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The Saco/Ossipee Watershed Water Quality Monitoring Program, created by Green Mountain Conservation Group (GMCG) in New Hampshire and Saco River Corridor Commission (SRCC) in Maine, is designed to be one water quality monitoring program that encompasses one watershed, two states, and twenty six towns. Nature does not recognize political boundaries, why should we? The main goal of the program is to provide long term water quality data to study the health of the entire watershed, track changes overtime as development increases, and educate the public. (View a map of the Saco River Watershed and its subwatersheds; explanation of long-term water monitoring programs: USGS link.)
The history for this program began in 2001 with the completion of the Natural Resource Inventory mapping project. With funding from UNH Cooperative Extension, GMCG worked with the six watershed towns in New Hampshire to produce a series of 6 NRI maps for each town as well as a tax map overlay. (See NRI project click here) As an extension of the NRI mapping project, GMCG began to work on creating a watershed wide water quality monitoring program as a way to further the towns interest in focusing on an important natural resource--Our drinking water.
SRCC completed their first successful volunteer water quality monitoring program during the 2001 season and they have been instrumental in helping GMCG to establish their monitoring program. In August of 2001, GMCG partnered with the Chocorua Lake Association (CLA) to hire an AmeriCorp Volunteer. This volunteer worked closely with SRCC to design a volunteer water quality monitoring program for the Ossipee Watershed. As part of our joint partnership we also worked with Cooperative Extension Services in both Maine and New Hampshire; NH Department of Environmental Services and Maine Department of Environmental Protection; The Environmental Protection Agency, New England. The goal in working with these other organizations was to write one Quality Assurance Project Plan that would be recognized in both states so that the data would also be recognized in both states.
In 2002, GMCG began testing the surface waters of the Ossipee Watershed by selecting 10 sites throughout the six towns encompassed by the watershed. These towns included Freedom, Effingham, Ossipee, Tamworth, Sandwich, and Madison. Each site was selected in cooperation with the town's conservation commissions. Impact of land use practices were heavily considered in selecting these sites and all sites were further validated by natural resources experts from the University of New Hampshire (UNH).
2003 marked the second year of the
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GMCG Interns - Deep Water Testing
| WQM Program and also the expansion of the program. Five new RIVERS sites were selected and the Ossipee Lake Protection (OLP) Program began. The OLP Program was lauched through a partnership between GMCG and the Ossipee Lake Alliance (OLA). As the first program that encompassed all of Ossipee Lake, the OLP Program served to examine three parts of the health of the lake and its surrounding area. The mouths of the fourteen tributaries of Ossipee Lake were tested, similarly to the RIVERS sites, four times throughout the summer. In partnership with the NH Department of Environmental Services Volunteer Lake Assessment Program (VLAP), the deepest spot each of the lake's five water bodies (Ossipee Lake, Berry Bay, Broad Bay, Leavitt Bay, and Danforth Pond) were tested once a month from June to August. Finally, lake recreation was examined and quantified through the Lake Environmental Assessment Plan (LEAP).
 
OLT Meeting on Ossipee Lake Common Mergansers on Ossipee Lake
This year, 2008, is the seventh year of sampling for the RIVERS program. In cooperation with the town conservation commissions and UNH experts, some sites were added or removed and a total of 35 sites remain throughout the six towns. GMCG is continuing to sample the mouths of the tributaries on Ossipee Lake in cooperation with the lake's camps and to sponsor the Lake Host Program, which staffs the Rt. 25 Pine River Boat Launch to inspect boats for milfoil in cooperation with the NH Lakes Association. OLA will continue to monitor the status of variable milfoil in the lake and also continue the LEAP Program. Reports and data for the RIVERS, OLT and lake monitoring programs are available on line under the "data" section. A five year report with data through 2006 and part of 2007 is currently being edited and will soon be available on line. Please contact GMCG if you need any information or data to date.
2008 will be the third year for GMCG's Macroinvertebrate Sampling Project in conjunction with the Department of Environmental Service's Volunteer Biomonitoring Assessment Program (VBAP). Each fall, volunteers help collect, sort and identify macroinvertebrates in streams and rivers across the watershed to determine the biological health of the stream. Macroinvertebrates, or organisms without a backbone that are visible to the naked eye, are good water quality indicators. Some are pollution intolerant while others are more tolerant of pollution and disturbances. School children and volunteers are learning about aquatic biology and water quality, and are helping to track the biological health of waterways in addition to the chemical quality. Ten sites were sampled for the 2007 program, and nearly seventy participants have helped with this project. The 2006 Report is currently available on line under the "data" section. 2007 data will be coming soon!
A comprehensive assessment of water health can only be achieved by observing water quality trends over a period of many years. As this is only the third year for the WQM Program firm conclusions cannot be drawn. These first few years of data will serve as a baseline for the area, so that as this area begins to feel the pressures of growth and development we can monitor the impacts this has on our natural resources and help to protect them. Continuing water quality monitoring in the Ossipee Watershed over the long term will allow for observation of water quality trends over time.
Data from the WQM Program will be used within this program to understand and educate the region about the watershed. As the program continues into the future, any changes in water quality will be observed. The data will show the overall condition of the water so that future plans for the region may be based on sound scientific information keeping in mind the protection of our natural resources.
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This program is a volunteer-based monitoring program and would not run without the help of some very dedicated volunteers. Every year GMCG hosts a volunteer training session to recruit new volunteers, but also trains new volunteers on an individual basis. The OLT Program is not only supported by local community volunteers, but also by the local camps on the Ossipee Lake. Camp Huckins, Camp Calumet, Camp Cody, Danforth Bay Camping Resort , Camp Marist and Camp Robin Hood all help us sample the OLT sites four times a year during the summer. Each camp sends campers with a GMCG staff member to help sample and learn about water quality and the Ossipee Watershed. Each camp also provides a boat and driver for the sampling.
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