"I like the 'Voice of the Merrimack' slogan," says the man known as "Suasco Al" commenting in an email message to the Merrimack River Watershed Council.
Up until about 5 years ago, Al was out on his local rivers mainly as a place to train for upcoming distance paddling races. Over time, he began to slow down and in doing so allowed the rivers to tell him their story. Al had the chance to reflect on his years on the rivers and began to see them differently, and began to hear their story as well. "I've since come to appreciate just what complex, dynamic, historic, and diverse environments they provide," he says.
Al maintains a web site and is an avid blogger - www.trashpaddler.com
According to his web site, Al is primarily a 'lone wolf' paddler on the Sudbury, Assabet, and Concord Rivers (SuAsCo) who decided to pickup the trash he encountered, rather than paddle past it.
"I'm also working on 'section paddling' the Northern Forest Canoe Trail. To date, I've paddled & portaged about 130 miles of the NY section Old Forge to Picketts Corner; a 29-mile stretch of Lake Champlain from the mouth of the Saranac River at Plattsburgh to about 6 miles up from the mouth of the Missisquoi River in VT; and the 20-mile Connecticut River stretch running between VT. & NH; The stretch across Umbagog Lake in NH; and in Maine, the 75-mile stretch from Rockwood on Moosehead Lake to Churchill Dam on the Allagash River and the 32-mile stretch in the Rangeley lakes Region."
Al also posted an "end-of-the-year" report on his trash paddling adventures. He states picking up 5,532 pieces of trash on the Sudbury, Assabet, Concord, Charles, and Merrimack Rivers in 2009. For one man in a small boat, that's a lot of cargo. It consisted of all kinds of things, but Al notes that miscellaneous rubbish that was non-recyclable represented 44.6%.
From Al's January 17 Blog: The Other End of the Pipe or This Bug's for You!
The first step in the process of treating wastewater is similar in a way to trashpaddling as it involves removing things that don’t belong in the water in the first place: plastic, wood, paper, metal, rocks, sand, etc. Many operators find themselves continually amazed at what some people think is an appropriate disposal method for their trash. (Read more)
In 2010, in addition to his local SuAsCo waterways, Al hopes to paddle some more on the Merrimack and also the Shawsheen, Ipswich, and Taunton rivers....(the MerShawIpsTaun?).
Born and raised in Waltham, MA, the Charles River watershed was Al's river orientation. The last 18 years he has lived in Acton, with his wife of 35 years, (aka Mrs. Trashpaddler) and is a father and grandfather. Al has worked in the wastewater treatment field since 1980, and he says, "It still fascinates me."
