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Androscoggin Valley Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) is offering a “Homeowner Energy Conservation Workshop” 6:30 p.m., on Wednesday, October 8th. The Workshop will be held at the Lewiston City Hall’s Council Chamber, 27 Pine Street, in Lewiston for $7.00 per individual.
Resource specialists JoAnn Choate with Maine State Housing Authority, Stephen Carr with Wydevue Residential Energy Services, Charles Allard with Community Concepts and Ron Desrosier with Time and Tide Resource Conservation and Development will be giving presentations covering topics such as energy audits, reduction of energy consumption and financial programs.
In addition to learning about energy conservation measures that will help you save money, attendees will be offered four educational booklets about home tightening, insulation and ventilation; home heating and cooling; water heating; and major home appliances and other informational materials.
Pre-registration and registration payment is required by September 29th. Mail registration and check payable to: Androscoggin Valley SWCD, PO Box 1938, Lewiston, ME 04241. Those wishing to pre-register and make payment on line with your credit card may go to: www.androscogginswcd.net on the workshop page.
The Conservation District is an equal opportunity program provider and employer. Attendees with disabilities or other special needs are asked to call the District office by September 29th. Call Office Manager Jane Heikkinen for directions or more information at 207-753-9400 #3.
The Piscataquis County Soil and Water Conservation District will be offering a Project Learning Tree Workshop on Friday, October 10, 2008 for grades k – 8 teachers, youth group leaders, 4 leaders, homeschoolers and others interested in environmental education. Project Learning Tree® is an award winning, multi-disciplinary environmental education program for educators and students in PreK-grade 12. PLT, a program of the American Forest Foundation, is one of the most widely used environmental education programs in the United States and abroad. PLT continues to set the standard for environmental education excellence. The training will be at the Milo Town Hall and at the PCSWCD Demonstration Forest.
This will provide teachers with an opportunity to visit our Demonstration Forest that is located in Williamsburg Plantation. Our interpretive trails wind through 180 acres of old farm sites on the property, a “canyon” created by glacial and stream action, and headwater wetlands, which feed the Pleasant River. There is a great diversity of flora and fauna: numerous songbirds, small mammals, amphibians, as well as deer, moose, bear, and coyote that inhabit these areas. The forest includes American chestnut trees, white pines, Japanese larch, red pine, and Norway spruce. There are mature stands of hemlock and mixed wood forests. The Timber and Watershed Management Plan for our forest encompasses practices that benefit tree growth, enhance wildlife habitat, protect soils and water, and promote public education. The acres of forest are also able to provide four season recreational opportunities.
There is an outdoor classroom, an information kiosk, a geocache site, picnic tables and benches. Interpretive signposts guide and teach visitors throughout their forest journey. As it has evolved, it has provided a place where students and the public can learn.
Workshops are conducted throughout the year on various topics, including forestry Best Management Practices, the use of GPS units, soil and water conservation, vernal pools, natural history, wetlands and planting for wildlife. There also have been seminars focusing on forestry education to meet the Maine Learning Results Standards, for teachers from all grade levels in Piscataquis County schools.
The forest is a valuable regional resource that supports educational opportunities for the public, while it also serves as a training site for teachers, foresters and others interested in conservation education. Our goal has been to get forestry education into the classrooms – and the classrooms into the forest.
Please see the brochure for more information on PLT, and copy and post around your area schools. We hope you and the teachers in your school can join us for this valuable training program.
Bangor, ME – August 11, 2008 – If you’re going to be in the Washington, DC area and would like to see a touch of Maine, visit the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. There you will find the Maine state soil, the Chesuncook series, among 53 other designated state and territory soil samples in a historic new exhibition at the Museum. The exhibition, entitled “Dig It! The Secrets of Soil,†will remain on display in the Nation’s Capital through January 3, 2010. Thereafter, it will travel to 10 museums nationwide until 2013.
The designated state soil samples – or monoliths – are part of a gallery of monoliths representing all the states, the District of Columbia, the Caribbean and the Pacific Islands. An extensive map created by USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) offers visitors the “big picture†by allowing them to learn more about soils around the world. A monolith or soil profile, usually about six feet deep, shows the soil’s natural layers. Its extraction from a soils pit is the first step in a lengthy process in creating a monolith, which is mounted and preserved.
