Fixing Past Mistakes and Creating a Healthier Future for the Great Meadow at Sieur de Monts

Description

The Great Meadow is a well-known spot in Acadia National Park; it is also a wetland complex with changing rainfall patterns and past manipulations to the landscape have brought problems to the area. Join Brian Henkel, the Wild Acadia Project Coordinator, at the Jesup Memorial Library on Thursday, May 2 at 7 p.m., as he shares what has been done to the Great Meadow in the past, the consequences of those interventions, and what plans are set for the future.
 
The Wild Acadia initiative is a partnership between Friends of Acadia and Acadia National Park that looks closely at how to improve the Great Meadow while recognizing that more change, both through human intervention and through natural means, is coming to the area. Henkel will touch on how the initiative decides when to resist these changes, when to allow the changes to happen, and when to direct changes. He will also talk about some of manipulations made to the Great Meadow’s environment in the past and the consequences. Finally, Henkel will ask audience members what they think should be done to the Great Meadow to protect it in the future.
 
The Wild Acadia initiative works collaboratively with stakeholders such as university faculty members and students, local towns, and conservation nonprofits to collect data, assess conditions, and coordinate efforts to improve ecological integrity, increase resilience, and maintain cultural authenticity. Henkel is a civil engineer and hydrologist who has worked in the fields of groundwater and surface water hydrology for more than 15 years.
 
For more information on this talk, contact the Jesup at 207-288-4245 or mrice@jesuplibrary.org.