Midcoast Conservancy’s Youth Conservation Corps program completed their 2018 season of water quality improvements with a total of 118 best management practices on properties throughout Lincoln and Waldo Counties.

Best management practices for stormwater management protect water quality by preventing polluting runoff from contaminating lakes, rivers, and ponds with too many nutrients. Midcoast Conservancy’s Youth Conservation Corps program assists landowners in doing what they can to protect water quality by providing technical assistance with design and permitting, and finally by doing the work at no cost to the homeowner as an incentive for water quality protection.

In 2018, Midcoast Conservancy hired three staff, Julia Richardson as crew leader, and Ryan Potter and Eleanor Miskovsky as crew members. The trio completed projects on properties around Sheepscot Pond, Clary Lake, Damariscotta Lake, Biscay Pond, and the Sheepscot River. Best management practices include rubber razors to divert water from a driveway, shoreline plantings and stabilization, and roof drip-line trenches to allow water to percolate into the ground.

All projects protect water quality by reducing erosion and soils which flow into lakes and rivers. Soil naturally carries nutrients such as phosphorus with it, which contaminates the water and allows more algae to grow. Too much algae can eventually lead to algae blooms and poses health concerns for humans, pets, and wildlife. Any landowners interested in being considered for a Youth Conservation Corps project in 2019 can contact Garrison Beck, director of Water Conservation, at garrison@midcoastconservancy.org.

In 2018, funding for this program was generously donated by private donors, with assistance from the towns of Newcastle and Jefferson, and in part from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under Section 319 of the Clean Water Act. The EPA funding is administered by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection in partnership with the EPA. The EPA does not endorse and commercial products or services mentioned.