Forestry, Wildlife Students to Assist Fifth Graders in Water Analysis Project
University of Maine forestry and wildlife ecology students will team up with a public school chemistry teacher, fish, wildlife authorities and some 90 students from the Old Town Elementary School for a service-earning project in Hirundo Wildlife Refuge in Alton the week of May 2.
The students, fifth-graders, will collect terrestrial and aquatic data as part of a service-learning project. Land-based data collection includes inventory of different forest communities, with the students identifying trees, shrubs and herbaceous layers, where applicable, and collecting tree age, height, density and general health information. Simultaneously, other pupils will collect fresh water mussel shells from three studies sites along Pushaw Stream to measure, age and prepare them for mercury concentration analysis. Mercury analysis will be done at the Sawyer Environmental Chemistry Research Laboratory at UMaine. Results returned to the fifth graders. In addition, students will collect water data such as temperature, pH and dissolved organic carbon to aid mercury analysis.
The fifth-graders will be supported by the environmental chemistry students of Old Town High School and their teacher Ed Lindsey, along with UMaine forestry and wildlife ecology students and professionals in the field. They include former Maine Department of Inland Fish and Wildlife Commissioner Bucky Owen, a former UMaine professor and chair of the Department of Wildlife Ecology, and biologists Dick Andren and Dianne Kopec, who is working on the Penobscot River Mercury Study.
Penobscot River Keepers have volunteered the use of their 28-foot canoes for the project. The collaborative effort will continue the legacy that Oliver Larouche dreamed of and established at Hirundo Wildlife Refuge, according to Hirundo naturalist Gudrun Keszöcze.
Larouche founded Hirundo Wildlife Refuge in 1965 after expanding the original 3-acre family camp property to the present 2,400-acre refuge with a generous endowment from Parker Reed as a “haven for wildlife in which to grow and be protected, an area in which they can live and survive.”
In 1983, the Larouche family donated 5the refuge to the University of Maine, cementing a long-term collaboration. Larouche funded research on fish, birds and mammals, making Hirundo a living laboratory for the university.
Scientific studies at Hirundo span 40 years. With the passing of Larouche, the collaboration between the refuge and university weakened. In 2010, however, Hirundo resumed its outreach efforts with renewed vigor and has been rewarded with community support. To keep in the spirit of Oliver Larouche and to honor his life-long effort Hirundo is once again organizing scientific studies to establish a data baseline for the flora and fauna at the refuge.
Contact: Gudrun Keszöcze, (207) 944-9259; George Manlove, (207) 581-3756