Spring 2013 - Friends of Casco Bay

The Newsletter of Friends of Casco Bay / Casco BAYKEEPER®
Casco Bay Bulletin
Spring 2013
For eager gardeners, our brown yards are
calling for us to get started. How can you
prepare your lawn for a healthy summer?
There are chemical-free things you can do to
make your yard ready for the growing season.
It’s Spring: Time to BayScape
A Spring TO DO LIST for Your Yard
Rake winter debris away from storm drains and add to your compost pile.
Make/buy a rain gauge to ensure your lawn gets 1-1.5 inches of water a week.
Sharpen the blades of your lawn mower.
Aerate your lawn to loosen thatch and compacted soil. Rent an aerator or
hire a professional.
Weed by hand while the soil is still wet, making it easier to pull out the roots.
Test your soil. For as little as $15, University of Maine Cooperative Extension
will analyze your soil and tell you what nutrients (if any) your yard needs.
Request a free BayScaping Packet, including a soil test kit, at
keeper@cascobay.org.
Organize a Neighborhood BayScaping Social by inviting a speaker from
Friends of Casco Bay at keeper@cascobay.org.
Most homeowners are unaware that what
they put on their lawns and gardens could
run off into streams and end up in the ocean.
Stormwater sampling we conducted in 12
coastal communities around Casco Bay has
shown that several kinds of pesticides and
nutrients found in fertilizers are entering
our waters. This data shows the need for
our BayScaping program, which promotes
ecological lawn care strategies that don’t
rely on using pesticides and fertilizers.
For the rest of the growing
season, follow these simple,
labor-saving steps:
• Water deeply but infrequently
• Mow high
• Leave grass clippings
• Resist fertilizing
Find out more at
www.cascobay.org/bayscaping
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Bring the Bay to Your Community
If you’ve heard Casco BAYKEEPER® Joe Payne and staff scientists Peter Milholland and Mike Doan talk
about our work, you know that they can engage audiences on complex issues in accessible and compelling
ways. To request a speaker from Friends of Casco Bay for your civic organization, library, garden club,
yacht club, or other group, contact Mary Cerullo at keeper@cascobay.org or 799-8574.
Learn more about the presentations we offer at cascobay.org/presentations. We are happy to tailor our
presentations to the interests of your audience.
Friends of Casco Bay’s mission: Improving and protecting the environmental health of Casco Bay
Anchors Away!
Board of Directors
President
Malcolm F. Poole
Vice President
Judith Fletcher Woodbury
Clerk
Sarah B. Coburn
Treasurer
Barry S. Sheff
Daniel A. Brazeau
Jeff Clements
AJ Curran
Peter Dufour
Patricia Ianni
Peter C. LeBourdais
Althea Bennett McGirr
Tollef Olson
Derek Pelletier
Kathryn Reid
Ann W. Thayer
Lori Thayer
Jonathan B. Thomas
Peter Van Alstine
Frederick A. Veitch
John Wise
Honorary Directors
Kenneth M. Curtis
Kevin P. Gildart
Sherry F. Huber
Anthony R. Jessen
P. Andrews Nixon
Donald W. Perkins
Staff
Executive Director
Cathy L. Ramsdell, CPA
Casco BAYKEEPER®
Joseph E. Payne
Associate Director
Mary M. Cerullo
Development Director
Will Everitt
Citizen Stewards
Coordinator
Peter Milholland
Research Associate
R. Michael Doan
Office Manager
Jeff Fetterer
Our new Baykeeper boat is being transformed into our ideal research vessel.
You probably heard that Friends of Casco Bay was
looking for a new boat. Now, after many months
raising funds to buy, retrofit, and maintain a new
Baykeeper vessel, she’s here! Or more accurately,
at New England Fiberglass, which is continuing
the transformation begun at Yankee Marina, to
create our ideal research vessel.
With down time and maintenance costs increasing
each year, we recognized a while back that our
30-year-old Baykeeper boat was nearing the end
of its useful life. We needed to find a new boat to
patrol the Bay, investigate pollution, and conduct
research.
We were looking for a slightly bigger boat (28 feet
vs. 26), fast enough (25 knots) to complete the 75mile monthly profile trip around the Bay during
short winter days, and sturdy enough to break
through winter ice. Our ideal Baykeeper boat
would be a Maine-built, lobster-style boat with a
wide work deck and an inboard diesel engine.
Development &
Communications Assistant
Sarah Lyman
Friends of Casco Bay
43 Slocum Drive
South Portland · ME 04106
Telephone: (207) 799-8574
keeper@cascobay.org
www.cascobay.org
Our new Baykeeper vessel stripped down to the basics
®
®
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We found all that and more in an AJ 28, built by
Alan Johnson of Winter Harbor, Maine. “We
knew the builder’s reputation for building quality
boats,” says Citizen Stewards Coordinator Peter
Milholland, who will captain the boat.
Peter is also the author of our Ship’s Log, an online
journal documenting the work being done by
Yankee Marina & Boatyard of Yarmouth and New
England Fiberglass of Portland. You can follow her
transformation from recreational fishing boat into
our new research vessel at cascobay.org/category/
ships-log. We plan to host the commissioning at
Yankee Marina on September 12th, 2013. We’ll
keep you posted.
Pumpout Coordinator
James Splude
BAYKEEPER is a registered
trademark and service mark of
BAYKEEPER and is liscensed for
use herein.
Yankee Marina puts the engine back into our new
Baykeeper boat.
