If you haven't watched part one, I highly suggest you go back and watch it right now. But in part two, we're gonna be getting Legos, building them into a Lego crankbait that actually functions and going to catch big bass. In the last episode, you guys saw Fletcher put together this unique bill for the front of the Lego crankbait, and it actually ended up running in the water perfectly. We're gonna hop right into this, show you guys the underwater movement, also show you guys Lego crankbait compared to a normal crankbait, and then we're gonna go catch the big fish. Let's get it. Hey Noah. Yo. What is this? I put some work in a little overtime.  This thing's gonna swim, I'm telling you. I'm excited, we gotta go test this out. No more talking, we testing it out, baby. This is what you've all been waiting for. You're about to see some underwater footage of the finished Lego crankbait with the modifications that Fletcher added to it. We're very curious to see if this thing is going to ride perfectly or not now that we have a regular shaped bill on the end. We think it's gonna ride perfectly and give it that realistic crankbait feel. So let's go ahead and hop into it. You've seen the Lego crankbait in action. It's time to compare it to an actual crankbait and see how it stacks up. If it wasn't clear in the build montage, re-crafting this bill, I wanted to kinda explain to y'all exactly what I did. So I took some paper and etched out a bill shape. Then I took that paper, cut it out, glued it onto the Lego itself. And then I used that as an outline. I took a grinder, grinded this thing around the edge to make it match that bill shape perfectly. And what else I did was I went and tried it after that through in the water to see if it would run. And it wouldn't run, that's cause we had it tied up here. And I took a closer look at crankbaits and realized that they're tied on the bill. So I took this white Lego piece right here and just the best one I could find where I could run the line through and super glued it right on there, ran the line through here, ran it back up here and tied it on here. So now the point of tension is right there on the bill like if it were tied off there, but we got a naked here just in case this white piece comes off. We don't want that to happen. So now this thing is running from the bill and I also put a bunch of like clear caulk on the bottom of this thing. Cause if you take a look at a regular crankbait, they have this nice little rounded bottom right here. And that just helps stabilizes it and helps it keep a nice wobble action while it's moving. This thing is ready to roll and we're about to cast this thing out into the depths and hopefully a big old bass is going to come chomping. We're coming up on these rock pylons right here and there's a really good chance I could catch one on the first cast. Man, that would be just insane. And there it goes. It's diving like a champ. Let's see if something comes up and swaps. No way. There's no way. Oh, you actually had one first cast? I don't know if I just hit a pipe or what, but I had a, there was a little thud. There was definitely a thud. Oh, come on, bro. You play with me. Dude, I'm not even lying. Dude, we were already talking. This bait is just kick butt, man. You got, you got me fooled. You got me fooled for a hot minute. If you guys have watched this part in the video, first thing I would like to say is thank you so much. If you're new to the channel, please hit that subscribe button and also hit the like button if you'd like to see more Lego build videos. We ended up not catching anything this day. I got stuck in the house editing part one of this series and Fletcher actually went back out by himself and you will not believe what he caught. Guys, I am not kidding. You want to tell you that this fish is a monster right here. This one is every bit of five or six. Holy smokes. I don't know how well y'all can see him, but there's two bass right there swimming along. Hit the Lego lure. You can know you want it. You know you want it. He's just nosing it. He's nosing it. I came from the trees. He's right there. Hit it. Please. Oh my God, he just nipped it. He just nipped it.  Please, please, please, please, please. Please eat it. Please eat it. So I ended up launching the boat because I ran out of bank to fish and all the fish over there, I just could not get them to fully commit. Y'all saw them. They were coming right up to it and just nosing it, nosing it, like one of them just nipped at it a little bit. But man, I know I can get one in here. They're swimming everywhere. That's all I had to fish. So now I got access to all of that and it's going to be goat time. Only ran into one little small problem though and that is all these sand spurs. Really great. Fantastic. A hundred of them.  Right here. He's looking at first cast once they got on the boat. Oh, come on. Oh, this one's aggressive. There's two right here. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh, guys. I know y'all can see those on the goat, bro. You have to be able to. Let's just take one more look at how good this thing looks underwater in a real pond. Oh my gosh. Oh, you won't do it right here from the boat. Come on. Come on. I know y'all can see that bass directly blow this thing. Oh my goodness. Come on, please hit it. So many bass are interested in this thing but they just won't fully commit. We're just having a stair contest. We're literally having a stair contest. Dude, this is unreal. These two fish are right here and they're just hanging out or just having a fricking party over here. I know one thing's for sure. The fish in here definitely can't hide from me. I will find every last one of them if I have to and we're gonna try throwing this crankbait in front of literally every single fish in this pond. Man, I swear, these fish must have stepped on one too many legos as a little fry. Ugh, they do not want to bite this thing. Got one, got one, oh no, no, no.  Oh my gosh.  That's the second one that's going after it after the jerk bait action. Got one, got one, got one on the crankbait. Got one on the lego crankbait. Let's go, let's go. It's a nice one. Oh my God. I literally had to leave that there, see it on the ground and he was nosing it forever. Oh my God. And it's a really good bass, guys. It's a really good bass. This one's every bit of four pounds. This could be five. Holy smokes. You'll have no idea how long I've been going at this trying to get a fish to bite. Oh, my GoPro died. Well, I was trying to get this fish in for y'all. Holy smokes, hold on, one second guys, one second, one second, the GoPro died. Hold on, come here, come here, come here.  Oh, stay down, stay down. Hey guys, it's a tank, it's a tank. Holy smokes, come here, come here. Let's go guys. No way. Well y'all, please take a look at that. That is insane. So much hard work when you're catching this fish. We got to call Noah. My hand is literally shaking right now, I'm so excited. This is a beast. Bro, bro, bro, look at this tank. Look at this tank, dude. I literally, I had to crawl it. I literally paused it. It was sitting there in one spot for maybe like 30 seconds and he finally went and nosed it and grabbed it. I probably cast at him like six or seven times. Dude, this got to be, it's probably close to five. It's a beast, it's a beast. We got to throw her on the scale. We got to see what she weighs. Well, somehow the scale made it out of my boat and I don't know where it's at but I'm telling y'all this fish is five pounds all day. Just an incredible fish. I can't believe I caught this on a leg allure. So please guys, if you're enjoying this video, drop a like and subscribe. You don't see this anywhere else. Wow.


Hello, and welcome back to the craft box. My name is Brent and today we are on episode 290 of the death walkthrough today. We are in Sweetsburg. We are going into Bon Bon Mot To see what's in there if you haven't watched last episode you should Yeah, and let's just head right in because that that's all we need to do. Hopefully this doesn't go too poorly What do we got in here? But the chicken guy, he is the one who asked us to do it and is making earthquakes not kind of his thing Yeah, but the earthquakes they make some grunt cracks not the cavities that is different and probably worse Beats working the double shifts in the Gumi plant, I guess and hey, there's the visit now. This will be quick uh-huh Right Genome enforcers really cute again Everything just magically disappears as we saw last episode kind of crazy how that happens kind of weird But yeah, right these guys don't look too bad the myth and fire, so I'll be back in just a little bit Right, hopefully this kills we will see Not sure if it will but we will try as I said these guys are not that difficult. We did kill which is fantastic Yeah, I wouldn't really worry about them. He didn't even use earthquake on me I was quite sad I was expecting it and I even gave him an extra round to do it And he didn't you will not stop the ground cracker I from stopping you from making the ground holds or something Okay, oh, okay. Okay, then That's far enough wizard. You may have destroyed the old one and defeated medulla and vanitas and Duncan Grimmwater and Lady Dark Kettle And killer croc LePingwon Poison oh pain cat lady grandfather spider and his shadow children But now you got a deal with me. Oh No, I am so scared what on earth could happen here. Oh, no Again, some of the boxes removed. It's kind of weird how just things just get removed Well, you're in fights. It's kind of weird and they just magically appear afterwards, but hey, these guys are not too bad They are balance Slightly more complicated, but not really they're just mobs. So yeah, I'll be back in just a bit Right killing not too bad these guys super easy super duper easy We have Lulu as well we got shed first round as you saw so pretty good pretty good pretty good pretty good Yeah, we boost on them obviously because they're balanced. So yeah, you know, we just good. We just good I guess just how it be also. I feel I expected that to get better Just wait until I get new gear improve my skills learn new spells get a pet maybe do some gardening Then you'll be sorry Yeah, you get new gear boy you get them. I think you need a farm a bit more I feel like my I don't know what it is, but my Text-a-Geta detail looks so bad. Let's just change it back to high and we'll see what happens It just looks so bad. Why'd you do it wizard? Why'd you snooker us like that? Is it cuz all those times the cabal betrayed you if and so that's petty You're petty the old one would have ushered in a golden age and not trying to peck each other's eyes out But you went and rejected him So fine partner have it your way. Let's get back to basics Okie-dokie, I don't know actually we might put an indemnity in Just in case because I don't know if faint is gonna be allowed. It may not be allowed So we'll see blades may not be allowed either knowing that is myth But hey, we will see what happens here, right? We are gonna go for the same setup as normal We're gonna try a pet faint first See what happens. Maybe it'll be removed. Maybe it won't who knows not me. That's for sure But yeah, I don't think he's gonna be too difficult. I don't think so. I could be wrong, but I don't think so Hopefully I could be speaking way too soon Because I did do this with the team, but it wasn't too bad when I did it in tears drum So hopefully they haven't like done anything crazy Okay, so it does a earthquake interesting Interesting I can't I don't think this is a faint cheat. I think this is just a cheat that happens occasionally Which makes sense, but he doesn't remove feints or at least pet feints So we'll see if he removes a potent faint if not We're just gonna faint until we can hit which I think is a good idea Think that's a good idea But yeah, I would assume from his name that you may not be able to blade as much Obviously he earthquakes occasionally. I don't know if that's every round every second round just randomly when he feels like it But I guess we'll find out won't we guess we will find out but it looks like feints are Appropriate for this. So it's not a feint cheat. That's good to know I didn't think it would be but you never know. You just never know these days. Oh Right, let's faint again. I guess well, we might even get mass faint That'd be pretty cool. That'd be pretty cool if we can get mass faint because that is on our pit Is a may cast so it might happen. Okay, that did a lot of damage. That was a little bit hurty That did the hurt he hurt. We don't appreciate that He does have a shadowpip as well slightly worrying Slightly worrying don't want to see making Making with the quacken. Oh Okay, a balance dot. You don't see balance dots often. You really oh You really don't um, right? Let's go for I Kind of just want to hit Like I really do but I need a blade before a scarecrow. I want a scarecrow I don't want to ship a force because that's just a waste of damage a waste of damage there plus or minus 25 Just as well. We did this whoo. Okay. What is this? Okay, just a natural attack. That's fine This is gonna hurt. This is really gonna hurt Yeah, that hurt a lot Natural attacks are still oh Okay, it does it didn't ate something. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what the heck Some of these cheats are just a little bit weird And I don't use the wiki at the moment because it's not very updated either. So I just have no idea What's really happening at all? You're kind of just like seeing if I can remember what happened in test run Which was so many weeks ago because I played through this on the first day that it was out Seeing if I can actually remember what happens here, please Don't be stupid Okay, good good good good. That's just fine. This is fine. This is perfectly fine. We're gonna kill at least the boss I would say The minion will definitely most likely die as well unless the weakness does something But if it does we can always ship a force. No, we killed that's fine. That is fine nearly for health as well Which is epic and This should for sure kill. Yep. That did way too much damage way too much We didn't even need to do that much, but hey, we did it. That's all that matters. We did it You're accusing me of opening that cavity Don't that beat all why cuz I know earth manipulation cuz I was talking about cavities Soon I was using my knowledge of earth manipulation to find out from the locals if cavities are a normal thing here They ain't buying by I believe in the old ones dream Never cotton to know spider never thought he'd restore the first world. I wanted a better boy You don't believe me. Do you fair enough don't know? I believe you neither ponder this though if neither of us open the cavity who did That's weird There's a little bit of a long but yeah We also got two badges one for defeating the spans and also one for soloing which is the quake goat Greatest of all time because I am the greatest of all time if you didn't know I am I'm great and of all time So yeah, I love this security camera and Nana is watching you It's probably my favorite addition to caramel just these are random things with like Nana is watching you just below a security camera of Nana Definitely not unsettling at all perfectly fine perfectly fine, but yeah, we managed to solo that not too bad I don't think that's a particularly hard fight to Solo so you can probably don't I believe in you guys. I believe also we got a new mount I was collecting parchment. They just start talking cheese Falued customer. How are you doing all is well here don't cut to you. Yeah, indeed all is well well it is Nana has her just come to us so gummy plant is safe now. Is he's that not wonderful what about all the sour gummies, huh? Shush, shush, I told you they must have run out of juice by now This is just whichy hocus pocus. Do not let them destroy our happiness initiative And what about the people you have already sent in only one came back out screaming about a giant hole The others are at work singing and smiling and having a time The unfortunate one you speak of has already been diagnosed as cursed by witches Do not buy this someone needs to go in there and see what is the dust with the big hole someone brave someone noble someone else Hmm looks like a job for us, I guess okie-dokie Let's head into the factory again and see what is a foot here. I guess is that where you say oh look There's a hole. Wow.  What do you think makes a hole like that someone called the quick trauma you say You don't sound sure or it could be copycat judge veg or witches quite a lot of suspects You have there have you considered a kitchen sink might be to blame it is strange though Like the earth itself just rotted away dissolved under what this plant has a lot of problems You must convince Nana not to reopen it photo mancing the dangers should be the proof She needs and if you get me some goomy samples from sasawa verms, perhaps I can help you unravel what corrupted them Call me Greta. I will wait outside That was a lot of dialogue just taken from this this mold that we just learned about just now But yeah zeta photo mance normal camera. You've got to take a photo of the cavity I quite like how we are using Thing I don't know. I don't understand why it says press zeta photo mance But I guess it's for those people who don't know we're gonna just quickly take a photo of a goomy worm I already have this already on on this character, but it doesn't matter doesn't matter We have to do it again. I will be back once I've defeated a goomy worm And got some samples right. I am back. Not too bad. Here we go killing. Hopefully we get the sample Huh, that would be fantastic. We we definitely killed so please give me the sample I've done so much hard work of like two rounds. Please. Please give me sample. Please please Yeah, we got it nice Nice, right. Let's talk to a Nenna in sweetsburg who is just out here just outside the doors of the factory And see what Nenna is cooking up for us now Hello there sweetie. Oh don't let this slithers that worry you Everybody here will be back to work on your favorite treats in the no time. Oh my what is this? pictures for Nenna House feet. Oh, oh dear. Oh yikes. I I I mean This certainly changes things Nenna takes care of her employees I will report this situation to my managers and they will ensure this matter is handled appropriately But rest assured you are all still employed We will reassign you if need be and for now everyone here gets a 2% credit at every Nenna brand store I must say even with everything going on that Nenna is the true class act I am proud to work for someone like that Uh-huh Sure thing right Greta. What do you have to say about this situation? They've really eat it up. Do they not almost like her words were smothered in syrup. I Came here to look into the sour gummies that is why I was in the plant when you found me I know they are not an isolated problem The people I represent are getting concerned. We have a serious to the cause but we need more data Thus Gumi samples from every town my brother Hans went to check on the gummies and the chocolate mines of Nebelheim I'm going to meet up with him there come with if you want or don't it does not matter to me But if you want to end the madness then you must go to the Goom drop forest Right, let us follow Greta into the Goom drop forest. That's just a wooden chest if it was a silver chest I'd probably consider doing it, but it's just wooden so it's fine, right Goom drop forest ha ha and Nebelheim from memory is a visa way As if I've done this before ha ha. Maybe I have who knows you will never know But yeah, where's she getting a lot of snack attacks? How many do we have now? How many snack attacks do we have now? Let's find out we have four. No, that's we have 13. That's pretty good. That's pretty cool Decided to come with me yeah, but one cannot just walk into Nebelheim these days There are a few essentials we need to gather first It will go much faster if you help me first We need to collect some of the peppermint posses that grow around here should be easy The harder task is acquiring the very special honey. You can only get from honey badgers Yes, those are honey badgers. What were you expecting little cute things?  