New PWA Publications, Watershed Kids Nature Day Camp:
We are pleased to provide our newest publications online: Watershed Kids Nature Day Camp brochure is here for Summer 2008. Check out the *NEW* Spring Newsletter (well worth the download) and our PWA Brochure.
Executive Director's Corner - April 2008
This year marks the 42nd anniversary of the incorporation of the Pemaquid Watershed Association and 20 years as a land trust. To get a big-picture feeling for the evolution of the organ-ization, I recently immersed myself in the 56 or so PWA newsletters archived since 1984. Leafing through the pages from past to present filled me with a real sense of the down-to-earth drive felt by the volunteers to develop this organization into a conservation force for the sake of what they cherished: the waters, wildlife, and lands of the peninsula.
The 1984 newsletter was simply titled “NEWSLETTER” (the name, The Watershed Watch, came about in 1991) and listed PWA’s membership at 146. The Treasury Report showed $994.21 cash on hand. The nostalgically formal Annual Meeting Report revealed that nuisance beaver dams, water-level regulation by the Bristol Mills dam, pond water testing, and the welfare of the loon population were top on the list of concerns. Some things haven’t changed. (Based on phone calls to the office last summer from paddlers, the irksome beavers have proven unrelenting. I have a feeling that if I could actually interview one of those webbed rodents plugging up the stretch to Boyd’s Pond, he’d reminisce about his grandfather’s exploits in the gut between Pemaquid and Biscay.)
Happily, though, some things have changed, and for the better. PWA now has nearly 700 members as well as a robust Balance Sheet. This solid foun-dation is allowing us to expand into new programs and projects this year, including a Pemaquid River Cleanup, an Invasive Aquatic Plant Patrol initiative, and a teaching garden at Pemaquid Beach Park. We’ll also be partnering with the Knox-Lincoln Soil and Water Conservation District and DEP on a follow-up survey of the Duckpuddle Pond Watershed and will be doing a low-impact, horse-powered timber harvest for forest health on our Bearce-Allen Preserve. Stay tuned, too, for news of a Land Trust 20th Anniversary Dinner Party at 74 Maine Bistro.
Like those pesky beavers, a tenacious call to protect the beauty and natural integrity of the peninsula persists today among our many members and volunteers. As echoed throughout the past news-letters, you are the PWA. The ideas, energy, enthu-siasm, and dedication of all of us now – and of those who came before – have provided the power that has propelled PWA to be recognized statewide as a leader in caring for the natural resources of the Pemaquid peninsula.
§ Donna Minnis §
Top
|
Activities in support of the PWA’s goals have
three major components. Our water quality monitoring program establishes
sound baseline data from which we can monitor future changes in
water quality. Our Earthways environmental education program aims
to increase understanding of the natural resources of the watershed
and the practices that promote compatible development. Beachcombers’ Rest
Nature Center at Pemaquid Beach helps to promote stewardship of
the beach and local environment. Protection of areas of ecological
and scenic value through the land trust program represents the
third aspect of our activities. 
