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 Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Fest
The Wild and Scenic Enviornmental Film Festival On Tour - the biggest environmental film fest in the nation - is coming to Maine, and Friends of Casco Bay is hosting it. Join us Saturday, October 4th for an evening of inspiring, thought-provoking, and entertaining films, as well as food and festivities. Click here for more info. Tickets are on sale starting September 1st. Purhcase tickets in person at Whole Foods Market, Cycle Mania, Bull Moose Music, and Patagonia Outlet, or online through Brown Paper Tickets: Casco Baykeeper Joe Payne: Outdoor Hero On July 30th, Mac McKeever of L.L.Bean Public Affairs presented the 2008 L.L.Bean Outdoor Hero Award to Joe Payne. The Casco Baykeeper was  selected as one of six outdoor enthusiasts around the nation “who by their words, attitude, and actions have helped connect people to the world around them. As the Casco Baykeeper, he has worked effectively to restore the health of Casco Bay.” McKeever then presented a check for $5,000 to support the work of Friends of Casco Bay. Joe was uncharacteristically speechless, as he had no inkling that he had been nominated for the award. He did say that he was so appreciative that L.L.Bean recognized the work of all the staff at Friends of Casco Bay. Follow that Grapefruit! Friends of Casco Bay staff and volunteers - including our summer intern, Shannon Hulst, shown here - spent a rare sunny August day following grapefruit in the upper New Meadows River. These low-cost devices were placed along a transect line from the New Meadows Marina to Sea Spray Kayak Center to see how far surface currents flow from the upper region of the river on an outgoing tide.
The great grapefruit race will happen twice more, with grapefruits clustered above the dam and again below the dam, to assess how the causeway impacts tidal exchange between New Meadows Lake and the outer New Meadows River estuary.
How Healthy is the Bay?
Friends of Casco Bay has developed a "health index" for Casco Bay, based on our 15 years of water quality data. This easy-to-use tool gives a snapshot of the Bay's healthiest areas and most impaired regions. Learn about the index here. |
Donate to Friends of Casco Bay 
Friends of Casco Bay has launched a boat donation program to support our marine stewardship work. Should you ever contemplating selling your boat, we invite you to consider donating it to Friends of Casco Bay. Donating your boat gives you several advantages over selling it, including giving you considerable tax savings, eliminating costs of boat ownership like storage and maintenance, and affording you the satisfaction that your donation will help protect the waters we all enjoy. To learn more about how our boat donation program could work for you, please click here or contact Will Everitt at 207-799-8574. This Summer, Become a BayScaper
The quest for a carpetlike lawn drives many homeowners to use herbicides, insecticides and fertilizers – some of which are both unnecessary and harmful to the environment, especially to local waterways. Friends of Casco Bay has developed an innovative green landscaping program called BayScaping. Although the principles were designed to protect the water quality of Maine's Casco Bay, they can be applied to any yard near any waterway.
According to BayScaping principles, healthy yards begin with careful soil preparation, selecting the right plants for the right conditions, as well as properly watering, mowing and feeding your lawn. Click here for some BayScaping tips. |
Our Mission Friends of Casco Bay is the leading environmental organization working to improve and protect the environmental health of Casco Bay. Our work involves education, advocacy, water quality monitoring programs, and collaborative partnerships. Learn more about our work here. Advocacy Update: What We've Been Working On
Sewage Dispoal on Great Diamond Island Casco BAYKEEPER® Joe Payne has contacted the Portland Planning Board and the Maine Department of Environmental Protection to express concerns about sewage disposal for a proposed 34-unit residential hotel condominium on Great Diamond Island. The developer wants to tie into an existing sand filtration system known as an Overboard Discharge System (OBD). The installation of new OBDs has been banned since 1987 because of their inadequate and antiquated technology. EPA Stormwater Guidelines Joe Payne wrote to Senator Olympia Snowe to alert her of new EPA stormwater runoff guidelines being developed for the construction industry that ignore the EPA’s own recommendations for stormwater runoff reduction, or Low Impact Development. New Waterkeepers! At the recent Waterkeeper Alliance Conference in Seattle, the Casco Baykeeper and the other members of the Board of Directors approved seven new programs. There are now 181 Waterkeepers worldwide, on every continent except Antarctica. Snow Dumping Winter will be upon us again before you know it, and with it the continuing dilemma of how to dispose of plowed, polluted snow. Volunteer Susan Olcott and our Mitchell Scholar intern, Shannon Hulst, have been researching what other coastal states are doing to address this problem. We will draft recommendations to pass along to our municipal and legislative colleagues. Casco Bay Tide Charts
Click here to access tide charts for the Bay. |
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