Community members from Wakefield, NH and Acton, ME braved subzero temperatures on Friday, January 16^th to participate in a forum at the Wakefield Town Hall to share their thoughts about the pristine local water resources. The Acton Wakefield Watersheds Alliance organized the four-hour event as part of their project to develop a watershed-based management plan for the Salmon Falls River headwaters which includes the watersheds of Great East Lake, Horn Pond, Lake Ivanhoe, Lovell Lake and Wilson Lake. Each of these lakes or ponds lies in either Acton or Wakefield or straddles both.

The 38 attendees represented the Acton and Wakefield selectboards, planning boards, conservation commissions, code enforcement offices, lake associations, land conservation organizations, the Greater Wakefield Chamber of Commerce, the NH State Legislature, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, the NH Department of Environmental Services and other concerned citizens. After the introductions, the group learned about the plan from Forrest Bell of FB Environmental Associates, the consulting agency on the project, and then broke into small groups to discuss what they value, what they’re concerned about and what actions might be taken to preserve the high quality water status of each of these lakes and ponds. A reporter from each group summarized the results to the group at large. There were very lively discussions with many common themes addressed and a number of new ideas illuminated.

One enthusiastic participant stated, “The sharing amongst different towns, state reps, homeowners, interest groups, and environmental professionals was simply amazing. The structure of the day encouraged people to really listen to each other and to set aside any boundaries in favor of solving joint problems.”

The contributions from the meeting will help guide the identification of action items for the plan. All participants were invited to join the Watershed-based Plan Steering Committee which will meet two or three more times before the plan is complete by the end of the year.

Funding for the Salmon Falls Headwaters Watershed-based Plan Project was provided in part by a grant from the NH Department of Environmental Services with funding from the US Environmental Protection Agency under Section 319 of the Clean Water Act.