Saco River plantings designed to prevent runoff
The conservation district is also very involved in work on Sunday River.
PARIS – A streamside forest has been planted on the Saco River across from the Fryeburg town beach, Oxford County Commissioners were told recently.
Jeff Stern, project manager for the Oxford County Soil and Water Conservation District, said the project, designed to protect the river from phosphorus runoff, is one of many in which the agency has been involved.
With help from 52 middle school students, around 230 seedling trees of willows, sand cherry, balsam fir and maples were planted on farmland owned by George Weston, Stern said. Streamside forests are important ways to filter sediment from runoff from agricultural land.
Stern said the Saco River continues to have “serious problems with overuse” around the Fryeburg area from canoeists and kayakers. Despite the overuse, and the presence of farming next to the river, it remains one of the cleanest rivers in the state, he said.
Another river that the district is very involved in is Sunday River, where five erosion control projects have been initiated in cooperation with the town of Newry.
Stern called the Sunday River erosion control project “my personal favorite” because it involves “a real community effort” of town governments, residents, farmers and the Sunday River Ski area.
“We’ve made big strides in reducing erosion into the river,” he told commissioners. He said he’d like the county to participate by making some ditching and other improvements along the county-owned portion of the Sunday River Road.
Protection of lakes in Oxford County is also a district priority, Stern said. Watershed surveys have been done on Bear Pond in Hartford and Keoka Lake in Waterford. The district also helped organize and implement a Youth Conservation Corps to do lake protection projects around Thompson Lake, working with the Thompson Lake Environmental Association and the Androscoggin Valley Soil and Water District.
“Ignorance is the problem,” said Heidi Linscott, the district’s office manager, who is planning to build a house on McWain Lake in Waterford.
“I’m building 250 feet back. If you give people the information, they will make the right choices,” she said.
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