Making the Blackstone ‘a thing of beauty’

To truly know the Blackstone River is to paddle it. 

For Stefanie Covino, M.S./ES&P ’15, and Caleigh McLaren ’22, M.S./GIS ’23, of the Blackstone Watershed Collaborative, traveling the length of the 48-mile river — from Worcester to Providence — is an imperative part of their work to improve watershed health. The Collaborative was developed in 2021 to implement goals identified within the Blackstone Needs Assessment Report. It was incubated through Clark’s George Perkins Marsh Institute and is now an independent organization with 501(c)(3) status. 

Between projects focused on dam removal, stormwater management, and fish passage, Covino and McLaren hopped into their kayaks in September to document the river’s needs hands-on.  

“If no one is interacting directly with the river, there’s no skin in the game. You’re not worried about its health and resilience,” says Covino, the Collaborative’s executive director. 

While exciting, the trip was not a simple one. The duo spent four intense days paddling and detouring around the Blackstone’s 19 dams. It was McLaren’s first time paddling the entire river. 

“The river is really different from Millbury all the way down to Pawtucket (R.I.). It changes as it ebbs and flows,” says McLaren, the Collaborative’s restoration manager. “I feel like I got much more of an understanding of the dams, portages, and the river itself.”  

The trip yielded valuable information about access points, maintenance and signage needs, and, most importantly, established personal connections. Covino and McLaren invited the public to join them for four miles of their trek. 

“When you can access a river, you create more future stewards,” says Covino. “We want to make the Blackstone someplace that people think of as a gem, a recreational resource, and a thing of beauty.” 

That beauty was evident for Covino and McLaren during their excursion. They spotted dozens of great blue herons, many species of fish such as smallmouth bass, egrets, and bald eagles. But for many people in the region, the Blackstone is still associated with its industrial past, when nearby mills released toxic metals and pollutants that caused build-up behind dams and fractured fish passages. Despite water-quality improvements made over the last 50 years, the negative association has stuck. 

“We’re trying to change its reputation into something positive, and as that reputation changes there’s also this possibility of more development along the river,” says Covino. “We’re at this pinch point of making sure that people are thinking about the river as a common resource, but also ensuring that we have protections in place so that we’re not going to be impacting it more with additional development.” 

Ultimately, the Collaborative supports the long-held goal of watershed advocates to make the Blackstone fishable and swimmable. In the meantime, Covino and McLaren are focused on improvements like dam removal, which will create large sections of water ideal for recreational paddling.  

Navigating around the dams is dangerous, even if the structures are small. In some areas, paddlers must drag their kayaks down the face of a dam because there is no formal access. But that’s not possible in some spots. In downtown Woonsocket, R.I., Covino and McLaren had to get out of the water and carry their kayaks for a mile to get to the next safe entry point.  

Removing dams helps with more than just recreational paddling. It provides ecological benefits by connecting riverways and restoring natural hydrology, Covino says.  

Migratory or anadromous species such as river herring, shad, and American eel do not have sustainable populations on the Blackstone because they can’t get up the river to spawn and then return to the sea. It’s an issue advocates have been trying to address for 35 years, says Covino. The Collaborative and its partners have created a Fish Passage Advisory Committee, which is seeking grants to create structures for fish passes at four dams in Rhode Island — Main Street and Slater Mill in Pawtucket, Elizabeth Webbing in Central Falls, and Valley Falls in Cumberland.  

“Trying to get those migratory species back on the river is not just because it’s important ecologically,” says Covino. “It’s important culturally because the Blackstone has been a lifeway for local tribes for millennia.” 

The Collaborative works closely with local native communities, particularly the Hassanamisco Nipmuc Band in Massachusetts and the Narragansett Tribe in Rhode Island. Both tribes were concerned about contaminated water from combined sewer overflows, so addressing that issue became a priority for the Collaborative. They’ve hosted tours at CSO facilities, created a new webpage, and led informational webinars. 

“One of the things that the tribes always say is that the Blackstone is not necessarily a resource, but a family member,” McLaren says. “I felt more of a connection after I spent so much time paddling on the river.”  

The Collaborative is waiting to hear if it has been awarded an America the Beautiful grant through the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation that would provide capacity funding to support the Collaborative while it creates management practices for stewardship and opportunities for rehabilitation such as dam removal. 

This work excites McLaren because it combines her undergraduate degree in environmental science with her graduate degree in GIS while allowing her the opportunity to interact directly with the community — with the added perk of experiencing nature as part of her job. 

“It’s fulfilling to contribute to the larger watershed and all of the efforts that people have been making for the past 50 years,” says McLaren. “I’m grateful to be a part of the next generation of stewards.”