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Kimberly Slover
Director, College Communications
(603) 526-3647
NEW LONDON, N.H., March 10, 2006 – The Upper Valley Region of New Hampshire Charitable Foundation has awarded Colby-Sawyer College's Community and Environmental Studies Program (CES) a $2,500 grant in support of its comprehensive study of the Pleasant Lake Watershed in New London. The foundation's Wellborn Ecology Fund will assist the CES program in developing outreach materials to educate the community about the project.
Last fall, Colby-Sawyer students and faculty advisors began working with the Pleasant Lake Protective Association to complete a comprehensive lake inventory. The inventory, which will be used by the association as a planning tool, will identify Pleasant Lake's unique and outstanding features, recreational assets and environmental risk factors. CES students are conducting extensive field work and research as part of their required third-year project and gaining experience using geographic information systems and various data collection and analysis methods.
The foundation chose to fund the project because it supports environmental ecology and place-based education in the region, according to Kevin Peterson, the Upper Valley Region's executive director. “Colby-Sawyer has a proven track record of working collaboratively with community organizations such as The Fells [John Hay National Wildlife Refuge] and The Ausbon Sargent Land Preservation Trust in ways that advance local ecological knowledge, the organization's goals and the community in general,” he said.
CES students will complete their research this spring and present their findings in a public forum at the Curtis L. Ivey Science Center on May 1 at 7 p.m. The foundation grant will allow students to produce publications and other materials to educate the community and environmental organizations about their research results, according to John Callewaert, director of Colby-Sawyer's Institute for Community and Environment. “The foundation's support of our students' research helps ensure that residents can become better educated about their natural resources in their community,” says Callewaert. “They can use the inventory to gain an understanding of the community's environmental assets and risks, and to plan accordingly to manage them well.”
The Pleasant Lake Protective Association hopes the comprehensive inventory will assist the organization in carrying out its mission to protect the watershed and cope with development pressure in the region, according to member Kittie Wilson. “This [inventory] will establish extremely important baseline information about our lake and our watershed…which will help guide our future planning as we work to preserve and protect our wonderful natural treasure. As the Pleasant Lake watershed comes under increased development pressure, the New London Planning Board, the New London Conservation Commission and the Sunapee Area Watershed Coalition will be able to use the results of this inventory to help with the development of best practices for this watershed.”
Wilson expressed appreciation for the Colby-Sawyer students' efficiency and professionalism. “They are motivated to go above and beyond the minimum, which speaks to the excellent guidance and instruction of their professors,” she said. “They will forever leave their mark on our lake and our community.”
The Pleasant Lake project will be the second comprehensive inventory of a watershed region completed by CES students, according to Callewaert. In 2003-4, a different group of students completed a similar study of the Lake Sunapee Watershed, which has proved useful to community organizations in the region. The Pleasant Lake project will build on the previous inventory and expand on important analyses such as the percentage of impervious surface in the watershed and rate of development in the area.
More information about the Upper Valley Region of New Hampshire Charitable Foundation can be found at http://www.nhcf.org/uppervalley. To learn more about the Community and Environmental Studies Program at Colby-Sawyer College, visit http://www.colby-sawyer.edu/academic/ces/index.html.
Colby-Sawyer, founded in 1837, is a comprehensive liberal arts college located in the scenic Lake Sunapee Region of central New Hampshire. Students from 26 states and six foreign countries learn in small classes through a select array of programs that integrate the liberal arts and sciences with pre-professional experience.