So be careful once we have enough honey in posies I can take you to Nebelheim Right, let's quickly get some posies because they're just chilling around here there In testrum. It was very difficult to find them They don't shop on the map and they also do not have like a quest help arrows So yeah, this is gonna be a great place for fishing like caramel fishing Oh, it's gonna be so good. If only we can get Halar's fishing first, you know, because that's the next world to get fishing Generally in my opinion at least it should be and then Mirage and then Imperia and then finally caramel in like five million years But yeah, this would be such a nice place to do some caramel fishing. It would be fantastic catching candy fish Imagine that Imagine that right three. I think there's some up here somewhere by the Marsh fellow my favorite boys my favorites My favorites, I think we need to go another way Another way these like I said, these are kind of difficult to find kind of difficult find not not gonna lie. Oh, there's one over here One over here two over here. Nice. Let's just go for a bit of an explore I haven't really looked around much in this area because there's a lot We looked around the first like the bit over the other side that side there and test test run But this way, I don't even know. I don't even know like where does this path go? I don't know I assume it just goes down. Oh, there's the um, there's the man's the lemon head for the Zeke quest here Let's see head back up and see we need one more one more surely one's respawned by now surely there Yeah, there we go. They don't respawn too slowly, which is good. Um, right I'll be back once I've defeated a honey badger or five and Collected some gum honey, honey. Yes, right Still have a face and we have enough honey and posies now to get into Nebelheim Though that is still going to be a little tricky the company does not like its valued customers visiting Nebelheim Fortunately, I know the secret path into town through some old pipelines, but be careful. There could be anything down there Right, let us head down to Nebelheim through this really scary cave looking thing that that's probably not scary But it could be who knows I know exactly what's in here and it is not really scary, but hey We're going down it we're going down it because that sounds like a fantastic idea because we are getting to Nebelheim today It's just a mission that I'm on now absolute mission Oh Looks like some of the creatures from outside found their way down here. You'll have to push through This is so sad So say I have to defeat them again. No, right. I'll be back once I've defeated these much fellow Right, I am back here. We go defeating these much fellow. I feel so bad when I have to do this They're so cute and adorable and their sounds are just so nice except I didn't kill. This is so sad How did men's not die? I don't even know Men's is alive though. I guess we have to finish him off with Something different Something else. I guess I guess we're gonna have to wait for a Shipper fools to pop up which will be in one round Look how cute they are their sounds are just so adorable and I love them. I love them so much. I Don't like defeating these guys. This is so sad like this is This is the saddest thing in the game defeating these poor wee mush fellows. I don't like it Their casting sound is so cute They're like, oh, I love them. I love them so much. I really really love them. I Apologize that you have to hear me every time we see them that they're so cute But they are just adorable and I love them. They're just the cutest things that I think are in the game I don't know why but they're just cute and I love them so much Right. Hopefully the shipper fools doesn't hurt too much But doesn't have to get me out of this fight because I don't like seeing them in combat Because it brings a tear to my eye. I was nearly crying once I finished the previous the previous recording It was the last clip It was very sad because you know the thought of harming these poor innocent mush fellows is just way too much for me Way too much I'm sorry, buddy. I'm sorry, but it's for your own good You have to go back to your friend Come on this way this way. Let's go. Oh, we're getting some suspenseful music here. Oh, no. Oh Hold valued customer this place is off limits. Please return to caramel city and it's many wonderful shops Yeah, no Yes, but actually no, we're not gonna do that Right, let's do this. I'll be back once I've defeated these guys. They are deaths. I did back a mass prism their rank 17 not too bad But yeah, just another mob fight. I'll be back in just a little bit Hello, I am back. We we killing we be killing these watchma thingies Is that what they called? I'm pretty sure I think that's what they called watchma thingies or thingy more. What's Watchma thingies. Yeah, watchma thingies. I'm correct. I know what I'm doing I know what I'm I know what I'm saying. I just completely guessed that And then right those were watchma golems Drones made of nugget caramel crispies and reinforced steel Goomies are made for work these for security Nana also makes a fortune cookie messaging service bubblegum industrial adhesive and yogurt go-karts, you know Yogos so sugars of caramel are actually a versatile element and Nana uses them in everything now Come on. We're almost to Nebelheim Right watchma golems not watchma thingies or watchma call them watchma golems because yes makes sense Great cinnamon trolls be careful. They have a bite right.  These guys are not too bad They are mythos so be careful. Also, there's three of them. So ha fun fun fun Well, of course, I did not get any blades. Wow makes complete sense said no one ever So sad they like to cast death shields or not death shields, but shields and they probably do have a death shield I think they do from memory from test drum It's not cool They have that either shield or whatever it's called the myth the life and the death one and they also have myth shield So like they could just really screw you over Still didn't get a blade very upsetting very very upsetting here. Please. Please give me blade game I just want one blade, please please Maybe it's a sign that they're gonna earthquake me right now. I bet that's what it is. No, he fizzled.  Maybe they're gonna earthquake me now. I still didn't get a black right We're just gonna hit and see what happens. We're just gonna go for it I guess we'll go for a Lulu and then we'll follow it up with a ship of fools and that should probably kill If it doesn't be very surprised But yeah, we got it improvised because I don't know I don't even know what they're trying to do I assume it's removing a shield, but I don't got a shield ain't got them shields. I ain't no worse I ain't need no shields. Jeez. Who do you think I am a nice wizard or something? Nah, sorry. Sorry. We don't use shields here. We don't know shield. Jeez Wow, I killed him. I'm so proud of myself I killed all but one He must have had a little bit more resist or block or I don't know I don't know. I don't know how it works now. I don't know why two of them died but this one didn't he didn't even have a death shield I don't understand it. I really do not understand it, but whatever whatever. It's okay. We will just deal with it We will deal with it. I guess Right, come on, please. Please game. