Brewster Ponds Coalition's 2025 Annual Meeting

Please mark Saturday, August 9, on your calendars for the BPC Annual Meeting, taking place at the Cape Cod Bible Alliance Church (3600 Main Street, Brewster) from 8:30 to 11 AM. Registration and breakfast will begin at 8:30 AM, with the meeting starting at 9 AM. A short summary of past year events, awards, and a brief business meeting will take place before the Annual Meeting’s featured speaker.

Julie Hambrook Berkman, PhD, Project Director of the Pond and Cyanobacteria Monitoring Programs at the Association to Preserve Cape Cod (APCC), will deliver a presentation about cyanobacteria. She will present key facts about how it affects our ponds, including a brief review of the biology and ecology of these organisms, how blooms are produced, the APCC processing techniques and risk levels, as well as potential causes of cyanobacteria in individual ponds and potential actions to prevent them. Time will be allowed for questions and answers.

The Annual Meeting is free to BPC members, so be sure to reserve your spot. For non-members, we are suggesting a $10 donation at the event. Many thanks to Agway of Cape Cod, a BPC business partner, for its sponsorship of this year's meeting. 

JULIE HAMBROOK BERKMAN, PhD BIO

Dr. Berkman is APCC’s Pond and Cyanobacteria Program Manager. Julie has a PhD in Biological Sciences from the University of Rhode Island, and her environmental research spans ecosystems from coastal Venezuela to freshwater studies on Baffin Island and the Alaskan North Slope. She worked with the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Water Quality Assessment Program (1992-2009), evaluating the biological health of rivers and streams in relation to water chemistry, physical habitat, and watershed land use. As a senior aquatic ecologist, she published methods for algae collection and algal biomass indicators; provided training; and organized a Symposium on Algae as Water Quality Indicators Past, Present and Future that included a press conference on Algal Toxins (1999). In addition to research, she collaborated with state agencies to secure funding for a citizen’s lake data collection training program while President and Board member of the Ohio Lake Management Society (2004-2008).

Julie has a bachelor’s degree in botany and a master’s degree in education from the University of New Hampshire and enjoys engaging people in thinking about their environment on many different levels. In Cambridge, UK, she formed and served as director of the Foundation for Good Governance of International Spaces (Our Spaces) an NGO. On Cape Cod she is a member of Audubon, the Botanical Club of Cape Cod & the Islands, Falmouth Art Center, The 300 Committee Land Trust, and an active OLAUG (Old Ladies Against Underwater Garbage) member viewing our Cape Cod ponds through a snorkel mask and collecting trash to improve pond health.