The Chesuncook soil represents just 1 of over 100 soils identified and mapped in Maine as part of the National Cooperative Soil Survey consisting of the Maine Department of Agriculture, Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station, Maine Association of Professional Soil Scientists, and led by NRCS. The Chesuncook soil series represents soils of the northern forested regions of Maine. It consists of very deep, moderately well-drained soils on till plains, hills, ridges, and mountains. It is estimated that Chesuncook soils occur on more than 150,000 acres in Maine. The soils are named after Chesuncook Lake, in northern Maine. In April of 1999, Governor Angus S. King, Jr. signed legislation making Chesuncook Maine’s Official State Soil.
“Soils are a vital resource and play an integral role in our daily livesâ€, said Wayne Hoar, State Soil Scientist for NRCS in Maine. “Visitors to the exhibit will walk away with a new appreciation and awareness about their significance.â€
NRCS employees possess extensive soils knowledge. The agency’s soil scientists conduct soil surveys (providing detailed information on the soils of an area) nationwide, which are now available on the Internet at http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov.
Additional information about the exhibit, NRCS’s Soil Survey Program, and NRCS can be found at http://www.me.nrcs.usda.gov.
Join the Piscataquis County Soil and Water Conservation District (PCSWCD) on Saturday, September 13th at 9:00AM at the Demonstration Forest in Williamsburg Township for lively and engaging presentations on the cultural heritage and the natural resources of this region. We will then tour the forest at 10:00AM to see the newly installed cultural heritage and natural resource interpretive signs made by students at the Tri County Technical Center, Foxcroft Academy and Greenville High School as part of the Demonstration Forest Community Development Project. The Demonstration Forest Community Development Project was funded by a grant from Project Canopy. Project Canopy delivers the community forestry program in Maine for the Maine Forest Service, the USDA Forest Service and the Pine Tree State Arboretum. It has a vision that every community will actively and wisely manage its forestry resources in a sustainable manner, and that all Maine citizens become well informed as to the proper management of these resources and the benefits derived from them. Through this project the forest will continue to grow as an educational, recreational and economic asset for this community. The forest and its programs are unique in Piscataquis County, and provide students and other visitors with a sense of the rich forestry heritage of this region.
Presenters at this year’s open house will include Sonny Connors and Anna (Larson) Erickson, who will talk about the history of this region and the forest when it was once farmland. Anna’s family settled on this land, building a homestead here in the early 1900s. Presenters will also include Jan Santerre, Maine Forest Service’s (MFS) Project Canopy Coordinator, Andy Shultz of the MFS to lead the forest tour and teach about woodland aesthetics and Gordon Moore of the MFS who manages the forest for this county. Directions and more information are available at our district office. Please pre-register for the Open House by Tuesday, September 9th so that the district may plan for educational materials, snacks and beverages. Contact the Conservation District office for more information at 42 Pine Crest Drive, Dover – Foxcroft, by calling 564 – 2321, Extension 3 or by e-mailing info@penobscotswcd.org. We look forward to seeing you and your family there!
August 15 1& 16
Did you know that nearly 13% of Maine’s milk is produced in the town of Clinton?
Join us for the two day extravaganza of Maine Farm Days at the Misty Meadow Farm on August 15th and 16th. See how nearly 4,000 gallons of that milk is produced every day. The milk you watch being produced may be in your store within two days. Take the opportunity to see all kinds of other farm activities.
Take in the giant corn maze, a children’s area with displays and animals, farm equipment displays, chainsaw and tractor safety workshops, Maine Extension workshops, great food, a farmer’s market, helicopter rides, wagon tours of the farm and much more.
The Misty Meadow Farm is on Hill Road in Clinton, Maine. Check out the website for details at www.MaineFarmDays.com
And…, it’s free to the public.
Agricultural Producers are you looking for ways to save fuel and improve soil quality? If you are then join us on August 28 from 1:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. to learn about no-till for filed crops to see how it could work for you.
 No-till corn seedlings. Our guest speaker Joel Myers is a former USDA – Natural Resources Conservo-till cropping and manure management on his own farm in Pennsylvania, and through workination Service, State Agronomist from Pennsylvania. He has 20 years of experience with ng with farms over his career with NRCS. Joel has spoken at national conferences, written two publication on no-till, and is currently the Technical Coordinator for the PA No-Till Alliance.
During this workshop Joel will answer your questions on transitioning, equipment and management. The workshop will be held at Stonyvale farm, where the Foglers have a test plot of no-till silage corn. During the field portion of the workshop Joel will offer on-site guidance to the Folgers.
