2019 Annual Meeting Draws Large Crowd to Hear About BPC's Role in Cyanobacteria Research

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Board members Gwen Pelletier (left) and Sue Searles (right) presented the 2019 Splash Award to Jan McGann (center) for her BPC accomplishments. Jan is instrumental in the Pond Education Program--liaising with Brewster schools as well as organizing and running the pond field trips. And she is a Citizen Scientist, too. Thanks, Jan, for all you do!

The 2019 Annual BPC Meeting drew the largest audience yet--over 90 people attended the August 10 meeting at the Captains Golf Course. President Tom Vautin discussed 2019 accomplishments with the Pond Education program, the Citizen Scientist program, and the Elbow Pond Restoration Project; and progress implementing strategic plan--most importantly building organizational capacity to fulfill the BPC's mission to protect and preserve Brewster’s ponds. Click here to upload Tom’s presentation. ​

The keynote speakers, Nancy Leland (center) and Hailey Carter (left), talked about their cyanobacteria research at the University of New Hampshire Center for Freshwater Biology and the BPC’s role in the program. For three years, BPC volunteers have taken samples every two weeks between May and September, and submitted them to UNH for analysis, increasing from sampling five ponds in the first year to ten ponds this year. The number of BPC volunteers has increased from ten to seventeen. The samples help Nancy to develop models to predict cyanobacteria blooms and their toxicity. She feels it is important to involve the local community in cyanobacteria monitoring because state and federal governments don’t have the resources to test every pond. “It comes down to you--the local community--to make informed, timely decisions about cyanobacteria blooms.” Hailey discussed this year’s new aerosol sampling process in two Brewster ponds for airborne cyanobacteria toxins. Click here to upload Nancy’s and Hailey’s presentations.

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