educate members, supporters, watershed residents on watershed
protection strategies,
- Engage the public in watershed stewardship activities, and
- Improve the water quality and esthetics of the Blackstone
River Watershed’s water bodies.
The BRWA eNewsletter is
published monthly by the Blackstone River Watershed Association.
BRWA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
Editor: Michael
Sperry mikes_brwa@comcast.net
Mailing
address: BRWA, 271 Oak Street Uxbridge, MA 01569
Phone:
508-278-5200 Web: www.thebrwa.org
Click
here for back
issues.
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