NEWRY – Dubbed a state leader for conducting river watershed surveys, the town of Newry is again getting down and dirty at one of its rivers.

A volunteer training session is to be held at 9 a.m. Saturday, May 15, at the Town Office on Route 26, prior to beginning a survey of erosion sites in the Bear River watershed.

Currently, the Bear River is ripping into a farm field on the lower end of the watershed.

“Tons of soil have been washed away,” says survey coordinator Jeff Stern. “If allowed to go unchecked, this erosion could eventually affect Route 26.”

Stern said the survey’s goal is to work cooperatively with landowners and businesses to document non-point source pollution sites. Once the survey is completed, the town can apply for funds to fix problem areas.

Following the training, community volunteers are to conduct field documentation of erosion sites in remote corners of the watershed, using hand-held GPS units to pinpoint locations.

A watershed is all the land that drains to a river by tributary brooks, seeps, springs and ground water discharge. The Bear River Watershed encompasses 43 square miles, flowing out of Grafton Notch and into the Androscoggin River.

Stern said the entire watershed is to be surveyed because erosion can occur high up in surrounding mountains, say from an abandoned road that erodes into a brook feeding the river.

“Large amounts of erosion can ruin the fishery in rivers and threaten property, roads and bridges,” he added.

In recent years, Newry played a key role in documenting erosion problems on Sunday River, then helped fix several of the worst erosion sites there, Stern said.

Jeff Varricchione, coordinator of the Maine Stream Team Program for the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, is expected to assist Stern and volunteers.

For more information, people can call 583-2723.