Fish Ladders
This episode has already aired, but you may purchase this video for $19.95 plus shipping and handling by calling 1-800-20-NHPTV(64788).
Waterfowl Artists
Sixteen-year old Angela Gram has won New Hampshire's Federal Junior Duck Stamp
Conservation and Design Contest four times. Some of her paintings are so detailed
that she draws each feather on the duck. In her latest winning painting, the
Exeter High School sophomore oil painting of a northern shoveler was selected
from among 182 entries to win the 2002 Best of Show for New Hampshire. In 2001,
Gram's depiction of a fulvous whistling duck won the same competition. She also
took first-place honors for the grade 7 through 9 age group in 2000, and earned
top billing in the grade 4 through 6 age group in 1998. What's she planning
next? Why, Hollywood, of course!
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service initiated the Federal Junior Duck Stamp program in 1994 to showcase the talents of the nation's young artists while teaching youngsters about the value of wetlands and waterfowl conservation.
Also featured in this episode of Wildlife Journal is artist Jim Collins,
who creates the state waterfowl stamp. Join Jim as he scouts habitat and puts
paint to canvas.
Wild
Ways: Project HOME
Wildlife Enemy No. 1 is habitat destruction. Protecting habitat is one way to
help wildlife, another way is to create it. Host Lisa Densmore takes Wildlife
Journal back to school… to Bedford Memorial School, where students are
helping to design and build a wildlife habitat on school grounds.
Using the interdisciplinary "Project HOME" as her guide, teacher Leslie Fredette leads the process of enhancing the schoolyard to meet the needs for wildlife habitat, invite more wildlife to use the land and create an outdoor learning space. The class is helped by a professional landscape architect who served as the school's artist-in-residence.
Project HOME provides students and teachers with the opportunity and guidance for direct, hands-on learning in the environment of their schoolyards. Through this process, they become more informed about wildlife needs and conservation.
To learn about using Project HOME to transform the outdoor environment at your
school, see www.wildlife.state.nh.us/Education/ed_project_HOME.htm.
The award-winning "Homes for Wildlife: A Planning Guide for Habitat Enhancement
on School Grounds," which teaches about wildlife needs and how to create
a habitat enhancement plan, is available through N.H. Fish and Game or Acorn
Naturalist.
Fish Ladders
Follow this story step-by-step as fish use ladders and elevators to navigate
from salt water to freshwater to find their spawning grounds. Fisheries biologist
Cherie Patterson plays her part in the ongoing effort to find common ground
between habitat and power, what to keep and what to remove.
Join the trek with New Hampshire's anadromous fish (those that spend most of
their adult life in the ocean but return to freshwater to reproduce) as they
negotiate barrier after barrier to get to their spawning grounds. Shad, lampreys,
alewives, blueback herring and silver eels are among the species that make this
migratation.
Watch volunteers release tiny fry into the Cocheco River, and visit the Amoskeag
Fishways for "Lamprey Day."
Wild
Places: Spoonwood Pond and Nubanusit Lake
Spoonwood Pond and Nubanusit Lake in Nelson and Hancock are the headwaters for
a series of rivers, streams and ponds of all sizes, including the Nubanusit
River down to Peterborough. In the mid-1800s, the outlet to Lake Nubanusit was
dammed to provide power for the Cheshire Mills in Harrisville, which at one
time produced woolen cloth for the uniforms of the Union Army. By the 1880s,
water power from the lake was replaced by other sources, and the lake became
a place of quiet recreation.
Nubanusit Lake is surprisingly deep -- all the way to 96 feet -- so it supports everything from perch and pickerel to smallmouth bass, lake trout, rainbows, and even brook trout... and perhaps most important, smelt, the anchor at the bottom of the food chain.
Much of this area is protected from development by conservation easements, creating a buffer for wildlife and protection for the watershed. No gasoline motors are allowed on Spoonwood or Nubanusit. The area provides critical habitat for bears, deer and bobcat, and an excellent place for humans to fish or hike and enjoy the wildlife and scenery.
Profiles of Spoonwood Pond and Nubanusit Lake, created by students from Keene High School and provided by the Keene Sentinel, may be found at: www.keenesentinel.com/specialreports/tracingplaces.
Access to the lakes is through Hancock, N.H., off Route 123. Click here to download a map of the area.
Contact the Harris Center for Conservation Education <www.harriscenter.org/index.html>
for more information about permits for wilderness camping at Spoonwood.
