Category: Pettaquamscutt People

W.E.R. La Farge

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W.E.R. LaFarge, poet, playwright, and environmentalist, was born in New York City on June 24, 1930. In 1978, he began to live year round at the River Farm, owned by his family since 1908.

W.E.R. was a founding and active member of the Narrow River Preservation Association that, over the years has preserved so much of the river we all enjoy. W.E.R. believed in preserving watersheds, farmland and public access to recreational and scenic areas. He believed that we are all stewards of the land, inextricably bound to it and to each other.

LaFarge Point Park and the U.R.I. Rowing Center were once part of the River Farm. W.E.R. donated these parcels and permanently restricted development on his land through conservation easements. The value of the gift was used as matching funds, allowing the Narrow River Land Trust with the assistance of the The Champlin Foundations and the Nature Conservancy, to preserve additional land on the upper pond.

Each year, NRPA honors someone who has made a large, positive impact on the Narrow River Watershed by awarding them the W.E.R. La Farge Friend of the River Award in W.E.R.’s honor.

Through the efforts of Senator John Chafee, the lower end of the estuary has been designated as the Pettaquamscutt Cove National Wildlife Refuge.

W.E.R. died at home in October 27, 1994 and is buried at the River Farm. His poem reprinted here was inspired by the glacial estuary we call “Narrow River”.

Earth’s Song

by W.E.R. LaFarge (1974)

I lie alone

remembering changes

how sudden crystals grew

from water falling

in a cup in a rock

surprising forms

acids in a cup in a rock

receiving lightning

a cup in a rock receiving

lightning

I am here

I lie alone

no one completes me

after lightning

I bide my time

I hold my forms beyond

surprising islands

I lie alone

remembering changes

how grinding ice came down

the slide of earth

rub of rivers

knuckles of trees cracking rocks

receiving ice surprising

cracking rocks receiving ice

a tree of rivers sprang inside

me

I am here

I lie alone

no one completes me

after water

I bide my time

I hold my face beyond

surprising rains

URI Rowing and Coach Shelagh Donohoe

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by Alison Kates, Fall 2016

With a warm smile and friendly greeting, Head Coach Shelagh Donohoe welcomes me at the Middlebridge dock one chilly November morning as the URI Women’s Rowing Team is finishing up practice. Student athletes are coming in from the river. They row to the platform, lift their boat out of the water and walk it to an area for rinsing before storing it until tomorrow. All of this is fun to watch – each boat (skull) is carried by all of the rowers who fit inside and directions are coordinated by the coxswain. The students smile and seem to know exactly what they are doing.

The URI Rowing Team’s 50 members, Novice and Varsity, arrive at practice at the Middlebridge site daily by 5:45 am to practice until 8:00am. They row on Narrow River and in the Fall and Spring, and train indoors during the winter months. They consistently achieve one of the highest combined GPAs of all URI sports teams.

The Rowing team takes community service and local stewardship very seriously. They spent Sunday, November 13 improving trails at Canonchet Farm. Visit the Canonchet Farm website for great photographs of their efforts. http://canonchet.org/trails.php

The same day that the team was doing the heavy lifting at Canonchet Farm, the finishing touches were put on their new boathouse, which the team affectionately calls ‘the structure’. A sturdy steel frame covered in strong polyethylene will provide the team’s skulls with protection from the weather over the winter months. A strip of clear polyethylene along the highest point on the roof lets light into the vast space. Set back from the waterfront just past the parking area, the structure was deliberately placed out of the sightline of the scenic riverfront. The design is meant to blend in with the surrounding area, not to disturb it.

Likewise, the boat dock, installed in Spring 2016, was specifically designed and installed so as to not disturb the eelgrass and other life along the river’s edge.

The team uses one of the cottages on the Middlebridge property for storage, bathroom facilities and electric service. Even though it is filled to the gills with equipment and supplies, it’s clean, well organized and has a welcoming feel.

Lily Herberger, originally from California, walked on to the rowing team as a Freshman at URI and quickly fell in love with Rhode Island, the University and Narrow River. She rowed for four years while earning her Bachelor’s Degree, working her way up to the Varsity level. Now that she is working toward her Master’s Degree in Environmental Science, she’s helping coach the team.

