Beleaguered Streams of NH's White Mountains: Part IV - Zealand River (MidCurrent)
A bulldozed section of the Zealand River in New Hampshire. (Bob Mallard)
“At its best, the Zealand River is the perfect wild native brook trout stream. At its worst, it is one of the most distressed rivers in the region.”
With their gin clear water, silt-free bottoms, and undeveloped wooded shorelines, to the untrained eye the rivers and streams of New Hampshire’s White Mountain Region look pristine. To the trained eye, however, many of these streams are anything but pristine. In fact, most of the best-known rivers and streams in New Hampshire’s White Mountains are badly compromised.
NFC Executive Director Bob Mallard has previously written about several other compromised New Hampshire White Mountains streams: Saco River, Swift River and Ammonoosuc River. Along with the Zealand River covered in this article, these streams all follow a similar pattern of decades long abuse and mismanagement, only with different sets of problems and varying degrees of impacts.
Where’s the outrage? Where’s the accountability? Where’s the advocacy? While the rivers and streams of New Hampshire’s White Mountain Region fall well short of their potential, and degrade further, organizations and agencies are all but silent, or worse, complicate. To have such resources and treat them so poorly is truly sad. That so many sit by and watch it happen is troublesome.
“While Mother Nature did everything right, man has done everything wrong.”
Special thanks to the folks at Epic Fly Rods and MidCurrent for making this article possible, and for supporting NFC and wild native fish.
