Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust will host their annual mushroom workshop on August 12 in Rangeley. Taught by expert Greg Marley, this day-long workshop is devoted to building the skills needed to identify common mushrooms and to begin a lifetime of wild mushrooming. The class will combine lecture and outdoor experience to look at identification features, ecology, and the seasonal occurrence of mushrooms. Participants should be prepared for a hike and a fun learning day and are invited to bring fresh specimens of mushrooms from their property.
News
Our community cares deeply about conserving our land and water. The threat of an invasive species is real for the lakes, rivers, and our regional economy. Last summer, Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust received numerous calls about suspicious plants in our lakes.
RLHT needs water quality volunteers for the 2023 season! Water Quality Monitors are volunteers who collect clarity, dissolved oxygen data, and total phosphorus biweekly on regional waterbodies. Each year, RLHT appeals to the community to lend a hand; there are three ways to help.
The week of April 15-22, Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust sponsored daily events celebrating International Dark Sky Week encouraging our community to “Discover the Night!”
The Discover the Night Poster Contest was for all students through grade 9 in the Rangeley Lakes Region. Submissions were displayed at businesses along Main Street in Rangeley.
Julia Morin of Broad Brook, CT, is the 2023 Maine Conservation Corps Environmental Steward with the Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust.
While serving with RLHT, Morin will coordinate the Headwaters Lake Protection Program, which oversees the water quality health in the Rangeley Lakes region. Morin is a certified Water Quality Monitor, LakeSmart Evaluator, and Courtesy Boat Inspector and will be an Invasive Plant Patroller.
Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust and the Rangeley Lakes Regional School partnered this spring to teach kindergarteners through 5th and 9th – 10th grades water safety skills and how to canoe. RLRS Physical Education teacher Lindsay Richards and RLHT’s Amanda Laliberte thought outside the box by partnering with RLHT to get over 120 kids on the water.
The 5th Annual Rangeley Birding Festival wrapped up with the John Bicknell Award for Birding Conservation presentation at the Rangeley Inn on June 10. The 2023 John Bicknell Award for Birding Conservation Excellence was presented to Barbara and the late Peter Vickery of Richmond. Together they have done substantial and permanent work to conserve bird habitats in Maine.
Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust is behind a community-driven movement to conserve Rangeley’s night sky.
Rangeley lies in Maine’s Western Mountains, surrounded by 200,000 acres of conserved lands. Vast swaths of uninhabited forest stretch from Madrid Township to the New Hampshire border and extend north to the Canadian border, making our region one of the darkest places left on the East Coast. It’s identified as a globally critical habitat due to habitat continuity and connectivity.
MILLERSBURG, OH – The National Scenic Byway Foundation congratulates the Rangeley Lakes National Scenic Byway as a winner of our 2023 Byway Organization Award for Hospitality. This is one of the Foundation’s eight national awards presented annually.
The week of April 15-22 Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust will sponsor daily events celebrating International Dark Sky Week encouraging our community to “Discover the Night!”
“Maine’s night skies are the darkest east of the Mississippi River. Our night sky is celebrated as a shared heritage that benefits all living things internationally, we want to make people aware of the issues,” said Amanda Laliberte, Program Director for RLHT. “RLHT engaging and educating our community with these events to shut off the lights and turn on the stars!”
