Projects

Road Salt:  The Center is working with the NH Department of Environmental Services on two projects to study the protection of waterways by reducing the use of road salt. The grant is part of a DES water quality study in advance of the widening of I-93 south of Concord. Road salt (sodium chloride) is increasingly being recognized as a contaminant in New England surface waters because of land development, more roads and the need for de-icing these roads. Chloride is often linked to a general decrease in water quality: nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus increase in lakes leading to algal blooms and increased occurrence of invasive plant species. Recent publications have documented increases in chloride of as much as 400 percent in New England lakes in the past 20 years.

One project involves obtaining information on chloride loading rates from deicing parking lots and private roads as part of a study of the Total Maximum Daily Load of chlorides in four watersheds in southern New Hampshire. Graduate student Dari Sassan will use the data for his master’s thesis in environmental science and policy.

The second project involves researching and identifying the barriers to and incentives for behavior changes needed to achieve required salt load reductions. Associate Director Brian Eisenhauer is leading a group of researchers on developing and implementing a survey and conducting focus groups to determine the barriers and incentives. Key groups being studied include the New Hampshire Salt Reduction Workgroup members and their stakeholders.

Every Acre Counts: the Newfound Watershed Master Plan: The Center for the Environment is working with the Newfound Lake Region Association (NLRA), the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension, Newfound Area School District, and Jeffrey H. Taylor & Associates to develop a master plan for the Newfound Lake watershed. This project is funded by a Watershed Assistance and Restoration Grant from the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services. A watershed plan is often a key component of managing water resources at the watershed scale, as a plan can provide a holistic framework for the application of management tools that meet water resources goals for the entire watershed. As watersheds typically cross town lines, the development of a watershed plan is a collaborative process involving multiple stakeholders.

The Center and PSU’s Office of University Relations are involved in the project. The Center’s associate director Brian Eisenhauer has conducted an initial survey of residents in the watershed to determine their values and desires for the future of the watershed and its environmental characteristics. This survey will also provide information for stewardship education by asking questions to determine the knowledge base of residents. A follow-up survey will determine if the watershed planning process results in changes in knowledge, and determine the most effective steps to increase stewardship. Oral histories of the region are also being collected to determine past land use and general attitudes about the area.

University Relations is working with the Center and the NLRA to help increase awareness about the need for watershed planning and management, promote watershed initiatives and establish links in the public’s mind about the connection between land use, watershed management, and water quality in Newfound Lake.

High Elevation Lakes: The federal Clean Air Act of 1990 has resulted in substantial reductions in acid rain. In the northeastern United States, EPA-funded research, led by the Center for the Environment’s director Steve Kahl, has documented recovery in lake chemistry over the past decade, a success story for environmental protection. Part of the evaluation of the effectiveness of the Clean Air Act has been to study the response of high elevation lakes, which respond more quickly than others, giving advance indication of regional response. The New Hampshire Electric Cooperative Foundation has funded the Center to sample remote, high elevation lakes in New Hampshire this year, adding data from lakes in the region to national databases.

Samples collected will be analyzed at the Center for the Environment’s Environmental Research Laboratory using standard methods established by EPA. Reports of the data will be developed and the public will be informed of these results in press releases and other materials.

Changing Homeowner’s Lawn Care Behavior: Brian Eisenhauer, associate director of the Center for the Environment and assistant professor of sociology, along with a team of other researchers from universities throughout New England, has received funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service for a project called “Changing Homeowner’s Lawn Care Behavior to Reduce Nutrient Runoff in New England’s Urbanizing Watersheds.”

Homeowners often unknowingly contribute to environmental problems in their own backyards through their lawn care practices. Lawn fertilizers add nutrients to the environment, which sometimes run off site and have unintended consequences for the local environment. Increasing urbanization causes an increase in nutrients in surface and ground water, which, in part, come from yard fertilizers.

The project applies environmental and behavioral research to educational efforts by Cooperative Extension offices to reduce the application of excess nutrients by homeowners in targeted, urbanizing neighborhoods throughout New England. The ultimate goal is to protect surface and groundwater quality. This innovative project merges social science, environmental science and outreach to educate people about their behavior in their own yards, while teaching future scientists and outreach professionals about the confluence of social and environmental sciences.

The project involves researchers at the Universities of New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. The Center for the Environment will be leading the social research effort. Brian Gagnon, a graduate student in the Center for the Environment’s M.S. in Environmental Science and Policy program, along with several undergraduate students, is assisting with the research. 

New Hampton Natural Resources Inventory:  The Center is developing a Natural Resources Inventory for the Town of New Hampton. Faculty member Rick Van de Poll is working with graduate student Denyce Gagne and the New Hampton Conservation Commission to inventory and map key natural features.  

