Sunday, September 30, 2007
Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer
For some, it's a playground for fun and exploration, a place to relax and let go of the stresses of the everyday world of work.
For others, Casco Bay is their livelihood. Whether they are harvesting the bounty of the sea or toiling at a job on shore, people who make their living from the bay and its watershed have a vested interest in keeping it healthy.
This weekend, people who live around nationally significant estuaries like Casco Bay - ecologically sensitive areas where the rivers meet the sea - are celebrating National Estuaries Day, always the last Saturday in September. Typically there are events scheduled throughout weekend all over the country, but this year is even more special: It's the 20th anniversary of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's National Estuary Program. The program was established in 1987 to address the environmental problems that important estuaries were suffering as a consequence of pollution, development and neglect. Casco Bay joined the program in 1990.
We decided to check in with Karen Young, who has been director of the Casco Bay Estuary Partnership here in Portland for the past five years, to see how our favorite place is doing.
Young, 39, was born in California and spent much of her childhood in Houston. She graduated in 1990 from the University of Texas-Austin, where she studied psychology. Next, in 1993, came a master's degree in environmental management from the Duke University School of the Environment, with a focus on environmental toxicology and chemistry.
Young lives in Kittery with her husband Michael, who works with at-risk youth in the outdoors and is also working toward a doctorate at the University of New Hampshire. They enjoy sea kayaking, back-country skiing and hiking, but understandably have had to adjust their outdoor pursuits since 2-year-old daughter Macy and 10-month-old Evan came along.
''Since we've had kids we try to get outside a lot,'' Young said, ''but it tends to be climbing around on rocks, or at the beach or at the park.''
Q: How does Casco Bay compare to the other estuaries in the National Estuaries Program, places like Chesapeake Bay, which still seems to be struggling after all these years? Are we relatively pristine compared to some of those other places?
A: I would say absolutely, we're one of the few that's in that category of still relatively pristine. We're still working more on proactively saving what we have than retroactively working to restore. There's certainly restoration happening in Casco Bay, but I think we're very fortunate that we still have relatively good water quality and whole habitats to protect. But we are seeing signs of degradation every year.
Q: People are starting to pay more attention to climate change now. Are we seeing any early impacts of climate change in the bay?
A: Well, certainly we're starting to see erosion of some of the bluffs on the islands of Casco Bay as sea level rises. It's risen approximately six inches over the last century. And so as you get rising sea level, the sea starts eating away at the bottom of some of the steep banks until you get increased erosion of those bluffs. We're seeing that happen more and more.
In addition, we are seeing a shift in the season for lobstering, which is likely due to the warming of Casco Bay waters. The season used to go only until November, but lobstermen are now working well into December. This shift is happening because, with the warmer water, lobsters are staying inshore longer and not migrating offshore as early in the season as they used to.
Q: How do you get the public interested in something like eroding bluffs and sea level rise when they think ''Oh, that's going to happen after I'm dead?''
A: Well, there are certain members of the public where if your own view is threatened, you have somebody's attention.
Although the scientific community seems to be coming to a consensus on climate change as an issue, there's still a lot of variability in what people are predicting could happen, and some people might even predict in the next decade we're going to see major changes. As far as engaging the public, I think one of the most engaging things for me is the visual maps that some groups like the Natural Resources Council of Maine are starting to draw, looking at where could the lines be of the edge of Casco Bay, where Casco Bay meets the development. Areas of Back Cove, areas of downtown Portland are totally underwater. And it's interesting that if you look at some of the historical maps of the land, that the water sort of follows some of those historical patterns of where the land originally was, and all the land is predicted to end up under water again. I think those kind of visual tools can really help to engage people - wow, my house, or the area where I walk or recreate could end up under water.
Q: What's the biggest threat to water quality right now in Casco Bay?
A: I think it comes back to the land and the incredible development that we're seeing of the suburban Portland area. That brings more parking lots, more roads, more rooftops for our schools, that kind of thing, which are all impervious surfaces which increase runoff, and with that runoff you get pollution carried to rivers and ultimately to the Bay.
Q: Do we still see any impacts in the bay from the Julie N oil spill?
A: That's a good question. We actually did some sampling of what are called pah's. They're basically chemicals that you would find in petroleum substances. There are pretty significant levels in the Fore River, and it's not hard to imagine that at least some of those are remnants of the Julie N oil spill.
Q: What are some emerging issues or trends in the bay that we need to keep an eye on?
