Last week I attended the final meeting of the Cocheco River Watershed Coalition. It was a bittersweet evening. Friends of the river, many of whom have dedicated their lives to its protection, came out to say goodbye and to honor Lorie Chase, the Coalition’s founder and leader.
Over the years, Lorie accomplished amazing things…annual river clean-ups, river education programs, stormwater partnerships in several communities, an extensive volunteer water quality monitoring program, leadership for the Gulf of Maine Institute, taking an instrumental role in nominating the river for protection under the state’s Rivers Management and Protection Program, and so on. Lorie embraced every project with a powerful mix of enthusiasm, intelligence, and persistence.
Lorie and I spent a lot of time together working on various river projects. Once, deep in the forests of the farthest flung reaches of the watershed, as if sharing a secret treasure, she showed me some of the most beautiful little streams I’d ever seen. Recognizing their significance to the greater whole, she was fighting to protect these tiny waterways. She also cared for the unloved places…the urban streams full of stormwater and trash, areas where people turned their back on the river. She fought for those places too.
Lorie worked tirelessly for the good of the river and its watershed. Her work and legacy serve as an inspiration to those of us who love our rivers. We will miss Lorie, but wish her well in this next phase of her life.
Lorie Chase (l) at the Congress Street Raingarden in Rochester
Lorie and a CRWC volunteer reveiw water quality data.
Lorie shares a laugh with NH DES Commissioner Tom Burack.
Lorie, Commissioner Burack, and DES staff at a gathering to celebrate Lorie’s work.
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“So-this-is-a-River.”
“The River,” corrected the Rat.
“And you really live by the river? What a jolly life!”
“By it and with it and on it and in it,” said the Rat. “It’s brother and sister to me, and aunts, and company, and food and drink, and (naturally) washing. It’s my world, and I don’t want any other. What it hasn’t got is not worth having, and what it doesn’t know is not worth knowing. Lord! The times we’ve had together!”
Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows