The North and South Rivers Watershed Association held their annual meeting on Sunday, November 5 with a full house at the beautiful Ferry Hill Center. The year 2023 has seen lots of changes for the NSRWA.
Sara Grady left the organization after 18 years to spread her wings at Mass Audubon. This year, three new staff members also came on board. Alex Mansfield became our new Watershed Ecologist and South Shore Regional Coordinator for the Massachusetts Bays National Estuary Partnership. Becky Malamut joined the team as our River Restoration Coordinator, and Beth Howard joined the organization as our Fish Habitat and GIS Field Technician.
We said goodbye and honored board member Deb Lenahan for her long-time work with the NSRWA. We also added a new board member, Russ Landon of Norwell.
In 2023, we provided education to almost 6,000 youth in person and 8,000+ adults in person and online. In support of our education programs, we purchased a 15 passenger van.
2023 marked the successful re-opening of our local shellfish beds, and we launched a No Wake Campaign to save our salt marshes. We also assessed 80+ culverts and advanced 6 river restoration projects.
Citizen Science Volunteers of the Year Ralph Perrotto and his students from Scituate High School were honored for their work on mapping salt marshes.
Volunteers of the Year David Dauphinee and Brad White were honored for their work on helping to reopen the North and South River shellfish beds.
Every year the association bestows upon an individual or group the Barbara Pearson River Champion Memorial Award to showcase exemplary efforts in furthering our mission. This year’s award went to Turnaround Films. Cary and Yari Wolinsky of Trillium Studios created a series of short inspiring films on how watershed organizations and others are finding creative solutions to a changing environment.
We thank all of these outstanding individuals for their contributions to the work of the North and South Rivers Watershed Association.
These are just some of the accomplishments that you, our volunteers and donors, helped us to achieve in 2023. Quite literally, this work – to engage, educate, and inspire people to insure healthy rivers could not be done without you. Thank you.
See photos from the event here.