BETHEL – Acid rain, mercury and a variety of other issues are to be the focus of a six-hour conference on the Androscoggin River Watershed next month in Bethel.
Sponsored by the Androscoggin River Watershed Council, the spring conference will be from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday, June 10, at The Bethel Inn conference center.
It is titled State of the Watershed: Current Issues and Perspectives on the Androscoggin Watershed and its Landscape.
The conference is to be topped off with a guided canoe and kayak paddle trip along a scenic 4-mile stretch of the river between West Bethel and Bethel, said council Executive Director Charles Knox.
“The conference is open to all who wish to learn the latest on the interesting – and sometimes disturbing – concerns facing our region,” Knox said Friday.
“Mercury contamination, for example, has recently come upon everyone’s radar screen. Studies now show that this health-threatening element is found in our region’s loons, eagles, fish, and even songbirds,” he said.
One of the guest speakers scheduled is David Evers, executive director of the Biodiversity Research Institute in Gorham. Evers is to present “Mercury Across the Watershed … and Beyond: Biogeographical Patterns and Wildlife Impacts.”
Evers “will discuss where high levels of mercury have been found, what its causes are, and the steps needed to quell this major environmental contaminant,” Knox said.
The other guest speaker is to be Steve Kahl, former director of the Mitchell Center for Environmental and Watershed Research at the University of Maine.
Knox said that Kahl, “who pioneered landmark acid deposition studies,” is to present “Acid Deposition and Its Impacts on the Northeast.”
The conference, Knox said, would focus on a broad array of natural resource concerns currently facing the 3,500-square-mile Androscoggin River watershed that stretches across “some of the most scenic” sections of two states.
Other workshops are to feature issues concerning the region’s forestlands, how land ownership patterns are changing dramatically, and how timber harvesting is being done.
More topics include invasive species of fish and aquatic plants, and recreation in the watershed.
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