Please join us for an in-person TRWA Annual Meeting Saturday, November 13th, from 4-6:00 p.m. at the Bristol County Agricultural High School (BCAHS), 135 Center Street, Dighton. 

Our Featured Speaker, Dr. William Hanna, President of the Old Colony History Museum, will talk about his upcoming publication “History of the Taunton River.” (A pre-order sign up will be available.)

TRWA Board Member and BCAHS NRM Chairman, Brian Bastarache, and project technician George Bancroft, will present results from the 2021 Taunton River Diamondback Terrapin Population Assessment field season.  This is the the TRWA’s six season studying the Diamondback Terrapin population in the Taunton River and the second season of a small pilot nest protection program.  We will be raffling off a framed water color painting of a Taunton River Diamondback Terrapin hatchling by  TRWA Board Member & terrapin volunteer Pam Lowell.

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Steve Silva, TRWA’s Water Quality Monitoring Program, will speak on restarting the program after pausing for COVID-19 health concerns.  There will be a treasurer’s update and advocacy update, and the TRWA membership will be publicly voting to fill Board of Director seats and select 2022 officers.  Please contact the office if you are a member and have any questions on who is running for officers (or if you wish to join the board.)  

The meeting is hosted by the Natural Resource Management Department and will be held in the newly built Student Commons Building.  Light refreshments will be served.  

This is an in person meeting, all our welcome, but we ask that as per school policy, that masks be worn inside the building.  We will be running a live video feed if you wish to watch the meeting proceedings via your home computer.  Email director@savethetaunton.org for the Zoom meeting link and access code.  

The Student Commons Building is on the north side of Center Street.  Please note, the campus is still an active construction site and not all of the parking lots are available for use.  We ask that you park in the temporary grass lot by the cafeteria if you are more abled, leaving the paved parking spots in the central traffic circle (driveway next to the lights) in front of the Student Commons Building for those who may need a shorter walk or handicap access.   (The building is fully accessible from all entrances.)

The Taunton River Watershed Alliance is pleased to announce the winners of our digital photography contest and that we were able to produce not one but two different calendars.  We will be publishing our traditional Taunton River Tide calendar with images that showcase our Nationally designated “Wild & Scenic River,” and we will be publishing a one time only “Avian Edition Wall Calendar.”  (Well, what do you do when 117 of your 348 entries are photographs of birds?)  2020 has been an interesting year, and with the social distancing requirements, we knew people were spending more time outdoors.  Just how much more time became evident when the photo contest deadline rolled around and the TRWA servers regularly started to go down because of the amount of emailed entries.  The quality and range of the submissions were breathtaking and our TRWA Board Member judges are still upset about how many images got left on the table because even with two calendars, there was room only for 26.  The volunteers who worked to publish the calendar are fondly calling the special bird calendar a “pandemic buster.” At the TRWA we hope it will brighten peoples days a little bit more in 2021.  

This year the two calendars combined feature the work of 19 area photographers and nature enthusiasts. Pictures are of the wild life and scenery within the Taunton River Watershed, 562 square miles in all of or part of 43 Southeastern Massachusetts cities and towns. 

This year’s Tide Calendar winners are:

Cover
“Waiting on the River,” Taunton River, Berkley, MA – Ruth Langlan

January:
“Ice Boat,” Long Pond, East Freetown, MA – Douglas Desjardins

February: 
“Old Bridge Street Bridge,” Nemasket River, Lakeville/Middleborough, MA – Chad T. Lovett

March:
“Great Horned Owl with Owlet,” East Bridgewater, MA – Bernard Creswick

April:  
“Black Backed Gull Fishing at Oliver Mills,” Middleborough, MA – Janet MacCausland

May:
“Oriole in Apple Tree,” Berkley, MA – Ronald Tomawski

June:
“Bee and Lady Slipper,” Middleborough, MA – Bud Morton

July:
“Takin’ A Walk,” Sweets Knoll State Park, Dighton, MA – Donna Berthelette

August:
“Wood Turtle,” Undisclosed Location, Taunton River Watershed – George Bancroft