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, right?  Right right Please Maybe possibly I know you can Yeah, that's right. Good job nice GG we did it Next finally Nebelheim is just through there Fantastic Nebelheim. We did it. We did it guys. We made it to Nebelheim Isn't that great? I think it is. I think it's fantastic. Let's see. What's in Nebelheim? This this is a very depressing place. It's so sad, but hey, this is Nebelheim We are here. I can reactivate this lift to the goon drop forest so we can go back later without the tunnel now Beholds the glory is at his Nebelheim Take a deep breath Smells that aroma around you. That is the salt of the earth you smell.  I have mixed up a poultice of honey and peppermint Spread a little under your nose. It will block the smell, but we'll also attract apple brudels nasty little vermin They are incredibly tart. Demonstrate to them. You are no easy prey and they will think twice before bothering you Right, I think this is where we're gonna end off for today. Thank you everybody for watching. Welcome to Nebelheim It's an interesting place. Give me the parchment. Thank you It will be here for a long time Because it's quite a long area, but yeah, there's a lovely nanostatue, you know, just the normal apple brudels which I'll defeat off-camera But yeah, anyway, thank you for watching room to be like remember to leave a like and subscribe if you're a subscribed Press a wee little bell so you know exactly when I upload another video or the next video on this series Or if the series is already over again Another video, but otherwise remember to craft outside the box


Welcome to a watershed moment, the community media program that celebrates the rivers and connected lands forming the natural circulatory system of our region. The health of these watersheds is intricately tied to that of the humans who live here and affect them. So we invite you to come along as we explore the natural landscape, observe the wildlife, and share the beauty minutes away from our homes and daily commutes. This series will introduce you to the organizations and to the passionate volunteers, organizers, recreationists, athletes, and scientists who work tirelessly to sustain and improve these watersheds. I'm here with Emily Norton, the executive director of the Charles River Watershed Association and Lisa Kumpf, who's the aquatic scientist for the Charles River Watershed Association. Welcome, both of you. Thanks for being here and participating in our program and helping build awareness about the precious watersheds that we have. Thank you so much for having us, Charlotte. I wanted to start with going through your first experience, Emily, and then Lisa maybe, about the river and what was your first experience with the river? So I grew up in the Charles River Watershed. We lived in Weston and then Wayland and then Newton. And I don't have one early memory of the Charles River, possibly because when I was little, the Charles River was kind of gross. So there wasn't any swimming in it. It wasn't the beautiful jewel that it is today. And we're going to be talking about that, how there is still work to be done. But it's much better off than it was. In fact, to prepare for this, I even texted my mom. I was like, where did we used to skate? And we used to skate at the Aberdele Cove and she was like, no, bullows pond. So I don't have one early memory of the Charles River, even though I have lived near it almost all my life. Right. And how about you, Lisa? Yeah. I also grew up in the Charles River Watershed in Medfield. So more in the Middle Upper Watershed. And I used to walk down to the Charles River. Luckily, I was within walking distance and sit there. It was kind of like a calming spot for me. And one of my most prominent memories is the flood of 2010. I lived near a street called Causeway and it was completely flooded in that flood. I remember we walked out and it was about shin deep and just seeing the amazing power of the Charles River as well as the wetlands that are around it. And why don't we go to the type of work that you do and Emily, you're the executive director. How long have you been with the CRWA and? I've been with CRWA almost three years. I began in August 2018. Mm-hmm. And Lisa, have you been around for a while or? I began only a few months before Emily in June 2018. So about three years now too. Awesome. People ask us what do you mean by watershed? You could take turns at this, but what is a watershed? Is it the land, just the water? Is it the land, water and air? Is it the people or all those things? That's a great question, Charlotte. And for the non-scientists, which I am one, I was a philosophy major, the way to think about it is when water falls from the sky and the rain hits the ground, what body of water does it end up in? So that's why it's not intuitive that a community like Holliston is in the watershed because the river doesn't run through Holliston. But indeed, water that hits the ground in Holliston ends up in the Charles River. And so land use decisions made in a community like Holliston and the other, all of the 35 cities and towns of the watershed, the effects of land use decisions made in those communities all affects water quality in the Charles River. Absolutely, it's all connected. Lisa, you want to weigh in on that? No, I mean, I think that was a good description. When I'm when I'm doing presentations with younger kids, I often describe a watershed like a bathtub. You know, when your shower head is going, water might hit the sides of the bathtub or the bottom of the bathtub, but eventually it all makes it into the drain. And you can think of the drain as the Charles River. So no matter where the rain hits in the watershed, it's just a bowl. And it makes its way to the same same part of your your role is probably I mean, not everybody thinks when they spray, you know, a pesticide on their on their garden or, you know, herbicide that it's going to affect something downstream. So a lot of your role is is educating people. But is that sometimes frustrating to see people just doing stuff that you cumulatively totally harms the the ecosystem? So that is one of the challenges, not only for our work, but anyone who works in the area of environmental protection is that a lot of the problems and the solutions are science based or engineering based. And not all of us have a background in hydrology necessarily. So you don't really think about how the decisions we make related to how we manage water and how we develop the land affect our rivers