TURNER – Oxford County Soil and Water Conservation District, in collaboration with the Bear Pond Improvement Association, conducted a hands-on erosion control workshop at a site on Beach Street next to Bear Pond on July 30.

The workshop was paid for through the Bear Pond Water Quality Improvement Project that has been going on for the last three years and ends in October.

The project is funded by a grant through Section 319 of the Clean Water Act. The goal of the workshop and the grant project is to show people, most of whom have property in the Bear Pond Watershed, conservation measures they can put in place on their property to prevent erosion and sedimentation from occurring in the watershed.

When storm water runoff travels toward open water such as streams and lakes, if left unchecked, it can pick up lots of sediment, phosphorous and contaminants that eventually end up polluting the water bodies they enter.

This can be reduced or prevented by installing simple measures known as “Best Management Practices” or BMPs.

BMPs such as water bars or vegetated buffers are able slow or catch runoff and allow the pollutants to be filtered and treated by the plants and organisms that live in soil.