This workshop is sponsored by the Penobscot County Soil & Water Conservation District, the USDA – NRCS and Stonyvale Farm. Registration is required. Continuing Education Credits will be offered for Pesticide Applicators, Nutrient Management Planner Licenses, or Certified Crop Advisors. For more information please contact Chris Brewer at (207) 990-3676 or visit http://penobscotswcd.org/. If you need accommodation, please contact Chris by August, 26, 2008.
Each year the Piscataquis County Soil and Water Conservation District (PCSWCD) recognizes a landowner who has implemented conservation practices on their land and a teacher who has been outstanding in working with students to educate them about our natural resources. This year’s award winners are the Blueberry Ridge Farm in Sebec, owned by Lester and Olive Buck, as Piscataquis County’s 2008 Outstanding Cooperator of the Year, and Mrs. Judy Chase Thompson of SAD #41’s Brownville Elementary School as Piscataquis County’s 2008 Outstanding Conservation Education Teacher of the Year.
Mrs. Judy Chase Thompson has been a science teacher for about twenty five years, and has always worked to help children become good stewards of their environment. While working at the middle school she worked to create the “Schoodic Lake†experience for her students, testing water and fish, and learning how to protect this lake in our area. It was a wonderful experience for several years.
Upon coming to Brownville Elementary School, Judy took teacher training so her students could attend the Challenger Center in Bangor. This year she was involved with the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC), and took her class to the Little Lyford Pond for two days, where she and the students hiked the area and participated in education programs. She’s also been working with the AMC to come to the school and help with the school’s nature trail in the spring. The children will be marking the trail as they learn the plants and the trees on the trail.
This year she also (during an ocean unit) brought crayfish to the classroom for the children to study. In the spring the class went to Bar Harbor to “Dive in Theater†and Thompson Island to explore tide pools. Mrs. Thompson is an excellent science teacher and conservationist. She works very hard to help her students learn more about the area in which they live.Blueberry Ridge Farm began in 1970 when Olive and Lester moved to Sebec from the dairy farm they had in East Dover. They started harvesting blueberries in 1971 on 25 acres. They have since cleared an additional 25 acres. Their family has always pitched in and helped out on the farm, including their daughters and husbands, Nancy and Lou Sidell and Lorraine and James Caitlin, as well as their grandchildren Janelle, Tania, Janie and Barry.
 Lester and Olive Buck Over the years Lester and Olive have attended many meetings and trainings to learn more about raising blueberries, based on the latest research. They have participated in the Blueberry Integrated Crop Management Program through the PCSWCD since 2006, and are also in the United States Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Services (NRCS) Environmental Quality Incentives Program to assist with rock removal. They have managed their woodlots on their 180 acres, and have been told that they have one of the most beautiful woodlots around – with some very old pine trees and even a cedar that has been dated as approximately 400 years old! At one time they kept their own bees to pollinate the blueberry fields, but they now rent the hives.Lester and Olive have been very active over the years in local community organizations as well, since they were married in 1945. Lester was born in Atkinson and has worked in mills throughout our county. Lester was awarded as the University of Maine Cooperative Extension Farmer of the Year in 1982. Olive was born in Milo and has worked at Dexter Shoe and Hibbard Nursing Home. She has been active in 4 – H, and has served as a leader in the local club, as well as serving as a leader in the Piscataquis County Junior Leaders Club. She was a past president of the University of Maine Cooperative Extension Board, and an associate supervisor of the PCSWCD Board. She also served for several years on the Farmer’s Home Association Board, and was a selectman in Sebec.
