FRYEBURG — Organizers are bringing together stakeholders from coastal Maine to New Hampshire’s White Mountains for a special conference in mid-April at Fryeburg Academy to focus on conservation challenges facing the Saco River and its watershed.

A popular summer recreation area, the Saco is frequently associated with thousands of revelers, lazily floating on the stretch of the 136-mile-long river that flows through Fryeburg and the Conway, N.H., area.

It is also, unfortunately, associated with littering, overcrowding, heavy drinking and police arrests.

“The Saco is a great natural resource,” said Jeff Stern from the Oxford County Soil and Water Conservation District, which is putting the first-of-its-kind conference together.

“But it tends to get a short shrift, because people can look at the overuse of a small portion of the river for a very short time in the year, and that gives it a certain reputation,” Stern continued.

Beginning at Saco Lake in New Hampshire’s Crawford Notch, the river flows southeast, through Oxford and York counties, before emptying into Saco Bay near the cities of Saco and Biddeford.

The aim of the daylong conference is to begin a dialogue about the myriad conservation issues facing the river, like flood mitigation, improving water quality, preventing bank erosion and enhancing fisheries.

“Protecting the watershed’s unique assets into the future presents a huge challenge to planners, state and municipal officials, and residents,” Sterns said. “This conference aims to start that dialogue.”

Organizers from the Carroll County Conservation District in New Hampshire, the University of New England, Wells Estuarine Research Reserve, Fiddlehead Environmental Consulting, Maine Association of Conservation Districts and Norway Savings Bank are co-sponsoring the conference.

Representatives from the many canoe and raft outfitters on the river are also expected to attend, Stern said. Outfitters have been at the forefront of public education efforts aimed at cutting down on littering and also take the lead on river cleanup campaigns.

Sessions will be held on topics like conservation easements, public education, recreation, economic development and native sea-run fish populations.

The keynote address, entitled “Sustaining the Saco: The power of collaboration from the headwaters to the sea,” will be delivered by Christine Feurt, the co-director of the Saco River Estuary Project at the University of New England.

Stern said organizers hope to develop a permanent two-state working group that will continue working on and addressing conservation issues on the Saco.

So far, he said, there has been “widespread enthusiasm” about the conference. He expects about 100 people to attend.

The conference will be held at the Laura Eastman Performing Arts Center at Fryeburg Academy on Wednesday, April 23. Registration before April 20 costs $30 for nonstudents and $15 for students.

Code enforcement officers, foresters and planners are eligible to receive training credits for attending the conference.

More information about the conference can be found at the OCSWCD website, www.oxfordcountyswcd.org.

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