A GREAT STATE WITHOUT ENOUGH WATER

  Water Closet for 1-31-14 Sad news of California’s long drought was featured in the media last week.  That corner of the nation diagonally opposite New England, three thousand miles across country and continent, is in serious trouble due to low precipitation.  New...

WHEN FISH AND MEN TEAM UP

    Water Closet for 1-24-14 Tellico Four decades ago young lawyers, an ichthyologist, farmers, fishermen, and conservationists recruited a tiny fish in their battle against the mighty Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).  The diminutive David was unknown; the...

HARPOONER OF TUNA BECOMES FISHER OF MEN

In this weeks Water Closet, we provide personal insights about an old friend, William “Billy” Packer and a review of his book “Fisherman’s Call”. Packer was an outstanding fisherman in the 70’s and 80’s specializing in harpooning blue fin tuna, a very valuable and prized fish both then and now. He had an epiphany at about age 40 which transformed him from a fisherman into and avid environmentalist. Packer became a preacher, teacher and guru for the environmentalist cause which he has dedicated almost half his life to. In 2011, he published “Fisherman’s Call” describing his early life as a fisherman and his transformation into an environmentalist. I think the article makes for interesting reading.

SNOWBOUND

In this weeks Water Closet, Pike, in view of our recent storms, appropriately republishes his essay of February, 11, 2011revisiting John Greenleaf Whittier’s famous poem “Snowbound”. Whittier grew up two centuries ago on a Haverhill farm. Pike also grew up on a saltmarsh farm in Salsbury. Although more than a century separates them in time, their childhood experiences growing up on farms where horses still pulled wagons and plows are very similar. Pike can thus relate to Whittier and his poem “Snowbound” in a very personal way that most of us who grew up in urban areas cannot. I think that makes for some interesting reading.

POND MEADOW POND AGAIN ON ICE

In this weeks Water Closet, Pike writes about his recent visit to the Pond Meadow Pond beaver impoundment and heron rookery in north Middleton where early season December ice was 4 to 6 inches thick before the after Christmas thaw. Pike observes how three beaver lodges loom high above the surface of the ice as a result of the low water level from the draught of last summer and fall. Pike reminisces about dead trees that he has cut down in that area in the past to count the rings and the history that can be gleaned from those rings.

CRISP CRUNCHING SOUNDS WHILE WALKING IN COLD SNOW

In this weeks water Closet, Pike writes about the Friday morning hike after the seasons first significant snow fall. The snow turned to rain in the later stage of the storm leaving a frozen crust on the surface that crunches under the hiker’s footsteps. it is the type of condition that makes good tracking for hunters and sure enough, the hikers hear the distant shots of hunters. The hikers traverse the summit of Bald Hill in Boxford State Forest and on the way down Pike opines on: the half mile high glacier that once overlaid this area, the stone walls that now crisscross this area, the pastures that were once rimmed by these stone walls and the trees that have since overgrown these pastures. Again another example of the continuing evolution of our natural surround.