Tuesday, September 24, 2013

A Dream River in Iceland Rich With Salmon - NYTimes.com


A Dream River in Iceland Rich With Salmon - NYTimes.com:
by Peter Kaminsky

MIDFJARDARA RIVER, Iceland — Along this river in Iceland’s cold northwest, the world is reduced to its bare components: rocks, grass, water and fish. The view is as uncomplicated and as beautiful as a well-constructed haiku. The scale of the river is inviting and intimate. Its twisting course cuts through black lava canyons and tumbles over numerous waterfalls, pausing only to collect itself in the deep runs and deeper holding pools in which its salmon wait....

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In Bronx River, Helping Oysters Stage Comeback - NYTimes.com

Seeding an oyster reef in the Bronx River
In Bronx River, Helping Oysters Stage Comeback - NYTimes.com:
by Winnie Hu
"Not much lived in the Bronx River in the 1970s, when it was tainted with toxic chemicals and human waste and choked by abandoned cars dumped into its waters.
The oyster did.
Oysters clung tenaciously to tires here and there, a tiny remnant of the vast oyster reefs that once thrived in New York City’s waterways and nourished natives and settlers alike. Now after decades of cleanup efforts in the river, the oyster has emerged as a tangible measure of how much more needs to be done to return the river closer to its natural state.
A one-acre oyster reef has been created in the river just off the shore of Soundview Park in the South Bronx — one of the largest oyster restoration projects in the city. On Saturday, students from the Urban Assembly New York Harbor School relocated about 100,000 farm-raised baby oysters, known as spat-on-shell, to the reef, which was made this summer by piling 100 tons of empty shells on the river’s muddy bottom. "

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