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Posts tagged ‘erosion’

Jun 8

MLRC Partner Highlight: Nathan Durant, BRCA Youth Conservation Corps Program Director

This summer marks the start of Nathan Durant’s second season as Program Director for the BRCA Youth Conservation Corps (YCC). Each summer, the BRCA YCC funds a crew of local high school and college students to work on projects designed to prevent erosion while the homeowner pays for any necessary materials (such as rocks, mulch, plants, and geotextile). The YCC provides a cost effective way to remedy erosion issues on your property and subsequently improves the water quality of your lake. This Spring, Nathan was trained as a LakeSmart screener and will incorporate the LakeSmart standards into his BMP recommendations.

YCC crew members installing rip rap to stabilize a shoreline.

YCC crew members installing rip rap to stabilize a shoreline.

Nathan hails from Williamsburg, a township located near Brownville, Maine. He attended college at University of Maine at Farmington where he assisted Dr. Dan Buckley in his research pertaining to shoreline surveys and invasive aquatic plants for the Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust in 2011. Once graduated, he was accepted for the Margret Chase Smith summer internship program. Over that summer he worked with the Forest Health and Monitoring program as an entomology assistant. Nathan then began working on a trail crew with the Maine Conservation Corps (MCC). While part of the MCC, Nathan spent time building a 60ft bridge through brackish wetlands in Damariscotta, cutting new trail on the Schoodic Peninsula, setting stone steps in Grafton Notch State Park, and finished his service resurfacing bike trails in Yarmouth. This 900 hour term of service at MCC ignited “a fiery passion for conservation” that Nathan intends to stoke for the rest of his life.

In addition to leading the YCC, Nathan also works as part of the interim sampling crew collecting data for the Water Quality Initiative.

The BRCA YCC is looking for summer project sites in the Belgrade Lakes region. If you are interested in controlling erosion and improving your lake, please contact Nathan at (207) 495-6039 or [email protected] to set up a site visit.

May 4

Meet our New Lake Science Manager, Brenda Fekete

After more than twenty years of teaching in the Chemistry Department at Colby College, Brenda is very excited to be a part of the Belgrade Water Quality Initiative!

As Lake Science Manager, she will train student interns in the use of scientific equipment, supervise water column sampling in all seven of the Belgrade Lakes, analyze water samples, organize data and communicate real time and post-collection results. She is eager to present the data to help the community understand the project and the status of the water quality in the Belgrade region.  She will also be working closely with the lake associations to help recruit and train volunteers to assist in the sample collection process.

Brenda lives in Belgrade on the West Road. Her three children grew up on the beautiful Belgrade Lakes, and continues to play on the water and on the trails with her husband, Frank, and her dog, Ellie. She is an avid gardener and loves to play guitar.

Feb 9

Management Overview for the Belgrade Lakes

Here’s a presentation that was given by Ken Wagner of Water Resource Service, Inc. on potential water quality remediation strategies for the Belgrade Lakes. Ken was invited by the Belgrade Lakes Association (BLA) to act as a water quality consultant and weigh in on the issue of phosphorous loading in our lakes.

Here are a few photos from Mr. Wagner’s visit to the MLRC courtesy of Dr. Alex Wall:

 

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