Gulf of Maine Vital Signs talk is May 22
Camden — The Camden Public Library will host Vital Signs, led by Dee Kopesky, Rebecca Jacobs, and Hildy Ellis Thursday, May 22, at 7 p.m.
Vital Signs: A Citizen Science Initiative to Document Maine’s Biodiversity is a program of the Gulf of Maine Research Institute that supports and encourages the gathering and recording of biological data in coastal, freshwater, and upland zones in Maine.
“We have the perfect location with all three of these zones right in Camden!” said Kopesky.
A major focus of Vital Signs is to identify and document occurrences of invasive species — such as Japanese knotweed, multiflora rose, Eurasion watermilfoil, and green crab — and identify those species and habitats most vulnerable to future invasions. Recently retired from Camden-Rockport Middle School where she taught technology integration, Kopesky used Vital Signs and the Maine laptop program with her students to participate in this statewide effort.
Join Kopesky, Hildy Ellis and Rebecca Jacobs, both of Knox-Lincoln Soil & Water Conservation District, to learn about the environmental impacts of locally invasive organisms and for a demonstration of using Vital Signs to record data. For those interested, a time will be arranged for an outdoors, hands-on experience of Vital Signs.