![]() FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: MARCH 24,2021 CONTACT: Marcia Kielb, Board Member, Education Committee Chairperson Scholarship Committee [email protected] (413)210-7789 BREWSTER PONDS COALITION ANNOUNCES TWO NEW SCHOLARSHIPS The Brewster Ponds Coalition is happy to announce that they will award two $1,000.00 scholarships this year, 2021, for one Nauset Regional High School senior and one Cape Cod Regional Technical High School senior. Applications with requirements are available at both guidance departments now or by emailing [email protected]. To be eligible, the applicant must be a Brewster resident, a high school senior planning to continue their studies in Chemistry, Biology, Conservation, Sustainability Studies, Environmental Studies/Engineering, Marine Science, Fisheries and/or Wildlife Management, Renewable Power or similar fields of study, and will attend a 2 year or 4 year college. Application should be made by completing the Scholarship Form and sending it to the scholarship chairperson by April 10, 2021. A minimum of one reference and a transcript of student’s secondary school record must accompany the application. For further information contact Marcia Kielb, Brewster Ponds Coalition Scholarship Committee, P.O. Box 459, Brewster, MA 02631. [email protected]. The Brewster Ponds Coalition mission is “protecting the health, beauty and enjoyment of the 83 Brewster ponds. It is a 501(C) 3 charitable nonprofit organization. ![]() Please join us on Saturday morning, April 10th, from 9:00 to 10:00 AM, for Brewster Pond Coalition’s 2021 Pond Summit. This year’s topics include cyanobacteria, stopping erosion at Lower Mill Pond, and the announcement of an exciting new grant program! The Science: We welcome Nancy Leland, an affiliate faculty member at the Center for Freshwater Biology and Ecotoxicology at the University of New Hampshire. Nancy will tell us about the Lower Mill Pond food web study that began in 2019. This study, conducted by BPC volunteer citizen scientists, is part of our overall research to understand cyanobacteria in our ponds. In addition, lead citizen scientist Marty Burke will describe what our volunteers are doing to identify cyanobacteria in local ponds and the aerosolized toxins that they generate in the air around them. The Volunteers: BPC Board members Nancy Ortiz and Rob Condon will join Bruce Swiren for a chat about their successful stormwater retention project at Lower Mill Pond. The Grant Program: BPC is pleased to announce the creation of a new grant program designed to support and incentivize community efforts to improve our ponds. Find out if your pond is eligible for funding to improve your pond’s water quality. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER NOW! SPACE IS LIMITED. ![]() BPC is updating its Brewster Ponds Guide for distribution this spring and we need YOUR PHOTOS showing people enjoying the public ponds: swimming, kayaking, sailing, fishing — just to name a few. We will feature one picture for each pond with credit to the photographer. Public ponds that are featured in this guide are:
Long, Slough, Upper Mill, Flax, Sheep, Schoolhouse, Walkers, Nickerson Park Ponds, Cliff and Little Cliff. To Submit Your Photo and Quote: DEADLINE MARCH 25 Email to [email protected] Please include your name, pond & short description, e.g. "Peach family kayaking at Upper Mill Pond" The free BPC Ponds Guide is available from the Brewster Chamber of Commerce, the Visitor Center, Town Hall, the Brewster Department of Natural Resources, Nickerson State Park Visitors Center, the Brewster Ladies Library, at trail heads, and at each pond that has a public access point/landing. We are also looking for “POND FUN QUOTES”, e.g. “Mill Pond is just magical for kayaking in the twilight.” Many thanks for contributing! New five minute video produced by Noah Johnson of Lower Cape Television reveals study results of airborne toxins detected in two Brewster ponds.
Marty Burke, BPC board member, and Nancy Leland, Lim-tex sample water on Lower Mill Pond How Can You Help?![]() Your $100 donation replenishes cyanobacteria testing and analysis supplies--like water collection bottles, plastic hoses vials, collection tote bags, and microscope slides--throughout the testing season. ![]() Your $200 donation equips the Citizen Scientist program with laboratory collection and analysis equipment including aerosol collection devices [pictured]. ![]() Your $500 donation goes towards the cost of cyanoscope, fluorometer, and anatoxin kit purchases. (Shown here.) Thanks to our supporters' generosity, the 2021 appeal has raised $22,000 to date to support Citizen Science and other BPC programs. Please renew your membership. It's easy--just press the button below or visit: brewsterponds.org Donate Now Thank you! Your support makes a difference for Brewster’s Ponds!
Image of Doug Smith from a video showing him taking a scoop of pond water and examining the creatures that reside within a healthy ecosystem The Pond Education Team has been hard at work converting many of our pond trip experiences and lessons into virtual equivalents. Unable to bring the students down to the pond (due to the Covid-19 Virus) for observation, exploration, and hands-on research experiences, we are in the process of creating videos of our volunteers doing just that. How Can You Help? ![]() Your $50 donation can purchase new pond books for the second and fifth grade classrooms like The Turtle Sisters of Cape Cod by local author Susan Bauer. Books will also be read aloud on video. We also need to purchase new pond activity books and coloring books for the students. ![]() Your $100 donation can purchase arts and craft supplies for creating new signs, posters, and other educational display materials, and building macroinvertebrates models. ![]() Your $150 donation can purchase materials used to create new handmade puppets. ![]() Your $200 donation can purchase a new puppet theatre and its accessories. The puppets and the puppet theater will be used to produce our own pond health related puppet show for the students, voiced by BPC volunteers. Thanks to generous supporters, the 2021 appeal has raised almost $16,000 towards a goal of $50,000, to support the Pond Education and other BPC programs.
Please renew your membership. It's easy--just press the button below or visit: brewsterponds.org to donate.
![]() BREWSTER – From June through August in the summer of 2019, Marty Burke made a twice-weekly trip to either Lower Mill Pond or Cliff Pond. It wasn’t to swim, or even to paddleboard, one of Burke’s passions now that he has retired from a career as an employee benefits and reinsurance analyst. Instead, as a volunteer with the Brewster Ponds Coalition and its citizen science committee, he traveled to the ponds to assemble an automated aerosol collector known as a CLAM. The Compact Lake Aerosol Monitor looks like a potted plant, a nondescript plastic tote sprouting four articulated gooseneck arms each hooded in black mosquito netting. It sits on a platform in shallow water, the arms positioned to droop within a few inches of the pond’s surface. It may look simple – it was custom built by researchers at the University of New Hampshire – but its purpose is incredibly complex: The monitor collects microscopic toxins from a cyanobacterial bloom that has become airborne, mainly through evaporation. Large-scale gathering of these airborne toxins for research would be prohibitively expensive for scientists to do themselves, said James Haney, professor of biological science at the UNH Center for Freshwater Biology. His department oversaw the collection process and trained the citizen scientists at the pond coalition, making sure their methods were rigorous enough that they could produce data researchers could use. For the complete article, click to go to the Cape Cod Times. ![]() The final BPC paddle event of the summer was held on Saturday night. The group embarked from Ayer's Pond in Orleans and paddled to the mouth of Little Pleasant Bay and back. It was a peaceful, sunset paddle that everyone enjoyed. Thank you to Business Partner Ryan Burch of SUPfari Adventures for sponsoring this second paddle event this summer and to guides Luke Foley, Scott Shaw and Peter Trull. Click here for a brief video of the paddle. Sixty people attended two workshops presented by BPC partner Crocker Nurseries last week. Now a videotape of the workshop and the full plants list handed out the workshop is available. Click here to see video and plants list.
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