The Request for Proposals (RFP) for the FY2013 National Competitive Grants Program authorized by section 104G of the Water Resources Research Act of 1984 has been posted on niwr.net. Please note that new research priorities have been established for the FY2013 RFP. An appropriation has not yet been received for this program. Nevertheless, the proposal solicitation process will proceed in anticipation that the appropriation will be approved.

The closing date for proposals to be filed on niwr.net by principal investigators is 4:00 pm, Eastern Time, Thursday, February 21, 2013. Please contact John Peckenham with questions.

Like many towns in Maine, Topsham is contending with a common dilemma: how to grow in ways that don’t diminish the very things that people cherish about their community, like open space, wildlife and special landscapes.

“There is the constant tug between conservation and economic development,” says Rich Roedner, Topsham planning director. “How do you preserve or protect resources while still providing for local growth opportunities?”

That question is at the center of an SSI research project led by UMaine wetlands ecologist Aram Calhoun. Her team is using local vernal pool conservation as a model to examine how towns can plan future development in ways that benefit people and wildlife alike. (read more…)

The Maine Water Conference was founded in 1994 as an annual forum for water resource professionals, researchers, consultants, citizens, students, regulators, and planners to exhange information and present new findings on water resource issues in Maine.

The Call for Abstracts for the conference is now open. Abstracts for oral presentations must fit within the guidelines of one of the session topics outlined on the conference website. The submission deadline for oral abstracts is Friday, December 21, 2012. Abstract guidelines are also available on the web.

Posters invited for display will address one or more aspects of water quality or quantity issues. The submission deadline for poster abstracts is Friday, February 15, 2013. Abstract guidelines are available on the web. The juried poster competition includes three judging categories: graduate, undergraduate and high-school. Non-student posters based on appropriate research findings are also accepted for display.

Tom Schueler, Executive Director of the Chesapeake Stormwater Network, is scheduled to give a talk titled, “Can Urban Watersheds Be Sustainable” on Tuesday, November 13 at 12pm in Room 107 Norman Smith Hall, UMaine. The seminar is free and open to the public.

This seminar will include a brief review of the science relating stream health to watershed impervious cover and the ongoing effort to restore the Chesapeake Bay. Topics will include how stormwater management has evolved in the Bay watershed toward a runoff reduction approach, how the Chesapeake Bay TMDL has prompted a new era of nutrient accounting, and what progress is being made by expert panels to define nutrient removal credits and qualifying conditions for a series of urban BMPs. Tom will also discuss how the panels have navigated a pathway between limited science, uncertain management and regulatory politics, what lessons have been learned that may be applicable to Maine, and what are the prospects for watershed sustainability in the future.

Tom Schueler has more than 30 years experience in practical aspects of urban stream research, stormwater design, stream restoration, retrofits, and comprehensive watershed planning.

This seminar is sponsored by SSI. Support is provided by the National Science Foundation to Maine EPSCoR at the University of Maine.

The “Sustainable Maine” page on the SSI website is designed to help you link directly to the people, places and research highlighted in this season’s MPBN documentaries. Here you’ll find links to interviews with researchers and stakeholders, profiles where researchers talk about the sustainability problems they are working on and why they decided to join SSI, summaries of featured SSI research projects, and other related articles.

Episodes from both Season 1 and Season 2 of MPBN’s Sustainable maine are now available on MPBN’s website. Season 2 featured research by the following SSI teams:

“Saving our Lakes” – Click here for a project summary and update, feature articles and researcher profiles

“Basket Trees – Saving a Tradition” – Click here for a project summary and update, feature articles and researcher profiles

“Pools, Policies and People” – Click here for a project summary and update, feature articles and researcher profiles

The Adirondack Lakes Survey Corporation (ALSC) recently completed collections of dragonfly larvae in acid rain sensitive Adirondack surface waters. ALSC staff assisted Mitchell Center assistant research professor Sarah Nelson, and collaborators at the SERC Institute, Maine Sea Grant, the USGS Mercury Research Lab, and Dartmouth College, who have been developing the concept of using dragonfly larvae as bio-sentinels for mercury concentrations in northeast lakes and streams. Mercury is a natural element but is found in elevated levels in Maine and many locations across the country due largely to fossil fuel emissions. Scientists are unable to predict which lakes or streams might have high or low mercury because it has a complex cycle both getting to waterbodies and once it’s in the water. “Our work has been using dragonfly larvae (immature dragonflies, which live in the water for the first year(s) of their lives) as bio-sentinels to help us understand which types of watersheds and waterbodies seem to have greater mercury” says Sarah. “The work will help us understand if we can model mercury sensitivity in lakes and their food webs, and if dragonfly larvae are good indicators of that sensitivity”.

Click here for more information on this project.

The 2013 DSRRN Science Meeting, “Diadromous Species Restoration Science 2013: Migration, Habitat, Species Interactions, and Management” will take place on January 10-11 at the University of Maine. Poster abstracts for the conference are now being accepted. Deadline for receipt of abstracts is November 15, 2012. Please go to the DSRRN website for guidelines.

The meeting will be an opportunity for managers, biologists, ecologists, hydrogeologists, and conservation planners to share their approaches to a common goal and leave with newly forged collaborations and an informed view of the future of diadromous fish restoration science. Three scientific sessions on migration and movement, interspecific interactions, and habitat requirements will feature short synthesis talks and interactive discussions focused on linking research, management, and future research directions. Registration for the conference is scheduled to open in late October.

The conference is sponsored by the Diadromous Species Restoration Research Network, a National Science Foundation Research Coordination Network.

Maine EPSCoR and Maine’s Sustainability Solutions Initiative (SSI) have collaborated with MPBN on “Sustainable Maine”, a series of documentaries highlighting the work of SSI researchers and stakeholders as they come together to take on tough issues.

Season 2 Broadcast Schedule for Sustainable Maine
Sustainable Maine # 201 Thursday 9/27/12 8:30PM  (Lakes)
Sustainable Maine # 202 Thursday 10/4/12 8:30PM  (EAB)
Sustainable Maine # 203 Thursday 10/11/12 8:30PM  (Vernal Pools)
Sustainable Maine # 201 Sunday 10/7/12 1PM  (Lakes)
Sustainable Maine # 202 Sunday 10/21/12 1PM  (EAB)
Sustainable Maine # 203 Sunday 10/28/12 1PM  (Vernal Pools)

Season 1 episodes are also available online at MPBN.

Go to the MPBN web site to view the full “The Triple Bottom Line” documentary

Go to the MPBN web site to view the full “Desperate Alewives” documentary

The 2012 Mitchell Lecture on Sustainability will take place on Tuesday, September 25 at 1pm at Hauck Auditorium, University of Maine, Orono, ME. Dr. Pamela Matson, Dean of Earth Sciences at Stanford University will give the keynote address, “A ‘Call to Arms’ for a Transition to Sustainability”. Senator Mitchell will provide remarks. A reception will follow the lecture.

Dr. Matson’s research addresses a range of environment and sustainability issues, including sustainability of agricultural systems; vulnerability of particular people and places to climate change; and the environmental consequences of global change in the nitrogen and carbon cycles. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has received a MacArthur Fellowship and directs the Leopold Leadership Program.

This event is free and open to all. Tickets are required. Please call 207/581-3244 or go to the Mitchell Lecture web page.