WAVs on the Wild Ammonoosuc River!

The Wild Ammonoosuc River was in the spotlight during the summer when members of the Littleton Racoons 4-H Club spent one day a month, from May through September, taking water samples to determine the quality of the river’s water.

Dana Tulp and sons Aren and Shane; Amy Gall with sons Justin, Jaden and Jacob; and Becky McEnany with daughter Fiona and son Liam, sampled the water for dissolved oxygen, pH, turbidity, conductivity and temperature.  A record of land use was kept and uncommon activity near the river was noted. 

To ensure quality control procedures were always followed, UNH Cooperative Extension Water Resources staff, Ginny DiFrancesco and Grafton County support staff, Anita Hollenhorst sampled with the volunteers.  In addition to the above field analysis, Ginny analyzed samples for e coli bacteria.    

Beginning it’s journey at Beaver Pond in Woodstock, the Wild Ammonoosuc River meanders through the towns of Easton, Lincoln, Landaff, Benton, Haverhill and spills out into the Ammonoosuc River in Bath.   Route 112 is the major highway in the watershed and, due primarily to tourism, is extensively traveled during most of the year.  Public lands provide many trails within the watershed which see heavy use by hikers, day trippers and families in all 4-seasons. 

We all live in a watershed.  Everything we do has an impact on our watershed.    
“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find that it is bound by a thousand invisible cords...  to everything in the universe.” 
John Muir, naturalist

WAV – Watersheds and Volunteers!  Across the nation, volunteers of all ages have been successfully monitoring water quality for many years.  Monitoring on a regular basis can determine water quality trends and furnish information on the health of the stream and it’s ability to sustain uses for drinking, fishing, swimming and recreation. 

One sampling day we ran across gold paners at site #5.  They kids learned a lot about panning for gold and realized how much dredging takes place in the river to find a few pieces of gold! 

The WAV wrap up was held in September at the Ammonoosuc Fish & Game Club.  Andy Schafermeyer, Biologist with NH Fish & Game, joined the party and talked to the kids about fish & aquatic life, noting how important good water quality is to these animals.   Kids & adults alike spent the next hour or so looking for ‘bugs’ = macroinvertebrate in the river.  We found stoneflies & mayflies, caddisfies & hellgrammites.. all good signs of a healthy river! 

The participation of youth and the data they collected during this project demonstrates youth as involved volunteers.  The data provides baseline information on the quality of water in the Wild Ammonoosuc River and can be used to generate long term monitoring, awareness and educational programs within the watershed.   

The WAV project was a collaboration between UNH Cooperative Extension Water Resources & 4-H staff, supported, in part, by funding from the NH Department of Environmental Services.   Click here for more photos.