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The Wrack

The Wrack is the Wells Reserve blog, our collective logbook on the web.

Why "The Wrack"? In its cycles of ebb and flow, the sea transports a melange of weed, shell, bone, feather, wood, rope, and trash from place to place, then deposits it at the furthest reach of spent surf. This former flotsam is full of interesting stuff for anybody who cares to kneel and take a look. Now and then, the line of wrack reveals a treasure.

  • Join the Chorus #2: The Clause Comes Out

    | March 24, 2017 | Filed under: Opinion

    Here are two petitions to sign, one to express your support of the Wells Reserve and another to extend that support to the National Estuarine Research Reserve System.

  • Working Together: AmeriCorps NCCC and the Wells Reserve

    | March 14, 2017 | Filed under: Culture

    The AmeriCorps team spending the next five weeks at the reserve arrives on the beach at low tide. Its windy, raw, and the snow has started, but they seem in no hurry to leave. They shrink the chilly gap between their shoulders and their ears and face the ocean.

  • Teaching about Coastal Impacts of Climate Change

    | March 11, 2017

    We are putting teachers on the estuary again this summer by offering a free workshop that will give educators data-driven climate change activities to bring back to their classes. The workshop will train up to ten educators in reserve-style environmental monitoring, "coastal blue carbon" concepts, and ways to understand and address climate change.

  • Join the Chorus

    | March 10, 2017 | Filed under: Opinion

    An open letter to all lovers of nature, science, beauty, and Maines coast.

  • Is the National Reserve System in Danger?

    | March 9, 2017 | Filed under: News

    The President's budget eliminates funding for the National Estuarine Research Reserve System in the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2018. The complete budget process includes Congress, however, which is demonstrating it has its own spending priorities.

    Last update: March 22, 2018

  • Some Estuary Love Out of Washington

    | March 3, 2017 | Filed under: News

    We like the sound of a new caucus announced this week. The Congressional Estuary Caucus is a bipartisan group focused on the importance of estuaries to the nation's environment, communities, and economy.

    Last update: February 2019

  • Winter Wildlife Day #7

    | February 28, 2017 | Filed under: Observations

    For seven years strong, the Reserve has partnered with Center for Wildlife and York County Audubon to offer Winter Wildlife Day during Maine's school vacation week. Last week, on a balmy February morning with 50 degree temperatures, nearly 200 people attended this family-friendly free event. Some even stayed into the afternoon to sled down the farmhouse hill on the fast disappearing snowpack, and observe a snow sculpture artist in action.

  • Hearting Estuaries V

    | February 10, 2017 | Filed under: Opinion

    Say it with us! Join the 2017 #iheartestuaries campaign on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and IRL on February 12, 13, and 14. Raise your voice on behalf of estuaries. Call out to Congress with a simple message: "I care about estuaries and this is why…"

  • What the World Needs Now

    | February 4, 2017 | Filed under: Culture

    Weatherization has always been held up as one of the easiest and first solutions to climate change; why not pick that low-hanging fruit?

  • The Rift

    | January 20, 2017

    Its morning in Antarctica. Its high summer in the Southern Hemisphere, and warmer ocean water and breezes have lifted the temperature on the Larsen C ice shelf to a balmy 32 degrees. Like a rifle shot, the ice occasionally gives off a pop that finds no place to echo across the flat, white,?featureless plain.