Sheepscot Log - Sheepscot Valley Conservation Association

Sheepscot Log
Newsletter of the Sheepscot Valley Conservation Association
Getting Kids Outside Doing Science
Fall 2014
by Lynne Flaccus
The SVCA and Hidden Valley Nature Center (HVNC) have teamed up to
develop hands on environmental education programs for area schools with
a HVNC grant from the Horizon Foundation. The $10,000 grant allows for
the implementation of curriculum designed to immerse students in long term
“citizen science” projects at HVNC over the course of this academic year.
Fourth grade students from Great Salt Bay School (GSB) in Damariscotta
and the Whitefield Elementary School will be establishing permanent study
plots to collect data on forests throughout the seasons allowing students to
get out and learn first-hand about natural habitats and working forests.
Chris Coleman
Sue Kistenmacher, a retired Wiscasset Middle School science teacher, and
Lynne Flaccus, Programs Manager at SVCA are working together to develop
curriculum and engage students in field work starting in October. Projects
and activities from Project Learning Tree® that provide age appropriate
curriculum tied to state standards will be used throughout the year to enhance
student learning experiences. Students will be establishing Forest Inventory
continued on page 6
Fourth grader Alicia Flis measuring a tree
tree.
Testing Water Quality in the Sheepscot Estuary by Kristin Pennock
On a clear sunny morning in early September Lili Pugh and I went to Edgecomb
to board a boat and tag along for the third of four sampling days of this pilot
project. We were joined by boat owner and volunteer captain David Swetland
and MCOA technician Celeste Mosher. We cast off and headed to our first
sampling point. The sky and the waters of the Sheepscot were brilliant blue.
My job was to help David look for any large
Technichian Celeste Mosher deploys the
debris in the river, which was no easy task
Datasonde into the Sheepscot River with
continued on page 7
Founded 1969
Accredited 2012
lobster boat Absolut fishing nearby.
Our mission is to conserve the natural and historic heritage of the Sheepscot Watershed through
land protection, habitat restoration, advocacy, education and support for compatible land uses.
Kristin Pennock
This past year the SVCA joined with several organizations to form the Maine
Coast Observing Alliance (MCOA) in an effort to coordinate water sampling
in our coastal estuaries. Many of the groups were already doing testing on
their own but with the work of Alliance members, a grant from the Davis
Conservation Foundation, and the generosity of many volunteer boat owners,
SVCA and others were able to begin initial testing this fall to check on the
condition of their local estuaries.
From the President
Board of Directors
President
John Atwood
Vice President
Joanne Steneck
Treasurer
Fred Quivey
Secretary
Ann Springhorn
Directors
Gary Best
Otis Carroll
Peter DuBois
Tom Eichler
Gerry & Suki Flanagan
Sharon Miller
Honor Fox Sage
John Wentzel
Emeritus Board
Nicholas Barth
Nigel Calder
William Thompson
Executive Director
Stephen R. Patton
[email protected]
Programs Manager
Lynne Flaccus
[email protected]
Administrative
Assistant
Kristin Pennock
[email protected]
GIS Support
Center
[email protected]
As I write this article for the fall edition of the Sheepscot Log, I
can’t help but consider the passage of time. That’s because in our part
of the world the seasons give us their signs of change in unmistakable
w
ways. We all recognize them at this time of year: shorter days, the
tur
turning color of leaves and the first frost.
At SVCA this seasonal change brings with it certain annual activities that reflect
our responsibilities as a conservation organization. Foremost among these is
the annual effort each autumn to monitor all of our properties be they easements,
preserves or “in fee” parcels. As in the recent past, this effort is led by Programs
Manager Lynne Flaccus and Stewardship Chair Gary Best. You could call this
“taking inventory” of the 56 properties that have been entrusted to us for conservation
purposes. Because we take this responsibility very seriously, we endeavor to improve
the stewardship process every year. This year, for example, our 36 property monitors
were offered training in the use of GPS so they might be able to more readily find
a particular property’s boundaries. The use of this equipment might also keep our
monitors from getting lost! Moreover, while overseeing conserved property is a
serious responsibility, many of our monitors very much enjoy the opportunity to walk
conserved land at this special time of year. Want to join in this effort? Call SVCA and
volunteer as a monitor.
SVCA’s fall traditions aren’t limited to conservation work. Indeed, for the past
six years we have celebrated our work with a major fund-raising party, we call
Champagne on the Sheepscot or “COTS” for short. As reported elsewhere in this
newsletter, about 180 people attended this party, raising nearly $14,000 for SVCA’s
on-going conservation work. I thank our hostess, Lucy Harrington, and the COTS
committee, chaired by Ann Springhorn, for their hard work in making this event such
a great success. Because of efforts like this, SVCA is in a healthy financial condition
which, in turn, allows us to carry forward our mission of preserving and protecting the
land and waters of the Sheepscot watershed.
