My Latest Column: Let’s Celebrate! It’s National Estuaries Week

What do you get when you combine Great Bay, Little Bay, the Piscataqua River and tributaries, and the Hampton-Seabrook estuary? Answer: estuaries of national significance – taken together they are one of only 28 designated, as such, in all of the United States. And, in case you didn’t know, September 17–24 is National Estuaries Week. So celebrate a little, because you own them – and they are right in your backyard – and they are very valuable! 

Fed by fresh water from rivers, streams, and runoff from the land, estuaries are connected to the ocean – they are salty, but not as salty as the Atlantic. They are tidal, often with broad exposed mudflats appearing twice a day – fertile with shellfish, worms, feeding waterfowl and migratory birds. Those flats should transition to healthy salt marshes… Read my full piece.