Lily remembers when the team moved to the Middlebridge site from the Boathouse further up the river. She described how one day in September 2015, the team boarded the boats at the old site and rowed down to their new home at Middlebridge. Since then the team has embraced the Middlebridge site as their home.

Shelagh was delighted to talk about the Narrow River and the watershed. She has been coaching rowing at URI for 10 years. Shelagh has been involved with Rowing for decades. Her accomplishments as an athlete include winning a silver medal at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 in the women’s straight 4. As a coach, she has guided many teams to victory, most recently the US Paralympic Team to silver at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics this summer.

Shelagh has high hopes for the future. She would love to work with the town and interested partners in the future to offer a rowing program to high school students and the general public. Shelagh loves the fact that NRPA, the Town and the team all have the same goal: protecting and helping people enjoy Narrow River.

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Jon Boothroyd

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Jon C. Boothroyd, Ph.D.
1938-2015
Scientist, Teacher, Friend of the River

Follow Jon on a Geology Walk on Block Island during the 2010 BioBlitz in a film by Curt Milton.

View a story map with “samples of field notes, and assorted pictures and images highlighting Jon’s research and professional career” assembled by his 44th Grad Student, Scott Rasmussen.

We have lost a great friend. Jon Boothroyd, shown above answering questions about coastal storm hazards on a walking tour of Narragansett Beach in 2012, died at his home in South Kingstown on Thursday, October 15. Jon served for more than 20 years on the Narrow River Preservation Association Board of Directors and he always sported his tattered NRPA ball cap in case you had any doubt about his allegiance. He was NRPA’s Vice President-Science, a trusted colleague, and what made him proud, the recipient of the 2000 W.E.R. La Farge Friend of the River Award.

Fellow Board member Veronica Berounsky wrote this remembrance of Jon:

Jon Boothroyd was Research Professor Emeritus at the University of Rhode Island’s College of the Environment and Life Sciences, the Rhode Island State Geologist, and a Narrow River Preservation Association Board member for over 20 years. Having returned to a normal active life after slipping on Super Storm Sandy wet leaves and falling and breaking his hip, we thought that nothing could stop Jon, so his death comes as a surprise, despite his 77 plus years.

Jon received his Ph.D. in 1974, University of South Carolina in Columbia (Geology) and had lots of stories to tell about coastal South Carolina, including the Outer Banks. Two years earlier he earned his M.S. at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst (Geology). But he was particularly happy to let you know that he received his undergraduate degree in 1962 from his home state university, the University of New Hampshire in Durham (Economics). He certainly enjoyed living in the state of Rhode Island and he loved all its coastal environments, but he always made time to get back to his hometown in the middle of New Hampshire and enjoyed skiing there until he broke his hip.

Jon considered himself a field geologist and he specialized in coastal and also glacial environments. His scientific research work was extensive and thorough. His courses were legendary for the depth of knowledge gained and the awesome field trips. Jon was a born teacher, and made geology interesting whether it was in the classroom or on a public field trip to look at coastal geologic hazards or in discussion over a beer at the Willows. In 1996 he was appointed the Rhode Island State Geologist and kept that position until his death, and he also established the Rhode Island State Geologic Survey. He seemed to have infinite patience and despite having to explain geologic processes to non-geologists for years, he never tired of talking about the 100-year storm, explaining the role of tide gauges and taking people out on coastal walks. One of my personal highlights was being on a field trip lead by Jon to the Mohegan Bluffs on Block Island. And that was after he was an invited speaker at a New England Estuarine Research Society (NEERS) symposium on climate change held out on Block Island.

As the NRPA Vice President for Science, he sloughed through lots of files and permit applications in order to make an informed decision and report on the issue for the next Board meeting. He was always the voice of reason and he knew when to fight and when not to fight a permit application. And he was forever willing to answer a question and did so in a way anyone could understand. Jon was a great advocate for using science for good management and his work in that area is just part of his legacy and we are all better for it.

And Jon could be forceful in a discussion, but he, I know this sounds like a cliché, he always ended with smile. He loved his work and all the ways he could use his work for good. But more than that, he was a good person. He is irreplaceable and he is already being missed!

Veronica Berounsky, October 15, 2015

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