From Snails to Whales: Alex Beach Day 2 Refelctions

Friday, July 30, 2010

Alex Beach Day 2 Refelctions

Good evening folks. Being so close to the water all afternoon without actually being able to go in it got under my skin so I'm writing this after just having come back from the pool. Today's quick tour of the Harbor and Bay fostered a few key observations for me. Right off the bat, the ecosystem in question is huge and diverse. I have only previously been to Spectacle Island (by boat) and World's End (by car) so I had never really seen the rest of the area. It is amazing how many islands, harbors, coves, straights, outcrops, etc there are just a few minute ferry ride away.

One of the first things I appreciated about the layout of the harbor was the amount it was sheltered from the open ocean and how protected it made Boston. It made me think back to a class I took on the History of Boston (MET HI373 I believe for those of you interested) where we discussed the strategic military fortifications during the Revolutionary War. Because of the submerged drumlins and narrow deep water channels between Islands, the British naval ships had limited routes they could take in and out of Boston Harbor. By fortifying Castle Island and Dorchester Heights, the Continental Army had the only access points to the inner harbor within the range of their cannons. This ultimately caused the British to surrender and flee the city. Without the unique geology of the Harbor we might still be a British Colony today.

I also noticed a stark contrast between industrial sections of the harbor and "wild" sections. Obviously there are going to be ship yards, sewage treatment plants, "fertilizer" cookers, and the sort in a major metropolitan area. It just makes the fact that so many of the islands are fairly untouched that much more remarkable. It is a testament to the planning, foresight, and continuous hard work of various people and groups that we are able to have such wild natural places so close to a major world city. That being said it is also interesting that most islands have some sort of human presence or facility on them. These buildings, forts, complexes, and old houses record the history of human use on the islands. While today it is a nation park, for years the Harbor served many other important functions for the people of the area. Some of those functions have been preserved.

On the return leg of the ferry ride back from Quincy to Boston I really enjoyed watching the flock of seagulls feeding for fish. It reminded me of a time in Marblehead where I saw a seagull dive into a tide pool for a crap, fly up about thirty or forty feet, and then drop it on the rocks to break the shell. Living in a big city all you normally see are seagulls (and pigeons, squirrels, rats, etc) feeding off of human scrap and waste. It can be easy to overlook the fact that these animals have evolved over millions of years for some very specific niches and habitats that we just happen to have moved into and colonized, forcing the creatures to adapt to their new surroundings. I have much more profound respect and awe for a creature like the seagull when I see it in its more natural habitat and really thriving on how it was meant to thrive in the world.

Lastly, the walk at the end of the class up past Quincy Market to see where the shoreline used to be was a powerful tool for assessing the evolution of the city. There is a really cool display at the Bunker Hill Museum of a map of Boston Harbor as it is today. If you press a button on the side the map changes to how the harbor looked before settlers arrived. It is amazing how much people have changed the landscape of the Boston area. There is a line on the sidewalk on Baystate Road by the Hillel House that marks the original shoreline of the Charles River. The entire Back Bay is artificial too! Once an incredibly diverse mudflat/tidal basin/estuary/ and swamp it is now BU, Fenway Park, Longwood Medical, Copley Square, and the swamp now known as Northeastern University. That process of manufacturing the landscape happened on all sides of the Shawmut peninsula and has had an irrevocable effect on the harbor ecosystem. I'm not saying that's necessarily a bad thing. It depends on your perspective. I am just commenting on the remarkable ability we have as a society to change and manufacture our own environments. Since we are exploring the developed sections of the harbor tomorrow I am excited to see how the marine life has adapted to the new "shoreline".

-Alex Beach

No comments:

From Snails to Whales

Welcome to Snails to Whales, Bruce Berman's blog focused on both the little and the big things that make Boston Harbor such an interesting and extraordinary place to live, work and play.

With 50 miles of protected water, four sheltered bays, seven river systems, 34 islands and a nine-foot average tide, Boston Harbor is one of the most diverse urban ecosystems in America.

This blog focuses on the flora and fauna of Boston Harbor and Massachusetts Bay - on the beach, the shore, and the harbor islands, and in the cleaner waters of Boston Harbor and Mass Bay - including this ecosystems most important species - people.

During the summer, it is also a place for my Boston University Students and my colleagues at Save the Harbor / Save the Bay to share their work and experiences.

Where I am coming from...

Love that clean(er) water
Learning about the Boston Harbor Cleanup from the waterway’s eyes, ears, and mouthpiece

By Brian Fitzgerald, BU Bridge

On Georges Island, Bruce Berman talks with his students about the history of the Boston Harbor Cleanup,
which is largely complete. Photo by Vernon Doucette

Bruce Berman, aboard a ferry from Boston’s Long Wharf to Georges Island, poses a question to his students: “How clean is clean enough?”

He’s talking about the water below.

It’s a brilliant July day, with the smell of salt spray in the air. The sky is clear, and so is the ocean. But there was a time when Boston Harbor wasn’t so clean, when the stench of sewage assaulted the nostrils of anyone who went near it.

Berman is the communications director for Save the Harbor/Save the Bay, a public-interest environmental advocacy organization whose mission is to help restore and protect the harbor and Massachusetts Bay. He also teaches a Metropolitan College summer course called Politics, Public Relations, and Public Policy: The Boston Harbor Cleanup.

