This Spring find the river nearest to you, or a river that you can visit often, and make it your best friend forever. Learn everything you can about this river. The name of a river often can tell you something about the history of the river. Many rivers have the names of the Native American communities that traditionally lived by that River. The whole state of Connecticut is named after the “Quinnehtukqut,” which is an Algonquin word for “beside the long tidal River.” The Connecticut River starts in New Hampshire just south of Canada and flows all the way to Long Island Sound, which empties into the Atlantic Ocean. Find out where your river starts and where it flows into another river, or flows into the ocean.
I lived in New York City when I was a little kid. I didn’t see a whole lot of animals and plants in my day to day life. Some trees in the parks and on the streets, pigeons (that I learned to love later in life), squirrels, and some interesting scraggly plants and flowers in vacant lots. When my family took a trip to a big, open place like Central Park, with water, grass, meadows, rocks, hills, and groves of trees, it felt like a whole new world. Going to the Bronx Zoo made me want to learn about every animal that existed, from Anteaters to Zebras, from Butterflies to the Blue Whale. I do remember taking some memorable trips on the Staten Island Ferry in New York Harbor at the confluence of the East and Hudson Rivers.
When I was six my family moved to a rural town in Connecticut, and near our house were three beautiful rivers, the Nonnewaug, the Weekeepeemee, and the Pomperaug! My brothers and sister and I used to take an atlas and try to figure out how we could canoe all the way from the Pomperaug River in Connecticut to the Amazon River in Brazil.
I loved how the light shined on the water and how the water flowed in different currents, eddies and riffles. I loved how the water tumbled and splashed around rocks and over a waterfall, how it got deep and still in a quiet pool. I learned how to fish on that river, met my first turtles, frogs, and river birds, and saw a raccoon family coming to the shoreline to eat. One time I was surrounded by dragonflies and I didn’t know whether I was being attacked or escorted up the river. I enjoyed throwing stones in the water and watching the concentric circles spread out from the center, and later learning how to skip stones across the water. Most of all I just loved messing around down by the river, walking, exploring, seeing what was around the next bend! That started my love affair with the Nonnewaug River and my love of rivers in general.
Explore your river. Go there at different times of the day. Notice how it changes and stays the same. Visit it throughout the seasons and find out about why the river “height” and and intensity of the river flow changes at different times of the year ( CFS or cubic feet per second measures the volume of water that flows one foot in one second). Learn about all the animals and plants that need the river to live. Walk alongside the river for as far as you can and walk in the river where it is safe to do so. Learn about how clean your river is. Pick up trash around your river and learn about what you can do to preserve, protect and improve the water quality of your river. When I was a teenager I moved to New Haven next to the Mill River. That river became my playground. But in the seventies it was very polluted because there had been a gun factory there for a long time and they had dumped their waste into the river. Now the gun factory has been replaced by a wonderful museum. The Eli Whitney Museum helps kids explore the river and find out more about it. FInd out about the history of your river. Find out where the water you drink and use comes from. What rivers and reservoirs provide you with the water you need to live?
Most importantly play by the river. Always talk to your parents about what is safe to do, but learn about the places where you can wade in the river and splash around, poke about, and investigate. Or if you are the parent, take your kids to the river and explore together. Find special spots by the river where you feel safe, happy, excited and peaceful all at the same time. Make boats. Learn how to swim. Let your curiosity run wild and the river will always reward you with new experiences, challenges, mysteries and treasures. The river can be your best friend when you feel like you don’t have any, and it can be the very best place to play with your friends when you are looking for a new, special place to have fun.
As you learn more about your “home river” you will learn that several rivers together make up the watershed that is one of the natural boundaries and network of connections that define where you live. In New Haven, the Mill River, the Quinnipiac and the West River make up the New Haven watershed. So get outside, find your “next door” river, and become fast friends. It is within this wider and wilder web of connections that we must find our rightful place and summon the vast imaginative, creative and critical resources we need to work and play well together. The more we learn how to love where we live and who we live with “our actions can rise… from a sense of rootedness, connectedness, creativity and delight” (Lyanda Lynn Haupt).
