JAY – A two-part presentation related to the Androscoggin River will begin at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 2, at the Otis Falls Mill Complex on Mill Street in Jay.

The second session will be at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 16, at the mill complex. It will feature “A River Lost and Found: The Androscoggin River in Time and Place.”

Western Maine Audubon and Otis Falls owners Mary Howes and Tim DeMillo are presenting the series.

During the first session, Gail Wipplehauser, a state marine resources biologist, will present “Diadromous Fish Restoration in the Androscoggin Watershed – Past – Present – Future.”

David Cook of Winthrop, author of “Beyond the Gravel Bar: The Native Canoe Routes of Maine” will present his love and fascination of canoeing Maine’s interconnected waterways.

Wipplehauser has a doctorate in zoology from the University of Maine, where her studies focused on migratory fish.

According to a release, Wipplehauser began working for the Department of Marine Resources in 1996, initially on American eels when the elver fishery was “wild and crazy.”

Since 1999 she has worked on diadromous fish restoration throughout the state by collaborating with federal and state agencies, conservation groups, municipalities, hydropower companies, and landowners to provide fish passage at barriers.

Cook has taught for 40 years at the high school and college level. Prior to attending the University of Maine, he served as a paratrooper in the 101stAirborne, including a combat tour in Vietnam in 1965-66.

Cook’s presentation will include the ancestral landscape and how native people used their watercraft to navigate to the remotest corners of Maine.

In the second part of the series, photographer Michael Kolster and author Matthew Klingle will present photos and writings and oral histories they recorded in collaboration on “A River Lost and Found.”

“Previously labeled as one of the nation’s most polluted rivers, the Androscoggin River has slowly, if incompletely, recovered in time. Yet the river that allegedly inspired the 1972 Clean Water Act remains veiled in stereotype and ignored by thousands who live along it,” according to a press release. “ ‘A River Lost and Found’ explores the hidden past and neglected present of this important New England waterway in a collaborative project combining photography, oral history, archival research, and creative non-fiction writing.”

“We ask how an injured river might reveal an ethic of place that embraces the complexities of human and natural history together. Our answers suggest how American can embrace the middle ground between the pristine and the ruined typical of places many call home,” according to Klingle’s biography.

“A River Lost and Found” anticipates the 40th anniversary of the Clean Water Act in 2012, and draws attention to the current transformation of America’s rivers at this important juncture, the release states.

dperry@sunjournal.com