One of our erstwhile volunteers (who prefers to remain anonymous) recently repaired the supports for the sprinkler support boxes located near the Gaspee memorial.
The old degraded wooden supportThe beautiful new supportThe location of the water meters behind the Gaspee Memorial
Something new coming to Ocean Avenue
The existing bench at the southern end of Stillhouse Cove Park was recently removed to make way for a new memorial bench that will be unveiled at a June 19, 2026 ceremony. Volunteers, including board members Doug Shemin, Donna Fieldman, Richard Finley, and Colin Murphy disconnected the old bench and power washed the stone pad making way for delivery a new marble bench. The old bench will be stored until July and placed on a new cement pad near the rose garden.
Disassembling the old benchThe freshly cleaned padThe recently delivered memorial benchThe old bench will be placed south of the rose garden in July.
After several years of rainy cleanups, we were blessed with sunshine. On April 25, 2026, seventy-one volunteers (including a number of children) showed up to retrieve all manner of plastics and other non-degradable waste from the Stillhouse Cove Marsh and beach areas. Most volunteers had registered online, but we also had a number of walk ups. The photos below depict the registration and orientation process.
A critical aspect of every cleanup in the Stillhouse Cove Marsh is the clearing of the drainage channel that allows water that enters the marsh from an underground stream to flow out to the Bay. The photos below depict the process of raking materials from the channel.
Richard beginsChannel bridgeLower channelLower channel
It was great to see the number of children and youth who enthusiastically participated in the cleanup.
We had enough volunteers to cover all areas of the Marsh and the beaches.
The April 25th Earth Day Cleanup of Stillhouse Cove was a joint venture with that of nearby Pawtuxet Park which attracted 43 volunteers. The photos below show the result of their efforts.
Representative Joe McNamara and Senator Llamas Vargas pitched in with the cleanup and Vargas added a welcome check from a RI Senate grant. Mayor Hopkins came by to provide support.
After a particularly rough winter, Stillhouse Cove Park and its surroundings need treatment. In particular, the mounds of snow deposited in the Park left behind salt, grit, and damaged turf. In the photo below, Donna Fieldman, EWPA board member, is seen spreading gypsum to mitigate the effects of road salt and ice melt and encourage the grass root system.
Every two years or so, EWPA must clean the Stillhouse Cove Park benches that our neighbors so enjoy. Below, we see Colin Murphy and Richard Finlay, of the EWPA board, power washing the lichen that has accumulated on a bench and its base.
It has been almost four years since we unveiled the End of the Line trolley monument and the weather has taken its toll on the metal sculpture. We just had it sanded and recoated and it looks as good as new.
Early Spring is also time to cut back the ornamental grasses that line the Cove and are present in the Ocean Avenue rotary and behind the End of the Line monument. In the photo below, Donna is trimming the Shenandoah Switch Grasses at the End of the Line. But Donna, Colin, and Richard cannot do this work alone. EWPA needs volunteers to join its site committee and get their hands dirty. There are critical tasks to be fulfilled from Spring to Fall. If you are interested, fill out the form here: https://stillhousecove.org/volunteer-with-us/
Earlier this year, EWPA President Barbara Rubine and Vice-President Colin Murphy gave a presentation at the Edgewood Yacht Club detailing the work that our organization does all along Stillhouse Cove. Press the link belowfor a video of their talk which provides excellent background on EWPA’s history as well as the ongoing challenges that we face. https://vimeo.com/1133612774
We will be digging up invasive tree seedlings along the Park’s embankment and in the marsh. No need to sign up. But, if you are planning to come, it would be helpful if you emailed barbara.rubine@stillhousecove.org or donna.fieldman@stillhousecove.org
We had a spectacular day on September 20 for the EWPA’s annual International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) conducted in coordination with Save the Bay. Forty-four volunteers of all ages showed up at Stillhouse Cove to scour the beach areas, shoreline, and riprap for glass, plastics, and other items of pollution. And they recorded their findings on a data form so that the information can be compared to previous years and entered into an international data base. In all, one hundred and fifty pounds of solid waste was collected, not counting wood waste. Items included a laundry tub, syringes, bottle caps, plastic and glass bottles, and a pillow.
On June 24, 2025, Save the Bay’s Executive Director Topher Hamblett and Restoration Coordinator Wenley Ferguson hosted a site visit to Stillhouse Cove by members of the national board of Restoring America’s Estuaries who were visiting Rhode Island for their national conference.
Members of the group from Texas, San Francisco, Maryland, North Carolina, Long Island, and other distant coastal communities learned about the decades- long collaborative effort of EWPA and STB to preserve Stillhouse Cove’s salt marsh and improve the water quality of Narragansett Bay.
Senator Lammis J. Vargas met with members of the Edgewood Waterfront Preservation Association board on June 25, 2025 to present a RI Senate grant to support their work at Stillhouse Cove.
American beach grass (Ammophila breviligulata) helps preserve the sandy areas that guard the salt marsh at Stillhouse Cove. Erstwhile members of the EWPA board, Donna Fieldman, Greta Francis, and Colin Murphy and former board member Joe Cooney, recently planted 200 “plugs” of beach grass in an exposed area near Strathmore Place. These will have to be nurtured and watered during the coming summer to turn into established plants such as those pictured above.
THE INFILTRATION AREA ON NARRAGANSETT BLVD., BELOW THE TROLLEY MONUMENT, POSES CONSTANT CHALLENGES.
Because of its steep banks, it very difficult to maintain the grass on the area. In an experiment, the EWPA just planted several plugs of special drought resistant Zoysia grass. We will monitor their survival in the coming months.
