FRANKLIN JOURNAL • October 30, 2020
The Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust and the Maine Mountain Collaborative hosted a virtual symposium on Climate Change in Maine’s Mountains on Oct. 26 and 27. A repeating message among guest researchers was the need to increase awareness and conservation of Maine’s riparian zones. These zones are the buffer ecosystems that border lakes, streams and other surface waters such as floodplains. Riparian zones protect surface waters by providing a habitat for plants that prevent erosion and filter sediment into larger bodies of water. These zones also regulate water temperatures which benefits many amphibians and fish such as brook trout.