Information Transfer
Principal Investigators: William H. McDowell
Abstract: In New Hampshire, state regulations, planning board decisions and zoning classifications all address the environmental consequences of development and rapid population growth. The state is under significant development pressure, which puts both the quality and quantity of its water supplies at risk, and yet the decisions made by these various resource managers often occur without a real understanding of the cumulative consequence to water resources or ecosystem services. This project will provide salary for the Center's Acting Director to meet with state representatives, local town officials, watershed groups, scientists and the general public to discuss NH WRRC findings regarding the impacts of population growth on potable water supply and ecosystem health in New Hampshire and the region. The NH WRRC website is also used to disseminate information on water resources, and is updated and maintained by salary provided by this project. The time of the Acting Director is increasingly spent discussing current and future research in the Lamprey River Hydrologic Observatory, which is partially funded by the longstanding 104B project “Water Quality and the Landscape: Long-term monitoring of a rapidly developing suburban watershed.”
The Information Transfer project also provides salary for the NH WRRC Acting Director to participate on the planning committee of the NH Water and Watershed Conference and to organize the Annual Lamprey River Symposium. The annual NH Water and Watershed Conference which is designed to meet the information and networking needs of lake, river, and watershed groups; environmental organizations; volunteer monitors; municipal board and staff members; elected officials; local and regional planners; policy makers; scientists; educators; consultants and students. The goal of the Annual Lamprey River Symposium is to facilitate discussion and collaboration between scientists working in the Lamprey River basin and to engage state & local officials, watershed organizations, and concerned citizens with the science and its implications for Great Bay and the entire coastal watershed.
Local Watershed Organizations
- Maintain Lamprey River Watershed Outreach collaboration with several organizations to foster outreach in the Lamprey River watershed.
- Maintain correspondence with the Lamprey River Advisory Committee (LRAC) and the Lamprey River Watershed Association (LRWA) on current Lamprey River research. Associate Director serves as Newmarket's representative on the Lamprey River Advisory Committee.
- Maintain correspondence with the Oyster River Watershed Association (ORWA) and periodically provide assessments of Oyster River volunteer monitoring data.
- Collaborate with the Green Mountain Conservation Group (GMCG) and provide periodic assessments of Ossippee River volunteer monitoring data. The NH WRRC Director and the Associate Director serve on the GMCG research committee.
- The NH WRRC Director and the Associate Director serve on the Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership Technical Advisory Committee.
- Interact with the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission.
Federal & State Agencies
- Collaborate with the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (NH DES), the New Hampshire Geological Survey (NHGS), and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) to install and monitor additional stream gauges wells and sensors in the Lamprey River watershed.
- Collaborate with the USGS National Water Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program to provide insights and data from Lamprey River research.
- Share Lamprey, Oyster and Ossippee stream sampling data with the NH DES Volunteer River Assessment Program (VRAP) and the NH DES Environmental Monitoring Database.
- Provide technical assistance to NH DES Watershed Management Bureau as requested.
University of New Hampshire Organizations
The NH WRRC Director and the Associate Director serve on the Ecosystem Task Force.
Local Homeowners and School Groups
Homeowners and 5th graders from H. W. Moore Elementary School serve as volunteers to collect precipitation data throughout the Lamprey watershed; October 2003 until present.
Lamprey River Watershed Outreach. A collaboration of the following organizations.
