8984-R2_NewGloucester_2023-2024_AnnualReport_Web

ANNUAL REPORT New Gloucester Environmental Resources Committee

The Environmental Resources Committee meets the first Thursday of the month at 5:30 pm Ongoing projects of the ERC included: • Fairground Pollinator Garden. Members met for several workdays to maintain the pollinator garden and other landscape plantings at the fairgrounds. Plants purchased from Donna’s Greenhouse were added to the garden in the fall. The garden was part of the NG 250th celebration garden tour. • Participation in the community fair. Our 2024 topic was “Climate Resilience” where we gathered information about vulnerable areas within NG. We had another free raffle for a lobster trap composter. • Our Annual Seed giveaway was once again held in conjunction with the FNGPL book • sale. We continued to offer the Pine Tree packaged seeds. Seeds are available all season at the public library. • Apparel Impact Bin at the transfer station, as of Feb 2023 collected 8880 lbs. of textile items that would otherwise end up in a landfill or burn facility. • Winter Seed Sowing Workshop. We offered this no cost opportunity to community members to learn about the process of starting native perennial plants in pots during the winter months. Participants went home with 4-5 pots of various flowering plants ready to be overwintered in their yards. All materials were provided by ERC and a donation of potting soil from Cook’s Ace Hardware in Gray. • •NGX Articles. In an effort to connect with the community, we created a list of topics relevant to our mission and began submitting occasional stories regarding recycling practices, Earth Day 2024, being an “invasivore” and the process of winter seed sowing. • Town Waste and Recycling Practices. Our ongoing efforts to increase recycling and reduce landfill waste resulted in a special meeting with the select board and Maine Waste to Energy, the company that handles our transfer station waste. MWtoE gave an overview of current practices followed by a Q&A session with the selectboard and ERC. The select board has subsequently signed a 1-year contract with Corcoran Environmental Services to increase New Gloucester’s recycling efforts.

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