The Spruce Creek Association continues its efforts to protect and restore Spruce Creek and its watershed. For the past three years, the SPA’s 180 members have worked to monitor the creek and inform residents of the need to protect the area, which constitutes 52 percent of the land in Kittery.

On Monday, June 19, the SPA gave a presentation at a special Kittery Town Council hearing, taking the opportunity to present the findings of two recently completed studies: the Habitat Restorations Opportunities report compiled by Northern Ecological Associates and the 2005 Spruce Creek Watershed Survey completed by the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve.

“It’s a big night for us,” said Paula Ledgett, one of the SPA’s steering committee members.

This was the first time the reports were made public. It was found that development mismanagement, including filling in segments of the creek, have negatively affected the water quality of the stream and the wildlife that inhabit it. Ten years ago, Spruce Creek was put on the Maine Department of Environmental Protection’s list of endangered watersheds.

“We’re here to educate the public and promote best management practices,” Ledgett said. “Kittery is developing, and we have to protect the water quality as we go forward with development. We have to find ways to develop and ensure high quality natural resources.”

The SPA maintains a water quality monitoring effort from June through September. Once a week, volunteers take water samples from the creek at both high and low tides, checking the levels of various gasses in the water, including dissolved oxygen. These levels serve as indicators of the creek’s overall health.

Ledgett hoped the event would serve to inform the public of the importance of development management and watershed stewardship.

“We hope we all can have a community understanding of the problems we face so we can go forward and try to solve them,” she said. “It has to be an effort on the part of the whole community or it won’t work.”

For more information on the Spruce Creek Association’s efforts, visit www.sprucecreekassociation.org.