Lecture: “Saving the Inland Waters: Citizen Action in the Granite State”

Author and historian Jim Rousmaniere explores the vital role of citizen action in protecting New Hampshire’s inland waters over the years, beginning with the founding of the first environmental organization in the state, the Lake Sunapee Protective Association, in 1898. With over 1,300 lakes and ponds and 40,000 miles of rivers, New Hampshire’s inland waters are important to the state’s economy, ecology, history, and culture. Yet Granite Staters often had to band together and form grassroots organizations to preserve or restore waterways damaged by industry and overuse. Explore the 20th-century history of this precious natural resource in New Hampshire and how groups fought to save it in efforts like the restoration of the Nashua River and the creation of a nationally recognized project in Dover to control urban run-off.