Tag Archives: DPW

Thank you Scott Memhard for the City of Gloucester Kindness Nomination!

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I am so very honored to receive a nomination from our Ward One City Councilor, Scott Memhard, for the City of Gloucester’s 2025 Kindness Campaign.  I accept this nomination on behalf of myself and all our Piping Plover Ambassadors, DPW, Conservation Commission, and Mass Audubon. Our Gloucester Plovers are very fortunate to have such a dedicated and kind team working to keep them safe and their habitat intact.

I’d also like to thank Scott especially, who has been a supporter since the Plovers first arrived in 2016. He has been a tremendous help navigating with the City to develop conservation protocols for the Plovers. The Plovers are under Scott’s ‘jurisdiction,’ so to speak, as Good Harbor Beach is part of Scott’s ward, and we couldn’t ask for a more helpful and engaged advocate.

Thank you to Scott, all our PiPl Ambassadors, the Gloucester DPW, Conservation Commission, Mass Audubon, and all our Plover friends and advocates <3

“I would nominate Kim Smith for her tireless environmental advocacy & her documentary photography and film educational outreach, now on PBS.

For years Kim has worked tirelessly with the Gloucester DPW, Conservation Commission & MA Audubon.  Kim has organized the local citizen group of the Piping Plovers Ambassadors at Good Harbor Beach.

In addition to the Piping Plovers, with her new documentary “Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay”, and working to protect Good Harbor Beach and dunes, Kim has produced a remarkable film documentation “Beauty on the Wing” of migrating Monarch butterflies which pass through Cape Ann every Fall.

Kim is a blessing & a credit to Gloucester. “

To learn more about  Gloucester’s Kindness Campaign, please go here.

And thank you to our little photobomber, Holly, who is generally not allowed on the dining room table

 

Good Harbor Beach Erosion and Piping Plover Update

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Good morning PiPl Friends!

Our PiPl population is returning to GHB! In addition to Super Dad and our footless Super Mom that arrived on March 24th, the male that nested successfully last year and whose mate is the very pale female, has returned, along with two additional males that arrived just after the nor’easter- for a total of five! The morning after the nor’easter also found three Sanderlings and a charming pair of Savannah Sparrows. I think the Sparrows may be sticking around as I saw them again this morning!

Newly arrived Savannah Sparrow

Filming at Good Harbor Beach the day after the nor’easter I felt an odd mix of awe and fear. Awestruck by the atmospheric beauty of the beach in the lifting storm, and also dismayed to see the damage to the dunes and how all the fantastic work the DPW had done in preparing the beach for the coming season had taken a real hit. The tides have been extremely high, I think higher than is usual for these spring storms. Recently, at full high tide, there was no beach. In the past few days the the tides seemed to have receded somewhat and hopefully the shifting sands will continue in that direction.

Sanderlings resting after the nor’easter

The most remarkable thing to see is how the one area that has been roped off consistently for the past eight years, going on nine, that very specific nesting area at #3, has been damaged the least by storms of the past several years. It is a real lesson in dune ecology that when you protect the base of the dune from foot traffic, which allows native flora to take hold, we can give the beach and dunes a fighting chance against rising sea level.

DPW crew at GHB. They are working to restore all that they had done the week prior to the storm.

Update on our PiPl documentary, The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay: We are in the home  stretch and still on track to have a final cut ready by May 1st (please keep your fingers crossed with me!). I gave a wonderful local conservation minded organization a ‘test run’  of the first half of the film and was overjoyed to see they were thoroughly engaged. I am working with the amazing team at Modulus Studios, Eric and Shannon, and we are at the finals stages of finessing, finessing, and more finessing!

March was truly a fantastic month for fundraising. My deepest and most heart felt thanks and gratitude to our wonderful supporters.

Please consider making a tax deductible donation to our online fundraiser here at Network for Good. We are also looking for underwriters. If you know of an organization that would like to be associated with themes of nature, bird biology, shorebird and Piping Plover protections, and conservation of beach habitat, along with receiving the benefits of becoming an underwriter — promotions at both the beginning and end of the film for their organization, each and every time the film airs, please contact me at kimsmithdesigns@hotmail.com. Our sister project, Beauty on the Wing, has aired in PBS stations covering 85 percent of US households and is still continuing to stream on public television. As an underwriter, your organization will have the potential to receive tremendous good will from underwriting The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay!

