Our Maine Street's Aroostook Issue 8 : Spring 2011 | Page 75

Spring brings major educational,
cultural opportunities to UMPI
A project about the Aroostook River Watershed that has
received National Science Foundation funding.
A play by a Tony Award-nominated artist who calls Presque
Isle his hometown.
What do they have in common? They’re both major efforts
– one educational, one cultural – that have been undertaken this
spring at the University of Maine at Presque Isle.
A team of UMPI professors received $75,000 in National
Science Foundation [NSF] funding in order to conduct research this
spring and summer related to the sustainable development of the
Aroostook River Watershed. The team’s project is titled Modeling
Evolving Ecological, Cultural, and Economic Systems of the Aroostook
River Watershed of Northern Maine for Sustainable Development.
The Aroostook River Watershed encompasses the communities of
Presque Isle, Caribou and Fort Fairfield.
UMPI’s NSF funding is part of an Experimental Program to
Stimulate Competitive Research [EPSCoR] grant, which is being led
by the University of Maine in Orono and the University of Southern
Maine.
The work the UMPI team is doing this year involves
studying the historical and present uses of the watershed area – and
the impacts of those uses – and compiling that data into GIS map
and database form. The project also focuses on the area’s existing
environmental resources in two ways: through developing materials
that promote the region’s non-motorized trails, and through
studying the region’s grassland habitats to identify and promote the
use of currently underutilized lands for bio-fuel production in a way
that least impacts wildlife.
The UMPI team, being led by Dr. Jason Johnston, Assistant
Professor of Wildlife Ecology, includes Professor David Putnam,
Lecturer of Science; Dr. Kimberly Sebold, Associate Professor of
History; Dr. Chunzeng Wang, Associate Professor of Earth and
Environmental Science; and Dr. Anja Whittington, Assistant Professor
of Recreation and Leisure Services.

Above: Dr. Johnston places a colored leg band on a chickadee.
The researchers are collaborating with more than a dozen
state and regional stakeholders and are hiring seven undergraduate
students and one high school student to help with the research.
Team members will be hosting workshops for local educators,
city officials and community members about sustainable resource
usage. Their hope is that engaging and educating these groups will
increase the use of best practices in the sustainable development of
the watershed area.
This spring also saw the hometown premiere of John
Cariani’s Almost, Maine, on the Wieden Auditorium stage – with
Cariani himself as one of the cast members. The Presque Isle native,
who appeared in several Presque Isle High School musicals, earned
a Tony Award nomination in 2004 for his role as Motel the Tailor in
the Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof.
Cariani’s first play, Almost, Maine, has been produced
throughout the U.S. over 600 times; internationally, it’s played in
South Korea, Germany, Canada, Dubai, and Australia. But it hadn’t
been performed in Presque Isle until it was staged at UMPI this
spring.
For the local performances, Cariani reunited with Barbara
Frick Ladner – the production’s director and his director back in his
high school days – as well as with Joe Zubrick – the production’s set
and stage designer and Cariani’s director in several UMPI Pioneer
Playhouse productions. Cariani shared the stage with members of
the Presque Isle Community Players, including Jeff Ashby, Tamia
Glidden, Frank Grant, Debbie Lamont, Tamara Scott, Brian Sipe, Mel
Smith, Rod Thompson, and Ginny White. This special production,
which served as a kick-off for the University’s efforts to secure
support for renovations to Wieden Auditorium, was a once-in-alifetime opportunity for theater-lovers in northern Maine and was
enthusiastically embraced by the community.
To learn more about these and other exciting cultural and
educational activities taking place at UMPI, visit www.umpi.edu.
SPRING 2011 Higher Education 73