Category Archives: Rhode Island

environmental volunteers, Harbor Seals, Rhode Island, Robert Barossi

Volunteer Seal of Approval

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Image courtesy of Michael Elliott at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

by Robert Barossi

Another blog title, another really bad pun. Yes, this story involves seals. Harbor seals, to be exact. It also involves one of my favorite local organizations, Save the Bay in Rhode Island, an organization that was also featured heavily in my book. They recently led the effort to count seals in Narragansett Bay and came away with the highest number of counted seals in history. These kinds of monitoring programs continue to be an essential way for experts to keep track of wildlife populations. And an important way for dedicated volunteers to get involved and have a impact in their environment.

For more stories of environmental volunteer and their inspiring work, download my eBook – Being Where You Are: How Environmental Volunteers Impact their Community and the Planet Every Day

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beach cleanup, environmental volunteers, Rhode Island, Save the Bay

Ocean State Volunteers Clear Tons of Trash

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IMG_1383(Photo by Robert Barossi)

by Robert Barossi

There’s an old joke that includes the line, “Rhode Island is neither a road nor an island…” While that may be true, the smallest state does, in fact, have an awful lot of coastline, over 400 miles, according to the state’s government, if you include all the bays, coves and islands close to the coast. That makes for an awful lot of land where ocean debris and trash can wash up on shore. Recently, though, environmental volunteers have been making a huge effort to clean up the state’s beaches and coastal areas. This includes more than three tons of trash cleaned up by volunteers of Save the Bay, one of the state’s most prominent environmental organizations. That’s just one of the amazing efforts mentioned in the article linked above. In each volunteer event, local citizens cleaned up hundreds or thousands of pounds of trash, working together to protect and preserve the natural environment along all those miles of coastline.

If you’ve enjoyed the stories on this blog, download my eBook, Being Where You Are: How Environmental Volunteers Impact Their Community and the Planet Every Day

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environmental volunteers, invasive species, Rhode Island, Robert Barossi

Volunteers Lead the Fight Against Invaders

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Rocks in Still Water(Photo by Robert Barossi)

by Robert Barossi

The “invaders” are invasive species and they are becoming more and more widespread all the time. Climate change is not helping matters, pushing and changing the boundaries of where species can live and thrive. This story out of Rhode Island details a number of ways that volunteers in southern New England are taking part in the struggle to hold back or eliminate invasive species. As the title suggests, it often takes “patience and creativity,” two of the many attributes volunteers bring to the ongoing efforts to deal with a problem that can seem insurmountable.