Members of a Bates College class tackle aspects of the river and the community.

Last fall, 28 environmental studies students at Bates College traded classrooms for community spaces, and community members became their unofficial teachers.

The students were taking “Community-Engaged Research in Environmental Studies,” a required course involving semester-long projects undertaken with community partners and focusing on aspects of the Androscoggin River.

As it happens, the river is something that makes Lewiston-Auburn an ideal place for studying the environment. It’s not just that the community is here because of the Androscoggin, or that the river itself is a case study in human use, abuse and rejuvenation, this community and its river make a perfect setting for learning about how humans interact with and depend on their environment in myriad ways — and how human affection for a place is constantly evolving.

For decades, Androscoggin-powered industry drove the local economy — and by the mid-20th century, industrial activities had made the Androscoggin one of the nation’s 10 most polluted rivers. The good news is that, since then, cleanup efforts have dramatically improved quality.

Now, the river is swimmable according to federal standards, and supports thriving and diverse fish populations. While Androscoggin communities once turned their backs on the river, they are now looking to it again, recognizing its potential as a source of recreation and local pride.

Our students undertook eight projects in Lewiston-Auburn, Lisbon and Livermore Falls. They partnered with the Androscoggin Land Trust, Museum L-A, L/A Arts, the town of Lisbon, Maine’s Paper & Heritage Museum in Livermore Falls and Otis Ventures in Jay.

Two projects involved five Lewiston-Auburn dams on the Androscoggin and Little Androscoggin. Dam licensing agreements routinely require dam owners to support public recreational opportunities, and our students researched provisions for recreation in the agreements for the L-A dams.

One group examined existing licenses while the other looked at Great Falls Dam, whose relicensing process begins in about 10 years. The students developed guidelines to make the process more “user-friendly,” based on case studies elsewhere in which community groups affected such decisions.

The feasibility of a canoe and kayak rental business in downtown Lewiston-Auburn was the focus for another group, which devised a business plan to help a nonprofit organization start such a venture.

Working with after-school programs at the middle and high school levels, Bates students partnered with L/A Arts to develop river-oriented curricular materials for arts and social studies teachers. Many of the high-schoolers had never been to the river before, even though they live in downtown Lewiston. Once they were standing on the river’s edge, cameras in hand, they couldn’t stop exclaiming about its beauty.

Three groups worked on interpretative signs for riverside trails in Lisbon, Livermore Falls and Lewiston-Auburn. The Lewiston-Auburn group, for example, consulted with Museum L-A and other resources to develop materials for an ecology and pre-history tour, an immigrant tour, and a mill and canal tour.

The students’ research will provide invaluable support as the community partners seek funding to bring the signage plans to fruition. “These students brought together in just a short time the stories and history of the area,” said Sherry Judd, president of Maine’s Paper & Heritage Museum, which collaborated with Otis Ventures in the Bates partnership. “That would have taken our organizations a lot longer.”

A final group built a website called the Androscoggin River Portal, which will provide a clearinghouse for online Androscoggin River resources, including our students’ work.

This experience has given these 28 students a new appreciation for Lewiston-Auburn and the Androscoggin. And they’ve discovered something about what it means to build connections within a community, a skill that we trust they will take with them wherever they go.

Our students commented again and again on what this exposure to the communities of the Androscoggin had meant to them. “My perception of the whole environment (social and natural) changed as my view of the Androscoggin shifted,” said one. Another one learned that “the community’s needs come first … the art of communication is integral to community-engaged projects.”

Next autumn, we’ll welcome a new class of students to “Community-Engaged Research in Environmental Studies,” and to the Androscoggin and its communities.

As instructors for this course — and longtime Lewiston-Auburn residents — we hope that the seminar’s projects will be genuinely useful to our partners and the community at large. Whether it’s looking at dam relicensing, encouraging city youths to discover the river, or finding ways to encourage both local folks and tourists to stroll by the river and encounter its history, we hope that the good work of these Bates students will play a meaningful role as the region re-imagines its relationship to the river.

Jane Costlow, professor of environmental studies at Bates College, and Thomas Wenzel, Charles A. Dana Professor of Chemistry, co-teach the upper-level course “Community-Engaged Research in Environmental Studies.”

To view Bates College students’ work, go to the Androscoggin River Portal at androscoggin.bates.edu