Gone East

Jack, Environmentalist

This morning I went out on a special mission for the NH Dept of Environmental Services. They needed a volunteer to collect water samples from a nearby stream that flows through three farms that are nearby our lake. I met with Andy Chapman of the DES yesterday and he gave me a map and the supplies I'd need.

This sampling needed to happen today because rain was forecast, and the sampling should be done just after a rainfall so that any bad stuff will be flushed into the stream and can be captured.

At 9:30 am the rainfall amount reached the magical level and I headed out with map in hand, and sampling bottles in backpack.

I knew that the seven sample sites were in some woods and pastures along a local road. What I didn't realize was that the pasture was covered with thick, tangled, and now wet, grass. And the forests were thick with tangled brush, mud, thorny bushes, and very few trails.

Within minutes of entering the tall wet grass I was soaked from my hips down. At the first sample site I got stabbed by some sort of evil thorn bush that seems to have left tiny, invisible barbs in two of my fingers.

The third site was down a muddy, two-track trail, that was downhill, AND slanted to the left. Oh, and it was not simply covered with wet mud, it was wet cow manure.

Well anyway, it's all in a good cause, to protect our lake, which is the destination of this stream, from the run-off from these farms.

Posted by jghiii at July 11, 2003 03:30 PM