The Wrack

Dr. Jason Goldstein will oversee the Wells Reserves fish studies, salt marsh restoration activities, and long-term environmental monitoring program. He will expand the reserves shellfish program, currently focused on green crab research, into lobster and Jonah crab ecology.

Beach-based businesses, a powerful economic engine for Maine, are generally little prepared for storm surge and coastal flooding. Yet lessons learned from previous disasters underscore how important the recovery of businesses is to the overall recovery of a regions economy.

Green crab burrowing activity is weakening salt marsh creek banks, causing them to erode.

Friends and staff of four National Estuarine Research Reserves — Wells, Great Bay, Waquoit, and Narragansett —are expected to line the banks of the Little River over the weekend for Bleachers on the Estuary.

Removing a small dam from Goff Mill Brook in Arundel reconnects seven miles of stream habitat to the estuary, benefiting brook trout, other migratory and freshwater fish, and the watersheds ecology.

Jeremy Miller, research associate at the Wells Reserve at Laudholm, is no stranger to Wells Harbor. But recently he saw something he'd never seen before. Or at least, he thought he did.

The Wells Reserve at Laudholm has become the first nonprofit in Maine to meet 100 percent of its electricity needs with solar energy, with 248 solar panels that are expected to generate 73,000 kilowatt-hours of electrical energy while preventing 45 tons of carbon from entering the atmosphere each year.

WELLS, Maine, December 8, 2014  Scientists from around New England met at the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve on December 5 for a workshop focused on blue carbon science and policy. For the first time, scientists from throughout the region gathered to share research results, identify gaps in knowledge, and plan future collaborations involving carbon in coastal habitats.

The term blue carbon refers to the ability of salt marshes, seagrass meadows, and mangrove forests to take up and store carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Coastal wetlands capture carbon and store it at rates even greater than rainforests.

Carbon held naturally in coastal wetlands is not entering the atmosphere as a greenhouse gas, so these habitats have real potential to mitigate climate change, said Dr. Kristin Wilson, Wells Reserve research director, who co-coordinated the workshop.

A wild turkey of the species Meleagris gallopavo has been hired as the new president of Laudholm Trust, the local nonprofit partner of the Wells Reserve at Laudholm, according to Goose Read, chairman of the Trust's Brood of Defectors.

WELLS, Maine, May 21, 2013  York County Master Gardeners and the Wells Reserve at Laudholm are offering local gardeners several opportunities to improve their knowledge and skills around their home gardening through a series of workshops this summer at the new All Seasons Garden at the reserve.

All Seasons Garden workshops begin with Sheet Mulching and Home Composting on May 30 and continue with Drip Irrigation on June 4, Yardscaping on June 19, and Four-Season Gardening on August 29. Each two-hour, hands-on workshop begins at 6pm and costs $7 ($5 for members of Laudholm Trust). A special noontime brown-bag talk on Three Sisters Gardening and Companion Planting will be offered June 12 for a $2 suggested donation. See wellsreserve.org/calendar for details and to register in advance for each evening workshop.