and streams. So, yeah, every time it rains and it hits the ground, in particularly impermeable surface, so your sidewalks, your buildings, your tennis courts, your parking lots, the water is carried along that impermeable surface with all of the pollutants and toxins that are on that surface and it gets carried directly into your waterways. There's no treatment like they're from our sewage. And so that's why so much of our work is related to helping educate policymakers at every level of government, including the local level on things we can do to hold in water and maximize how much it can be infiltrated into the ground where soil actually purifies water on its way to the ground water rather than have it go into our storm drains. You know, a lot of the I mean, just paving and all the streets, it's just it's eliminated that natural filtration system that. Yeah, in in developed environments like cities and towns that has a lot of that impervious surface, about 55 percent of the water that comes from precipitation runs off directly into streams and rivers, whereas in a natural environment like a forest or a wetland, it's actually only 15 percent. So it's a huge difference. And that's what really causes not only the pollution that's ending up in the Charles River, but also just the it really changes the hydrodynamics of, you know, how quickly water moves through the system, which can lead to flooding and drought. This is revealed in the data that we collect. And Lisa might talk about some of our work with water quality monitoring. And we do an annual report card in partnership with the US EPA and this difference in water quality. And I don't want to put this. The difference in water quality is really reflected in the different land use land uses in the different parts of the Charles. So, Lisa, I'm sure you can describe that more eloquently than I just did. Yeah, sure, absolutely. It's it's a direct reflection of the different land uses in the different sections. Last year, we expanded our report card from only reporting on the lower basin, kind of in the Boston Cambridge area to reporting on the entire 80 miles of the river, which we do measure monthly. And we find that the best water quality is really in the middle portion of the watershed, where we have a lot more natural filtration, like wetlands and preserved forests. And then the worst water quality is in the lower basin, which is, of course, surrounded by the most urban areas. And then in the upper watershed, which is kind of along the 495 Belt in Milford and Bellingham, we have kind of intermediate water quality because there is a lot more development going on in that area. And there's especially an increase in the rate of development going along in the 495 corridor. Right. And how many cities and towns have you kind of quantified? How many how many people live in the immediate Charles River watershed? It's close to a million. A million, a million people are affected by or live in the in the Charles River watershed. And it's 35 towns and cities that parts of those at least are in our watershed. Right. And so I know as an association, you're involved in many different initiatives. But what are some of the major ones that were the course of the year where you engage citizens, these million people in caring for the river and caring about the future of the watershed? Yeah, a big part of our work is not just cleaning up the Charles, but also increasing access to it so that people can enjoy it and recreate. So the Earth Day Charles River Cleanup is up has been going on for over 20 years. And that's something that we do in partnership with the Esplanade and Charles River Conservancy and the Emerald Necklace Conservancy. And we get thousands of people cleaning up trash along all along the Charles. And that's a really huge, very popular event. We did have to change it up during the pandemic, but we look forward to having it be restored to its full in person group event next year. We also have an annual event called Run of the Charles, which is the largest flat bottom boat race, I believe, in New England. And again, that had to be changed up during the pandemic. But that is a that's a wonderful event where people get out and and race and all in good fun. It's actually fun for corporate groups, sort of a team building event. So those are some ways that people participate with us. We also have people volunteer with pulling invasives from the river and also some of the terrestrial invasive species that are such a problem all around the watershed. And then we have our fundraising events where we have bring people together to help raise money for C.R.W.A. and get to meet one another and enjoy that social time, whether it's on the banks of the Charles at the C.R.I. Boathouse or we we also do our gala at the Museum of Science for the last few years. So we have a number of ways that people can get out and participate with us to help clean up and restore the Charles. And Lisa, do you have a volunteer like citizen scientists who come along with you or do things that you coordinate? Yeah, so that's another major portion of how we get people involved. We have a lot of community science programs. One of our biggest ones that I mentioned is our volunteer monthly monitoring program that's been collecting consistent data on the river since 1995. And then another one is our biological monitoring program, which again is collecting data about streams. So our tributaries that lead into the Charles River. We have a new way to engage if you're out and about on the Lower Charles River near the Esplanade or along the Charles River Reservation in Cambridge. We're looking for people to monitor cyanobacteria blooms, which we will add to our website soon. And yeah, several other opportunities. Do you feel encouraged by your efforts and the is the condition of the watershed generally improving or what are the greatest challenges that you face these days? So it's really interesting to look at the history of what was written about the Charles over the over the decades. And CRWA was founded in 1965 in a time when many people had literally given up on the Charles River. And there are government reports saying that from Nadek to Boston, you just have to give up on the Charles. It's too dirty. It can never be cleaned up. And knowing that that was not true, that when people put their minds to it and decided that that was not acceptable and it took a lot of litigation, we've we've we've been able to significantly clean up the Charles since those days when, you know, when I was a kid, you know, if you were standing next to the Charles in some areas, certainly next to the Boston Harbor, it just reeked of sewage. Wouldn't look at that. There's that there's that photo that's on our and I remember that and you not that photo. I remember what that was like. And