NARRAGANSETT – When long-time biologist, author and Narrow River Preservation Association (NRPA) Board of Trustees member Barry Devine first contemplated the idea of writing a book about the estuary and its watershed, he found the task to be overwhelming. However, as Devine began working through more and more information about the past, present and future of the area, a clearer focus emerged and suddenly, the idea was not so lofty. Now, nearly two years later, “The Pettaquamscutt Estuary: The Narrow River Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” is available for purchase in a legacy edition. All profits generated from the purchase of the book will benefit NRPA.
“The river is very unique for a lot, a lot of reasons,” said Devine. “We’re talking characteristics that are different from anything else in the world and can only be found in a few locations. Those kinds of things lead me to believe this is a very unique place. There’s a huge amount of information that has been collected about this special area.”
In his career as a biologist and cartographer, Devine authored a similar work, “Island Peak to Coral Reef,” about the Virgin Islands, after living there and studying the area. He has also published two novels.
Members of NRPA’s Board of Trustees are tasked with completing unique projects that will benefit Narrow River or assist NRPA in its mission of helping to preserve it. The book began as one such project, when Devine took up the task of compiling a bibliography of the vast amounts of science, research and data published about the area over the years.
“That was voluminous,” said Devine. “More than several hundred things had been done.”
With a background in the formation of geographic information systems (GIS), Devine decided developing such data for Narrow River would be a good way to start, and so, with assistance from the University of Rhode Island, Devine eventually published 18 GIS maps of the estuary and its various creeks and streams, with each map featuring a different physical, biological or ecological aspect of the river environment. Then, his daughter suggested he combine his work in compiling the bibliography and producing the maps to write a book about the local, beloved waterway.
“I thought a bit about it and the idea of writing it seemed, at the time, just too much,” said Devine. “But what I began to do was, after I developed the GIS, and I had made half a dozen maps, I began to see the thread of building a book around a set of maps – kind of an ecological story.”
From there, the research process resumed, and Devine, working 20-30 hours per week for about a year, compiled all the information on the river he could find, which collected in a large pile on his desk. The final piece to fall into place was setting the book in the context of the watershed “yesterday, today and tomorrow.”
“Then things started to fall into place and then I began to see how I could set things that had some kind of complimentary information next to one another,” he said. “A map of the watershed with conservation lands and then an essay by somebody from the Narrow River Land Trust. Then I put these two things together. A lot of it suggested itself, and once it became somewhat more real, I got a lot more input from people on how to make it better. That’s what makes it better than it would have been. You can’t do it yourself.”
The result is a full-color, 170-page volume that chronicles the Narrow River through the years, its current state and what the future holds for the water body. Largely composed of scholarly articles on the estuary from a variety of time periods, complete with citations and further reading opportunities, the book is also outfitted with over 150 full-color photos of the river, both past and present and taken during all four seasons, and the wildlife that inhabits it. The finished work also includes 15 of the GIS maps developed by Devine, and many of the photographs are submitted by members of the public, who received full credit in the published work for their images.
“I think what happens when you familiarize yourself with the depth of information about any subject, it begins to become more enthralling and it leads you out in these kind of spider webs of other information,” said Devine. “You may get sidetracked and that’s sometimes hard in a book because there’s so many things that can be brought into it. For this one, one thing I realized was that the watershed defined the area that I wanted to do the book about. I could focus on that.”
And while Devine scripted passages here and there, linking different subjects together, and also penned an introduction for the book, he insists his role was more akin to that of an editor as he decided which previously published works to include, how to best organize them and maintain visual appeal.
“At the end of nearly every article, there’s a link to a website or a resource for further information on that subject,” he said.
For the latter task, local graphic artist Michelle Caraccia volunteered to help layout the book upon learning about its development.
“Once we got to the final steps, she just took what was interesting and then made it really beautiful,” said Devine. “She put things together, got more photographs that I didn’t have, got more photographers involved, provided additional articles.”
“I couldn’t have done that without her,” he continued. “It took something and it doubled it – the book is twice as good because of that work. I have to give Michelle a lot of credit.”
Devine also extends a dedication to NRPA Program Coordinator Alison Kates, who helped facilitate the book’s completion. Along with Kates, “The Pettaquamscutt Estuary: The Narrow River Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” is dedicated to the “advancement of knowledge and the good of us all.”
The Legacy Edition of the book, which includes a signed copy by Devine and a poster, is now available for purchase at narrowriver.org/nrbook/. NRPA is currently celebrating its 50th anniversary, and has been adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The NRPA thanks all who can provide support at this time.
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