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Grad Student Recognized for Research on University-Community Partnerships
Karen Hutchins, an IPhD candidate in Communication and Journalism and a graduate research assistant for Maine’s Sustainability Solutions Initiative, was recognized by the National Science Foundation for her research poster on partnerships between universities and municipalities at the NSF’s National EPSCoR Conference in October.
Hutchins won the Judges’ Pick Runner-Up Prize for her poster “Linking Knowledge with Action Through Municipality-University Partnerships: Predicting Interest in and Preference for Partnerships.” The poster presents preliminary results from Hutchins’ new statewide survey of 1,176 Maine municipal officials. More...
News advances Northeast water quality symposium
Two UMaine researchers will attend the 2011 Northeast Private Well Symposium later this year, according to a Bangor Daily News story. John Peckenham, director of the Maine Water Resources Research Institute at the University of Maine Senator George J. Mitchell Center, and Laura Wilson, assistant scientist at UMaine's Cooperative Extension, will present research on water quality issues.
Programs to highlight sustainability science
Maine Public Broadcasting Network has produced "Sustainable Maine," two half-hour television programs focusing on sustainability science in Maine. Several UMaine experts will appear in the programs which, as noted in an MPBN news release, detail "a new way of combining biophysical sciences with social science and economics to study Maine's changing landscape, and how to sustain it for future generations." The first program airs Tuesday Sept. 27 at 8 p.m.
Arsenic report released: Potentially harmful arsenic levels in domestic wells in Maine
USGS findings and maps, developed in cooperation with the Maine Center for Disease Control, show potentially harmful arsenic levels in private water wells in towns across Maine where elevated arsenic risks were not previously suspected. Arsenic levels ranged from less than the detection limit of 0.5 to 3,100 micrograms per liter. The federal safety standard for public drinking water is 10 micrograms per liter.
Water Research Scientist Sarah Nelson report released: Predicting Mercury Levels in Lakes Using Landscape Features and Water Chemistry
Mercury contamination of surface waters and plant and animal life is widespread in the Northeast. Although mercury’s pathway through watersheds is complex, researchers have found that landscape features, such as number of wetlands near a lake, and lake chemistry variables, such as dissolved organic carbon (substances that make water iced-tea colored), are related to relative amounts of mercury in surface waters. Full report
Water Research Scientist Sarah Nelson Comments in Mercury Article
An article in the June 4 edition of the Scarborough Leader about a high school class researching mercury in soil, foliage and animals included a perspective from research scientist Sarah Nelson of UMaine's Water Research Institute. Full article
UMaine and Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center release report "Maine Winter Roads: Salt, Safety, Environment, Cost" examining winter road maintenance practices and environmental
impacts of road salt
Although a new report from the University of Maine’s Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center is not ready to link anti-icing maintenance with fewer fatalities — as well as the potential for eventually reducing the amount of salt in the environment and lower corrosion rates — the report’s author said it’s a fact anti-icing speeds up the clearing of winter weather messes on the roads.
“The anti-icing leads to a quicker return to a bare road, we know that,” said University of Maine professor Jonathan Rubin, who was the lead author on “Maine Winter Roads: Salt, Safety, Environment, Cost,” which was released Friday...full BDN article
Bangor Daily News, 2/19/2010, Salting roads before snow may save lives
WABI TV, 2/19/2010, UMaine's Winter Road Maintenance Report
WLBZ TV, 2/19/2010, UMaine Study evaluates snow removal in state
MPBN, 2/19/2010, Study Examines Winter Road Maintenance Practices (online)
Sarah Nelson's Acadia National Park research featured in PARKScience - Integrating Research and Resource Managment in the National Parks Journal. July 10, 2009 (online)
Mercury in snow at Acadia National Park reveals watershed dynamics
Peter Vaux and Sarah Nelson publish report assessing the conditions and threats of Acadia's natural resources
Entitled Assessment of natural resource conditions in and adjacent to Acadia National Park, Maine, the report was completed by Dr. Peter Vaux and Dr. Sarah Nelson of the Mitchell Center and their associates, with support from Acadia National Park staff, the NPS Northeast Temperate I&M Network, the University of Rhode Island CESU, and the WASO Natural Resource Program Center.
This report focuses upon assessing the current condition of important ecological indicators within the upland, freshwater (lakes, streams, wetlands and groundwater) and coastal/marine environments of Acadia National Park. Full report (pdf 10.95 MB)
Sarah Nelson joins board of local environmental non-profit
Mitchell Center's Sarah Nelson became a Board Member of the Maine Lakes Conservancy Institute (MLCI), a nonprofit educational organization
dedicated to understanding, protecting and sustaining the health and values of
Maine’s lakes and the communities dependent upon them. (4/08)
January Course Offered to Maine School of Science and Mathematics Students
Acadia Partners for Science and Learning, working in partnership with Acadia National Park and the Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Environmental and Watershed Research at the University of Maine, is offering a January intersession course for students at the Maine School of Science and Mathematics. The course will introduce students to current environmental research issues at Acadia National Park and engage them in ongoing research activities. The two-week program will be based at Acadia National Park's Schoodic Education and Research Center (SERC) campus from January 8 to January 18. Additional information is available at Acadia Partners Website. (1/08)
Call for Abstracts — Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products: State of the Science Conference
The New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission (NEIWPCC) is seeking presentations for the 2007 Northeast Water Science Forum - Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products: State of the Science. The primary goal of this two-day conference is to bring together scientists, regulators, water and wastewater professionals, and other technical experts to disseminate and evaluate the latest research findings and technical data on pharmaceuticals and personal care products in the water environment.
Abstract topics include, but are not limited to the following:
- identifying PPCPs of concern
- occurrence of PPCPs (in the Northeast and beyond) in surface water, groundwater and coastal areas
- PPCP impacts on aquatic ecosystems
- PPCP impacts on human health
- fate and removal of PPCPs in drinking water systems
- fate and removal of PPCPs in wastewater systems (e.g., onsite systems, sludges, biosolids)
- PPCP policy, regulatory, and legal issues
- sampling and analytical methods
- public education (e.g., risk communication, product labeling programs)
- product stewardship (e.g., take back programs, collection programs).
Abstracts are due January 31, 2007. To submit an abstract online or to learn more about this conference, visit the NEIWPCC website.
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