So, I am pleased to report that as we approach the end of our 45th year, the
Sheepscot Valley Conservation Association continues to carry out its important
conservation responsibilities while celebrating the privilege of living in this beautiful
part of Maine. Thanks go out to all of our volunteers and our excellent staff who
make all this possible.
Technical Advisory
Board
Nigel Calder
Bambi Jones
William Logan, Esq.
Alex Pugh
The Sheepscot Valley
Conservation
Association is a
non-profit 501(c)(3)
organization.
Silent Auction Items WANTED
We are looking for donations to our holiday silent auction in the $5 - $50 range.
This is a great way to promote your craft or a local business!
Please contact Kristin at [email protected] or call 586-5616.
Sheepscot Log
2
Fall 2014
Celebrating 45 Years with Ice Cream
SVCA Member Special!
Our Ice Cream Social
this summer featured
“Conservation Crunch” a
flavor created by Lears
Old Fashioned Ice Cream
to celebrate SVCA’s 45th
anniversary year.
Limited Edition Anniversary Poster
$25 each or two for $40
Libbey Seigars
“Salmon Runs” were held
in the ball field for “Smolts”
ages 6-10 and “Fry” 5 and
under along with traditional
and environmental games.
Artwork
generously
donated by
Sheepscot
watershed resident
and artist Jon
Luoma
All proceeds
support the work
of SVCA
Amy Campbell
a member of the
Knox Lincoln
Beekeepers
shared a display
of native bees
including great
information on
how to help
these insects
that are so
important for
our gardens and ecosystems. Thank you Amy and thanks to
Lears Ice Cream for sponsoring the event!
Libbey Seigars
Pick up your
poster at the
SVCA office in
Sheepscot Village
or we can ship it
to you.
Sponsors help break Champagne on the Sheepscot fundraising record
Thank you to all of our business sponsors who
donated $300 or more to sponsor items such as tent
rentals, invitations, champagne, wine and music.
Thanks in part to their generosity, SVCA raised
nearly $14,000 this year!
Ames True Value
First Advisors
Kristin Pennock
Soule, Soule & Logan
Snow Squall Inn & Wicked Good Yoga
SVCA president John Atwood with First Advisors staff (left
to right) Gary Stone, Portfolio Manager; Laura Comer,
Relationship Associate; Matthew Weaver, Portfolio Manager
and Anne Logue, Relationship Associate.
Big Barn Coffee
See “Champagne” story on page 4 for event wrap up
Sheepscot Log
3
Fall 2014
Record Breaking sixth annual “Champagne on the Sheepscot” fundraiser
Most of the scrumptious
hors d’oeuvres for the
evening were prepared and
donated by volunteers.
Amity Beane
Amity
y Beane
Music wafted
through the air
courtesy of the
five member
Narrow Guage
String Band.
Amity
y Beane
A gala event on a cool September evening, attended by some 180 persons,
raised nearly $14,000 for the SVCA breaking all previous event records.
The event was held at the home of Lucy Harrington on Cunningham Island
overlooking the Marsh River in Newcastle. Thank you Lucy and thanks to
our Business Sponsors (see page 3), as well as the 89 event patrons. The
Alna Store, Sheepscot Flower Farm, Sheepscot Valley Brewing Company
and Treats of Wiscasset again donated or discounted items for the fundraiser.
The Host Committee, led by Ann Springhorn, did a wonderful job of
organizing the event.
Amity Beane
Am
ity
Be
ane
Four students from Lincoln Academy: Rowan CarrollChristopher , Angus Fake (pictured below), Tess Fields
and Owen Lewis volunteered again this year as wait staff.
Amity Beane
Amity
y Beane
This year, for the first time, a group of local artists showed paintings and
other art for sale, with a portion of the proceeds going to SVCA. Among
the artists displaying their work were Deb Arter, Ingrid Bathe, Eben
Blaney, Kelly Brook, Melissa Hunnibell, Jean Kigel, Jennifer Litchfield,
Janet Lockhart, Jon
Luoma, Belva Ann
Prycel and Jessica
Sirois. Special
thanks to all the
artists including
Lucy Harrington,
who organized the
exhibit and sale.
SVCA’ JJohn
SVCA’s
h At
Atwoodd andd St
Steve P
Patt
tton with
ith eventt host
h
Lucy Harrington and committee chair Ann Springhorn.
