Река Ойстер: История и Экологические Проблемы Нового Гэмпшира

the river in New Hampshire

The Oyster River is a 17 mile (27 km) river in Strafford County, southeastern New Hampshire, United States. It rises in Barrington, flows southeast to Lee, then east southeast in a serpentine course past Durham to meet the entrance of Great Bay into Little Bay. The bays are tidal inlets of the Atlantic Ocean, to which they are connected by a tidal estuary, the Piscataqua River. The freshwater portion of the river is 14.1 mile (23 km) long, and the tidal river extends 2.9 mile (5 km) from Durham to Great Bay.

The river passes over Mill Pond Dam near NH Route 108 in Durham where the river reaches tidewater. The dam dates to 1913 and is listed on the New Hampshire State Register of Historic Places, where it is referred to as the Oyster River Dam. Prior wooden dams provided power to sawmills and gristmills dating back to the mid 1600s. In November 2020, consultants with Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc. (VHB) advised that the dam should either be removed or stabilized, and that taking no action would leave "the community at risk for a future safety issue.” A news report in January 2021 cited cost estimates of $4 million for stabilization vs. $1.3 million for removal. In September 2021, the Durham town council voted to remove the dam. Following a citizens' initiative, in March 2022, voters town wide upheld the decision to remove the dam.

The Oyster River is a significant source of drinking water for the town of Durham and the University of New Hampshire. The extent to which the Oyster River can be used as a resource is being stretched more and more as the population increases within the area. Residential water usage in the area is expected to increase by 54% from 2003 to 2025, and non domestic usage, for example commercial, industrial, irrigation and mining, is expected to increase 62%. Thus, the Oyster River is going to become an even more essential resource to the community.

The river crosses under heavily traveled U. S. Route 4 in three separate places in the town of Lee and passes within 1000 feet (305 m) of the busy Lee Traffic Circle, which poses an ecological threat if runoff from the road gets into the water. Along the river there remain stretches of untouched floodplain and forests that stretch on for almost These floodplain areas are useful in holding excess water during severe weather and help to reduce the damage done to the infrastructure elsewhere along the river. The floodplains also house diverse ecological communities and are home to many diverse species of New Hampshire. One species that has been greatly affected by the steady decline in the health of the Oyster River is the oyster itself. Due to siltation and water pollution in the river, the population of oysters hit an all time low in 2000 at However, the rate rebounded to just a couple years later. Another species that lives in the Oyster River is the American Brook Lamprey (Lampetra appendix), which only exists in this river in the entire state. The river as a whole is home to seven fish species of concern.