Associated People Chris Feurt Annie Cox
Building Capacity and Collaborating to Protect Source Water
The Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership convened the Salmon Falls Watershed Collaborative to improve watershed planning and management — and to protect water supply sources — in the Salmon Falls River watershed. The Salmon Falls River flows from an ecologically diverse land area shared by the states of Maine and New Hampshire, and drains into the Great Bay estuary, a coastal ecosystem of national importance. Approximately 28,000 people rely on public water systems in the Salmon Falls watershed to provide clean drinking water. Many other households rely on private groundwater wells within this region to provide clean drinking water. While the watershed is a critical drinking water source it is also threatened by future increases in polluted runoff resulting from population growth and the associated conversion of forested land to developed areas. The U.S Forest Service 2009 report Private Forests, Public Benefits identified the rivers in the Piscataqua Region as the most threatened in the nation with regard to a potential decline in water quality due to conversion of private forested lands to housing.
The collaborative coordinates long-term source water protection efforts among planning commissions, land trusts, watershed associations, water systems, and town, state, and federal agencies in New Hampshire and Maine. The collaborative's goal is to protect and sustain high quality drinking water in the Salmon Falls River watershed.
Associated People Chris Feurt Tin Smith
On October 5th the Coastal Training Program partnered with Protect Kittery Waters, Spruce Creek Association, FB Environmental, Robert's Maine Grill, and the Great Works Regional Land Trust to host a day-long field trip showcasing watershed restoration efforts on Spruce Creek and Shorey's Brook. The day began at Kittery Town Hall where Mary Ann Conroy (Public Works, Kittery) and William Straub (CMA Engineers) spoke about the tree box filter and raingarden they installed with Maine DEP 319 funding.
Associated People Chris Feurt Tin Smith
On the heels of the environmental communication course with Eric Eckl at the Great Bay Reserve on August 3rd, the CTP hosted Eric and local environmental leaders and community members for a sunset boat cruise upon our research vessel on the Salmon Falls River.
Associated People Annie Cox Chris Feurt
I had the chance to go to the annual Low Impact Development Field Trip this past Tuesday to do some research on how to make a difference in my neighborhood. The purpose of the trip was to showcase best management practices around the Acton Wakefield Watershed and Portsmouth, NH.
Associated People Annie Cox Chris Feurt
This is my final week in Maine as a research and coastal training program intern for the summer. I have mainly been studying the detrimental effects of nitrogen runoff. The three-year project that I helped start looks at Branch Brook and the Merriland River in the Little River Watershed. We selected 20 sites to analyze nitrogen runoff and how it affects the fish, the macroinvertebrates, the river habitat, and the water quality itself.
Associated People Annie Cox Chris Feurt Emily Thornton
The Maine Beaches Conference was held this year at the beautiful campus of Southern Maine Community College. This conference is held every two years to balance values and expectations on Maine's Beaches as well as thank those volunteers who help keep our beaches clean and healthy.
Associated People Annie Cox Chris Feurt
I participated in a watershed hike this past Tuesday in the York and Kittery Water Districts. Not only did we see the beauty of the trails around Mount Agamenticus, but concepts about the larger context of the watersheds were discussed. Water district staff and operators attended along with watershed groups, land trusts, and other municipal staff involved with source water protection. After a quick introduciton and history talk on top of Mt. Agamenticus, the group embarked on a 1.5 mile hike through the York and Kittery Watersheds.
Associated People Annie Cox Chris Feurt
To celebrate the summer season, natural resource outreach leaders held a meeting atop Mt. Agamenticus on the first day of summer, June 21st. Mt. Agamenticus covers about 30,000 acres in Southern Maine and proved to be the perfect meeting place to discuss the watersheds of the area. Subjects such as riparian buffers, sustainable development, and water health were discussed in the learning lodge on top of the small mountain. Ideas were shared and traded such as concept mapping. Concept mapping is starting with an idea, such as healthy water, and then branching connected ideas from that main subject. It is a unique activity that shows how others may think. What comes to your mind first when you think of a healthy watershed?
Associated People Annie Cox Chris Feurt
Stormwater runoff can be a major source of pollution into our waterways. Stormwater is groundwater from melting snow or rain that is not absorbed by the ground because of impervious surfaces such as driveways, parking lots, roofs, patios, and even lawns. Any pollutant on those surfaces could then be carried directly to our streams. However, if you have a waterfront property at the top of a hill with a well groomed lawn and patio, don't panic! There are now easy do-it-yourself solutions for your home to reduce your stormwater runoff.
Associated People Annie Cox Chris Feurt Kathryn Rosengren
My first day on the job as an intern at the Wells Reserve included a field trip tour of my new home with fellow new interns, Veronica Spolarich and Kathryn Rosengren. Coastal Training mentors Annie Cox and Chris Feurt drove us all across York county to talk about the history of the watersheds in the area.
