The Chester-Hadlyme Ferry has resumed daily service after being suspended because of high water on the Connecticut River from spring rains and upstream snow melt.
Chester-Hadlyme Ferry Resumes Service
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Category Archives: Outdoors
Lyme-Old Lyme HS Environmental Club Honors Earth Day 2014 with Special Event Tonight: All Welcome
An osprey delivers lunch.
Earth Day 2014 is this coming Tuesday, April 22, and the Lyme-Old Lyme High School Environmental Club is hosting two speakers at 7 p.m. at the high school at 69, Lyme Street in Old Lyme. Students from high schools in the local region, as well as the general public, are invited to attend.
Before the speakers take the stage, the audience will be able to visit with various groups who will be manning information tables in the Commons area of the high school. These groups will include the Lyme and Old Lyme Land Trusts, the Old Lyme Conservation and Open Space Commissions, the Potapaug Audubon Society, the Tributary Mill Conservancy and the CT River Gateway Commission.
The theme on which the speakers will focus is: “Spring Migrants And Our Coastal Food Chain: Alewife, Menhaden, and Osprey.”
First to speak will be conservation biologist and ornithological expert, Dr. Paul Spitzer, who will discuss his current study of osprey in the lower Connecticut River estuary.
Inspired by his mentor Roger Tory Peterson, and Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, Spitzer was part of the movement that banned DDT in 1972, documenting its correlation to the thinning of osprey egg shells. He is now collecting data related to the over-fishing of menhaden, a primary food source for osprey chicks.
Spitzer will be joined by Connecticut DEEP biologist Steve Gephard, supervisor for the State’s Diadromous Fish and Conservation Enhancement programs. Gephard will discuss efforts to restore and protect the fish that migrate between Long Island Sound, the Connecticut River and its tributaries.
It was announced last week that President Obama has appointed Gephard to serve as the Commissioner of the Council of North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization.
According to Congressman Joe Courtney’s office, this is “an international organization established by an intergovernmental convention in 1984 that seeks to restore and manage Atlantic salmon populations”.
Chester-Hadlyme Ferry Service Suspended Due to High Water
As we’ve said before, we always enjoy opening our Inbox, because (like that infamous box of chocolates) we never know what we’re going to find … well, today it held a couple of photos of the Ferry Road (Rte. 148) causeway in Hadlyme across Whalebone Cove flooded out by Connecticut River “freshet” (high water caused by spring rains and snow melt upstream in northern New England.)
The loyal reader who sent the photos further helpfully advises that service on the Chester- Hadlyme Ferry has been suspended until the water recedes.
The Department of Transportation website states that the duration of time for which the service will be out of action is “unknown.”
Lyme Land Trust Program on Honey Bees, Sunday
A honey bee goes quietly about his essential work.
The Lyme Land Conservation Trust will present a program on “Our Friends, the Honey Bees,” on April 6, at 2 p.m. at the Lyme Public Hall, 249 Hamburg Road.
John Pritchard and Kiernan Wholean, Directors of the Lyme Land Trust, will present the program.
Honey Bees are our most interesting, important and challenged insect helpers. One mouthful in three of our diet benefits from honey bee pollination directly or indirectly. But bee colonies have been collapsing at an alarming rate in the past two decades for unknown reasons.
Pritchard and Wholean, both beekeepers and bee enthusiasts themselves, will describe the rudiments of how to start a beehive and explain the fascinating life cycle and abilities of the honey bee, their importance to our food supply and the threats they face today.
This program is not intended for small children but should be of interest to teens.
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Church
A long-time resident of Old Lyme set off early on Sunday morning from her home on Nottingham for Christ The King Church, but decided as she was traveling along Mile Creek Rd. to turn left down Cross Ln. to join Rte. 156 rather than take her more usual route along Mile Creek itself.
Although Phyllis Shepherd-Tambini saw the water in front of her under the Cross Ln. railroad bridge, there were no barriers or cones present at the edge of the water. She continued driving under the bridge, but the water was much deeper than she anticipated and almost immediately her PT cruiser stalled.
Shepherd-Tambini watched helplessly as the water began to rise within her car, but she remained composed and called 911 on her cell phone. When the water was roughly up to her waist, she was rescued by members of the Old Lyme Fire and Police Departments, who used a canoe to transport Shepherd-Tambini to safety.
Shepherd-Tambini told LymeLine, “I’m just glad I’ve lived through this story … I never thought I was going to die,” adding, “I knew where the air bubble would be in the car.” She expressed her deep appreciation to everyone involved in her rescue.