Over the course of the almost 5 years that I’ve had this blog I’ve seen many things that have gotten my goat. That’s New England Yankee speak for something that angers you, by the way. Anyhow, I’ve decided that keeping my mouth shut about these annoyances is accomplishing nothing except allowing them to continue, so I welcome you to the first installment of Things that get my goat. Maybe I’ll hear from others who are also bothered by these things. I can’t be the only one.
At one time there was a small grocery store that stood very close to the Ashuelot River in Swanzey, New Hampshire. You wouldn’t have had to walk too far behind the car in this 1952 photo to have reached the covered bridge that crossed the river, and still crosses it today. Not too long ago, a couple of years I think, I watched this building being torn down and it was then that I heard rumors of a town park being built on the property. I didn’t have a good feeling about that.
The park, as it stands now, seems to consist of granite block terracing and an expanse of crab grass. It reminds me of an amphitheater, but if you sat on these granite blocks you would look out on more crabgrass, so I’m not sure amphitheater is the right word.
The park is sunken below street level and the retaining wall where it meets the street was once part of the foundation of the store in the first photo. Now concrete blocks that are supposed to look like stone are used as a retaining wall.
A new fence was installed and it makes sense because there is a 7-8 foot drop from street level down to where the riverbank starts.
What doesn’t make sense is what was done to the riverbank. All of the shrubs and wildflowers that once grew there have been cut down, and what is left is an ugly scar.
This photo I took last year shows what this section of the river bank once looked like. There were lupines, ox-eye daisy, birds foot trefoil, asters, yarrow, goldenrod, button bush, silky dogwood, smooth and staghorn sumacs, Virginia creeper, and many other plants and shrubs that were important to the birds, waterfowl and other wildlife in the area.
One of the things Swanzey is known for its covered bridges. This one was built in 1832 and is called the Thompson Bridge, named after the playwright Denmon Thompson, who lived in town. Of open lattice design, it has been called the most beautiful covered bridge in New England and it draws a lot of tourists to the area. Tourists easily translate to income and the cutting has opened up the view so they can see the bridge better. I understand that; it seems like a valid reason. But what I can’t understand is why all of these plants had to be butchered back to ground level when more selective cutting would have opened up the view and left a riverbank overflowing with blooming shrubs, vines, and wildflowers. Why not have someone who knows what they’re doing come and at the very least give their opinion about what should be done before just hacking away at it?
Because what once looked like this…
…now looks like this. I doubt very much that tourists are going to be drawn to this. Are there more “improvements” in store, I wonder? I have to say that I hope not. Over there on the upper right is where one of only two examples of chicory plants that I knew of grew. The beautiful blue flowers would have pleased the tourists more than this empty riverbank, I think.
At this time of year the beautiful blue berries of silky dogwood hung out over the water.
You might say “big deal, sumacs and silky dogwoods grow everywhere, so who cares if we cut a few of them down?” Well, the cedar waxwing in the above photo probably cares. They rely heavily on silky dogwood berries at this time of year and when I was on the bridge watching one recent evening he and many of his cousins kept flying to where the shrubs used to be, as if they couldn’t figure out why there were no berries there. Who knows how many generations of birds have been taught to forage here?
And that’s saying nothing about the 25 species of ducks and 28 species of birds that feed on buttonbush seeds. Or the robins, bluebirds, crows, mockingbirds and 300 species of songbirds that feed on the sumac berries. Or the raccoons, rabbits, muskrats and squirrels that used the shrubs for cover and food. Or the birds that nest in the thickets the shrubs create. Or the bees, butterflies and other insects that feed on the wildflowers.
As John Muir once said: When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.
The saddest and most ironic part of this story is, I think, how just a few hundred yards downriver on the other side of the bridge a 250 year old timber crib dam was torn down in 2010. At the time that section of river bank was also “improved” and good money was paid by taxpayers to plant native shrubs and trees there. Many of the shrubs that were planted are silky dogwoods!
So here we are on one side of the bridge spending tax dollars to plant silky dogwood while on the other side of the bridge, just a couple of hundred yards away, we’re busy paying more tax dollars to cut them all down. I’m sure this must make sense to someone somewhere who probably wouldn’t know a dogwood from a dandelion, but it makes absolutely no sense to me.
Just as ironic is how most of the native wildflowers were cut and good sized patches of purple loosestrife, one of the most invasive plants that we have in this area, were left standing. There are still one or two goldenrods, asters and smartweeds growing here but they won’t be able to compete against the loosestrife. It will eventually win out. Instead of using it to cut down native plants would the money be better spent trying to eradicate invasive species along the river bank? There are many, including Japanese barberry, burning bush, and oriental bittersweet. They’ve taken over the woodland just downriver from here.
