High Water: Stories from Maine's Mountain Ponds

On a blustery November day, we stumbled upon brook-trout spawning in Mountain Pond.  © 2026 Amanda Gavin & Bryan Wentzell. Editing by Alice. Music by Lana Cooney. Art by Ryan Smith. All Rights Reserved.

Episode 5 takes us west to Mountain Pond in Rangely to get out on the lake with Julia Daly and Rachel Hovel, professors at University of Maine Farmington. In 2007, Julia got a wild idea to put a temperature buoy in Tumbledown Pond, and now nearly twenty years later, Julia and Rachel have continuous temperature and ice monitoring data across 9 ponds. We learn about how Julia’s background in geology...

In episode 4, we travel north to talk with Sarah Nelson, Director of Research at the Appalachian Mountain Club, who has played a key role in keeping Maine mountain pond research rolling and relevant for over 15 years. Sarah tells us about mountain pond sampling from a helicopter as a graduate student and we learn about how acid rain and climate change impact pond ecosystems. © 2026 Amanda Gavin &a...

Join us for a conversation with Matt Scott, Linda Bacon, and Steve Kahl, the founders of the High-Elevation Lake Monitoring Project. From this oral history of Maine mountain pond research, we learn about why they started this project that pioneered long-term monitoring in remote areas and how they made a lasting impact on lake science and stewardship across the state.  © 2026 Amanda Gavin & Br...

Join us on a bluebird September day as we hike up to 3,685 feet to meet Hawk Metheny at the highest pond in Maine- Speck Pond. Hawk is the Vice President of Trail Management at the Appalachian trail Conservancy that has been working Speck Pond for over thirty years. We talk to Hawk about his approach to maintaining the balance between quality recreational experiences while protecting natural resou...

Welcome to High Water: Stories of Maine's Mountain Ponds, a four-part podcast series about Maine's mountain-top gems and the people who have studied and stewarded them for decades. In this introductory episode, meet your hosts, Amanda Gavin and Bryan Wentzell, and get a preview of the stories ahead. © 2026 Amanda Gavin & Bryan Wentzell. Editing by Alice. Music by Lana Cooney. Art by Ryan Smith...