Alicea Charamut went for a hike last weekend to a place where she thought her dog would have a chance to cool off with a swim.
Devil鈥檚 Hopyard State Park in East Haddam, 黑料吃瓜网, has a big waterfall. But on this day, the water was barely flowing, and Charamut鈥檚 dog found no relief.
鈥淭here was no part of the river, even in the deeper pools, that went anywhere past her knees,鈥� said Charamut, who is executive director of Rivers Alliance of 黑料吃瓜网.
Across , drought conditions have been . Parts of Massachusetts and Rhode Island are now in extreme drought, .
Charamut says most of the rivers and streams in her state are so low, they鈥檙e below the 25th percentile for streamflow.
She and other advocates say that we need to be talking more about climate change and that people need to drop the mindset of hoping for more rain.
鈥淲e have to think about what we can do to minimize the impacts further on down the line if we don鈥檛 get that precipitation,鈥� she said, 鈥渂ecause it鈥檚 not a guarantee.鈥�
Lesley-Ann Dupigny-Giroux is Vermont鈥檚 state climatologist and a geography professor at the University of Vermont. She has been studying drought in the state for the past 25 years. She says this summer reminds her of 2020.
鈥淓ven back then, we were seeing record dry conditions in our groundwater wells, in our streams, and we鈥檙e seeing that happening again this year,鈥� Dupigny-Giroux said.
Vermont is the only New England state that鈥檚 not experiencing any severe drought right now. But Dupigny-Giroux says that even in her state, the issue is more serious than it seems.
She says all of New England is experiencing a long-term drought.
鈥淚t also has to be regional, because the processes that drive a drought that is so severe, that you鈥檙e talking six states that are being critically affected, that didn鈥檛 happen overnight.鈥�
Tia Pinney, a naturalist and teacher at the Massachusetts Audubon Society, says that this summer, she鈥檚 seeing leaves browning and falling off trees earlier than normal at the Audubon鈥檚 education sites. She鈥檚 worried that in future years, the trees and shrubs may not get enough moisture to make it through the year.
All of Massachusetts is , with about a quarter of the state now in extreme drought.
Pinney says climate change is an important part of her education programs and a big focus of Mass Audubon鈥檚 advocacy in the state.
鈥淗ow do we deal with the extremes and how do we deal with trying to mediate climate change so the extremes do not become more extreme? That鈥檚 what we're focused on more than a response to the drought,鈥� she said.
Alison Bowden, the director of conservation science and strategy at The Nature Conservancy in Boston, says her organization is also doing outreach on how drought is linked to climate change and how that affects natural places in New England along with tourists.
鈥淚f you鈥檙e coming here to fish, like so many people do, or if you鈥檙e coming here to eat oysters, those are both things that are going to be affected by the drought,鈥� Bowden said.
Increased temperatures put stress on fish populations, Bowden says, and low river flow can increase the saltiness of coastal waters.
Julia Blatt, executive director of the Massachusetts Rivers Alliance in Cambridge, says she鈥檚 also been worrying about drought for a long time.
鈥淭his is actually the issue that started our organization, was low stream flow, and it鈥檚 only gotten more urgent as time has gone by,鈥� she said.
Blatt says one of the most common ways people waste water is by watering their lawns. She says everyone needs to prioritize water supply during droughts and throughout the year, and cultural ideas about what the grass should look like don鈥檛 help.
鈥淎s long as we continue to think that a home doesn鈥檛 look nice unless it has a bright green lawn all year-round or all summer, we鈥檙e going to have some trouble conserving water,鈥� Blatt said.
