This summer the Wells Reserve's Interpretive Education Associate, Paige Rutherford, revamped and restructured the Guided Tours program for the season. Paige prepared all the docent training materials, organized outlines, templates, scripts, and resources, and held training sessions in late June.

The newly trained volunteers will be leading History of a Saltwater Farm, Life Between the Tides, Secrets of the Salt Marsh, and Nature Walk tours as well as other guided tours throughout the summer!

History of a Salt Water Farm

The Laudholm Farm Main House was the residence of the Lord family when George C. Lord I purchased the property and converted it to a gentleman's farm in 1881.

This tour gives a history of the Wells Reserve site from its origins as Native American tribal land, through European settlement, to its present day nationally recognized Research Reserve status. This tour was recently led by Charles Lord, the Reserve's Facilities Manager and a member of the original Lord family tenants.

Charles leads visitors through all the historic Laudholm Farm buildings, including the old horse barn.

Charles shares great memories of life on the farm along with historical tidbits on his tours, which will be sorely missed when Charles moves to Germany with his family in August.

Life Between the Tides

Explorers of all ages are encouraged to try their hand at tide pool trekking!

This hands-on tour takes guests on an expedition into the intertidal zone where they learn about the unique animals that have adapted to live in tide pools!

I had the pleasure of leading our first Life Between the Tides walk of the season. After I explained the nature of the tides and marine life food chains, my enthused group set out to search for life in the tide pool. To my delight and pleasure they returned with several crabs, sand shrimp, an array of colorful algae and plant life, a variety of snails and more!

Dog whelk eggs are one of many great finds on the rocks of the tide pools. Allso common are barnacles, sea lettuce, and snails galore!

Catching critters in the tide pools is always a great experience, especially with cool finds like this young lobster, which reminds us of the variety of intertidal life!

Secrets of the Salt Marsh

European phragmites frame the Reserve's saltwater marsh down along the Barrier Beach Trail.

This visual and dynamic program takes visitors on a tour through the Reserve's estuary system, highlighting the basics of a watershed, the importance of estuaries to humans and the environment, and the ways in which we can protect them.

View of the salt marsh from the Laird-Norton overlook.

At the salt marsh visitors learn about the pivotal functions of these wetlands, their chemistry and daily changes, and unique flora and fauna that thrive there.

Nature Walk

The Nature Walk is the perfect tour for anyone interested in nature explorations. Guides take visitors through the forest, field, stream, mudflat, and beach habitats of the Reserve, where they may learn about forest trees, wildflowers, animal habitats, bird songs, and more!

Grass pink orchid found in the Reserve's bog habitat on the Muskie Trail.

Rosa Rugosa in bloom near the beach down the Barrier Beach Trail.

Rosa Rugosa among the bayberry shrub - the citrus scent of the bayberry leaves (the light green upturned leaves) combine with the fragrant rose to create a lovely smell!

The non-venomous Eastern Milksnake spotted on the rocky path beside the Coastal Ecology Center when headed towards the Barrier Beach Trail.

The prominent Copper Beech; this strikingly large tree provides lots of shade beneath its canopy, is only eighty years old, and comes from Europe. It can be seen on the main campus near the head of the Knight Trail and again in the field along the trail.

A Red Pine grown in the poor soils near Laudholm Beach, where it has adapted to sudden rushes of salty water from storm surges. Their deep root system serves as a stabilizer of the loose sand in the after-dunes.

The Nature Walk offers a versatile experience for all visitors as the volunteer guide can take a variety of paths and focus on a number of themes. On leading my first Nature Walk I took my group through the fields off the Knight Trail, where we searched for caterpillars, monarchs, and summer wildflowers. Then we traveled through the forests of the Barrier Beach Trail and the Laird-Norton Boardwalk where we identified trees and ferns and searched for signs of wildlife. We ended the tour after stopping at the Laird-Norton overlook for bird watching, where we spotted two Great Blue Herons, a Snowy Egret, and a flock of Canada geese!

A Monarch Caterpillar resting on the common milkweed, which can be found in the fields of both Muskie and Knight Trail.

Other great walks are going on this summer as well! The Coastal Geology Walks led by David Smith give visitors historical knowledge on the landscape of the Reserve while teaching guests how to read the landscape through geology basics.

The sloping hill to your right as you walk up the Knight Trail is evidence of a mile-high glacier that passed along the coast of Maine during the last ice age. It carved out the landscape we see today and deposited gravel and rocks carried south from Canada as it melted, leaving behind a large hill.

A highly mineralized rock containing quartz (white), feldspar (orange), mica (shimmers and sparkles), and tourmaline (black) found on Laudholm Beach.

The next Coastal Geology walk is on Saturday August 18th at 10:00 a.m. and the Guided Tours schedule can be found on the Wells Reserve calender with two occurring nearly every week!

Hope to see you on the trails!