A: Certainly climate change is one. Another one that people are really starting to become more aware of are what we call emerging contaminants, everything from the pharmaceuticals that we take that are either prescribed or over the counter to what's in our shampoo and our toothpaste, but ultimately a lot of those end up in the bay because they're not necessarily removed by wastewater treatment plants. There is evidence that basically male fish are turning into female fish, and there are all kinds of problems with reproduction of fish. There's just a whole host of potential problems that that soup of chemicals could cause in the environment, most of which we don't even know anything about. It's really a big unknown because in many cases we're talking about biologically active chemicals, things that are active at really small doses. That's what they're intended to be so that they can help our health problems, but then what happens when you have Prozac in Casco Bay or caffeine, or you name it. Hormones are a really big one - women taking either birth control pills or hormones when they're going through menopause. Hormones are really biologically active, and then there are a bunch of chemicals that mimic hormones that are also in the environment, and one of the questions is what is the multiplier effect of all of these different chemicals?
Q: Has there been any testing in Casco Bay for any of those newer chemicals like the antidepressants or the hormones?
A: We actually are helping to fund right now a study by the Biodiversity Research Institute, looking at a whole suite of different chemicals in birds. They're looking at osprey and other seabirds. They're also looking at upland birds - birds that live in the woods and in the wetlands. I think they were able to sample 45 different species this summer, and they're doing the lab work this fall, so hopefully we're going to find out in the next couple of months what the results of that study say. One of the key contaminants that they're looking at is flame retardants, which was a big issue with the Legislature this year, whether or not to ban the deca-brominated flame retardants. So the study's going to look at what's happening - are the chemicals being taken up by the birds in the environment?
Q: Surveys over the past few years have found 34 marine species that don't belong here invading our waters. Do you have any results yet from this year's survey?
A: The preliminary results, my understanding is that they did not find anything new. One of the somewhat surprising things is that they expected to find higher densities of tunicates (sea squirts), which are the kind of spongy critter that people are concerned about on Georges Bank. They did not find densities as high as they thought they would, and it's probably a direct result of the Patriot's Day storm because those organisms really don't like freshwater.
Another thing they found was the invasive red algae from Asia, Grateloupia. It was found on the north end of the Cape Cod canal for the first time, so it is now in the Gulf of Maine. It is a problem because it competes with native red algae like Irish moss that provide habitat for things like mussels and other algae that crustaceans eat, and it can literally cover 100 percent of an area. Irish moss is also harvested for carrageenan to make things like ice cream, and also for medicinal uses.
Q: What can the average person who uses the bay for recreation do to lessen their impact?
A: I think one of the key things is stormwater runoff. It is, as we understand right now, the biggest source of pollution to the bay, so reducing the amount of chemicals that you use on your lawn, that's a big thing.
Each summer, we are seeing more pockets of Casco Bay waters covered with green ''slime,'' which indicates that we may have problems with too much nitrogen in the system. Nitrogen is a nutrient that is necessary to support marine life, but we likely have too much of a good thing in certain areas. Too much nitrogen in the Bay can cause the rapid growth of macroalgae, the green ''slime'' that some people have reported. Beyond being unattractive, it can also lead to a host of other problems like smothering clam flats where it is sitting directly on top of them.
Q: How often do you get out on the Bay yourself? Do you go out and just check it out once in a while?
A: I try to allow myself because I think it's important to get out once in a while, but I definitely don't get out as much as I would like to. I would say at least once a week I'll go out somewhere in the watershed, most often not on the Bay because we don't have our own boat, but I try to get out because I think it's really important to maintain that connection with the resource, to get out there with our own eyes and ears and see places, talk to people, and see what's happening on the ground.
Q: In getting out and about, is there a spot that you would consider the most endangered in Casco Bay?
A: Small streams in areas seeing rapid development in Windham, Gorham and Westbrook and other municipalities are special places at risk. In our most recent State of the Bay report, we calculated the change in paved area in the Casco Bay watershed over a decade, and the biggest changes were along major roads and highways like Routes 202, 25 and 302. Streams can only handle paving about 7 percent of the land that drains to them before they start getting degraded. For example, Mill Brook in Westbrook is a beautiful little stream which has native fish such as alewives using it, but it is right at the cusp of seeing too much development in its watershed.
Q: Your favorite spots?
A: One of my favorite places is walking out to Presumpscot Falls, which used to be covered by water until Smelt Hill Dam came out in 2002. I like walking out in the spring when the alewives are running and the osprey and cormorants are fishing, and you can see a bald eagle. That's just an incredible sight, and to see those falls and know that you're just 15 minutes from downtown Portland, that's an incredible place.
I really think the basin in the New Meadows River area, the Phippsburg area, is just an incredible piece of land. It's a very protected natural harbor, and now after a donor donated most of the land surrounding its shores, and knowing that's going to be in the state that it's in forever, it's just a really neat little gem.
Staff Writer Meredith Goad can be contacted at 791-6332 or at: mgoad@pressherald.com
