Conservation Committee

Narragansett Conservation Committee
Jack Schempp and Linda Pease, Conservation Co-Chairs

Fri Jun. 13-15. Cape Shores Weekend: Cape Shores Weekend, Morning walks (2) with Naturalist. Tour E.Cape & National Seashore via bike paths, walks, paddling. Camp at Wellfleet Audubon Bay Refuge. (See photos from last year's weekend) Hot showers. Arrive Fri. 12 noon to 8 pm. Naturalist walks 9AM Sat:Bay & Sun:Sea shore. Comment birds, ducks and creatures of the beach, tides, history, all other. Questions welcomed. Afternoon options paddle, beach& shore bike ride. Optional group dinners Fri & Sat. Cost $65. pp, food not incl. Phone for Mike for reservation. Mail check to J. Schempp, 47 Arbor Dr, Providence, 02908. L Jack Schempp (401 331-4553), CL Mike Krabach , Reg Mike Krabach (401 333-5350, mkrabach@efortress.com)

Sat-Sun June 7-8 4th Sustainable Living/Clean Energy Festival, Coventry, RI [Special price for AMC – $10. Advance Purchase, One Day.] Gate Price $25 Fun for the whole family, music: more than 12 RI favorite musical groups: folk, rock- Information: reduce energy/housing cost,. Over 70 vendors: green household products & better living, food venders. Ten 10 workshops: Wilderness survival skills, tracking, wildlife observation, Solar electricity, Tour house with hundreds of energy saving ideas, Wind Power, Fuel Cells, Simple solar hot water systems, Bio-Diesel for heat & transportation and more. Check updated information at www.apeiron.org. Regular price $15 Advance, $25 at Gate, Children under 12 FREE. Events for kids. Bring a friend, Send Check to J. Schempp, 47 Arbor Drive, Providence 02908, made out to J. Schempp, include stamped self addressed envelop for purchase confirmation, phone #, no checks accepted after May 27. Pick up your ticket(s) at the gate. Use ticket either day, Directions on web page.

The Chapter Earth Day Clean Up at Colt State Park achieved sparkling results. Vice Chair Tom Eagan directed five enthusiastic local high school girls in clearing the tidal river area while Tom Freeman, Bob Sumner-Mack, Jean McCormack and a few residents picked up the shore front and the picnic areas. The peninsula clean up, about 30 bags, was completed in record time. Regretably, we did not have people to work on the larger landside picnic areas. It was a perfect sunny and breezy day. We hope to have enough workers to clean up the entire park next year. With the lastest layoffs by the DEM, this giant park now has a staff of only 3 people. JS

The new Botanical Garden Complex recently opened at Roger Williams Park. The new 12,000 ft greenhouse is the largest in New England. The tour introduced the group to a variety of exotic plants, beautiful flowers and even a collection of carniverous plants. The photos show some of the unusual and beautiful plants. A wonderful place to spend a warm afternoon on a chilly day.

AMC members had a perfect weather weekend on the East Cape Cod and National Seashore while camping at the quiet Massachusetts Audubon Society Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. On Saturday the group started the day with a walk down to the salt marsh and then used the rest of the day to explored the area in groups, or on their own, by hiking, biking or paddling. In the evening, people broke into groups and had dinner at various restaurants in the area. Sunday morning was the highlight of the weekend where members had a guided tour of the woodlands and salt marsh by an Audubon naturalist. The sanctuary is about 1200 acres, which has five miles of trails that traverse the eight natural habitats representing the diversity of Cape Cod. The Ester Underwood Johnson Nature Center is a model of green architecture, with composting toilets, a photovoltaic panel array and many other green building material and features.

Ken Weber, Providence Journal Nature Columnist, took us on a walk to his favorite beaver colony in Coventry. The trip was organized by Barbara Flagg and Patty D'Ambra. Ken discussed the beavers natural ability to construct dams which transforms streams into ponds and swamps. Three dams were examined. The first pond dam had been abandoned by beavers and reverted to a semi-permanant dam. The second pond was behind a two foot dam that has flooded a coventry town road. This large pond, a tributary to the Moosup River, has backed up so that a third upstream beaver dam is less than a foot higher. A most interesting object was the huge beaver lodge in the main pond.

