The Wrack

It's been well over a week since our few inches of snow fell and we've been through a a number of melt/freeze cycles over that time. Skis and snowshoes won't be much fun; wear sturdy boots and take your time on the uneven and sometimes icy surface.

Weather is not looking great. Your best bet this weekend is probably Saturday afternoon. Be careful early Saturday, as the roads might be slick. The skies brighten for the start of the work week.

We have no public programs this weekend, and the Visitor Center is closed until April, but next Wednesday at lunch time Sue Bickford will talk about Soundscape Ecology in Mather Auditorium.

There was a proposal and you said yes! Now comes the fun part — planning one of the most exciting and memorable days of your life.

As the first snow of the season fell outside my window yesterday, with our fleet of kayaks safely stored in the barn for the winter, I compiled the evaluation results from our fifth kayak season at the Reserve. Sixteen kayaking programs were held between early July and early October (eighteen were scheduled, but two were cancelled due to high winds/small craft advisories) and 82 people participated. Sixty-one of these paddlers completed evaluations immediately following the program. This is the first year we've conducted a formal evaluation of the program. What valuable information did the evaluations provide? Lots!

Santa visited the Wells Reserve at Laudholm this summer. One of these statements is false.

The following was published in the Biddeford-Saco?Journal Tribune Sunday edition, 12/20/2015.

[Trigger warning: the following paragraph may contain troubling information for preteens]

Like many parents, my wife and I get a real kick out of the Santa thing. Theres something delicious about a full month of lying, straight-faced, to our eight-year-old and five-year-old. Usually were trying to dispel myths, convey science, explain the world, and correct pronunciation. Come Christmas season, we just start making @#$# up. The holidays are a wonderful vacation from reality, arent they?

We received a lovely thank-you letter in mid-November from a summer visitor. What a guy.

I facilitated my final Head Start preschool story hour of the season this morning with a group of real sweethearts from Old Orchard Beach. The towns of Sanford, North Berwick, Lyman, Kittery, Biddeford, and Waterboro also participated in the program this fall. Whales Are Amazing...Just Like You! by local author Tony Viehmann was the featured storybook this time around. Families enjoyed learning about these gentle giants, creating whale crowns, and taking a walk to the ocean to see whale habitat. The children were delighted to receive their free books and blue whale puppets at the end of each program! Below are photos taken during one of the programs last month.

Reading the story...

In recent years, we've been excited to see a rise in the number of students visiting the Wells Reserve to participate in guided and self-guided programs. Last year, I wrote about how remarkable the increase was between 2013 and 2014, and this year the trend continued steadily. In 2015, our skilled team of volunteer docents led a total of 1,291 students on guided program on our estuarine trails, up slightly from last year's 1,219. Additionally, 533 students visited the Reserve with their teachers to explore the estuary on self-guided trips, up from 435 in 2014.

While the increases are not the giant leaps they were from the previous year, 2015 saw a significant shift in the ratio of docent leaders to students thanks to a cohort of new docents who attended our successful Volunteer Fair back in February. With more leaders, we were able to lead students in smaller groups, allowing for more individualized discovery and time to explore all of their curious questions!

The numbers are great to see, but until this year we were missing an opportunity to tell another story about our reach: where in the world are all of these students coming from (literally!)? Here's part of the answer:

We're surprised and delighted by the creativity our brides and grooms unleash to bring their visions to life at the Wells Reserve at Laudholm.

I took a hike on a brisk November morning and was surprised to see a man in camouflage preparing to shoulder his bow beside the Muskie Trail entrance. I learned he was a hunter participating in the reserve's annual deer harvest program.

This program was initiated because of ecological problems caused by an overpopulation of deer. Because the reserve uplands are a designated state wildlife sanctuary, no hunting had been allowed for decades. The deer density in the 1990s was estimated at 100 per square mile, while a healthy "carrying capacity" is closer to 15/mi². Locals report having seen the field along the Muskie Trail full of deer in early mornings and evenings.

Restoring Streams and the Pulse of Tides

Three small projects with outsize impact have been focusing the reserve's attention in this latter half of 2015. Completing these minor feats of engineering will improve the ecology of local watersheds for generations to come. Our science and stewardship team planned for months and years to set up these moments of action on Goff Mill Brook, Branch Brook, and the York River.