Associated People Susan Bickford
Cold and windy May weather does not deter our participants from learning how to use GPS to create trail maps in Google Earth.
Associated People Susan Bickford
We had a great mix of conservationists, teachers, planners, and municipal folks at our Making Maps the Google Way course last Wednesday. Sue Bickford, our GIS specialist, taught the basics of Google Earth and Google Maps and led the class through three tutorials. Everyone created their own maps to share either through their personal or work-related websites, presentations, or online in their My Maps account. Participants left the class eager and confident to use their new (or refreshed) map-making skills. To paraphrase one participant, "it's so helpful to now be able to show funders about the places we want to conserve!"
We’re grateful to Shane Bradt at the UNH Cooperative extension for loaning us their laptops and tutorials, which made for a seamless course.
Sue and I are planning to bring the course back in the fall and there are even rumors of us taking it on the road to reach our map-making friends in the mid-coast. Have I piqued your interest in map-making? Then sign up for our May 10th classes to be taught by Shane: Google Puts the G in GPS and Trail Mapping with GPS. We're looking forward to seeing you there!
Associated People Chris Feurt Michele Dionne Jacob Aman Jeremy Miller Annie Cox
About the Project
The goal of this project is to protect the Saco River estuary so it will continue to provide services and values to surrounding communities. Investigators are seeking to understand the effects of increasing coastal development on the health of the Saco River estuary and to identify ways to mitigate those effects. The project's full title is "Sustaining Quality of Place in the Saco River Estuary through Community Based Ecosystem Management."
Associated People Chris Feurt
The Coastal Training Program is looking forward to attending our neighboring Reserve’s collaborative effort: New Hampshire Coastal Adaptation Workgroup (NH CAW).
Associated People Chris Feurt
The Water Words That Work daytime and evening workshops with Eric Eckl were a success at the Wells Reserve.
Associated People Chris Feurt
The Coastal Training Program in partnership with the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, KKW Water District, UNE, and Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership, will be hosting two of Eric Eckl’s Water Words That Work workshops. The workshops are designed for people who need to communicate with public audiences about water resources, watershed management, and land conservation.The day workshop was quick to fill, but we still have room in the evening! Can’t make it? Don’t worry; we’re bringing Eric back in May.
LaMarr Clannon of Maine NEMO will be presenting Forging The Link on the economic incentives of Low Impact Development (developed by the University of New Hampshire Stormwater Center, Antioch University of New England, and Virginia Commonwealth University). FTL is being hosted in Ogunquit, Maine by MtA2C on February 24th and is designed for community and municipal planners (interested in coming? Contact:mta2c@gwrlt.org). In the future, CTP will present FTL to municipalities in Southern Maine.
Associated People Chris Feurt
Hello, my name is Annie Cox and I have just begun working with Chris Feurt at the Coastal Training Program.
My first few weeks have been busy! So far I have met the planning team for the Salmon Falls Watershed Collaborative; met our CTP neighbors at Great Bay while attending the New Hampshire Coastal Adaptation Workgroup's Water Weather Climate Community workshop; and attended the Natural Resource Providers’ Summit that was held here on the eighth of December. I am excited about working more closely with these groups and getting to know our other partners.
This summer, the Wells Reserve and the University of New England sponsored two trips on the Saco River, bringing stakeholders together to talk about research findings from the first year of our collaborative project. Thanks to Tin and Jeremy for piloting the boat and to Michele for providing research findings and posing some hard questions about shoreland zoning.
We had a good cross section of stakeholders on the two trips. In addition to the Saco planner, code officer, and planning board members, we hosted a DEP Shoreland Zoning Regulator from Portland, and representatives from the Saco River Corridor Commission, Southern Maine Regional Planning Commission, Maine Geological Survey, and State Planning Office.
Insights gained from these trips will be used to engage policy makers, municipal officials, and the community in challenging conversations about shoreline land use and the condition of the Saco River estuary. The project is designed to continue for the next four years.
Associated People Chris Feurt
Project Goals
- Understand and measure the value of services and benefits provided by waterfront buffer lands and wetlands
- Provide place-based economic information to support decisions that reflect the true consequences of land use, restoration, and conservation practices in southern Maine
Community Impact
This project will:
- Help people understand and compare the economic consequences of different land use practices, decisions, and policies related to waterfront buffer lands and wetlands in southern Maine
- Describe the benefits and services provided by waterfront buffer lands and wetlands in southern Maine, determined through a combination of economic and ecological methods
- Explain how those benefits and services are valued by Wells Reserve stakeholders, including land use decisionmakers, planners, and policymakers
- Evaluate how the Wells Reserve and other project partners connect economic value to different conservation approaches
- Build a stronger network of people and organizations working collaboratively to protect those qualities of the southern Maine landscape that promote clean water — the basis of the local economy
- Provide templates and tools that can be applied in other places to predict and communicate the value of the benefits and services of waterfront buffer lands and to use associated information to influence policy
- Demonstrate southern Maine's ability to serve as an effective proving ground to test and transfer advanced approaches to natural resource management
Project Period
October 2010 to October 2013
Research Team Partners
- Wells Reserve
- George Perkins Marsh Institute at Clark University
- NOAA Coastal Services Center
Accomplishments
See all entries relating to this project.