AMC Members and friends spruced up three parks and collected obsolete computers for recycling during the Earth Day period. Chris Shafer and Henry Cruciani lead an AMC-REI team of 30 in building board walks and removing debris in Barrington Memorial Park. Barbara Flagg, Jack Schempp headed a productive group, a mix of AMC and Roger Williams U. international members, who restored the appearance of a section of Colt State Park. Their work commended by the Providence Journal in a story featuring Barbara's comments. On Earth Day, 10 AMC members, a squad from Bryant University and a neighborhood group installed earthen stairs and water bars at Neutaconkanut Park under the tutelage of Chris Shafer. The work will reduce erosion of a scenic trail, a step in the restoration of a park offering great views. Meanwhile, Leader Linda Pease created an AMC obsolete computer recycling station-trailhead at the Johnston landfill and followed up with a hike though the mysterious Snake Den Park. Participants enjoyed good weather, interesting work, new friendships and the satisfaction of improving recreational open space. JS LP

For many years a working dairy, Phillips Wheeler's Birchwold Farm now provides 129 acres of conservation and passive recreation opportunities. Located in Sheldonville, Massachusetts, its features include the large open field visible from the road, as well as a pond, wetlands, hardwood groves, climbable rock ledges , a scenic overlook (Joe's Rock) and an abundance of flora and flauna. The 80 acre property was purchased by the Town of Wrentham in 1985, and an additional 49 acres has been added since. It also provides wildlife habitat as well as protection for the watershed for the Pawtucket Cumberland Reservoir.

The game was relaxation and we were no match for the 97 dozing seals stacked like cement bags in the sun on a chain of rocks off Rome point. Our naturalist Bob Kenney from URI Oceanography kept us wide awake as he turned questions into discussions. Our knowledge of seal migration habits, gulls, ducks, snail sex rituals, demolition of the old Jamestown Bridge and whales was greatly expanded. We all enjoyed being on the beach again. Seals should be available for viewing until the end of April. Bring a pair of 10 – 12 times magnification binoculars or you will not see them. They are almost the same color as the rocks. JS

The Apeiron house was designed by a team of experts in sustainable design and technologies, the house showcases more than fifty environmentally friendly systems, technologies, and products, including: passive and active solar energy systems, natural, recycled and non-toxic building materials and construction, straw-bale walls, radiant flooring, permaculture landscaping, and so forth. The Center's exhibits explain all the housing model's features, including how they differ from traditional systems, their cost-effectiveness, and their payback periods. The Center is open to the public.

A fascinating documentation of a major world threat, Al Gore’s widely acclaimed presentation, “An Inconvenient Truth” was shown on Feb. 14 at Save the Bay, Providence. Paul Beaudette, Dir., National Wildlife Federation, was on hand to answer questions at the close. Sponsored by NWF, the Environment Council of RI, SavetheBay, AMC, the Sierra Club, and the Audubon Society.
Reference Sources:
Save The Bay Advocacy Links

On April 15, 2006, ten volunteers responding to a call by the Conservation Committee, helped clean up Colt State Park in Bristol. They received warm praise from Park Manager Walter Rocha for bagging an amazing volume of trash in 3 short hours. CL Barbara Flagg’s group demonstrated special talent in capturing old tires, while the second group became proficient in collecting beverage containers.

The Earth Day event, April 22, 2006, sponsored by Trails & Conservation Committees addressed enduring improvement of the Francis Carter Reservation in Charlestown, managed by The Nature Conservancy. A 70 ft boardwalk was constructed to span seasonal mud area and allow children, the elderly, and the handicapped to enjoy a scenic walking loop near the parking area. Thanks to the highly efficient planning of material/tools and step by step instruction from Leader Henry Cruciani, the group, mostly inexperienced volunteers, was able to complete this task in about three hours.

The accomplishments of the 26 AMC volunteers were notable. As an organization of 3000 members in Rhode Island, it is clear that AMC has much greater potential to improve RI Parks on future Earth Days.

Organized by Roseanne Evans and Linda Pease, the AMC was privy to a short lecture, May 13, 2006, on the new wind machine just installed at the Portsmouth Abby in Portsmouth, RI. Although it was a very rainy day, the wind was blowing about 15 mph which gave a very good impression of the slow speed of the blades and what little noise actually is heard. This is Rhode Islands largest windmill and is a good example of the potential for wind power in the Ocean State. The economics of windmills this large have come down to beable to compete with other non-renewable methods of power generation. Dr. Lefteri Pavlides of Roger Williams Univerity, gave a short talk on the system and the potential for an impact on the power in Rhode Island and the area. The possibility of more windmills for the area is being studied. There appears to be more support for windmills than had been expected. A good article on the Portsmouth windmill appeared in the Block Island Times on December 3, 2005. Raytheon is also considering installing a unit and has undertaken considerable studies to that end. The only other unit of this size, Hull Wind 1 at 660Kw, was installed in 2001 on Windmill Point in Hull, Massachusetts. A second unit, Hull Wind 2, has just been installed with three times the output at 1.8Mw.