President Marilyn rang the bell and called the meeting to order at ~12:02 p.m.

Recitation of the “4-Way Test of the Things We Think Say or Do” was led by Steve Grant.

Songs: With Ernst on the ivories, we sang the "Rotary Welcome Song,” and “I Want a Girl Just Like the Girl That [sic] Married Dear Old Dad.”

 

PRESIDENT MARILYN’S THOUGHT OF THE DAY: During youth service month, celebrate the impact of young leaders. About 350,000 young persons are engaged in RI (Rotary International) youth programs worldwide. Lebanon Rotary helps youth engage through Rotary Youth Leadership Academy (RYLA), first-grade readers, book donations to Kilton’s children’s library, support for sports, Listen’s holiday baskets, new school toilets in Nepal, robotics and scholarships in El Salvador, sustainable gardens in Kenya, the Global Eradication of Polio, and many more.

 

Visiting Rotarians: Jimmy Brock, Bermuda (remote)

Birthdays: Dean Cashman, May 5

Rotary anniversaries: Cal Wolfe, 5 years—today back from successful hip replacement surgery!; Andy Jones, 1 year

 

 

 

Dave Crandall introduced Ron.

 

[Connecticut River Conservancy is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to the Connecticut River watershed in New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. We collaborate with regional partners to restore and advocate for your rivers and educate and engage communities. We bring people together to prevent pollution, improve habitat, and promote enjoyment of the river and its tributary streams. From www.ctriver.org]

 

Four states (NH, VT, MA and CT) are part of the same watershed—“an area of land that drains into a single body of water that then drains into an estuary and bay. Ron is working on projects in Orford, New Hampshire, and Barnard, Vermont, on tributaries that flow into the Connecticut.

 

Ron began at CRC in 2011; he was just the 10^th or 11^th staff person, working part-time at an organization with a total budget of $1 million. Today, CRC has 30 staff and a $7 million budget, with most of that growth coming since Ron started there. CRC recently received a grant of $10 million to work with farmers and owners.

 

KEYS GOALS OF CRC: Clean water, healthy habitats, and resilient communities.

Climate change is changing the stakes for the Connecticut River. We don’t worry only about spring runoff as we did in the old days when the river would rise and then fall. Today, mid-summer storms are causing extensive damage.

 

These are areas of CRC programs for cleaner, healthier rivers:

Ron says he often introduces himself like this: “Hi, I’m Ron. I’m addicted to dam removals.” He has removed 25 dams so far and does 1 or 2 a year. Ron said that an 18’ high dam has 17’ of sediment trapped behind it. When he removed a dam in Norwich a couple of years ago, the clean-up required 753 tri-axle dump loads of sediment.

 

The majority of CRC’s work is collaborative. 200 volunteers take water samples where people use bodies of water for swimming or boating. CRC has 10 years of accumulated data that folks can check on its web site before dipping in their toes. Ron’s advice: if the water is murky/muddy, it could be a little more likely to harbor E. coli.

 

Recently, the Long Island Sound (into which the Connecticut River empties) got an A-, its highest environmental score ever. It has taken a long time since Hepburn’s 1965 comment to 2026—improving environmental damage can take a long, long time.

 

Our biggest volunteer event of the year is the “Source to Sea Cleanup.” This is the 30^th year for this event, now with more than 2,000 volunteers removing trash from rivers, parks, and communities. All ages, employees of businesses, etc., participate. CRC provides bags, gloves, and t-shirts, the costs of which are covered by business sponsors.

 

Other volunteer activities CRC couldn’t possibly afford professionals to accomplish:

Learn more here: ctriver.org. There’s no fixed membership fee; anyone who donates is a member. Anyone may sign up for events at ctriver.org/email.

 

We’ve been working for decades on Hydropower Relicensing.

There are four dams of concern to CRC: Wilder, Bellows Falls, and Vernon in Vermont and Turners Falls in Massachusetts. Licenses are awarded for 30-50 years. We are fiercely advocating for a healthy Connecticut River, safe fish passage, recreation access, and facility improvements.

 

A non-dammed river has annual ups and downs. Dams raise and lower the river according to how much electricity the owner wants to make, impacting riverbanks above and below the dam.

 

Wilder’s license still has technically not being issued. We are taking issue with some of the permitted uses. We anticipate legal action, though negotiations are happening, focused on recreational access to the river. By the way: “Do you know what the fish said when it hit the wall? Dam!”

 

Q: Angela. Why are you tearing down dams?

Ron: They are old dams, like 100 years old and not actively producing hydropower, such as an old mill dam. Every once in a while, we take down a new dam, such as one built in 1970s, but abandoned because costs of upkeep outstrip the sale of power produced.

 

Q: Steve. Our club cleans up Mascoma River every two years. A major challenge is tires. Are there any municipal strategies to limit the tires going into rivers?

Ron: Tires are a challenge to everyone even with $500 fines posted; enforcement is the issue.

Steve: Are you aware of any locality whose landfill accepts tire for free?

Ron: Lebanon landfill has been a very good partner with our Source to Sea cleanup. Hypertherm’s groups work in Lebanon, and the landfill takes everything we collect for free.

 

Q: Dave Clarenbach. EPA lost control of wetlands in a recent lawsuit EPA. Has that control gone to the states?

Ron: Yes. Vermont has just written rules to allow more development which are before the legislature right now. Trump previously restricted EPA’S ability to enforce the rules. It’s a balancing act among priorities such as housing or wetlands. We collaborate and comment through river stewards on these rules. States have more flexibility in their regulations. In NH, getting a permit concerning wetlands is far more difficult than Vermont. NHDES requires a lot more criteria.

 

BOOK: Bill Secord presented “Wish in a Tree,” about a young boy different from the others who climbs a tree to get away. Another boy turns up to say, “It’s OK to be different. Look at nature.”    

 

Spring campaign is on: Haven’t got many checks yet.

 

We will begin our social gathering this month with a tour of Lebanon’s new Fire House on May 18 starting at 4:00 p.m.

We are to meet for the at the Fire House main door, located on Church St. We’ll go into the lobby and push the button on the right and someone will come to meet us. The Lebanon Fire Chief will be the tour guide.

After the tour, we will meet again at Salt hill Pub for our regular 3rd Monday Social hour or so.

 

 

 

 

 

President Marilyn rang the Rotary bell at 1:09 p.m., and we ended the meeting with a recitation of RI’s motto: