On May 5th, 2024, in honor of National Drinking Water Week, freelance storytellers Jenny O’Connell and Andy Gagne will embark on a source to sea paddling expedition from Bethel, Maine, to Casco Bay, kayaking 100 miles with a small team of local adventurers and environmentalists. Our mission is to transport our audience into the watershed, demonstrating how the rivers, forests and wildlife are all so connected to the faucet, and to highlight the unique and creative ways people are working together to protect this water source for future generations. 

The Sebago Lake watershed provides over 200,000 households–1 in 6 Mainers–with drinking water. The forests around Sebago Lake act as a natural filtration system, making it one of the top 50 cleanest water drinking supplies in the U.S. But Maine has reached a tipping point: with the recent development boom we’re seeing increased deforestation, and losing as little as 8% of the forests around Sebago Lake could have big consequences for water quality.

It’s a rare environmental story where humans haven't yet destroyed the natural system...but the threat is real.

Starting in Songo Pond, we will paddle all passable sections of the Crooked River, Songo River, Sebago Lake, and Presumpscot River, ending at Mackworth Island in Casco Bay. The journey will be challenging -- recreation is scarce on these narrow rivers due to dams, downed trees, and protected Atlantic salmon habitat (not to mention it’s Jenny’s first time in a whitewater kayak!). We anticipate many portages. But it feels important to us to understand with our bodies the price of development and barriers to fish passage.

Along the way, we’ll meet with leaders of local conservation organizations to learn about the creative ways they are collaboratively working to protect the watershed, join a wildlife biologist at a spawning site for Atlantic salmon, climb aboard a water monitoring boat with Portland Water District scientists, discuss Maine breweries’ reliance on the watershed over a beer with Allagash brewers, and hear from a First Nations poet and environmental activist about the cultural and spiritual importance of protected waterways. The story, told through writing and photography by Jenny and Andy and a short documentary film by Maine Mountain Media, will highlight the legacy of local watershed conservation efforts from Wabanaki Chief Polin’s 1736 march to Boston in protest of damming the Presumpscot to the 2021 Sebago Clean Waters Coalition easement that conserved 12,000 acres of forestland – as well as focus on the present moment and the work that lies ahead.

Jenny and Andy have been collaborating since 2020 on adventure and environmental stories that connect readers to the planet, highlight sustainable solutions, celebrate individuals and organizations creatively working to protect wild places and natural resources, and center around inclusivity and representation in the outdoors. View our past stories.

We hope that our storytelling adventure will provide our audience with an exciting, propulsive way to enter the conversation around clean water, inspire public engagement in preserving the Sebago Lake watershed, and share solutions for how other communities can work together to protect our water sources for future generations.

Check out our Route!

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