Today the Connecticut River offers awe inspiring views, events, places and wildlife. But there is one marker of the nature of our watershed long gone from our landscape, the “mast” pines found here when European settlers first arrived in our valley. Sometimes a book will conjure up for us the natural wonders we can no [...]

As the waters of the Connecticut River beckon us to begin the 2010 boating season, the Connecticut River Watershed Council is asking all boaters to help protect the Connecticut River from invasions of exotic plants and animals. Whether you are a power boat, rowing, canoe, kayak or sail enthusiast along with your enjoyment of [...]

Vermont. May 03, 2010
Being an incurable over the side of bridges watcher for 40 years can lead to some entertaining events that unfold while peering into the water. This bridge was a small wood and steel bridge 15 feet above the water that I had looked over the side of on many occasions but [...]

Numerous travel guides praise the Connecticut River but the acclaim can be a double-edged sword. On one hand the Connecticut River has advocates at local, state, regional and federal levels mindful of resource protection and sustainable development in order to protect this treasure. All of this work has resulted in a cleaner river and a [...]

Vermont. March 29, 2010 .
When you first see the picture you would think the editor had made a mistake and placed the picture on its side. On reading the caption though the striped bass in the picture is in fact “standing on its tail” with its nose facing straight up in a comatose state. The [...]

Greenfield, MA. March 23, 2010.
One option said to be available to engineers at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant for dealing with the tritium contamination is to extract the hundreds of thousands of gallons of tritium-contaminated groundwater at the site, filter out the organic matter, and then flush the tritium-tainted water back into the [...]

Greenfield, MA. March 10, 2010.
Today, Attorney Jon Groveman of the Vermont Natural Resources Council submitted briefs supporting the Connecticut River Watershed Council’s request for intervener status in the Vermont Public Service Board’s Vermont Yankee nuclear plant relicensing proceedings. In February, the Council publicly called for Entergy’s Vermont Yankee nuclear plant to cease operations until the [...]

Dear CRWC Member:
Tomorrow the Vermont Senate will take up an historic vote on whether to extend the operating license of Entergy’s Vermont Yankee nuclear plant beyond 2012, the expiration of its original 40-year license. There’s no better time than right now to remind your Legislator about CRWC’s issues with Vermont Yankee – their [...]

Greenfield, MA. February 23, 2010.
The Connecticut River Watershed Council (CRWC) received word in late January that MA Department of Environmental Protection’s Commissioner Laurie Burt has remanded the water withdrawal permit issued to Russell Biomass, LLC for a proposed biomass facility on the Westfield River. The decision requires DEP’s Western Regional Office in Springfield to [...]

February 10, 2010. Greenfield, MA. The Connecticut River Watershed Council today joined in the call for the shut down of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant while the source of a spreading plume of radioactive tritium leaching into groundwater and the Connecticut River remains undiscovered. CRWC’s announcement comes in the wake of the February [...]

Vermont. February 01, 2010.
Fly casting from a canoe in the middle of a small pond at the tippity-top of the headwaters of the Connecticut River is usually an all quiet experience. The loud splash caused me to turn just in time to see the osprey struggling up out of the water. I thought at [...]

Greenfield, MA. January 21, 2010. The Connecticut River Watershed Council today demanded an independent assessment of tritium leaks at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. “The situation calls for immediate intervention and public oversight,” said CRWC Executive Director Chelsea Gwyther responding to reports that radioactive tritium, at concentrations of 2 million picocuries [...]

Vermont. January 4, 2010.
A 2003 research paper reported on in a 2005 River Currents column found that base line salt concentrations in our rivers has increased over the past 30 years and the report predicted that the salt levels will continue to rise. Three more recent studies have now confirmed those earlier findings. The newer [...]

GREENFIELD, MA. DECEMBER 21, 2009. It was Saturday morning, October 3rd, Source to Sea Cleanup Day at the Connecticut River Watershed Council. Things weren’t looking good. “We had thousands of people signed up and ready to go,” says Chelsea Gwyther, CRWC’s Executive Director. But, for the first time in over [...]

SAXTONS RIVER, VERMONT. DECEMBER 18, 2009. According the Connecticut River Watershed Council (CRWC), the Vermont Supreme Court upheld a 2008 Environmental Court decision allowing the Entergy Vermont Yankee (ENVY) nuclear power plant to increase the temperature of the Connecticut River. CRWC, Deerfield/Millers Trout Unlimited chapter, Citizen Awareness Network, represented by the Environmental and [...]

Vermont. December 1, 2009
The canoe had been a gift so the color did not matter much to me but for the sake of this story it seems important to know that it was red. On this particular day the color of the canoe and one of the realities of the Connecticut River gave me a [...]

Vermont. November 01, 2009.
Is there an environmental cost to paving, crop production, land clearing or animal grazing right up to the shoreline of a river, lake or wetland? So what if the natural vegetation growing on the land immediately adjacent to a water body is cut down? The answer: by removing the vegetation [...]

Greenfield, MA. October 28, 2009.
Over 150 people tramped through the drying maple leaves of Greenfield’s Court Square on Sunday, October 25th and up the steps of the 2nd Congregational Church to hear a new crop of home-grown Connecticut River Valley songs in the Connecticut River Watershed Council’s “Living along the River” songwriting contest. [...]

Press release: for immediate release
Greenfield, MA. October 2, 2009.
Predictions of wet weather are not getting in the way of tomorrow’s planned four-state Connecticut River Watershed Council Source to Sea Cleanup, “Barring thunderstorms or any safety concerns due to the weather folks will be out cleaning up riverside sites tomorrow morning,” says Chelsea Gwyther, CRWC’s [...]

Vermont. October 01, 2009.
The idea was to move along the shore toward a large bass that just splashed in the shallow water. The muck bottom made wading tricky and it took so much concentration the turtle was unseen the first time I waded by it. The bottom proved to be too big a challenge [...]

Greenfield, MA. September 30, 2009.
The Connecticut River Watershed Council (CRWC), the principal citizen advocate for protecting New England’s largest river ecosystem, is seeking candidates to be its new River Steward for the lower Connecticut River watershed (within the State of Connecticut). CRWC advocates for the entire, four-state Connecticut River watershed. We work [...]

Press release: for immediate release
Greenfield, MA. September 30, 2009. A volunteer army is poised to fan out along the Connecticut River and its tributaries this Saturday for the 13th Annual Connecticut River Source to Sea Cleanup. Hosted by the Connecticut River Watershed Council, the Western New England effort has become a signature [...]

Greenfield, MA. September 22, 2009. Over 2,500 volunteers had signed-on to work the Connecticut River Watershed Council’s 13th Annual Source to Sea Cleanup as of September 21st, and more helpers are flowing in. “People love this opportunity to do something for their local rivers,” says Christine Luis-Schultz, Cleanup Coordinator, “We once again have [...]

Greenfield, MA. September 09, 2009. The Environmental and Natural Resources Law Center at Vermont Law School on behalf of the Connecticut River Watershed Council is preparing for oral arguments before the Vermont Supreme Court on September 15th in Newfane, VT. This is the final step in our appeal of the temperature increase amendment [...]

Greenfield, MA. September 9, 2009. The Connecticut River Watershed Council’s 13th Annual Source to Sea Cleanup takes place along river banks in four New England states on Saturday, October 3. Last year 3,000 volunteers turned out for the Council’s signature fall event—which has grown from scattered groups at a few sites a [...]