Funding Source
NERRS Science Collaborative — In its first request for proposals, the collaborative received 35 letters of intent representing 26 reserves. Twenty-nine applicants submitted full proposals. Seven were funded.
Associated People Tin Smith Chris Feurt Zack Steele
29 people representing 13 towns and organization participated in three boat trips on the Salmon Falls and Piscataqua Rivers in July and August. The trips coincided with the release of the new Land Conservation Plan for Maine's Piscataqua Region Watersheds that covers 18 communities in southern Maine. The narrated tours brought together key municipal officials and conservation leaders to learn about the plan, its goals, and the river's status and history.
Land use changes, particularly the loss of vegetation along the water edges (associated with residential development), are having a significant impact on water quality. The Land Conservation Plan outlines actions that towns and citizens can take to maintain the natural, recreational, and economic resources that this watershed, draining 1058 square miles, provides.
Associated People Tin Smith Chris Feurt
The Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership has released its Land Conservation Plan for Maine's Piscataqua Region Watersheds (14MB PDF).
The plan provides a scientific and experienced-based guide for the protection of natural resources vital to thriving communities. It is designed to assist citizens who are involved in sustaining and improving their communities by serving on select boards, planning boards, conservation commissions, economic development boards, schools, or non-profit community organizations such as land trusts, watershed coalitions, conservation groups, and recreation clubs.
Associated People Chris Feurt Tin Smith Zack Steele Jacob Aman
Protecting the Headwaters of Five Southern Maine Watersheds
Sanford, the town with York County's largest population, contains the headwaters of these five rivers:
A new website from NOAA lets you determine demographic and economic characteristics of a wide variety of important coastal management jurisdictions using a quick report tool. The Spatial Trends in Coastal Socioeconomics website can display these datasets:
Associated People Chris Feurt
The Coastal Training Program uses social science research to facilitate the translation of science to communities dealing with complex land use and water quality protection issues. The need for social science research is linked to the conflict frequently associated with balancing multiple perspectives about the connections between land use and clean water. Understanding the cultural roots of conflict can be the first step to overcoming barriers to progress on environmental issues.
Associated People Chris Feurt Zack Steele Tin Smith
The Coastal Training Program team has been hard at work helping the Town of Sanford to outline goals and strategies for achieving open space and resource protection in the town's natural areas and working landscapes.
In 2008, the Coastal Training Program assisted the town with a series of workshops designed to bring community stakeholders together, to share their visions for the future of Sanford, and to craft a plan for realizing those visions.
This morning, the Coastal Training Program advisory committee met at Wells Reserve to share news, resources, ideas, and collaborative opportunities. Among the attendees was LaMarr Clannon of Maine NEMO, who highly recommended a visit to One Drop at a Time: A Sustainable Pilot Project with Green Stormwater Management Technology. I decided to check it out, and enthusiastically endorse LaMarr's recommendation.
Do you use green stormwater management on your property? Why, or why not? Does that website give you some new ideas to try?
Associated People Chris Feurt
Coastal Training Program (CTP) coordinator Chris Feurt is in Burlington, Vermont today, speaking at the 14th International Symposium on Society and Resource Management. This year’s theme is “People and Place: Linking Culture and Nature.”
Chris’s talk is titled “Understanding the ‘system’ in ecosystem management—social science tools for natural resource managers.” Her case study stems from the CTP “Protecting Our Children’s Water” initiative, where social science methodologies are applied to community-based ecosystem management. Here is part of her abstract…
Stakeholder and institutional analysis combined with instructional design and collaborative learning methodologies facilitated watershed partnerships in coastal watersheds in southern Maine. An understanding of the cultural roots of conflict, motivational forces guiding resource management and perceived barriers to collaboration guided this place-based design of the national science to management initiative. The social science methodologies applied in this case study yielded surprising and valuable perspectives about the social system influencing community based ecosystem management. A conceptual framework for integrating social science tools into ecosystem management is proposed.
A report evaluating the effectiveness of 12 stormwater treatments in protecting water quality and reducing runoff has just been released by the Cooperative Institute for Coastal and Estuarine Environmental Technology. The report is online here.
Healthy Maine Beaches was the topic of a Coastal Training Program workshop on Monday. The Wells NERR partnered with the Maine Healthy Beaches Program to offer this day-long workshop. Thirty-five participants gathered to develop proactive regional approaches to pollution control in the coastal watersheds draining to southern Maine’s premier tourist destinations.
Associated People Chris Feurt
A Watershed Council met this morning at the Wells Reserve to continue its collaborative work toward protecting water resources while ensuring clean water for today and for the next generation.
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