Here is your country. Cherish these natural wonders, cherish the natural resources, cherish the history and romance as a sacred heritage, for your children and your children’s children. Do not let selfish men or greedy interests skin your country of its beauty, its riches or its romance. ~Theodore Roosevelt
Thanks for coming by.
New Hampshire Garden Solutions 
I do like a good rant about these things. It seems to me the powers that be have no idea what they’re doing most of the time and their so called improvements are often disasters. When it comes to nature I get the feeling she is best left to get on with it by herself, she knows what she’s doing. If it’s any consolation we get an awful lot of the same thing here and it gets my goat too!
Yes, this kind of thing seems to go on just about everywhere, and that’s too bad. I wonder if we’ll ever learn that we can’t improve on nature. All we can do is interfere.
Wow, those things would really get my goat too! It reminds me of what transpired in Peterborough some years ago. As I recall from newspaper stories, people protested the Town’s plan to cut down old trees lining the Contoocook River so they could build a park. Well, eventually the trees did come down — but then young trees were planted instead! I still have no idea what the thinking was behind that plan. But beavers had the last word. When people showed up one morning, the young trees were lying on the ground. Sometimes it just doesn’t pay to mess with Mother Nature.
If only we would listen to ourselves as we say things like “let’s cut those trees down so we can plant some trees.” Then we’d know how foolish we were being.
That reminds me of a story I just heard from Spain (I think) where workers poured concrete into an ancient Celtic tomb and put a picnic table over it. When the “improvers” are left to their own devices…
I knew it wasn’t just a local phenomenon. I hope those workers aren’t allowed near anymore tombs. They should be sweeping streets.
So much is done as an improvement but with no knowledge so much damage can be done unwittingly. Amelia
That’s true and it happens quite frequently.
Thank you for offering to lend your talents to these civic efforts, Allen. I do appreciate your willingness. Let me add that, in characterizing this situation as a transformation from private prerogative to public management, I had in mind Teddy Roosevelt’s citation at the end of your post, i.e., your town is on the right side of history here — even if the execution (loaded word, that) is wanting. Like your correspondent, Clare, in Sussex UK, I sought to preserve the dam in the first place, but had to accept a modest pamphlet in its stead as compensation. But the restoration of the open river has allowed the recovery of flora and fauna, as you point out — ideally leading one day to spawning of Atlantic salmon and shad in the tributaries of the Ashuelot as in the 18th century and before. . . One other point for the public blog — not ALL the money is tax dollars: the abutments and fencing which you depict, as well as other less visible infrastructure, were paid in large measure from a trust left to the town in the 1930s, devoted to the installation and maintenance of sidewalks. (That is why every street in your village has a sidewalk on one or both sides.) The volunteer committee that oversees the “Snow Sidewalk Fund” generously assumed several expenses in this project which would otherwise have been borne entirely by taxes. . . Self-government is messy and imperfect, but I am confident that, with your help and that of many others — as well as the resilience of nature — we will look back in ten years and regard this favorably.
Thanks for that information Richard. Obviously I wasn’t aware of the sidewalk fund and how it played a part in this, but I’m glad to hear that it did.
I would like to help out where I can when I can and maybe by doing so I’ll see the side of things that I can’t see from where I stand now.
One thing I’ll have to do in future “things that get my goat” posts is explain clearly that I don’t have all of the facts. It’s very hard to find out who is responsible for a fallen tree across a trail or the dangerous road undercutting by the Ashuelot out in Muster field for instance, so I have to go with the information I have.
Thanks for the help. I appreciate it.
Hmmm. It looks like the contract goes out to the person with the biggest machine and lowest price, not the most thoughtful doesn’t it? Wouldn’t it be nice if the two could go together? Your blog made an excellent point. I hope that the act of writing it sets that goat free, at least a little bit. Your spirit is always so uplifting it’s a shame to have it dragged down by the acts of those without your level of sensitivity. Thanks for writing Allen.
Thank you. So far the only people I’ve seen working there are town employees, who are just doing what they’re told I’m sure. One commenter who is very familiar with the workings of the town implies that it is a committee that makes these decisions. If so it is they who need to be educated about what grows here and how the plants benefit both the river and the birds and animals that live near it. Nobody knows everything and I think it is just plain old “not knowing” behind this, rather than any wanton destruction or malice.
I try to keep these posts as positive and uplifting as possible and there really isn’t much that bothers me but I think we need to speak out about things like this, especially when it doesn’t seem like anyone else is. Nature suffers a lot of damage from ignorance and apathy and I think we should do what we can to stop both whenever possible.
Thanks for coming by.
Thank you ! Please keep on with your fine work and “things that get yer goat !”
Thanks very much K. I don’t have any plans to stop just yet.
What can I add to what you and your respondents have already said?
I think it’s all pretty much been said Ben, but thanks for stopping in anyway.
