Current posts

Elizabeth Franz from the Concord Monitor came to visit Bug Nights last night and created a short story and photo essay. Click here to see more and learn how you can join the fun next week.

The Upper Merrimack Monitoring Program was a topic with The Insiders today. Please click here to read their take on Bug Nights 2015.

It’s been 50 years since the Beetles invasion… Experinece all the excitement again at the Nineteenth Annual Bug Nights. Training and opening night is January 14, 2015. See this year’s flyer with the full schedule and driving directions at  http://www.merrimackriver.org/

By Jeremy Blackman, Monitor staff Thursday, January 1, 2015 (Published in print: Friday, January 2, 2015) A nice article about how a natural resource = a world class recreational site = economic development. http://www.concordmonitor.com/sports/15046041-95/in-franklin-annual-kayak-run-gives-way-to-talk-of-urban-renewal

Dear River Friends, All sites sampled yesterday are well below the Class B standard of 406 E. coli colony counts per 100 millitres of water. All sites except for Sites 2 and 6 are below the designated swim beach standard of 88 colonies. While we have had lower results over the years, these are still […]

Most people think of a river as a place to go fishing with their pals. Some have a much broader sense of rivers. A few, who are members of the Planning Boards in communities, take on serious responsibilities for their land and water resources. The principal duty of the boards is to protect the natural heritage of their […]

Dear River friends, The weather should be sunnier and drier this weekend and while the water may be a bit high from the near daily rains, the good news is that the E. coli counts will be low. Thanks to our wonderful water quality monitoring volunteers and our partners at the Franklin Waste Water Treatment […]

Click here to read the “setting Rivers Free” cover article from the August 4, 2014 edition of the Christian Science Monitor. The article tells the story of how hundreds of the United States’s rivers and watersheds are being restored. There are many local examples including Black Brook and McQuesten Brook in Manchester and the (former) […]

Bug Night and Rock Basket volunteers may enjoy this short article and video link from the Huffington Post. A mayfly hatch in Wisconsin was detectable by radar and reduced visibility in the area. Thank you to Barb Cook for sharing it with us all.

Dear river friends, It’s a mixed bag this week for E. coli results. We have 549.3 colonies of E. coli per 100 millitres (exceeding the Merrimack’s Class B standard of 406) on Site 5, just behind the Merrimack State Forest, in Boscawen to a low of 31.3 on Site 1 on the Pemigewasset River just […]

This one has the title of the world’s largest (but not heaviest) insect. The upper Merrimack is blessed with Megalopterans and they are very impressive but not quite this large! See the full story by clicking here.