These stage three or four monitoring activities provide baseline information, establish trends, and act as an assessment tool to track change in the environment over time. It is not practical or costeffective to measure every parameter of the bay. Therefore, a few indicators will be carefully selected to provide some indication of the overall health of the bay. With goals and objectives established by the Management Committee, the Technical Advisory Committee of the Casco Bay Estuary Project was asked to develop environmental indicators to measure outcomes for the estuary that best meet the goals and objectives. The Technical Advisory Committee is in the process of preparing scientific monitoring activities to measure the progress toward each environmental goal.
Environmental monitoring is the key to determining if the outcome sought has been achieved.
The key purpose of the Casco Bay Plan is to protect and improve the health of Casco Bay. Environmental monitoring is critical to establishing a baseline of information, to assess trends over time, and to determine if actions are having an impact on the environment. Prior to completion of the final plan, a final environmental monitoring plan will be completed to establish actions necessary to measure change. Tracking the Progress of Local Governments Municipalities play a vital role in the protection of Casco Bay. In Maine, homerule grants municipalities the authority to plan for and regulate land use within their communities.