🙂
How frustrating! To spend money to plant in one area and clear out in another. Ridiculous! I’ve been dismayed at all the logging in my area this summer at the peak of second broods. I’m still scratching my head that they would have left the invasive non-native species along that river bank!
Thank you Jocelyn. I think ignorance does more towards destroying nature than anything else, and that’s one of the things that this blog is trying to do something about. I think the logging in your area is probably going on for the same reason-the loggers just don’t know.
Unfortunately there are fads in park designs, and this spot fell victim to that. To park designers, every park has to have a sunken amphitheater and re-use bits of whatever was there before, whether what was re-used has any significance or not. Still, Im a little surprised that they just chopped down the plants on the bank with a brush-hog and didn’t seem concerned with erosion. But, only a little surprised.
A few months ago, a local drain commissioner hired a firm to clear debris from the culverts running under the roads in a county near where I live. The firm that was hired went overboard, and cleared the stream banks of trees, then graded the banks to make them look nice, to them. They all but destroyed what was a feeder stream to a state designated trout stream. The drain commissioner that ordered the work and the firm he hired got into a lot of hot water with the state DEQ and DNR over that, but I never heard how the entire mess was resolved. It really doesn’t matter, the stream will eventually recover, but it will be years before that can happen.
Still, what it all boils down to is that people haven’t learned a thing about nature yet to this day. Greenspace along a river is great, but the powers that be think that every greenspace has to have a development plan, and to be developed in some way or another. They end up spending tons of money on what doesn’t work, because they have studies and surveys to prove that they are right.
Thanks Jerry. What that means to me is maybe it’s time for people like you and me to start documenting that what they’re doing doesn’t work. The health of streams and rivers shouldn’t be in the hands of people who do things like what I’ve shown here because they think it “looks better.”
This is such sad news. So much destruction all for nothing – it’s definitely not an improvement. I hope some of the native plants grow back soon. I have looked up ‘get my goat’ in a phrase and fable dictionary I have after seeing Julie’s comment and your answer. It says it is an old Americanism you’ll be pleased to hear! It is used here and has obviously crossed the Atlantic to us not from us! Have you found out why the old timber crib dam was destroyed? In this country it would probably have been preserved and people would have paid money to see it. It’s very difficult to get planning permission to pull down or build anything here!
Thank you Clare. If left alone the native plants should grow back quickly, but I’m not sure that they’ll be left alone.
I can’t think of many American phrases that used there and I’m surprised that get my goat is one of them. Thank you for looking it up. Now we just need to figure out how and why it came to be in this country!
The timber crib dam was used for power production by the woolen mill that sits beside the river. It’s removal was a great boon to the river, and trout and bald eagles can now be seen on this stretch. That’s something that was unheard of just a few years ago, so the dam removal was a good thing.
We have the same trouble with permits here. We’re not allowed to do much without one, yet the town government can come along and do something like this with no consequences. It’s the same all over, I think!
Thank-you for the information about the crib dam, Allen. Yes, we all have the same problems the world over it seems!
I’m not sure if you’ll see this comment Clare, but here is a post I did earlier on the removal of the dam. https://nhgardensolutions.wordpress.com/2013/06/12/a-sense-of-place/
Thanks again Allen. The post was most interesting. Good to see the real improvement made by the removal of the dam.
You’re welcome!
Allen – I appreciate your indignation at good intentions gone awry, but let’s remind ourselves that each of your items is part of a larger transformation by which private assets (the dam, the impounded upstream water rights, the grocery store with parking lot) are entering the public domain, where they will be conceptualized and managed only as capably as the “public” permits — meaning volunteer oversight committees and town employees. The “park” is meant to provide public access to the Ashuelot River – a public asset under common law. That s, for most, a good thing. Removing impervious surface generating noxious runoff (the parking lot) is a good thing. Scalping the riverbank is a bad thing, and a clear violation of RSA 483-B (Shoreland Protection Law), unless performed with a permit to enable a justifying project. . . I hope you would be willing to bring your expertise and sensibility to one of the existing oversight bodies, the Conservation Commission or the Open Space Committee. I will amplify these comments via email, but I hope you will authorize me to nominate you to one of the town committees mentioned above. -Richard
Thank you Richard,
I don’t know what the long range plan looks like but I do agree with stemming the runoff from the parking lot and giving people more access to the Ashuelot. However, neither has been done. I tried to walk down the “giant” steps one night and almost ended up in the river. Nobody can walk down them comfortably and as far as runoff goes, just walk over to the “giant” steps and look to the left. You’ll see that the denuded embankment is still being washed away into the river every time it rains.