so you wouldn't have thought then that it would be possible to make the strides that we have in those days. So that does give me hope, seeing how much cleaner the river is. First grade we gave it was I think it was a D in the 95. So we've come a long way since then. And there's still much more progress to go. And in some ways, we risk backsliding thanks to climate change, bringing new threats to the Charles particularly increased heat and drought and so forth. So our work is far from over, but we've we've been able to do amazing things in the past. And so I think the story of the cleanup of the Charles River is an inspiration not only for further cleanup that we want to do, but just for environmental restoration in general. Obviously, as a planet, we are we're really pushing the planet to the limits of what it can what it can endure. But when we put our minds to it, we can do amazing things. Are there some other events like I know the head of the Charles, which I raised in, but any other like arts and culture, things that people can look forward to over the coming year? Not an event, but one way that we do engage directly with the voting community is through our flagging program, which is a notification program. We have relationships with 12 of the Boat Houses on the lower Charles. And we have water quality models that predict the water quality, whether it's safe for voting or not, on any particular hour, actually. And this program lets people know whether they should be voting on the river or not, lets them make an informed decision, but more importantly, engages them with what the water quality of the river is and how to learn more about it and be an ambassador for the river. For sure. Yeah. Anything else that you would like to tell people about the Charles River Watershed Association? I know that there are other watershed associations so you have regular like interchange of ideas or data or science. Yeah, we work pretty closely with the other watershed organizations on a number of issues, particularly statewide issues when there's when there are bills that will affect rivers in Massachusetts, such as the recent victory in the CSO notification bill. This is a bill that would require public notification when there are sewage releases in any rivers, if you can believe it, that was not something that was required to even notify the public about and notification is not the end goal. The end goal is actually to prevent sewage releases in any of our rivers. But we believe that notification is an important first step to generating the public support for the investments necessary to see rivers to reduce and finally eliminate those sewage releases. This is more of a problem in some of the other rivers, such as the Merrimack is pretty renowned for the sewage problems there. There's sort of probably decades behind where the where the Charles is in terms of eliminating those. But we do work closely with the other watershed groups in those areas. And then just in general, I think it would be helpful to have just a bit of an overview of some of our work and I'll touch on some. And then Lisa should touch on some. So we've made great strides when it comes to eliminating largely eliminating not entirely, but largely eliminating the sewage releases.  So we talked about that how really when rain hits those impermeable surfaces, carries all those toxins in, and that's really related to land use and development. And it's very interesting if you think about the names of many of the communities in Massachusetts, Marshfield, Swamskut, Watertown. Actually, a lot of them have water in them because naturally sort of the pre-European colonization era. This was a very watery area. And interesting, I never thought about that. Yeah, it's it's a really recommended book called Reflections on Below's Pond that goes into the environmental history of New England. But basically, in order to have our modern lives with roads and buildings and sidewalks and so forth, we've had to pave over much of this land. And the way that we developed over the years required, or at least the way that we ended up doing it, whether required or not, was culverting streams, bulldozing streams, filling in wetlands, memory swamps. And so we have this wonderful modern lives. But that water had to go somewhere. And especially now in the climate change era, one of the biggest impacts of climate change in the Northeast is increased precipitation, not just overall, but also at one time. So we're having rainstorms with more intensity than we have in the past. And that's only going to continue. And what that means is more flooding because the stormwater systems that were built decades ago are old in their own right. But also they were designed for volumes of rain that that are just less than we're having now and definitely less than we're going to have in the future. So this is an impact on water quality. It's also an impact on public health and safety in terms of just flooding. So much of our work now is working with cities and towns and the state to look at how we develop. Where can we actually depave? Where can we actually conserve land that hasn't been developed? When we are going to do a development, how can we require that more stormwater be kept on site and treated before it's released? So these are these these are hard to do. We we have folks who are making decisions about development who this was not something in their training years and years ago when they went to school, so we're in a new in a new era. And it's not just sort of, you know, the nuts and bolts of how you do things. It's sort of the mindset. How do we have a change our mindset that it's not just about controlling nature? Use but rather working with nature? How do we bring nature back into our built environment? So we do a lot to promote nature based solutions. And we do that on a project by project basis, but also on trying to change laws and regulations and policies so that, you know, you're not having to beg and plead with every developer, but rather, you know, on a case on a project by project basis, which we do a bit of that. But so how do we change change the laws? So this is this is required. And there are some big projects that are going on that we are trying to do this with the I 90 project is a is a good example. That's one where the Alston Viaduct needs to be repaired. It's old and you can when you drive by it, you can see it's actually you can see the rust. So no argument that it needs to be repaired. But the state, the original proposal to repair it is part of the Alston multimodal project. Very cool, where we're looking at get it bringing in more transit, more pedestrian, more cycling benefits. But their original proposal was to put a road into the Charles River, a temperature. Yeah, I remember that big flap a couple of years ago, right? Yeah. And so to me, how how could that even even been on the table? Look at. Thank you so much for for the action you took. Man, that was millions of dollars we spent to clean up the river. And we're going to put a road into it. Road into it. To me, that was an example of an old mindset of like, I don't care, it's just a river stick a road in it. Well, I imagine you your evenings are probably spent going to these towns and going to these town meetings and select board meetings. And so that's that's a good point. Another volunteer effort that we are planning on launching soon is is our River Advocates River Ambassadors program where we're going to be when people will volunteer to do this.  