September:
“Great Blue Heron,” Lakeville, MA – Mohamad Ojjeh

October: 
“Foggy Morning,” Taunton River, Dighton, MA – Mary Lou Nicodemus

November:
“Fall Cranberry Harvest,” Betty’s Neck, Lakeville, MA – Alex Perez

December:
“Nemasket River,” Plymouth Street Bridge, Middleborough, MA – Janice McGonagle

Our special one time only Pandemic Buster “Avian Edition Wall Calendar” features the photography of:

Cover
“Green Heron,” Taunton, MA – Mohamad Ojjeh

January:
“Mockingbird,” Brockton, MA – Bernard Creswick

February: 
“Northern Flicker,” Great River Preserve, Bridgewater, MA – Bernard Creswick

March:
“Golden Light,” Dighton, MA – Anna LeBlanc

April:
“Oriole Feeding,” Bridgewater, MA – Ruth Langlan

May:
“Orioles in Spring,” Assonet, MA – Carolyn DiFrancesco

June:
“Tree Swallow Sing-A-Long,” Tamarack Park, Lakeville, MA – Bud Morton

July:
“Young Bald Eagle Branching,” Dighton, MA – David Ennis

August
“Phoebe with Water Drops,” Berkley, MA – Ronald Tomawski

September:
“Gone Fishing,” Norton, MA – Alison F. Kidder

October:
“Ms. October,” Female Kingfisher, Assonet River, Berkley, MA – Pam Lowell

November:
“Drippy,” Broad Cove, Dighton, MA – Rita Eva Spier

December:
“Cardinal in the Snow,” Assonet, MA – Carolyn DiFrancesco

The TRWA will have a vey limited amount of copies for sale for $15/member, $20 non-member at its office starting November 16th.   Please call ahead at 508- 828-1101 for times when the office will be open. 

Calendars are always available print-on-demand. The TRWA is excited to use all the options of this new technology. The print-on-demand calendars can be printed from any month in the year with the tide data from the Taunton River or any other of the 3,500 NOAA tide stations. Or, if you like to write appointments into your calendar, you can order a calendar printed up without the tidal data.  People purchasing the calendar can even customize their calendar with their own photographs. Half the proceeds from the online $19.99 purchase price goes directly to the TRWA to support its ongoing mission protecting and restoring the Taunton River watershed, its tributaries, wetlands, floodplains, river corridors and wildlife.

To order our TIDE calendar, follow this link: http://www.calendarlink.org/trwa/home.html.
To order our BIRD calendar, follow this link: https://www.calendarlink.org/trwa2021bird/home.html

For a step by step guide for going through all the customizations on the order form, click on this link.  how_to_order_online_flier )

For over 30 years, TRWA has been a voice for the river, an advocate for environmental protection, sustainable development and responsible stewardship of our precious water resources. We are an Alliance of concerned residents, businesses, and organizations united to restore and properly manage water and related natural resources within the Taunton River Watershed.  Your purchase of these calendars helps to support our work.  Thank you!

The Taunton River Watershed Alliance and the Friends of Boyden Refuge, Inc. are teaming up again this year to host “Music & Poetry in the Grove,” an afternoon of entertainment at the Gertrude M. Boyden Wildlife Refuge, 1298 Cohannet Street, Taunton.  This Sunday, May 6, from 2:00-5:00, bring your lawn chairs and picnic snacks and set up in the pine grove next to the Refuge parking lot.  The afternoon line up features Matt Borello, Sandy Borges, Louis Leeman, Nancy Brady Cunningham, “Ragtime” Jack Radcliffe, Ethel Fraga and a few surprise guest artists.  For more info, call our offices at 508-828-1101 or email director@savethetaunton.org

The Taunton River Watershed Alliance (TRWA) is pleased to announce the release of its Annual Taunton River Tide calendar.  For our eighth year running, the TRWA has published a yearly calendar with tidal data for the Taunton River along with the winning images of the TRWA’s Calendar Photography Contest.

