The Wrack

The following was published in the Biddeford-Saco?Journal Tribune Sunday edition, 8/17/2014.

Around the time I was twelve, I went through what my parents called the Indiana Jones stage. I wore an officially licensed brown fedora, carried a homemade clothesline bullwhip, and definitely expected to be an archaeologist when I grew up. I even talked my way into a field expedition to the Caribbean island of Grenada, though I was two years short of their minimum age requirement. Rules didnt matter  in search of lost tribes, buried treasure, even whip-cracking adventure, I dreamt only of piercing the jungles dark heart. Cue the trumpets!

Two years ahead of schedule, our goal to obtain all our electricity from the sun is within reach. We have been awarded two grants to launch the final phase of our initiative. With $86,898 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and $10,000 from the Davis Conservation Foundation, we…

As you walk the loop trails in the Yankee Woodlot, check out our new interpretive signs! On each sign, you'll learn a little more about the Yankee Woodlot timber harvest project. Be sure to also check out these informational videos featuring some of the stars of the Yankee Woodlot project, which can be accessed using the QR codes found on each of the four signs on the trail. You can also view and read…

As you walk the loop trails in the Yankee Woodlot, check out our new interpretive signs! On each sign, you'll learn a little more about the Yankee Woodlot timber harvest project. Be sure to also check out these informational videos featuring some of the stars of the Yankee Woodlot project, which can be accessed using the QR codes found on each of the four signs on the trail. You can also view and read…

Yankee Woodlot video series: Home sweet home for plants and animals.

As you walk the loop trails in the Yankee Woodlot, check out our new interpretive signs! On each sign, you'll learn a little more about the Yankee Woodlot timber harvest project. Be sure to also check out these informational videos featuring some of the stars of the Yankee Woodlot project, which can be accessed using the QR codes found on each of the four signs on the trail. You can also view and read…

The soundscape team from Purdue has posted 20,950 audio recordings from 10 sites around the reserve. They're 10 minutes a piece, so to hear them all you'll want to carve out 145.5 days of uninterrupted listening time.

Its not every day you meet a butterfly named Sargent Buck. Similarly, it isnt too common to come across a butterfly named Colonel Adams. However, if you should happen to visit the Wells Reserve in the next few days, you might just get the chance.

Last Monday, Kate brought in 26 Painted Lady chrysalises, which were pinned to the top of a small netted enclosure and left to hatch in the Teaching Lab. Though not explicitly related to the theme, the butterflies became an integral and exciting part of last weeks Seashore Sleuths camp. That day, we ogled as the chrysalises shook in anticipation of their next transformation.

Three angles of investigation into three waterways flowing through three municipalities have reached one encouraging conclusion: The Merriland River, Branch Brook, and the Little River are ecologically healthy and the people largely responsible, those living in the combined watershed, know and appreciate it.

The design for our Sustaining Coastal Landscapes and Community Benefits project, the first study of its kind, drew from the sciences of ecology, economy, and communications. Reserve staff and their colleagues from Clark University looked at streamside buffers in Sanford, Kennebunk, and Wells to find out how they affect life in the water and how members of the community value them.

Nik's Notebook: Welcome, Invaders!

Maine has historically (and, at times, comically) viewed those "from away" with great suspicion and even scorn. Rightly so, when it comes to invasive, non-native species like mouse ear snails, red algae, and European green crabs that all now impinge on our Gulf. These diabolical intruders, and many more, are a horror story for our coast, but they're just one tale in this Summer 2014 issue of Watermark, your beach reading from the Wells Reserve at Laudholm.

Because while these aquatic invaders may come "from away," so too do our annual fresh-faced summer interns, our many excellent research partners, and continual new ideas. And truly, Southern Maine's beach towns would be ghost towns without our summer tourists. So we welcome all these new arrivals to the Wells Reserve at Laudholm and hope they take back home with them, from their visits or even just by reading this summer newsletter, a little bit of "the way life should be." Or could be, anyway, with a little more science, education, and conservation.

Have a wonderful summer. Do come over; it's your Reserve!

Download the Summer 2014 Watermark