Lake Auburn Watershed Protection Commission

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Auburn, ME
Lake Auburn Watershed Protection Commission

Our mission is to protect the water quality of Lake Auburn through watershed management, conservation, and education.

06/02/2026

🌱Mosses and lichens and liverworts, oh my!

Come join LAWPC as we explore the Land of Lilliput and learn about these miniature worlds of the forest!

📅Saturday, June 6th
🕙10am-11:30am
📍Tot Lot Trail – Fish Hatchery Rd., Auburn

📩RSVP is requested for attendance – please fill out the form at https://forms.gle/tL8xVtqnfXCU5dEB8 to secure your spot.

(Yes, we are mixing literary references here – comment if you know them both!)

05/29/2026

🦉 Thanks to all who joined in on our birding walk earlier this month! We hit the trails on an early morning in May to look for our feathered friends and contribute to the Global Big Day bird count. Highlights included a golden-winged x blue-winged warbler hybrid and a barred owl, and we identified a total of 36 species – not bad for a few hours of birding! Huge thanks to Christine Murray for leading us, and to Gary Jarvis for the incredible photos! 📸

🐦 Are you interested in getting outside, meeting new friends, and looking for birds? We're partnering with the Feminist Bird Club of Maine () to host another birding walk in June, and we'd love for you to join!

📅Saturday, June 27th
🕙8am-10am
📍Whitman Spring Road Trail (south entrance), Auburn ME

📩RSVP is requested for attendance – please fill out the form at https://forms.gle/TPPgWkrkgKNThSLJ9 to secure your spot. We hope to see you out there!

05/28/2026

🌱🛌🏻 Have you ever wished you could nap on a bed of moss?

While you may have to figure out the nap on your own time, we've got the next best thing! Come join us on our Forests of Lilliput walk – a journey into the world of mosses and lichen!

Maine Master Naturalist Jeff Pengel will guide us on a walk in the woods as we learn about these amazing, but typically unnoticed, organisms of the forest. Bring a hand lens if you have one (we will have loaners if needed) and your camera, and be prepared to dive into this miniature world!

📆 Saturday, June 6th
🕙 10am-12pm
📍 Tot Lot Trail – Fish Hatchery Rd., Auburn

📩 RSVP is requested for attendance – please fill out the form at https://forms.gle/iP8k28rEhVBFaNqX6 to secure your spot.

📸 This image was originally posted to Flickr by Amaury Laporte at 8283439@N04/53998732540" rel="ugc" target="_blank">https://flickr.com/photos/8283439@N04/53998732540 and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

05/24/2026

Want to see if your local stream is clean? Look at the bugs!

Macroinvertebrates, many of which are insect larvae, are a great indicator of water quality due to their differing pollution tolerance. We had a great time surveying a local stream recently where we found a wide variety of sensitive species, including mayflies, stoneflies, and caddisflies. This abundance of sensitive species tells us that the stream has high water quality, making it good habitat for the pickier species. (Fun fact: some species of caddisflies make protective cases using gravel, twigs, or sand – scroll to the last photo to see some caddisflies in twig armor!)

Interested in completing a macroinvertebrate survey of your own? We can help! LAWPC can lend you a sampling kit, as well as provide training resources and support. Reach out to us at [email protected] for more information.

*A huge thanks to members of Maine Conservation Corps and staff from Androscoggin Land Trust and Maine Audubon for helping out with this event!

05/22/2026

💩We didn’t realize how passionate folks were about dog p**p!

We appreciate how engaged our community is about the question of dog waste, and want to extend an especially huge thank you to those volunteers who came out with us to pick up and dispose of the nearly 200 piles of p**p along Whitman Spring Road Trail. It’s not the most glamorous of tasks, but it is incredibly impactful for protecting the water quality of the lake!

Lake Auburn is the unfiltered drinking water source for Auburn and Lewiston, and to maintain the water quality and filtration waiver, we must keep turbidity and bacteria levels low. Dog waste is a significant source of bacteria and pathogens. It also contributes excess nitrogen and phosphorus to the water, which can deplete oxygen that fish need to survive, and can even lead to toxic algal blooms.

Keeping Lake Auburn clean and free from contaminants is something that benefits everyone. Thank you for contributing to this effort by scooping the p**p!

05/02/2026

🚩 You may have noticed a large number of flags along the south entrance of Whitman Spring Road Trail... Each of these flags marks a pile of dog waste found by LAWPC staff – we found 183 piles in just the first ¼ mile of trail!

💩 In addition to just being a pretty gross thing to leave around on a walking path, dog waste poses a huge threat to the drinking water quality of Lake Auburn. Did you know...
- Dog waste pollutes the water with nitrogen and phosphorus, which can lead to algal blooms?
-Dog waste is a significant source of pathogens, and can spread parasites like salmonella and tapeworms?
-Dog waste runs off into Lake Auburn when it is left along Whitman Spring, both via surface runoff and through the numerous small tributaries that cross the road?

💧 Lake Auburn is the primary drinking water source for Auburn and Lewiston, and the sole drinking water source for many members of this community. It is also an unfiltered drinking water source, making the nutrient pollution and pathogens from dog waste particularly concerning.

✅ The good news is that there is a simple solution – just bag up your dog's waste and toss it in the trash! There are even complimentary dog waste bags and a trash can at the start of the trail. In the grand scheme of problems-to-solve right now, this one should be a slam dunk. You can give yourself and your dog kudos for helping keep the drinking water source and the environment that much cleaner!

🐕🏀 Want to up your slam dunk to Air Bud proportions? Come help us bag up the 183 piles we already found! LAWPC staff will be at the south entrance of Whitman Spring Road Trail on Monday 5/4 at 10am for a clean-up party. We'll even bring snacks (and gloves and hand sanitizer). Hope to see you there!

04/10/2026

🌱Learn about live staking, identifying live staking species, and soil erosion in this outdoor workshop event, led by Maine Conservation Corps steward Lilit Mathieu! During a brief introduction, you will learn about what live staking is and how it combats soil erosion. You will receive a live staking species ID guide to use during the plant ID workshop, then we will start harvesting! Attendees will learn proper live staking harvesting and storage techniques and can take stakes home to plant on their property! Drinks, food, and harvesting equipment will be provided. Visit our website event page for more information, and to RSVP. We hope to see you there!

04/08/2026

🌷We're kicking spring off with some exciting events!🌷

Details can be found on our website's event page. We hope you'll join us!

04/01/2026

🌱 Want a little extra pep in your step (and knowledge in your head) this spring? Come to our live staking webinar this Saturday! Learn more about this free and easy method for controlling erosion and adding native plants to your property. Participants will receive the link to the webinar after RSVPing – please visit https://forms.gle/nYQj55ZtYhMhukDe7 for more information.

03/19/2026

Spring equinox is coming up this weekend, but it still feels a little winter-like outside! The cold (and potential for snow this week) reminds us of the great time we had snowshoeing last month. Ben Nugent, USDA Wildlife Biologist, led a large group on a lovely snowshoe hike around the Tot Lot Trail in search of wildlife tracks. We found porcupine tracks and deer fur, and enjoyed the late winter sunshine. Thank you to all who participated, and to Ben for guiding us!

We have many other events coming up, and we hope to see you there! Check out the events tab on our website for more details and to RSVP.

Address

268 Court St
Auburn, ME
04210

Telephone

+12077846469

Website

http://www.lakeauburnwater.org/

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