Sheepscot Log
4
Fall 2014
Migratory Fish at home in the Sheepscot River
This past summer the SVCA hosted two events featuring fisheries biologists from Maine’s Department of Marine
Resources (DMR) to give people the opportunity to see and learn about the migratory fish that call the Sheepscot
River and Estuary home for a portion of their life cycle. At the event in Alna Head Tide, Josh and Jen Noll, DMR
field technicians, braved the cold flowing waters of the Sheepscot to check rotary screw traps that are set annually
from April to June to monitor the migration of young Atlantic
salmon headed out towards the Gulf of Maine and the Atlantic
from the headwaters of the river. Jason Overlock, a fisheries
biologist with the Maine DMR Salmon Program answered
questions as fish were brought from the traps, measured and
marked to determine the health of the stock as well as assess
the success of the program designed to restore Atlantic salmon
to the Sheepscot River.
Kristin Pennock
Kelly Brook
Also caught in the
traps and brought to
shore in buckets were
sea lamprey, alewife,
and American eel.
Alewife
Al
if are an iimportant part off the
h Sh
Sheepscot ecosystem.
Alewife and lamprey
are anadromous species that live the majority of their life in marine waters,
but migrate into freshwater to spawn. The alewife spawn in lakes of the
Sheepscot Watershed and the lamprey makes its nest within the channel of
the river, stirring sediment in a beneficial way for other resident species.
The American eel spends its adult life in the streams, lakes and river until
it is finally ready to reproduce. When mature, it heads out to the Sargasso
Sea in the middle of the Atlantic where it reproduces and subsequently
dies. The larvae are carried by currents towards the mouths of rivers along
the Atlantic which they enter as young elvers. The elvers gradually work
their way
At the event in Coopers Mills participants
up the river observed fisherman harvesting alewife
from the river. Biologist Claire Enterline
to their
helps release some of the fish over the
eventual
dam. A portion of each catch is released.
home where
they live for many years.
Lynne Flaccus
Following the conversation by the river, attendees
were invited across the street to Priscilla and
Brett Donham’s barn for a presentation by Claire
Enterline, a marine scientist from the Maine DMR,
about the migratory fish of the Sheepscot. What
was most interesting to probably everyone in the
room was the elaborate interrelationship among
all of the species of migratory fish and some of the
resident species as well. We also learned about the
More than 30 residents from Alna gathered at the Head Tide dam to
importance of large woody material, such as fallen
see and learn about the migratory fish that call the Sheepscot River and
trees, cool clean water, and free flowing water,
Estuary home for a portion of their life cycle.
without impediments or barriers such as dams, to
the long term sustainability of migratory fish. We also learned that collectively, these species play a key ecological
role by bringing important elements, including nutrients, into the river and lakes from the Atlantic Ocean as well
as carrying nutrients to the ocean during their outmigration.
Sheepscot Log
5
Fall 2014
by Lynne Flaccus
On a cool Saturday in September an adventurous group headed
out on the Trout Brook Preserve to celebrate the official opening
of the new interpretive trail funded in part by grants from
the Margaret Burnham Foundation and Davis Conservation
Foundation. Volunteers and staff established this trail as a way to
offer visitors a guided walk along the trail while learning about
land use in the area and how forests change over time.
The new interpretive
trail on SVCA’s
Trout Brook Preserve
includes ten station
stops focusing on a
variety of natural
history topics such
as forest succession,
geology and wildlife.
Gerry Flanagan
The Trout Brook Preserve is mostly
forested, but at one time parts of the
property were composed of orchards and
pasture land, and there have been past
timber harvests. Signs of old farm land
are evident in the nature of the forest
and the species present. Old apple trees,
hawthorns, young birch and aspen under
towering “wolf pines” all tell the story of
a once cleared landscape.
Gerry Flanagan
Adventures in Interpretation
After donuts and local pears from the
Alna Store the group followed the blue
trail to the Hoffman Trail stopping at the
interpretive stations along Trout Brook.
The water level was quite low, and the small streams draining into the Brook were dry. The cloudy cool day
meant that the resident porcupine in the big ash tree was hiding in its cavity so all that was seen was scat! It was
a fun walk with everyone asking great questions and contributing their own fun facts and information from their
own experiences. If you would like to experience the new interpretive trail, the Trout Brook Preserve in Alna is
open from dawn to dusk. Maps and guides are available at the kiosk and also online at http://www.sheepscot.org/
trout-brook-preserve-alna/
“Getting Kids Outside Doing Science” continued from front page
Students will use protocols from Signs of the Seasons
a University of Maine Cooperative Extension program
and Vital Signs a program of the Gulf of Maine Research
Institute to observe and study changes that occur in the
natural world over the course of the year. Recording
observations on bird and insect migration, emergence of
insects and amphibians, bud burst, and leaf-out provides
clues to understanding climate change and its effects on the
natural world. Students as citizen scientists offer valuable
data that can be used by scientists throughout Maine and
across the country.
