Our campers through Brown University's SPARK program this week are from all over the country, New York to Arizona! They were fortunate enough to visit the northeast, south, and west sides of Prudence Island, the third largest island in Narragansett Bay, 4 of their 5 days with us. Two of those days were spent at the southern end of Prudence, and the old T-dock area, which is where these pictures were all taken. It is one of our favorite sites to bring camps, due to the great sandy beach (at low tide you can walk on FOREVER before getting too deep), the healthy eelgrass beds, and on the south side of the T-dock, there is a long rocky shore that you can walk down and almost around to the south east side of the island. We also love the T-dock because it is a great place to eat lunch while watching the terns dive in the water to catch fish for their lunch!
Prudence Island is a wonderful place for people of all ages to see. The island really encompasses the feeling of old Rhode Island, just how it must have looked before all the development of the coast line. There are pristine beaches, rocky shores and tidepools teeming with life, beautiful salt marshes that are in excellent condition, and lots of eelgrass to explore. Save the Bay has both monitoring and restoration sites in different locations around Prudence, so it is easy to see what a natural bed that is flourishing looks like as compared to a restoration site that isn't taking as well. With the help of many volunteers, hopefully the eelgrass will continue to flourish.
With a population of only about 200 during the year (that jumps to closer to 2,000 in the summer), only 2 students enrolled in the on island elementary school for next year, and over half the island being preserved as reserve land, it is a unique place to visit. Many Rhode Islanders have never even been, and there it lies, a beautiful, rarely visited island between North Kingstown and Portsmouth!
For information on how to visit Prudence, visit http://www.prudenceisland.us/prud/helpful_information/info/ferry_schedule.htm
To book a trip with children or students to Prudence with Save the Bay, visit http://www.savebay.org/education_shipboardoutings.asp
To find out more about the island itself visit http://www.prudenceisland.us/prud/
and for more information about the reserve land, visit http://www.nbnerr.org/
1 comment:
Wow, I can't believe I found anything about this. I was part of the SPARK group you had way back in 2007 and I'm pretty sure I'm one of the kids swimming in the photos. Thanks so much for an incredible experience and helping spur some great memories.
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