Q:  When did you first get involved with the Shawsheen River and what did you do?
 
Ken:  In the early days, over twenty years ago, I was with the Shawsheen River Watershed Association (SRWA). Our focus was to try to do things for the river where you could see the results. We would take water samples, check for chemical, waste, collect trash, open navigation, and make the river better so people would want to paddle it. Back in the early days we'd use hand saws and clippers. We eventually graduated to chainsaws to get the clearing done.
 
Q:  What your main activities now as the “Riverkeeper”?
 
Ken:  The main activities are to keep the river clear for navigation and recreational use and to remove things that are major safety items. Trees fall down, trees are in the wrong places, all this needs to be addressed. In the past, we've done lots of work with picking up trash and things that have been thrown in the river. We use to get 40-yard dumpsters and fill those up. We have taken thousands of tires out of the river. Much of that work has been done. So today, most of the work involves keeping certain sections open for recreational boating.
 
Q:  How did the Shawsheen River get to be so polluted over the years?
 
Ken:  Rivers in the United States, in general, have been the dumping grounds for industrial waste since the middle 1800s or even before then. Paper mills are probably the classic of all times, but there was lots of industry on the river, and lots of the stuff just got thrown in there. But with the Clean Air and Water Act in 1972, we stopped dumping raw sewerage and chemicals. People aren't putting washing machines and trash in there. So things have gotten much better.
 
Q:  What are some of the challenges you face with clearing these sometimes massive trees?
 
Ken:  When I do the clearing, I have to make a plan. Usually, the tree is already down across the river, I start at the top and work down towards the base, taking off all the branches, and then figure out how to cut the trunk into pieces and where to put. Then it's a crew of people moving the debris. In the beginning, there's a lot of instruction, but once the team has done this once or twice, they know how to do it and where it goes. I need two to three people at least, to move all the wood as it gets cut.
 
Q:  Have you had any harrowing moments removing the debris?
 
Ken:  I did have one scary moment. It was in March many years ago. I was with Bob Rouseo, and I cut a branch that hit the canoe, we flipped and ended up in the river. The chainsaw went to the bottom of the river. We got to shore, wring out our cloths, and then paddle a mile downstream to our car. It wasn’t pretty. A week later we sent a diver in to retrieve the saw. I brought it home and got the saw running. That was an interesting time.
 
Q:  What motivates you to continue to devote so much time maintaining the river?
 
Ken:  I seem to have had the drive and skills to use the saws, but it's not about me. I'm part of a team.   It's the excitement of everybody working together. It’s a big team that includes members of SRWA, the Greenway, and Andover Trails. Now the town has the canoe launches, we have places to store boats. These are some of the things that drive me to want to go ahead and do all of this.
 
Recently, there was a double ash tree down in one of the most canoed sections. The river was impassable and, you know, the word gets out quickly! Somebody always sends me a picture and where it is on a map. So knowing that you've got it open again, and it's available for people to use, is very satisfying.
 
Q:  Are there any plans in the future to expand the paddling areas?
 
Ken:  We’ve been working with Groundworks Lawrence. We're trying to get a section of river in Lawrence and I've been scouting out where it should go. It's going downstream from the Holiday Inn on Route 114 and go down to Costello Park. This will be a little less than two miles of river, and that's the next section we're talking about for expanding paddling areas.
 
Q: Will there be a walking path along the shore?
 
Yes, there are other people that are working on a path for both the North Andover and Lawrence's side. There are more people from City of Lawrence getting involved in participating in planning activities. I went ahead and sent a proposal to Steve Golden, who is getting things written up about where it would go, why it is a good area, and what will be required for clearing of some trees.
 
Q:  Is there anything else you would like to mention about the Shawsheen River and your work there?
 
Ken:  The Shawsheen River has a lot of history that many people don't know about. It's just fascinating --everything from the Andover Canoe Club to their powerboat that went up and down the river with passengers. We use to have a number of dams and Andover is here because of the river. During the American Revolution, we had a gunpowder mill at the location of Powder Mill Square. We had the Redmond Card dam where they did carding of wool. There were dozens of mill buildings in Ballardvale that made all kinds of items, including train locomotive engines for a few years. There is a lot of local history -- and it all had to do with the river.

