FARMINGTON – Invasive aquatic plants are an escalating problem in Maine, and one that a University of Maine at Farmington senior and computer science major wants to help prevent.
Christopher Bond of Gardiner, created a free app — or specialized software program to use with a mobile device — that will help people in the field identify invasive aquatic plant species and report them to a lake monitoring program in Maine.
As a junior, Bond joined a group of UMF faculty researchers and student interns working on a National Science Foundation Grant project to protect Maine’s natural resources and help advance economic development in the Rangeley Lakes Region.
“UMF’s five-year NSF EPSCoR Grant has brought together a number of community leaders, educators and student interns like Bond who are all focused on helping the Rangeley region sustain its economy with sound environmental practices,” said Christopher Bennett, UMF assistant professor of computer science and Bond’s faculty advisor. “Chris’s project is a great example of how today’s technology can help us do that.”
Bond’s invasive aquatic plant app features 11 of the most frequently encountered invasive aquatic plants in Maine. With a series of questions and high quality graphics, the app helps the viewer identify the suspected intruders. Once identified, the viewer can attach a photo of the plant and the GPS coordinates of its location to an email that is then sent to the Maine Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program that helps protect Maine lakes.
“Working as an intern with the NSF Grant project has been a great professional experience,” Bond said. “It’s very rewarding to know the results of my internship could help in the fight to keep Maine waterways free from invasive plants.”
Bond has published the invasive aquatic plant app on the Android app store where it can be downloaded for free. He is also currently working on “Angler,” an app that helps Rangeley area fishermen comply with current laws and prevent over fishing, and a stewardship app that provides self-guided tours and folklore of the Rangeley area.
The NSF EPSCoR Grant is in the fourth year of UMF’s five-year study in partnership with The Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust and the Rangeley Lakes Region Logging Museum, community advisors, and area educators and high school students to understand how good sustainability practices in the region work to help protect and sustain its broad outdoor-based tourism economy.
Update: Here is the link to the app created by Chris Bond:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=maine.epscor.invasive_species&hl=en
Congratulations Chris and thank you.
Now – at the risk of setting off the usual “Apple vs. everyone else in the world,” any chance this app will become available for the iPhone, iPod and iPad?
Well done, Christopher Bond!
Can you publish the link to download the APP?
Thanks
Chris, This is great. My sister and I just attended a daylong seminar on invasive plant species, and would really welcome being able to access your app on our iPads. This is such an important work you are doing…we must preserve our lakes, and early detection is the primary method! We are just starting to get our new lake assoc., to realize the magnitude of invasive plant species…much work to be done! Thank you…
By the way, I am a Bond with past roots in Jefferson , Maine. Any connection? My husband and I live fairly close, and our daughter was married there in the local church.
Best of luck in your endeavors with invasive plants. Any way I can download your created app on my iPad?
Lynda
Yes, Chris, where can I download this App to my Android tablet? It would be great to have access to during lakeshore surveys. My searches of Google store don’t yield a hit on key words.
It’s good to see Lynda and Beth working on this for Ipads.
Link to app created by Chris Bond: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=maine.epscor.invasive_species&hl=en
Great Job Chris, I just seached the App Store for Apple it is not there yet will keep looking for it, Thanks again for organizing the App
If you’re running Android, go to the Google Play store and put “Maine Invasive Species” into the search bar. Mr. Bond’s app pops right up. Thank you very much. What a great tool to help preserve Maine’s waterways.