I suppose that I should stop belly aching and do something. The reason I haven’t joined one of the committees that you speak of is because I’m not sure I have enough free time to do the job well. If they would take me as someone who would advise them what the plants were in a certain area and what value they had, then I’d be happy to join. That should probably start by simply talking to someone so yes, feel free to mention me to whomever is pulling the strings. And thank you for the suggestion.
Allen
I feel your pain. More explanations and wider discussion before actions like this would go a long way to making things work better.
I agree. Let’s see what the public has to say before assuming “we” know what they need and want.
Still, you can never keep everyone happy so I feel for ‘decision makers’ sometimes.
Yes, but I think the decision making might get easier as more people offered their opinions.
I’m glad I’m not the one who has to make the decisions though.
That’s a shame. My brother in Minneapolis lives near a lake. The Parks Department landscaped the shore line with native plants including aquatics. Neighbors protested that it looked “messy”, so it was all torn out.
I would have told the neighbors to wait a while and see if they liked it later on, which they probably would have. Nature doesn’t plant things in rows, but it can still be incredibly beautiful. We really need to get over this rigid, straight row thinking!
No wonder your goat was got, what fools people can be!
That’s for sure!
Namaste Allen
Sorry to hear that this place doesn’t have much creativity with native growth for enrichment and joy.
Community gardening and having a playground for both the old and the young, might make a good community space for the residents nearby.
For the senior citizens, an assortment of recreational apparatus close to the playground for the children will make a good spot for both to enjoy Nature on a lovely day .. while keeping an eye on them.
The garden can consists of native plants, some perennial vegetables, some fruit trees and legume trees to keep the grounds secure with nice canopies.
Permaculture is ideal in places like this for the general populace. Wishing you a beautiful week. – Agnes
Thank you Agnes, for the re-blog and the great ideas. That site would be a good place for a community garden and there would still be room for playground equipment. Even a few park benches so people could see the river would be an improvement over the crabgrass that’s there now.
I hope all is well with you and your family. Take care!
Reblogged this on Dawn of Divine Rays.
Thats a sad sight to see the bank removed of plants and the lack of joined up thinking is shameful. We say ‘got my goat’ over here, hopefully raising awareness may bring some change too. I was not sure by your post what was intended to be put where the bare ground is now on the riverbank. Left exposed something will colonise there, I hope you will see a return to native wildflowers along there.
Thank you Julie, I agree. I’m not sure what the future plans are. Personally I wish they would just let nature grow it all back, which it is going to try to do anyway.
I thought “get my goat” was a New England term. My father used to say it!
Sadly it is occurring all too often in all of our towns 😦
But we keep electing and appointing the ones who make these decisions. That’s the sad part.
Yes very sad indeed if so many feel as we do why is there never and change for the good 😦
The only reason I can think of is that many who feel as we do don’t vote.
even sadder
Spot on!
Thank you Judy. I’m guessing this goes on in Michigan too!
Trying to “improve upon nature” never does… I think it is time to take a stand and am glad you pointed out this spot in particular as I too have stood there and wondered why.
I agree Martha. Our improvements can’t even come close to what nature does.
Isn’t there a volunteer group that maintains the park in downtown Keene? Maybe there needs to be a volunteer group or a Master Gardener group that would offer to manage the landscape for these areas so it isn’t just mowed down to the soil level. I certainly understand why this gets your goat. 🙂
I’m not really sure who takes care of the parks, other than the city run parks and recreation department. Swanzey doesn’t have one of those I don’t think, but I’m sure there are volunteers who would be happy to help out.
A few years ago I was looking at the Orion Nebula in the constellation Sagittarius about 5000 light years away. Through my 15″ telescope I could even make out a hint of blue in the glowing white of the interstellar gas. It was stunningly beautiful! I couldn’t help but rejoice, finally something humans will never screw up!
Not yet, anyway. But we’re a determined lot!
I completely agree with you on this one! I have been to the exact spot where many of those photos were taken. What used to be beautiful, even if a little overgrown, is now ugly. Sadder still is we (taxpayers) paid for it!
Thanks Laura. Maybe there is a “bigger picture” that I’m missing but I can’t see much in the way of improvement going on here. Not likely we’re going to improve on nature anyway.
Having to pay for things like this is a bit of a kick in the teeth, isn’t it?
I hear you, brother. That denuded riverbank sure looks like an eyesore, especially when one knows what was there before.
Thanks Cynthia. It’s probably not worth coming all the way from Canada to see.
I know this attitude to “better” the city very well here in Germany. There are also blockheads who plow through grown habitats and sensible ecology. Wanting the best is more often than not doing the worst.
Thank you Zyriacus, I agree. Many people’s vision of what is good doesn’t seem to include what is natural. I’m sorry to hear that this kind of thing goes on in your country too.
Education is the key.
Unfortunately ignorance is rampant in our country these days.
That’s true, and ignorance is the biggest threat against nature.