Please keep and eye on our website and Facebook page to
see updates on this exciting project. If you are interested
in volunteering during our field studies give Lynne a call
at the SVCA office!
Sheepscot Log
6
Chris Coleman
Growth (FIG) plots and collecting data to be shared with the Maine Forest Inventory and Growth Project. Scientists
use the data to help them analyze how forests change over time.
Lynne explains how to collect field data to students from Great
Salt Bay School during a trip to Hidden Valley Nature Center.
Fall 2014
“Testing Water Quality in the Sheepscot Estuary” continued from front page
Kristin Pennock
At the first point south of Barters Island a Great black-backed gull perched
on the nearby bell buoy watched as Celeste deployed the Datasonde, a
device used to measure temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen and pH.
One of the great achievements of the MCOA group is that the equipment
used for data collection in all estuaries
was calibrated before the sampling season,
giving MCOA truly comparable data.
Celeste patiently let out the line attached to
the Datasonde probe. The first station was
at a water depth of about 30 meters. With
several readings being recorded every 5 to
15 meters this meant we were on station
for quite a while, able to enjoy the sunny
The estuary sampling would not have
been possible without the generosity of
day. After the probe was out of the water
volunteer captain David Swetland.
it was time to take water samples to be
analyzed for nitrogen. Lili took on the
task of measuring turbidity with the circular black and white painted Secchi
disk, lowering it until it could not be seen. As a group we recorded weather
data - breezy with winds around 5 knots, some ripples
and waves. This process was repeated at the four other
sites, moving up river as the tide went out.
As we motored along we talked about what Celeste had
been seeing in the data collected on the Sheepscot. She
was curious about the pH values that dropped at the
first station, closest to the mouth of the river. Lili Pugh,
now an educator at the Darling Marine Center, and
past SVCA Water Quality Monitoring Program leader
and data coordinator, talked about how scientists are
concerned about dropping pH values in the ocean. Just
slight changes can be challenging to organisms making
carbonate shells like mussels and clams. But measuring
pH in seawater can be tricky because the salinity of the
water can affect pH values making interpretation more
challenging.
Kristin Pennock
Lili Pugh lets out the
black and white Secchi
disk until it can no
longer be seen through
the water - a low
tech way to measure
turbidity which is a key
test of water quality.
General weather data
was also recorded
at each of the five
sampling stations.
Kristin Pennock
given the ospreys, bald eagles, great blue herons, bonaparte’s gulls and black
guillemots all providing fun distractions.
The next step for MCOA will be to reflect back on the season, look at the data collected and figure out a plan for
the future. We hope this important effort continues and that SVCA is able to gain more insight into the health of
the Sheepscot, and allow better protection of the river we love.
Calling all Artists in all media!
Juried Art Show to Celebrate the Sheepscot Watershed
OCTOBER 2015 Venue and details to follow...
Part of SVCA’s Art & Nature 2015
Sheepscot Log
7
Fall 2014
Sheepscot Valley
Conservation Association
Inside This Issue
Getting Kids Outside
624 Sheepscot Road
Newcastle, Maine 04553-3643
Phone: 207-586-5616 Fax: 207-586-6442
[email protected]
www.sheepscot.org
1
Testing the Sheepscot Estuary 1
From the President
2
Sponsors Help Break Record
3
NON-PROFIT
U.S. Postage
PAID
Newcastle, ME
Permit #2
Printed on recycled paper.
Champagne on the Sheepscot 4
Migratory Fish in the Sheepscot 5
New Interpretive Trail
6
turn your returnables
into svca donations!
Your membership is very important to us! If you haven’t renewed in
2014 yet, please renew today. We need you!
Free bags and labels
available. Just fill and drop
at your nearest Hannaford.
Protecting more than 3,633 acres of land through purchases
and conservation easements, including over 15 miles
of Sheepscot River frontage and 7 public preserves.
save the
date
SVCA Annual Meeting &
Holiday Potluck
Saturday, December 6
4:00 - 7:00 p.m.
• Bring a dish to share
• Silent auction of donated gifts
• Annual Meeting including the
election of 2015 Board of Directors
and vote on proposed bylaw changes
To view the proposed bylaw changes go
to http://www.sheepscot.org/svca-keyorganizational-documents/ or you may
request a copy via mail by contacting the
office at (207) 586-5616
Outdoor Fun this
Winter
with Flash Walks
Join our email list to receive notice of
guided nature walks. Explore the river
valley with guided walks announced
only by email blasts a day or two before the outing ensuring the weather will be just right for that perfect
outdoor experience!
Volunteer Photographers Needed
SVCA would love to have 3 - 4 volunteer photographers we
could call on to shoot digital photos of our preserve walks,
educational events and SVCA happenings.
Interested? Contact Kristin
at [email protected] or
(207) 586-5616 for more
information.