“The Boston Harbor Cleanup is an amazing success story, and I just love to share it with students,” says Berman, noting that the harbor’s “bad old days” weren’t that long ago. Those were the days when untreated human waste, syringes, condoms, and tampon applicators routinely washed ashore. The antiquated sewage treatment plants on Deer Island and Nut Island were so poorly designed and maintained that they flooded during even mild rainstorms, sending millions of gallons of untreated waste directly into the harbor.

Since then, bacteria counts in the water have decreased by more than two-thirds. Now the harbor teems with plants and animals, and people can legally dig for clams on Carson Beach in South Boston, which was unheard of in the 1980s.

“It was one of the filthiest harbors in America, and now it’s one of the cleanest,” says Berman. “What I’m trying to impress upon students is how this incredible comeback occurred, and how business, advocacy groups, environmentalists, and government can affect the outcome of large projects such as the Boston Harbor Cleanup through negotiation.”

Paradise regained

Berman points to the left as the boat cruises by the cleanup’s centerpiece: the gargantuan white egglike tanks of the Deer Island waste treatment plant, which in 1995 replaced the antiquated facility. The plant treats an average of 350 million gallons of sewage a day.

“And what comes out of the Deer Island treatment plant?” he asks. Berman, his booming baritone competing with the roar of planes taking off from Logan Airport, has a habit of putting students on the spot to see if they’re paying attention.

“The outfall pipe,” say several simultaneously. “Treated water,” chime in a few more.

“That’s right,” he says with a smile. “The plant separates the solid and liquid waste, and it pumps the treated water through the 9.5-mile outfall pipe, which empties into Massachusetts Bay. The resulting sludge is converted to high-grade fertilizer.”

Now Berman returns to his original question: “How clean is clean enough?” There’s no quick and clear answer to this one. “It’s a question that at the end of the day the federal courts had to decide.”

In 1985, a landmark federal court case required that the harbor’s beaches be made swimmable and fishable by 2000. Save the Harbor/Save the Bay was formed the next year to raise public awareness of the $4.5 billion Boston Harbor Cleanup. Sewer ratepayers in the 43 cities and towns financing the project cried foul over the prospect of astronomically rising bills, but because of the determination of environmental advocacy groups such as Berman’s, the cleanup was largely completed on schedule.

Berman says it isn’t finished, however. There are still frequent beach closures because the counts of Enterococcus bacteria exceed the federal and state standard for swimming. The culprit: filthy storm water and sewage, much of it from leaky pipes and illegal hookups emptying into storm sewers, and then into the harbor.

“So is the harbor clean enough,” the Springfield native asks his students, “when you can’t swim in it one out of five days in the summer?”

Work to be done

Berman and his class look out from Georges Island to Gallops Island (left) and the white tanks of the waste treatment plant on Deer Island (right). Photo by Vernon Doucette

This summer the state approved one of the last parts of the cleanup: the construction, by 2011, of a 2.1-mile tunnel near the Dorchester and South Boston shorelines that will hold sewage and storm water during bad weather. It then will be pumped to Deer Island for treatment.

Berman is ecstatic over this development, the result of “tireless negotiation and consensus-building,” he says. “After 2011, we’re looking at beach closings once every five years, when there is a major storm, instead of once every five days.”

But he is not about to let his guard down. To say that he is a man obsessed with the harbor cleanup would be an understatement. Berman is also Save the Harbor/Save the Bay’s “Baywatcher,” and he lives on his 40-foot trawler Verandah. Polluters beware: if you’re discharging oil or sewage into Boston Harbor, the Baywatcher just might be watching.

He is quick to point out that his zealotry is not just on behalf of the harbor’s flora and fauna. “The harbor is for everyone,” he says. “If you’re from a working class or poor family in Boston, and you can’t afford a Cape Cod getaway in the summer, a clean harbor is important. The same is true if you’re a tourist vacationing in Boston or you happen to live in a pricey waterfront condo.”

Accordingly, Berman, who was a political consultant and contributing editor to the Phoenix newspaper before joining Save the Harbor/Save the Bay nearly 10 years ago, also teaches his students about the harbor’s role in the city’s economy. He points out that in the early 1990s, just a few ferries cruised the harbor’s waters. Today, more than 100,000 people visit its islands each summer, discovering their ecological and historic treasures.

“The best way to protect the harbor cleanup,” Berman tells his students, “is to make sure that the public has access to the resources and can see a return on its investment.”

Trevor Kosmolsick (MET’05) has lived in Boston for seven years, but until taking Berman’s course, he had never been to the waterfront. “I’ve also wanted to go camping in the area, but I never knew that you could camp on a few of the islands,” he says. “Bruce Berman is not only a great professor, but the ultimate tour guide.”

He also backs up his words with actions. Sometimes he takes off his shirt and dives in the water to demonstrate to passing boaters that it’s safe to swim. To show people on ferries that fishing is safe, he’s been known to grab one of the bluefish or striped bass he’s caught and (very carefully) plant a wet kiss on it.

“What I want everyone to understand is that investment in the environment really does pay off,” says Berman. “We’re willing to pay for a clean Boston Harbor, so we should enjoy it.”

From Snails to Whales

Friday, July 30, 2010

Alex Beach Day 2 Refelctions

No comments:

Nature Blog Network

My Favorite Nature Blogs