The days are getting longer...

...and MLCI's summer calendar (at right) is starting to fill up! We have a great start on booking our boat trips this summer, so if your group or school is thinking about a trip, drop us a line.

Maine Water Conference 2010 - March 17

The Maine Water Conference 2010 will be held at the Augusta Civic Center on March 17, 2010. The call for abstracts has been issued - see the MWC site for more details about sessions and plenary speakers. MLCI will be there - hope to see you too!

NEW RESOURCE FOR INFORMATION ABOUT MAINE'S CLIMATE

October 20, 2009
Contact Catherine Schmitt (catherine.schmitt@umit.maine.edu)

ORONO - Recognizing the need for a centralized, neutral source of climate information specific to Maine, University of Maine Cooperative Extension and Maine Sea Grant today announced the launch of Maine Climate News at http://extension.umaine.edu/maineclimatenews. Produced in partnership with Maine State Climatologist George Jacobson, the site is intended to be a portal to local climate change science and research at the University of Maine and beyond, as well as a resource for news and climate-related activities throughout the state.

"Climate change is a complex and dynamic issue, and it can be overwhelming. While much of our focus is on coastal climate change impacts, the information on the new site is also intended to provide useful information from our state climatologist to a broad audience," said project leader Esperanza Stancioff, a climate change educator with UMaine Cooperative Extension and Maine Sea Grant.
The site provides visitors with access to climate scientists, including Jacobson of UMaine's Climate Change Institute, who is also the designated State Climatologist for Maine. State climatologists bring their scientific expertise and climate resources to serve the citizens of their states with specific and first-hand support. Jacobson’s role is to interpret and analyze data from NOAA and the Northeast Regional Climate Center. In addition, Shaleen Jain, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Maine, is providing scientific content and oversight to the news outlet.

The site will be updated quarterly with new features and articles.
"We hope that people who live, work, and vacation in Maine will use this resource and provide feedback and suggestions for stories they’d like us to publish," said Stancioff.

Visit Maine Climate News at http://extension.umaine.edu/maineclimatenews

Fall Foliage Over Nahmakanta Lake

Former MLCI Educator and current Board Member Rex Turner thought he'd share a photo from a 9/28/09 day in the field. The view shown here is from Nesuntabunt Mt. on the Appalachian Trail, at an outcropping overlooking Nahmakanta Lake, a pristine 986 acre lake in the heart of the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands' Nahmakanta Public Land Unit. Facebook users can see more photos here.

Hydrilla found in Damariscotta Lake

Unfortunately, invasive Hydrilla was just found in Damariscotta Lake here in Maine.

The plant was found by a volunteer monitor who participated in training to help monitor his lake.

You can read the DEP's press release regarding this infestation here.

From the president's desk

MLCI board president Bill Ferdinand has sent along the following interesting article, of interest to the lake community. See the whole story here.

The story describes the battle against invasives as just that - a war. It details some of the methods that are used to combat the weeds, bugs, and other critters and green things that aren't native to Maine lakes - and that are taking over in some places. A key weapon in the battle is volunteer monitoring and education efforts that help boaters understand why they need to check their boats before launching. Just a small piece of some invasive plants can infest an entire lake. Says a DEP environmental specialist quoted in the piece,

"It's not a huge stretch of the imagination to assume someone came in with that on a boat prop or attached to a trailer," Gregory said. "It's incredibly easy for that to happen."

This year the front line is a lake in the Belgrade Lakes - MLCI's new
neighborhood. The story of that pond's 'last resort' treatment is detailed
in the story. It's definitely worth a read.

It's not a lake, but...

The Penobscot watershed has many, many lakes and ponds within its boundary. In fact, the Penobscot is the largest watershed in Maine, covering over 1/3 of the state. The second annual Penobscot Riverfest happened Saturday on the waterfront in Bangor. The story is front-page news in today's Bangor Daily - read all about it here.

The watershed includes some highly developed lakes, ringed by camps, and some of the most remote lakes in the eastern US, like the nearly impossible to find Pamola and Klondike ponds in Baxter State Park. The river incoporates the 'signature' of all the various activities happening within the watershed - from human-driven change to natural processes.

The BDN article recalls times when the river was so obviously polluted that it stank. Our environmental issues now are not so obvious, perhaps, but equally deleterious. The same issues of point-source versus non-point-source pollution affect Maine's lakes, and since the water all flows downhill, eventually ends up reflected in the signature of one of these large rivers.