To donate to our Baykeeper Boats
Fund visit: cascobay.org/boats-fund
When her new name is revealed at the commissioning
ceremony, it will be obvious that our new boat will
serve a special purpose—defending Casco Bay.
Friends of Casco Bay / Casco BAYKEEPER®
Helping Hands to
Monitor the Bay
Where Water Quality
Testing Could Lead
Can you imagine willingly immersing your hands in 42-degree
water? Every year, citizen scientists from Cape Elizabeth
to Phippsburg do just that from April through October.
About 75 of your neighbors test for dissolved oxygen, water
temperature, salinity, water clarity, and pH, to help Friends of
Casco Bay assess the health of Maine’s coastal waters.
Eighteen volunteers underwent training this spring to become
the newest water quality monitors for Friends of Casco Bay’s
22nd monitoring season. The five-hour training session led
by Peter Milholland, Citizen Stewards Coordinator, provided
a hands-on introduction to EPA-certified sampling methods.
Peter says, “These citizen scientists are a critical part of our
research staff. Without our volunteers, we could never have
achieved the level of knowledge about Casco Bay that we
have today.”
One of these volunteers,
Sally Tubbesing, became a
water quality monitor as a
result of attending our Wild
& Scenic Film Festival. In
her volunteer profile she
stated, “I am interested
in getting involved in a
local organization that is
committed to sustaining
and improving the quality
Sally Tubbesing learns how to measure
of
the natural environment
dissovled oxygen.
that we too often take for
granted in Maine.” After the training, Sally wrote to Peter “to
tell you how good the workshop was…lots of material, but
it was well organized, and the opportunity for the hands-on
‘walk-through’ of the procedure was terrific! I am sure that
you have done it now many times, but it was impressive!”
Meghan Murphy in 2002 when she was a Water Quality Monitor
Fifteen years ago, a Portland High School student with an
interest in marine science came to volunteer with us, and
stayed on for several years. Since then, from afar, we have
followed Meghan Murphy’s journey as she moved to Canada
to earn a PhD in wetland ecology, married a Canadian, and
landed a position as Riverwatch Coordinator with a fellow
WATERKEEPER® ALLIANCE program, Ottawa Riverkeeper in
Ontario.
Meghan wrote us recently, “My passion for Waterkeeper
Alliance and grassroots environmental advocacy started
with you. I am starting a volunteer water quality monitoring
program for the river and its tributaries. With my experience
with Friends of Casco Bay’s model program, how could I
not take up the challenge! There are so many people in the
watershed who want to protect the river; providing a program
that can engage them will have a huge impact. Professionally,
I feel as though I have come full circle and am back where
I belong.”
Keeping It Clean
A sure sign of spring on Casco Bay is the emergence of pleasure boats from their winter wraps, along
with the pumpout facilities that serve them.
Casco Bay’s newest pumpout station is being installed in Maine’s newest town, Chebeague Island.
Harbormaster Ron Tozier, who championed the project along with Selectman David Hill, hopes to
have the pumpout station operational by mid-June.
Since 1995, Friends of Casco Bay’s pumpout boat has provided a convenient, legal way of disposing
of vessel sewage, keeping over 136,000 gallons of raw sewage from being dumped into our coastal
waters. For a fee of $10 for a 20-gallon holding tank, we will service recreational boats in their slips
or on their moorings; owners do not have to be present. Contact Pumpout Captain Jim Splude at
pumpout@cascobay.org or (207) 776-0136 to schedule an appointment after May 27th.
For more information about these and other issues we are working on, visit www.cascobay.org
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Community Service: Stenciling Storm Drains
What can you do? Take to the streets! Since 2009, we have
provided storm drain stenciling kits to classroom teachers,
scout leaders, church groups, and camp directors for community
service projects. Does your child love Casco Bay as much as you
do? Parents looking for an alternative to a traditional birthday
party might want to organize a neighborhood stenciling event!
Volunteers from Fish Camp stencil a storm drain behind our office.
Did you know that …
• Many storm drains empty directly into Casco Bay,
bypassing the wastewater treatment system.
• Rainwater flushes oil, trash, and lawn chemicals down
storm drains and into Casco Bay.
• Residents sometimes unthinkingly dump trash and liquids
down storm drains.
Friends of Casco Bay educates residents and children about
the threat stormwater pollution poses to the Bay. Whenever
it rains, water flows from yards, roofs, parking lots, roads,
and driveways into gutters and eventually into storm drains,
picking up pollution and debris along the way. Storm drains
are often a direct conduit for these pollutants into Casco Bay.
Friends of Casco Bay lends all the equipment a group needs,
for free:
• Five stenciling kits, each of which contains a stencil, spray
paint, traffic cones, reflective vests, a broom, and Nytrile
gloves
• A how-to guide with instructions for every step of the
project, with ready-to-use forms for parents, news media,
and chaperones, a list of public works officials in each
coastal community to contact before stenciling, door
hangers for educating neighbors about the activity, and
stormwater curriculum activities
• A kid-oriented, 6-minute DVD, produced especially for
Friends of Casco Bay, which explains why and how to
stencil storm drains
Contact Mary Cerullo at keeper@cascobay.org or 799-8574 to
ask about borrowing the kits from our office in South Portland.
We will explain how to request permission in your community
before taking to the streets.
Friends of Casco Bay’s
Save the date for Saturday
November 9, 2013
43 Slocum Drive
South Portland, Maine 04106
PORTLAND, ME
PERMIT NO. 510
PAID
NON-PROFIT
ORGANIZATION