Microbial Source Tracking Volunteer Update

May 24, 2002

Dear Volunteer,

We’ve almost made it to the end of our stream sampling in Wells! If it rains again before then, we’d like to do one more post-precipitation date with the same sites. We’ll call you if we see an opportunity to collect post-precipitation samples.

Our estuarine sampling starts on June 13. Only W1, P1, D1 and B1 will remain the same. We are looking for volunteers who can continue sampling through the summer with the same schedule as before, so drop us a line if you are interested. Thank you Roy and Dan for being willing to continue your sampling.

You may have recently received a volunteer survey that I mailed out. Thank you to all of you who have returned the survey. It helps us keep track of how we’re doing and how we can improve.

Last Friday, Kristen Grant (project supervisor) and I attended a Microbial Source Tracking workshop at the EPA regional headquarters in Massachusetts. We were surprised to see the intense interest of many other people at the state and national level in this type of research. The room was packed and they even had to turn some late-comers away. Dr. Steve Jones, who is doing the genetic fingerprinting for our project, was the first speaker. We gained a better sense of just how new and experimental this type of research is, and what a big need there is for better microbial water quality methods. Your volunteer effort has contributed in a concrete way to this effort, and you can be proud of that.

Have a great Memorial Day,

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