Lester and Olive will be honored during the conservation district’s Annual Tour and Luncheon on Friday, August 15th from 9:00AM to 1:30PM at their Blueberry Ridge Farm in Sebec (rain date is Friday, August 22nd). Their conservation practices will be highlighted on a tour that will be led by Olive, David Power of the NRCS and Cory Todd, ICM Blueberry Technician of the PCSWCD, who has been monitoring their fields this summer. This will be followed by a picnic luncheon and awards ceremony. The picnic luncheon will include specialties of the farm such as homemade blueberry muffins, blueberry cheesecake and ice cream topped with fresh blueberries. The cost for this will be $6.00. The public is invited to attend this Annual Tour and Luncheon to learn more about conservation practices they have implemented to help grow and sustain their blueberry fields and to lend a hand to applaud Lester and Olive as the 2008 Cooperators of the Year. Please confirm your attendance by August 7th, by stopping by the district office at 42 Pine Crest Drive, Dover – Foxcroft, calling 564 – 2321, extension 3
Lake Wassookeag and Puffers Pond are beautiful natural features that all Dexter residents and the surrounding communities can enjoy. On July 12th we would like to invite everyone to enjoy the lakes with us at the Public Swim Front from 10AM to 2PM for Dexter Lakes Day. Everyone lives in a watershed and is responsible for the health of Maine’s lakes and at Dexter Lakes Day you can learn all the little things people can do to keep our lakes beautiful. In addition to informational stations covering septic systems, camp road maintenance, invasive aquatic plants and lakeside landscapes we’ll have an Ask the Experts stand where you can come with any water quality questions. Dexter Utility District will have the Water Filtration Plant open for tours throughout the day. There will be a Plant Swap station where you can bring plants to trade (for free) with your friends and neighbors. Sonya Cainchette from Through the Garden Gate in Corinna will also be there selling plants and providing helpful information to anyone wishing to establish buffers or rain gardens to protect the lakes. The Back Porch II will be performing live from 11AM to 1PM and activities for the kids will be provided. As a special bonus, Lakeshore Restaurant will be offering special discounts on food to all Dexter Lakes Day participants. Join the Town of Dexter, the Dexter Lakes Association, Penobscot County Soil and Water Conservation District and UMaine Cooperative Extension for a fun and educational day at the beach! For more information on Dexter Lakes Day visit www.penobscotswcd.org.
 Teachers and students from the Tri County Technical Center’s Graphic Design and Communications Department and the Building Trades Department tour the forest to learn more about developing site specific interpretive signage. They developed the cultural heritage signs for the forest. Teachers and students from the Tri County Technical Center (TCTC), Greenville High School (GHS) and Foxcroft Academy (FA) have been hard at work this past year, participating in the Demonstration Forest Community Development Project. Art Departments from GHS and FA, under the direction of their teachers, Debi Baker and Jane Blay, have designed and painted natural resource signs for the many sites out at the forest. These signs include information on tree species and forest management, native wildlife, and other significant natural features. Karen Walsh, Teacher of the Graphic Design and Communications Department of the TCTC, led her students on designing cultural heritage signs using photographs provided by several local historical societies and by the Larson family, who were early settlers of the forest land. The cultural heritage signs included the digital layering of these photos with interpretive text, framed in a distinct border developed by students. Then all of the signs were turned over to the TCTC Building Trades Department and the FA Technical Department, teachers John Guay and Jack McLeod, and their students, for finalizing.14
 Greenville High School students are painting a sign for the Mountain Overlook at the forest, which shows the distant views of Ebeemee, Saddleback and Jo Mary Mountains. Once the signs are installed, forest visitors will be able to take a self – guided tour of the cultural heritage and natural resource sites that are at the forest, as well as view new brochures made by TCTC student Kelsie Bird. The signs will also be featured at the forest Open House in September. The Demonstration Forest Community Development Project was funded by a grant from Project Canopy. Project Canopy delivers the community forestry program in Maine for the Maine Forest Service, the USDA Forest Service and the Pine Tree State Arboretum. It has a vision that every community will actively and wisely manage its forestry resources in a sustainable manner, and that all Maine citizens become well informed as to the proper management of these resources and the benefits derived from them. Through this project the forest will continue to grow as an educational, recreational and economic asset for this community. The forest and its programs are unique in Piscataquis County, and provide students and other visitors with a sense of the rich forestry heritage of this region. The forest has been identified as one of this region’s top nature based tourism sites, and is available for educational field trips and tours. For more information, please contact the PCSWCD at 564 – 2321, Extension 3, info@piscataquisswcd.or, or www.piscataquisswcd.org.
Bangor, Maine –The Penobscot County Soil and Water Conservation District is pleased to announce that they will be holding a Gravel Road Maintenance Workshop on Wednesday July 23, 2008 in the Town Council Chambers at the Dexter Town Office. This workshop is for municipalities, private road owners and road associations. During this workshop participants will learn about basic road building and maintenance techniques using a Front Runner.
The Front Runner grader/rake is an attachment that fits on pick-up trucks utilizing a snowplow mount. It is used for road grading, maintenance, cleanup, landscaping, finish grading and snow removal on soft roads. Consisting of a row of heavy duty, flexible, spring steel tines bolted to a rugged welded steel frame, the attachment forms the configuration of a miniature road grader.
Anyone who participates in the workshop can rent the Front Runner from the District for a low cost of $50 per week. For more information or to register for this workshop please contact Chris Brewer or Bessie Wright at 990-3676 or visit www.penobscotswcd.org.
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