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BIDDEFORD, Maine

UNE receives grant from Davis Conservation Foundation to support Citizen Science Project

The Davis Conservation Foundation recently approved a $5,000 proposal submitted by UNE’s Office of Institutional Advancement to support the Citizen Science Project.

The Citizen Science Project is a community-driven field research project intended to monitor the movement and feeding patterns of the endangered shortnose and threatened Atlantic species of sturgeon in the Saco River estuary.  

This $5,000 grant will go towards involving community volunteers, local K-12 students and teachers in collecting, measuring, tagging and monitoring data about these species of sturgeon.

The funded project will inform researchers about the potential recovery of the species, the need for habitat preservation and the implications of man-made changes to the estuarine portion of the river. It will also serve to connect community and student volunteers to their local environment and the issues of habitat preservation.

The Davis Conservation Foundation is a public charitable foundation established in 1989 by Phyllis C. Davis and H. Halsey Davis of Falmouth, Maine. It aims to support protection of the environment and conservation of natural resources.  The Foundation has been an important partner to UNE in the past, most notably helping to secure the 161 acre preserved wetlands adjacent to the University’s Biddeford Campus with a generous donation in 2009. 

About the University of New England

The University of New England is Maine’s largest independent university, with two beautiful coastal campuses in Maine, a one-of-a-kind study abroad campus in Tangier, Morocco, and an array of flexible, accredited online degrees. In an uncommonly welcoming and supportive community, we offer hands-on learning, empowering students to make a positive impact in a world full of challenges. The state’s top provider of health professionals, we are home to Maine’s only medical college, Maine’s only dental college, a variety of other interprofessionally aligned health care degree programs, as well as nationally recognized programs for marine science degrees, natural and social sciences degrees, arts and humanities degrees, and business degrees.