Returning male, mate of very pale Mom

With gratitude to the following PiPl friends for their kind contributions – Lauren Mercadante (New Hampshire), Sally Jackson (Gloucester), Brace Cove Foundation (Gloucester), JH Foundation/Fifth Third Bank (Ohio), Jane Alexander (New York), Janis and John Bell (Gloucester), Jennie Meyer (Gloucester), Alice and David Gardner (Beverly), JoeAnn Hart (Gloucester), Kim Tieger (Manchester), Joanne Hurd (Gloucester), Holly Niperus (Phoenix), Bill Girolamo (Melrose), Claudia Bermudez (Gloucester), Paula and Alexa Niziak (Rockport), Todd Pover (Springfield), Cynthia Dunn (Gloucester), Nancy Mattern (Albuquerque), Marion Frost (Ipswich), Cecile Christianson (Peabody), Sally Jackson (Gloucester), Donna Poirier Connerty (Gloucester), Mary Rhinelander (Gloucester), Jane Hazzard (Georgetown), Duncan Holloman (Gloucester), Karen Blandino (Rockport), Duncan Todd (Lexington), Sue Winslow (Gloucester), Amy Hauck-Kalti (Ohio), JoAnn Souza (Newburyport), Karen Thompson (San Francisco), Carolyn Mostello (Rhode Island), Susan Pollack (Gloucester), Peggy O’Malley (Gloucester), Hilda Santos (Gloucester), Maggie Debbie (Gloucester), Sandy Barry (Gloucester), The Massachusetts Daughters of the American Revolution, Mary Keys (Madeira, Ohio),and my sweet husband Tom 🙂 

Surfer Salvatore Ruvolo at GHB morning after the storm, with music by Peter Dayton  – “Perfect Wave”

THANK YOU GLOUCESTER DPW BEACH CREW FOR KEEPING THE FOOTBRIDGE SAFE!

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Much of the sand keeps washing away at the beach end of the footbridge. We see this happen frequently during winter and spring storms and also in the summer months during a period of unusually high tides (thank you beautiful Buck Super Moon). Wednesday’s tide carried one of the lifeguard beach chairs down the Creek and also left a drop several feet deep at the footbridge.  DPW staff Steve, Eric, and Dean have been at Good Harbor Beach early in the mornings escorting people away from the work and filling in the crater so no one falls coming off the bridge.

Thank you Gentlemen!

Eric, Steve, and Dean

GLOUCESTER’S DPW MIKE TARANTINO AND KEVIN MAZZEO ON THE JOB!

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Kevin Mazzeo and Mike Tarantino repairing the No. 3 boardwalk today.

Thanks so much to Mike and Kevin, and to the entire DPW crew, who do such a tremendous job in keeping Gloucester citizens safe, and the City looking her best and most beautiful.

THANK YOU JOE LUCIDO!

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Huge shout out to Joe Lucido, Mike Hale, and the entire crew that make up the departments of public works and services for the City of Gloucester. Please thank these gentlemen next time you see them. Hard working guys that they are, they have added plover helpers to their long list of responsibilities, and all have lent a hand in helping Gloucester’s Piping Plovers succeed.

Joe heard about the dog owner trouble yesterday and stopped by early, early this morning to help monitor the situation, as well as check on the new weekend trash barrels.

Thanks so much to Joe and Mike and their crews for all that they are doing to help keep our city looking its best, mostly for people, but their efforts tremendously help the Plovers, too.

I took this snapshot of the trash barrels late yesterday afternoon, Sunday, after one of the busiest beach days of the summer. No trash spilling out! So far so good with the updated Carry In/Carry Out-Trash Barrel Plan.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BWqYidIFX4Y/

Thanks To Good Harbor Beach’s DPW Crew Tony and Murray For the Great Work That That They Do!

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Each and every morning the DPW is out there cleaning Good Harbor Beach. They do an absolutely tremendous job. You would be shocked at what people leave behind, and the sheer volume of it. I am usually filming in non-public spaces and it has been an eye opener working at a public beach in the early morning. If you see these guys, please tell them thanks.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BG1dVDsDysv/

trash GHB