Microbial Source Tracking Project Update

April 19, 2002

Dear Volunteer,

Thank you all who helped on our April 15 sample date. The sample event went quite well. We found much higher bacterial counts this time, which is normal given the precipitation and much higher temperatures. The results are on the web page. Also, thanks to those of you who let us know you weren’t available, since it helped us organize the sample day.

New sample date! Since we were fortunate enough to have rain on the last sample date, we can pre-schedule another date on Monday, May 6. (This eliminates an “on-call” sample event after precipitation.) Let us know if you are available!

Change of sample date! Please note that next month we’ll be sampling on Wednesday, May 15 (not May 16 as previously planned). Because of a conference, we have to change this date. Please re-confirm for the new date if you had already committed to the previous one.

Just a reminder: We will have our estuarine watershed survey on Wednesday, May 1, from 10 am to 2:00 pm. This is where we go out and look for potential sources of pollution. So far, we have a few interested volunteers, so if you’d like to help out, there’s still room.

We’ll be sending out a volunteer feedback form soon. It’s just one page, and shouldn’t take more than two minutes to fill out (unless you want to write more!). Please let us know how it’s going so we can improve our volunteer program.

If you have a chance, take a look at our web site: www.umseagrant-mst.org. There’s now a “news” page that you can periodically check for new information on the project. Its address is: www.umseagrant-mst.org/news.htm. It’s also easily located from the MST home page by following the red-colored “news” link. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Enjoy the spring,

Cayce Dalton and Fred Dillon

207-646-1555, ext 103

CICEET funded Microbial Source Tracking Project

Project partners: UM Sea Grant, Wells NERR, UNH/Jackson Lab, University of Southern Maine and AmeriCorps/Maine Conservation Corps