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."
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 Jacob Aman Jeremy Miller Ashley Pinkham
Fishing has begun on the Saco River. On four dates in late June, researchers set fyke nets at eight sites along the river. They surveyed day and night and, except for one frightening microburst, had excellent conditions for field work. Hundreds of fish and shellfish were caught, identified, measured, and released. This project, focusing mainly on fish using the salt marsh, is part of a collaborative study with the University of New England that looks at the effects of upland land use on the river ecosystem.
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