2008 AWWA Programs build watershed stewardship

This summer marks the third successful year for the Acton Wakefield Watersheds Alliance (AWWA) Youth Conservation Corps (YCC). The YCC employs high school students over the summer months to participate in conservation efforts to protect the water quality of the area’s ten lakes. The YCC provides free labor for landowners to install best management practices that are aimed at reducing sediment erosion.

Such best management practices include planting rain gardens and buffer strips with native vegetation, installing waterbars to divert water off of paths and slopes, and constructing infiltration steps to capture water. Over the past three years, the YCC has installed a total of 129 best management practices, preventing over 45 tons of sediment from entering the lakes every year. Additionally, over 90 additional landowners have received personalized management plans to help control the erosion on their own properties. All participants learn about the low-cost and effective measures they can take to prevent pollution and protect the lakes.

In August, the ten YCCs operating throughout the state of Maine were honored in Yarmouth, ME, by the Cumberland County Soil and Water Conservation District. Over 80 students were involved in YCC work this summer, stabilizing miles of shoreline, planting thousands of plants, and installing hundreds of best management practices. The group was praised by Maine Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner David Littell and presented with certificates of appreciation. There was also a friendly competition between the ten YCCs involving a sculpture contest and a relay race with the AWWA YCC, which is the only YCC also operating in NH, winning first place. The AWWA YCC was supported by funds from the sale of the Conservation License Plate (Moose Plate) under the NH State Conservation Committee grant program, the Towns of Wakefield, NH and Acton, ME, local lake associations, local businesses, the NH Charitable Fund - Lakes Region, other private foundations and individual donors.

In addition to the YCC erosion control projects, AWWA and 50 enthusiastic volunteers conducted watershed surveys on Horn Pond and Lovell Lake to identify sources of pollution that are affecting water quality and reducing property values. AWWA encouraged the Wilson Lake Association to update its 1994 watershed survey and will coordinate watershed surveys on Great East Lake and Lake Ivanhoe in the spring of 2009. These surveys compile data to aid in the creation of a watershed management plan for the headwaters of the Salmon Falls River to help guide towns, lake associations, individual property owners, and AWWA to better address improving erosion control at endangered sites. The watershed management plan project is funded 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.

While public and private grants have helped jump-start the AWWA programs it is essential that the local communities support its future efforts. Looking ahead to 2009, AWWA is undertaking a membership drive to encourage residents of the Acton, ME and Wakefield, NH communities to join in the effort to protect our waters. Click here to join AWWA today.