Bacteria days: results for July 27, 2017

Dear River and Watershed Friends, Upper Merrimack Monitoring Program volunteers continue to produce 100% sampling at 100% of the eleven sites on the Merrimack River from Franklin to Bow and on the Pemigewasset, Winnipesaukee, and Contoocook Rivers. Do you remember that very high count we had at Site 6 last week (they stopped counting at […]

Bacteria days: results for July 13, 2017

Dear River and Watershed Friends, Good news: We had 100% sampling at 100% of our sites yesterday. The not-so-good news: The E. coli bacteria readings at one of our sites was high. There were suspended solids in the water taken with this sample. This result, unusual for the upper Merrimack River watershed, could be due to […]

Bacteria days: results for June 29, 2017

Dear River and Watershed Friends, Good news: on our very first day of the season we not only had 100% sampling at 100% of our sites but the E. coli bacteria readings from yesterday are very low. None of the eleven samples taken yesterday, June 29, 2017, from the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee Rivers in Franklin to […]

Bacteria days are here again: results for June 15, 2017

Dear River and Watershed Friends, Good news: on our very first day of the season we not only had 100% sampling at 100% of our sites but the E. coli bacteria readings from yesterday are very low. None of the eleven samples taken yesterday, June 15, 2017, from the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee Rivers in Franklin to […]

Bug Nights 2017: it’s over

They stood hand-in-hand; arm-in-arm in the darkening and quiet laboratory. They stared at the door as the few bugs that remainined left the lab in their vials, safely snuggled in their plastic egg carton. “Are they really gone?” one Bug Night-er asked, “Will there be more?” The White Coats kept their gazes steady. Their faces […]

Bug Night #14: the big finish—do or die

I am going to miss her, thought the White Coat male. She had been a challenging identification. Eight hairy but shapely striped legs. An abdomen that just wouldn’t quit. She should have been an easy ID. Yet here they were, the two of them at the end of Bug Nights, finishing the last few and […]

Bug Night #13: unrequited ID

“Don’t pretend that we haven’t been intimate,” he said, “You have seen my palps, for heaven’s sake, no one has seen my palps like you have.” She was terrified. This wasn’t supposed to happen. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. The bugs were just supposed to be under the scope: small, legion, inert, dead. […]

Bug Night #11: don’t walk—run!

“How will we get them to come back to Bug Night?” asked the male White Coat, “I worry about losing momentum and interest after taking off last week for that conference presentation.” The male White Coat wrung his hands. The things he worried about, the female White Coat thought. She was busy counting chocolate bars […]