Q: Tell us about your background in land conservation
 
Mike: I've been involved in conservation for the past 10 years. I started by volunteering for the National Park Service doing stewardship work, particularly pulling invasive plants and learning about botany. I did invasive plant surveys on the Boston Harbor Islands. Then I started work as a natural educator with Mass Audubon. I did a lot of outreach work where I would take groups into Mass Audubon sites and tell them about the ecology and the different flora and fauna. Then I started working with Sudbury Valley Trustees as a Land Steward, where I did trail maintenance, boundary monitoring, and invasive plant control. Then most recently, before coming to this position I was working as a Land Steward for the Town of Concord.
 
Q: What drew you to take on this role for the Town of Andover?
 
Mike: When I first heard back from Andover, the first thing I did was start to explore Andover’s conservation land.  I was just taken by the diversity the beauty, the variety of conservation, as well as how active the community is, and how much the community values both conservation land and trails. So that was one of the things that really drew me to Andover. The number of partnering organizations from Andover Trails to AVIS, to the Conservation Commission, and just all working together towards this towards a common aim. And it shows in the 2200 acres of Andover conservation land and the 1200 acres of AVIS land. The Town of Andover has a tremendous amount of land and it's really quite a great thing.
 
Q:  What sets Andover apart in the region in terms of the conservation land we have?
 
Mike: Andover is in an incredibly unique position because being having both the Shawsheen River and the Merrimack River as these two incredible watersheds.  I think compared to a lot of other towns in the in this area of Massachusetts, we have an incredible amount of diversity of places -- between ponds, rivers, wetlands, uplands, grasslands, meadows. There's just this huge diversity of different kinds of habitats. And it's unusual. Most towns either have one river wandering through it or they don't have a river. And so, Andover is really we're uniquely placed for having so many different kinds of habitat and land. I think it puts us in a really, really good place.
 
Q:  What are some of your goals and what do you hope to accomplish in the next year or two?
 
Mike: My priorities are in three main areas: land maintenance, invasive species management, and outreach and education. Recently, with a lot of our downed trees, that's one of our big priorities. We are doing maintenance on some of our bridges and trails, which may need erosion control, for example. So doing trail maintenance, which has been a big part of my background, is really important because making trails accessible and the land accessible is an important priority. By making sure that citizens have access to conservation land makes it so that people want to protect the land and support conservation. They go together.
 
Invasive species management is another priority. So we're planning on doing some more volunteer work, working together with other organizations in town in doing invasive plant removal efforts, as well as work to do more education in terms of invasive plants, their effect and how we can manage them. And then I'd say the other big push that we have is outreach and education. And so having programs that pull people from the community into conservation land, like doing walks, and programs where people are doing paddling on Pomps Pond for example. We have Winterfest coming up, which is another great opportunity for people in town to get engaged with conservation land. So those are probably my top three priorities for the upcoming years.
 
Q:  What would you say to someone who’s interested in getting more involved in land conservation efforts? Where do you go to get connected to this effort?
 
Mike: I've often been approached by people who have asked that exact same question. First, I would say you can reach out to me. The first thing I ask them is how do you want to be involved in conservation land? What are you interested in doing? Because we want to give people the experience that they're looking for so that people can connect to the land in the way that feels important to them. For information on land stewardship I would have them talk to AVIS, who we work very closely with and also has an important volunteer network. Also I would offer them to become a Land Steward with the town or join the eco team with AVIS. Those are considered two places to start in terms of getting active in conservation. There are many ways to get involved, it’s just a matter of reach out to one or more organizations.

Mike Murray has been involved in conservation for the last ten years. He began by volunteering with the National Park Service on their Stewardship Saturdays. He was soon asked to conduct invasive plant surveys for the Boston Harbor Islands. He then worked as a naturalist educator with Mass Audubon and Save the Harbor/Save the Bay where he led public outreach programs. Most recently, Mike worked as a land steward with Sudbury Valley Trustees and the Town of Concord where he led invasive plant removal projects and conducted a variety of trail maintenance work. His priorities in his current role as Conservation Land Manager include invasive plant management; trail maintenance and improvement; and habitat preservation and restoration.  ​