Here's things to advocate for so that we can have more eyes of the river in these communities. We do not have the capacity with a staff of a dozen people to go to, you know, all these concom meetings in 35 cities and towns. But people who love the river, people who are passionate about issues, we will we will train them to be able to do that, to do that in partnership with us. That's fantastic. Sign me up. I mean, I because I've you know, I've evolved in in Arlington, you know, and there's we I go to the select board meetings once in a while in the town meeting and stuff like that. And, you know, there's a there's a push-pull sometimes between the development and the nature and the open space.  Most of them do not have staff. Only Cambridge and Boston are full time and have staff. So putting a lot of expectations on local officials, not to say that there aren't staff in these communities, but if the staff aren't already pushing above and beyond when it comes to, you know, rain gardens and bioswales and sort of cool things you can do for the river. If the staff aren't already pushing it and your local elected's don't know anything about it, the residents who are passionate about this can really have a big impact on asking for these things and asking your leaders, what are you doing when it comes to climate resilience? What are you doing when it comes to climate change? And among and within that, what are you doing about climate resilience? That can be very powerful and actually on what things people do. Another example is the Wadette Circle area of Boston, where then Mayor Walsh wanted to put the stadium for the Boston Olympics. And now there's talk of an Amazon distribution center or the T is talking about maybe putting commuter rail trains to be stored there. It's one of the lowest lying areas of the city. It already floods regularly. We think it should be restored as a wetland to prevent flooding that would really be dangerous for a lot of surrounding neighborhoods, including some low income neighborhoods. Again, that'll be a different mindset. So that is something that we are currently in the process of doing some advocacy around. And it's not just us doing this with folks who advocate for transit, for housing, because you want to have a science-based approach. You don't want to be pushing transit investments or housing investments in areas that are going to be flooding, like significantly flooding. So then changing mindsets. So those are some other those are some sort of big things that we are working on. Those are very critical and we'll do our part to help you get some ambassadors. I know some of the people at my rowing club are doing that or either interested in doing that. So let's talk a little bit about education in general and in getting people up to speed on what the watershed needs. Is there are there some things that you specifically do? Or is it kind of incorporated into your other activities? Lisa, you want to take that one? Sure. So our education is really folded into all of the programs that we have, whether it be a project in a specific town or whether it be advocacy on a certain issue. We really try to target target our education about how a watershed works towards whatever age group we're working with. One example right now is we're working with the town of Milford to install some green infrastructure in one of their town parks, which is close to some of their schools, and we're working with the middle schoolers there to educate them about why we're putting this green infrastructure in and how they can be stewards of it once it is in because they use the park for for their gym classes and for baseball games and for lots of other community events. Another thing that we can we do is go to classrooms that request our visits. You can find that on our website and we're happy to talk to your groups at any age about what's going on in the watershed and tailor it towards what what they're learning in the classroom right now. While we're still in the education piece, if you're interested in getting involved and don't really know where to start as an individual, go to our education page and there is a drop down list of several different actions that you can take that will lead you to many different places on our website. We also have some great actions that you can take as a homeowner or if you have a garden in terms of landscaping ways to reduce your water use, etc. Perfect. Wow. Well, anything you want to add, Emily? Yeah. So another example of work that we're doing, which is sort of trying to change the mindset of how we've handled things in the past is dam removal. I'm sure people know there were dozens of dams along the Charles over the last four hundred years that were put there, mostly for industry, and many of them are not in use anymore. And in fact, our hazards they can cause they can cause significant flooding if they are breached and it's expensive to maintain them. So for public safety, but also for ecological health of the river, a free flowing river is much healthier for habitat and for fish. So we're we're advocating for removals of several dams, including the one in Natick. There's one in Rentham that we're working on. And then even the Watertown Dam, and it is a different it's it would be a big change. But many people are excited about that because sometimes you see videos from around the country, even around Massachusetts of sort of before and after where there's dam has been removed and it's exciting. It's restoration. So I hope that folks will will support those efforts. And if anyone would want to get involved, that would be great. We would welcome that. Perfect. Well, listen, this has been very helpful. And let's let's continue the discussion and let us know how we can get raise awareness about what you do. Nothing empowers us to clean up the river more than an engaged residence or workers or, you know, visitors or whatever. Reaching out to local officials say, hey, why haven't you done, you know, X? So the more we have regular people involved with us, the better. Nice. Well, thank you both very much. And we will be continuing the discussion.