Bristol pride arms harbor guardians

SILVER LININGS: Students, from left, Tasha Rimoshytus, Ethan Gilchrest and Megan Vento at Silver Creek in Bristol. As part of the Silver Creek field-studies program, they will test the water in the creek for salinity and dissolved oxygen. / PBN PHOTO/BRIAN MCDONALD
SILVER LININGS: Students, from left, Tasha Rimoshytus, Ethan Gilchrest and Megan Vento at Silver Creek in Bristol. As part of the Silver Creek field-studies program, they will test the water in the creek for salinity and dissolved oxygen. / PBN PHOTO/BRIAN MCDONALD

Rob Hancock, president of the board of directors of Save Bristol Harbor, a grassroots nonprofit dedicated to repairing the coastal waters of Bristol, doesn’t see a time when the organization won’t be needed.
But that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
“It’s not to say we are always going to have problems,” Hancock said. “Our environment and ecology around us are constantly evolving and changing over time and that’s OK. That’s what it does. There will always be an important need to adapt to that change and there’s always going to be a need to connect people to their environment. We’re planning on being around and continuing to do those things.”
The nonprofit was created almost 16 years ago, largely, Hancock said, to bring organized opposition to Cumberland Farms’ plan to develop a gas station and convenience store next to Silver Creek, a salt marsh estuary that flows into Bristol Harbor.
A public-awareness campaign by the next year resulted in Bristol buying out Cumberland Farms’ existing lease on the land and Silver Creek once again became a public space.
Several years later, citizens once again rallied to convince a marina not to expand but to build harbor improvements that would, according to Save Bristol Harbor’s website, benefit public access to the harbor and recreational boaters. A few years after that, the need for a more permanent, organized group dedicated to counteracting developments that could harm Silver Creek and Bristol Harbor led to Save Bristol Harbor being founded in 2005.
“Instead of going in the wrong direction, Silver Creek is now on the road to restoration,” said Hancock, who has been on the board of directors for five years. Hancock, who is vice president of education and public engagement at the Buzzards Bay Coalition in New Bedford, pointed to a joint project with Bristol and Save The Bay, a Providence-based nonprofit that works to protect, restore and improve the ecological health of the Narragansett Bay region.
That project, Hancock said, improved tidal flow and worked on the removal of invasive species.
Another big victory, Hancock said, was the 2011 decision of Weaver’s Cove Energy and Mill River Pipeline to stop pursuing its plan to build a Liquid Natural Gas offloading depot in Mount Hope Bay that would have been used to transfer fuel via pipeline to Fall River.
Hancock said the big problem at Silver Creek now is pollution from the watershed.
Save Bristol Harbor started collecting water samples in 2009 and soon will start assessing what methods might work best, including habitation restoration and reducing stormwater impact that would make the most sense to negate the pollution.
Part of the water sampling has been done, over the last four years, through a partnership with Mt. Hope High School.
Bob Aldrich coordinates the Silver Creek Field Studies program with the school and serves as chair of Save Bristol Harbor’s harbor-monitoring committee.
Aldrich joined the organization about four years ago because, he said, it focused on environmental issues with the harbor and creek that were important to him.
“The aim [of the Mt. Hope High School program] is for science students to get a much-better understanding of the environment they live in and to give them an opportunity to do some field work,” Aldrich said. “It’s a lot of testing and observations they wouldn’t get otherwise. It helps us to partner with the school and enhance their science education, which is important to all of us.” Christine Bean, a science teacher at Mt. Hope High, has been involved with the program for two years.
“I enjoy getting the kids out in the field with their hands, monitoring the marsh that’s in their own backyard,” she said. “They have a newfound respect for the environment they live in. They tell me all the time how they pay more attention and didn’t realize how much of an impact they actually have on things.”
Save Bristol Harbor has several other educational programs, including partnering with Mosiaco Community Development Corp., a Bristol nonprofit that works to, according to its website, “respond proactively to the evolving physical, social and economic needs of the neighborhood and community,” to bring watershed education to all fourth graders in the district.
Save Bristol Harbor goes into every fourth-grade classroom and gives a presentation on the importance of the watershed and what the students can do to help keep it clean and protect the harbor. Those presentations, Hancock said, are usually followed by a service project.
“The goal is to build long-term stewardship for the harbor. Protecting the harbor is a multigenerational effort,” he said. “The youth of today will be decision-makers in a decade or so. We want to make sure they’re aware of the importance of the harbor. We really want to make sure they have clean water to enjoy as well. I think there is pride of where they are from and a sense of ownership. With that comes a sense of responsibility.” •

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