Berkley resident David Ennis captured the cover spot this year with his image “Bald Eagle on the Taunton River.”  He is the very first TRWA calendar photographer to win the cover spot for a second time; his “King of the Hill” shot of ospreys in territorial displays was featured on the 2016 cover.  An avid photographer, he can be found chasing birds of prey from Middleborough to Dighton.

Other winning images and photographers are:

January
“Radiant Touch,” Dighton, MA – Karen Brilhante

February
“No Swimming Today,” Muddy Cove, Dighton, MA – Mary L. Nicodemus

March
“Spring Thaw,” War Memorial Park, West Bridgewater, MA – Mark Genovese

April
“Farming by the Taunton River,” Bristol County Agricultural High School, Dighton, MA – Stephen Oliveira

May
“Yellow Warbler,” Burrage Pond WMA, Hanson, MA – Bernard Creswick

June
“Fall River Heritage State Park, Battleship Cove, and the Braga Bridge,” Fall River, MA – Jonathan Huggon

July
“Ladybugs” Somerset, MA – Deborah Sharples DeCambra

August
“Watson Pond Sunset Dip,” Taunton, MA – Mark Genovese

September
“Eastern Garter Snake in a Tree Trunk,” Pocksha Pond, Lakeville, MA – David Ennis

October
“Fun with cranberries,” Freetown, MA – Mark Genovese

November
“The Falls at the Corner of Washburn & County Roads,” E. Freetown, MA – Sally Spooner

December
“Sunset Bridge,” Dighton, MA – Al Martinez

The calendar also features the photographic work of: Cheryl Aguiar, Donna Barry, Don Sheerin, Barry French, Tricia Gordon, Ellen Hansen, Joanne Lachance, Carol Longo, Kaitlyn Machado, Lester Ruth, Renay Szargowicz, Kat Tasca, and Mike Walsh.

Pictures are of the wild life and scenery within the Taunton River Watershed, 562 square miles in all of or part of 43 Southeastern Massachusetts cities and towns.

Calendars are available now print-on-demand through this link. The TRWA is excited to use all the options of this new technology. Calendars can be printed from any month in the year with the tide data from the Taunton River or any other of the 3,500 NOAA tide stations. People purchasing the calendar can even customize their calendar with their own photographs. Half the proceeds from the $19.99 purchase price goes directly to the TRWA to support its ongoing mission protecting and restoring the Taunton River watershed, its tributaries, wetlands, floodplains, river corridors and wildlife.

The TRWA will be publishing another calendar in 2019 and the submission period for that calendar contest is now open. Click here to jump over to the contest page and download contest submission guidelines.

For 30 years, TRWA has been a voice for the river, an advocate for environmental protection, sustainable development and responsible stewardship of our precious water resources. We are an Alliance of concerned residents, businesses, and organizations united to restore and properly manage water and related natural resources within the Taunton River Watershed.

Please join us for the TRWA & Friends of Dighton Rock State Park’s 4th Annual Angler Education Day

A free family fishing event at Dighton Rock State Park, Berkley
Sunday, July 16, noon to 3 p.m.

 

 

Activities will include:

• Instruction in fishing techniques with staff from the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife;
• Seining the river with leaders of TRWA to catch and identify some of the aquatic creatures who live there;
• More learning about fish species with coloring books.

This event is free of charge and everyone is welcome.  Bring a bag lunch. Beverages will be provided, as well as all fishing gear.

Dighton Rock State Park is located on Bay View Avenue in Berkley.  The Museum will be open to visitors, where you can view the glacial erratic boulder with its mysterious designs of ancient origin.

 

Angler Education Day is sponsored by  

the Taunton River Watershed Alliance 

          and the Friends of Dighton Rock State Park