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SALEM -- As a swan paddled nearby, two men in hip-boots
hooked a chain to a large truck tire and watched as a crane hoisted
it from the shallow, murky waters of the North River.
The crane operator swung the tire over a tidal gate and dropped it into
the back of a yellow pickup truck, where it was reunited with an old
bike, metal pipes and a rusty car door.
At low tide yesterday morning, a crew from Salem Harbor Station used
a 30-ton crane to clear decades of debris from a narrow opening of the
North River by the North Street overpass.
Although the work was done with little fanfare, it is an important step,
an official said, in the reclamation of a river that was poisoned by
years of industrial waste and abused by generations who used stretches
of it as a liquid landfill.
"It's definitely baby steps and little victories along the way,"
said Rob Gough, director of Salem Sound Coastwatch, formerly Salem Sound
2000.
Salem Sound Coastwatch, which is spearheading efforts to bring the river
back, portrayed yesterday's junk haul as a victory for many, from the
city planners who want to redevelop the former industrial corridor along
the river to the tiny rainbow smelts who are slowly returning each spring
to spawn.
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"The stuff that is being pulled out here are impediments
to the progress of migratory smelts," Gough said, standing not
far from a discarded refrigerator along the riverbank.
Until two years ago, there were no signs of smelts in the river, which
once teemed with a fish considered a good barometer of the health of
a river. Smelts are recreational fish to some and also an important
element in the food chain. They are eaten by striped bass, bluefish
and other larger fish.
After a state marine biologist discovered eggs upstream near the Peabody
line in 2001, officials began monitoring the smelt migration. Last
year, Salem Sound Coastwatch, Salem Harbor Station and a large group
of volunteers laid rocks in a river bed along Harmony Grove Road in
an effort to improve the spawning grounds. Only a handful of eggs were
found last year, but more were discovered this year during a mid-April
count.
"They found 39 eggs," said Gough. "It isn't great numbers
given the level of effort, but the good news is smelt are making their
way up to that spawning area and laying eggs."
As part of North River Awareness Week, groups cleaned the banks along
the smelting area, picked up trash from Furlong Park on Franklin Street,
and held a festival in Leslie's Retreat Park.
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