Wheels on the Waterfront

BANGOR – The Greater Bangor Convention and Visitors Bureau will hold its first Bangor Car Show, Wheels on the Waterfront, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 7, on the Waterfront, rain or shine.

Car shows are held every year all summer all over the state. But it has been years since Bangor has been host to one as large as this, organizers said. More than 3,000 participants from Maine and eastern Canada are expected to show off their vehicles.

“We also expect to have several hundred, if not a thousand, folks show up to admire the cars and stroll around the sponsor booths,” said committee chairman Bob Bangs, owner of Windswept Gardens.

The event will offer door prizes, a 50-50 raffle, special entertainment and a variety of food vendors.

Prizes will be awarded for Best in Show, Antiques up to 1949, Best of the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, ’90s up to the present, Camaro-Firebird 1967-1981, Camaro-Firebird 1982 and up, all years of Corvette, Imports, Mopar, Motorcycle, Muscle Cars, Mustang 1964-1973, Mustang 1974 and up, Remote Control, Special Interest, Street Rods to 1949, Tuners-Domestic, Tuners-Import, 2×4 Trucks and 4×4 Trucks.

Admission is $3. Supervised children under 5 attend free.

Those interested in showing a car pay a $10 registration fee that includes admission for car, driver and one passenger.

The first 200 participants to pre-register for the event get a free T-shirt. Vehicles may check in 8-10 a.m.

This is a participant-judged show, and trophies will be awarded at 2 p.m. For more information, visit www.BangorCarShow.com or call 800-91-MOOSE or 947-5205.

Soccer state championship

HAMPDEN – By winning the recent US Youth Soccer Maine State Championship, two Hampden area soccer teams, U12 Boys 8v8 Blackbears United FC and U12 Girls 8v8 Blackbears FC, qualified to compete in the US Youth Soccer Region I (East Regional) Championships.

The teams were among the more than 270 top boys and girls US Youth Soccer teams from the 15 state associations competing for the regional title, June 28-July 3, at the US Youth Soccer Region I Championships at Bowdoin College in Brunswick and Falmouth Park and Falmouth High School.

The US Youth Soccer Region I Championships featured top teams in the Under-12 through Under-19 age groups. Preliminary games were played June 27-29, semifinal matches June 30, and the US Youth Soccer Region I Championship on July 1.

US Youth Soccer State Champions and select runners-up from 15 state associations, including host Maine, participated. Also taking part were Connecticut, Delaware, eastern New York, eastern Pennsylvania, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York West, Pennsylvania West, Rhode Island, Soccer Maine, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia.

Regional winners of the Under-14 through Under-19 brackets earned a berth to the 2008 US Youth Soccer National Championships played July 22-27 in Little Rock, Ark.

Of the 12 national championship trophies, this year marks the 73rd anniversary of the James P. McGuire Cup, the oldest trophy in youth sport. Dating back to 1935 with the inaugural youth championships, the McGuire Cup is awarded to the Under-19 Boys National Champions.

The U.S. Soccer Federation initiated youth championships with the McGuire Cup. Since its creation in 1974, US Youth Soccer has added 11 divisions to the National Championships, most recently with the Under-14 and Under-15 Boys and Girls divisions in 2001 to create the series’ current format.

After individual US Youth Soccer State Championship tournaments, the US Youth Soccer Regional Championships are the second leg of the country’s national youth soccer tournament, the US Youth Soccer National Championship Series.

For more information visit http://Championships.US

YouthSoccer.org.

Outdoor Adventure Club

BANGOR – What’s the future of Maine’s North Woods? The 10.5 million acres known as the North Woods is the largest remaining undeveloped forest east of the Mississippi.

This tract of wilderness is significant to Maine’s heritage and cultural identity, said Diano Circo, North Woods policy advocate and outreach coordinator for the Natural Resources Council of Maine. Circo will give a presentation, including maps and photos, to members of the Eastern Maine Chapter of the Maine Outdoor Adventure Club at its monthly meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 26, at Epic Sports, 6 Central St.

According to Circo, in the last decade there have been considerable land ownership changes as paper companies sell their land to investors, real estate developers and pension funds. One result of these sales has been an increase in conservation lands primarily through easements, which remove development rights but leave ownership of the land in private hands, and through new land conservation purchases by the state and private, nonprofit conservation groups.

The Land Use Regulatory Commission is the planning board for the North Woods and is in the process of putting together its 10-year Comprehensive Land Use Plan.

Circo will talk about the plan and how it will shape the future of the North Woods. The 10-year plan, to be published in 2009, will be the guide for reviewing development proposals and protecting important ecological areas.

For more information, visit www.moac.org.

Orono recreation

ORONO – The Mary Drew School of Dance, in cooperation with the Orono Recreation Department, will begin fall classes on Monday, Sept. 29.

Tuesday ballet classes are for preschoolers and children in kindergarten to grade three.

Wednesday classes are intermediate and advanced pointe and a women’s dance workout.

Thursday classes are beginner pointe and ballet for children in grades four and five.

Pre-registration and shoe fitting time is 4-5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 9, at the Keith Anderson Community House, 19 Bennoch Road.

Tuition is $100 for the 10 lessons. There is also a spring recital costume fee of $75 due by Dec. 1. For detailed times and further information, call Mary Drew at 866-3832.

Grant to Wildlands

ORLAND – Native brook trout in the Great Pond Mountain Wildlands will receive a boost this summer in the form of volunteer habitat improvement, an $80,000 grant from USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and a $10,000 grant from Trout Unlimited.

Great Pond Mountain Conservation Trust will use the grant funding to help build a new bridge over Hopkins Meadow Brook on Mead Mountain Trail, used by snowmobilers; to replace the Hothole Brook Trail bridge; and to reclaim the southern half of the large gravel pit on Valley Road.

Each of these areas was identified by conservation service and state biologists as a problem spot for native trout due to erosion of sediment into streams and-or lack of fish passage.

“The 15 miles of gravel logging roads built before we purchased the Wildlands have become an excellent network of recreational trails, but they’ve also become a source of erosion into Hothole Brook and its tributaries,” said Wildlands Executive Director Cheri Domina. “This grant money will help us stabilize the worst of the problem areas – keeping our streams open for brook trout and our trails open for public enjoyment.”

The $10,000 Embrace-A-Stream Grant from Trout Unlimited will be used as matching funds for the $80,000 Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program grant received last year from the conservation service for these projects. Grant funding covers about 80 percent of the project cost, said Domina. The remainder needs to be raised from donations. The projects are due to be completed by fall 2009.

A crew from Wardwell Construction and Trucking of Orland recently finished the gravel pit work. The Wildlands is seeking bids on the bridge jobs and hoping the work will be done early this fall.

Trout Unlimited’s Maine Council will bring volunteers to join forces with Great Pond Mountain Conservation Trust on two habitat enhancement projects on Saturday, Aug. 23.

The projects will involve in-stream work to improve a site on upper Hothole Brook where a hanging culvert prevents fish movement upstream, and another site adjacent to the gravel pit where excess gravel runoff has choked the brook.

Volunteers will meet at 9 a.m. at the Wildlands South Gate on Route 1. They are asked to bring gloves, shovels, 5-gallon buckets, boots, water, sun and bug protection, and snacks.

To obtain more information or to volunteer, call Wildlands Steward Jake Maier, e-mail j.m@jmforestry.com or call 989-1403. To learn more about the Wildlands or to donate to the bridge project fund, call 469-7190, e-mail cdomina@midmaine.com.