WMNF Forest Discovery Trail: The White Mountain National Forest (WMNF) has partnered with the Center for the Environment to enhance educational services and programs along the WMNF Forest Discovery Trail off the Kancamagus Highway, east of Lincoln, NH. The Forest Discovery Trail is a living classroom in ecological management. The 1.5 mile loop trail leads through 85 acres of young hardwoods and stands of old pines, past rocky streams and forest wetlands. Examples of forest practices that are patterned after natural disturbances are highlighted at 10 stops along the trail. The Forest Service developed the Trail to teach people about a working forest.

In the summer, students from the Center coordinate interpretive programs and give tours of the trail on weekends. Participants learn about forest ecology and management, and gain an understanding of the surrounding White Mountain National Forest. The Center is also working on developing a Forest Discovery Trail Junior Ranger Book for use by the WMNF.

Environmental Research Laboratory: The Center for the Environment’s water quality laboratory was established in 2006. This lab serves as a satellite regional surface water quality laboratory in partnership with the NH Department of Environmental Services. The lab is a more convenient site for testing samples for the state’s lake and river monitoring programs in the Lakes Region and northern New Hampshire, and also serves CFE’s research needs.

Facilities include laboratory space of approximately 1000 sq. ft., and a common high bay/field staging area in the Boyd Science Center at PSU. Equipment in the lab allows CFE researchers to perform analyses on turbidity, apparent color, closed cell pH, equilibrated pH, acid neutralizing capacity, total phosphorus, fluoride, chloride, bromide, nitrate, nitrite, phosphate, sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulfate, ammonium, conductivity,  total suspended solids, aluminum, E. coli, and chlorophyll-a. All samples for research analyzed in this facility follow guidelines established by the Environmental Protection Agency and/or NHDES. The lab is staffed by two laboratory technicians assisted by graduate and undergraduate students giving them practical experience.

Effectiveness of the Clean Air Act: The Environmental Protection Agency has funded the Center for the Environment to evaluate the effectiveness of the Clean Air Act in helping recovery of lakes and streams from acid rain. In addition to the legal issues surrounding this topic in suits brought by most New England states, this matter relates to the economics of the sport fishing industry and related tourism. This project continues 20 years of previous work and provides funding to the University of NH and Dartmouth College via a subcontract from PSU.

Ore Hill Reclamation Project: The White Mountain National Forest (WMNF) has partnered with the Center for the Environment for monitoring water quality at the former Ore Hill Mine in Warren, NH, and close to the Appalachian National Scenic Trail (AT). The former mine has impacted Ore Hill Brook due to the discharge of acidic water with high metal content. The Forest Service is addressing the site under its Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) authority and reclaimed the site in 2006.

Graduate students are involved in regularly sampling the stream that drains the site to monitor changes in the water chemistry at the site. Over the next several years, the Center for the Environment will be involved in this long term effort by the WMNF to protect the water resources of the area around the mine.

Squam Lake Geologic Study: The Center for the Environment has partnered with the Squam Lakes Association on a pilot study of groundwater flow and lake sediments in Squam Lake. Faculty member Tom Shevenell and affiliate associate professor Mike Prentice are working with others to survey a portion of the lake to learn about the distribution of lake sediments and groundwater discharge into the lake. A detailed bathymetric survey of a sub-basin has been completed, which will provide a model of the lake bottom and direct the location for a ground-penetrating radar (GPR) survey planned for later this summer. The GPR data provides information on the distribution of sediments in the study area and help guide future research.

The sediment depth and record, combined with water chemistry analysis, is a first step to understanding whether a high volume of groundwater is discharging into a deep area of the lake, and whether, as a result, the area exhibits significantly different water quality characteristics and/or signs of a unique biological community. The GPR survey helps locate areas where lake-bottom sediments are shallow, while revealing potential locations for focusing current and future groundwater research.

The GPR survey will also help identify a location to collect lake sediments. Cores of lake sediment will be used to study the lake’s post-glacial depositional history in order to identify climatic changes and possible anthropogenic impacts, as well as the environmental conditions under which the groundwater is flowing from bedrock fractures into the deep area of the lake. 

Understanding the linkages between recharge areas within the lake watershed and unique ecosystems within the lake environment can form a scientific basis for identifying and preserving natural habitats within the watershed.

Environment and economy of the Northern Forest: A project funded by the Davis Conservation Foundation support the first phase of a project to found the Northern Forest Council of Colleges and Universities. This is a joint project with the Northern Forest Center in Concord and the Center for Rural Partnerships at PSU. The goal of this project is to develop an inventory northern forest research as a first step in assisting in the marketing, brand-identity, and sense of community in the east-west oriented Northern Forest.