Driving north on I-95, Eileen Willard spied something on the side of the road. Intrigued, she pulled over on the stretch of highway between Wells and Kennebunk. Eileen was an experienced equestrian, so it seemed as if someone had dropped their English riding helmet in a very odd place.

It was a turtle. Eileen picked it up. Amidst the noise and speed of passing traffic, and dressed in her good work clothes, she placed the turtle in the back of her car, convinced that any road crossing it attempted would be its last.

I stopped at the Rachel Carson headquarters and showed them the turtle. They were a little horrified that I had an endangered species! It was a Blanding’s Turtle.

Maine had declared the species endangered in 1997. The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife notes that Blanding's Turtles travel readily between wetlands and can use up to six different wetlands per season. The state wasted no time in contacting Eileen about her roadside discovery.

Within 10 minutes I got a call from a state biologist. He wanted to know all about this turtle, and made arrangements to come down and get it.

It was the right time to meet a rare turtle. Eileen joined the attempt to return the turtle to the best possible habitat.

I took a day off from work. All day we trudged through the woods to determine where that turtle was probably headed had it been able to cross the highway. Blanding’s Turtles don’t reproduce until they are 15 years old. That’s 15 years of crossing roads, trying not to get squished before you can even lay an egg.

Road construction had disturbed the turtle’s habitat. After notching its shell and giving it a number, they released the Blanding’s Turtle in a new location.

I felt like some kind of biologist. That turtle had something to do with making me understand how much I loved being in the woods. I thought, “I want to do more of this stuff!”

For a long time life was about other things - work, family, her horse, moving and traveling. Eileen enjoyed a successful career in the medical field, and spent years talking with physicians and keeping up with medical journals. A childhood love of the forest stayed with her through it all.

I never forgot how much I loved being outside and playing in the woods. When I was a little girl, there were forests at either end of my street on Long Island. When you are a kid you never think that all the trees will one day be knocked down to build a bunch of homes, but that is what happened.

Eileen moved to Kennebunk in the mid-1980s. By the early 2000s she was retired and taking courses in natural resources and conservation at the University of New Hampshire. Wildlife Biology, Ornithology, Dendrology, Forest Ecology - Eileen loved them all.

For years she drove by a sign that read “Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve. It sounded to her like a place that wasn’t open to having visitors. Then she met former Wells Reserve Volunteer Coordinator Nancy Viehmann who invited her up for coffee. Before she knew it, she was a volunteer, helping with a new autumn fundraiser called Punkinfiddle.

I was on the organizing committee. I brought my horse, and coordinated the sheep herding demonstrations. Another woman brought in two giant oxen. We didn’t know what we couldn’t do, so we just did it. On the day of the event, we stood by the barn, not knowing how many people would show up. Cars started streaming in. It was amazing!

Punkinfiddle stayed for 17 years, and so did Eileen. She continued to be an important part of Punkinfiddle’s success and participated in docent training. She had not known what an estuary was before volunteering.

I thought, “How could I get to be this age and not know any of this stuff?” It was pretty eye-opening.

She also began volunteering in the Visitor Center. Time spent at the Reserve reinforced what she was learning in her university coursework. She wrote the Reserve’s mission statement on a notecard so that she could share its positive message with visitors. When the opportunity to teach Dendrology - the scientific study of trees - arose at UNH, Eileen took it.

On their first day I’d tell students they would learn to identify buds in the fall. That’s what swells and turns into leaves, flowers and reproductive structures the following spring. I liked challenging them to go out and find the buds in September. It is so much easier to remember something when there is a story behind it. By the end of the course, I hoped they could zero in on individual trees and species, and see the forest as more than just a “green wall.”

Eileen’s association with the Reserve has deepened and expanded over time. A volunteer for 22 years and counting, she now leads seasonal tree walks for volunteers and the public, monitors marine invasive species as a volunteer for the MIMIC program, shares her expertise on the Reserve’s tree species, and continues to be a wonderful resource in the Visitor Center, where you can find her on Thursday afternoons and most weekends.

By the way, it is nesting season for Blanding’s Turtles. Be ready to provide roadside assistance.