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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 |
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9/19
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International Talk Like A Pirate Day info |
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9/20-9/26
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National Pollution Prevention Week info
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9/26
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BRWA at the Farmers Market-Daniels Farmstead, Blackstone 11AM - 3PM info |
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10/3
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Concert-TBA 3:30PM
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10/3
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BRWA Member Paddle-River Bend Farm 12:30-4PM
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10/9
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BRC Water Quality Sampling
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10/14
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BRWA Board Meeting
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10/16
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National Treehugger Day
info
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10/24
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4th Annual Blackstone Valley Riverways Cleanup
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| IN YOUR COMMUNITY
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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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