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The Wrack

The Wrack is the Wells Reserve blog.

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.

  • Chilean and Colombian Delegation Visits Reserve and Refuge

    | May 30, 2014

    South American delegates participating in a New England study tour, out on the Little River marsh, May 2014A delegation of directors and managers of protected areas in Chile and Colombia visited the Wells Reserve and Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge on May 25 to gather insights into programs and activities at refuges and research reserves. The nine Chileans and Colombians were from national parks, forests, and sanctuaries.

    Staff from the Wells Reserve, Rachel Carson Refuge, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services Gulf of Maine Coastal Program led the delegation on a tour of the reserve and the refuge. Delegates learned about research in areas such as climate change impacts on estuarine and coastal ecosystems, salt marsh response to sea level rise, endangered shorebird management and protection, early successional habitat management activities benefiting a range of wildlife species, river restoration, and tracking fish movement between fresh and salt water. They viewed fish being caught and tagged at the newly restored fish ladder on Branch Brook and viewed a 2,000-year-old salt marsh peat sample in the Reserves research laboratory.

  • A Ladder for Fish

    | May 30, 2014

    People congregate by the fish ladder after the dedication ceremony.Earlier this month, about 30 people assembled behind an isolated and nondescript brick building along U.S. Route 1 at the boundary of Wells and Kennebunk during one of the wettest mornings of our rather soggy spring.

    Everyone was good natured about the rain. After all, we were standing alongside an important water supply that had recently been improved for fish. We huddled under popup tents in foul-weather gear to celebrate the reconstruction of the Branch Brook fish ladder, a piscine highway past the water district's dam.

  • The Sandy Dialogues: Fostering Resilience through Stories

    Tin Smith
    | May 27, 2014

    Storm-damaged house in Saco, Maine, April 2007

    About the Project

    The Sandy Dialogues facilitated an exchange of expertise and experience between New Jersey and Maine that culminated in two Maine-based coastal hazard preparedness training workshops. Through this project, the Wells Reserve and its partners learned from New Jersey's Jacques Cousteau Reserve and its stakeholders about the use of decision-support systems, combined with the experience of responding to and recovering from a major storm event.

    The Sandy Dialogues stemmed from the earlier Climate Games project in Wells and a sea-level-rise vulnerability assessment done for the New Jersey coast.

    Project Period

    March to November 2014

  • Panacea

    | May 17, 2014

    This boy was checked for ticks immediately following this photo. Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom... from ticks!

    The following was published in the Biddeford-Saco?Journal Tribune Sunday edition, 5/18/2014.

    Hey, parents! Psst  come over here. Ive got something for ya. Something I think youre gonna like.

    What if I told you I had something that supercharged your kids test scores and GPA, made them more attentive and cooperative, improved good cholesterol and blood circulation, lowered obesity and stress? How much would that be worth to you? What would you pay for this wonder drug? $100? $1,000?

    Well, its not for sale. Actually, its free, its legal, and youve already got plenty at home.

  • The Sounds of Place

    | May 6, 2014 | Filed under: Observations
    Purdue University ecological acoustics research team on a cool, damp, May day
    Last week we set up acoustical equipment in 12 locations throughout the reserve, typically about 40 feet off the trails. The equipment will create an ecological soundscape of habitats… mapping sounds of animals and other living things (biophony), sounds coming from wind in the trees, rain, and the ocean (geophony), and sounds of jet planes, people talking, trains, gunshots, and lawnmowers (anthrophony). Together, these recordings will help describe our environment over time… who is there, who is missing, what is disturbed, what has changed.

    Will these soundscapes reveal habitats of vitality or quiet? What changes happen over time? Is the food web diminishing or increasing with new animals, returning animals? Are the sounds different from year to year, day to day, month to month, season to season?

  • This is the PITs

    | May 6, 2014

    asdfIn his recent post, Spreading the Fish Ladder News, Jake mentioned our imminent use of passive integrated transponders, or PIT tags, to track fish. But just what is a PIT tag and exactly how does it work?

    A passive integrated transponder is a miniature electronic circuit typically encased in glass and implanted under an animal's skin or in a body cavity (the fish tags we'll use are thin and just 12mm long). Each tag is programmed with a unique number to identify an individual animal. That number is read automatically when the animal travels close to a receiving station.

  • Believe It or Not

    | May 4, 2014 | Filed under: Opinion

    I get to meet many scientists. While its hard to understand them sometimes, they are all very decent (and underpaid) people. And they are all as astounded as I am that more than half the country does not believe them when they say climate change is real, that it is happening, and that it is man-made.

  • Earth Week Highlights

    | April 25, 2014

    Music, fun, education, & stewardship converged during April school vacation week at the Reserve! Roughly 150 people celebrated Earth Day with us on Tuesday, families learned lots from whale enthusiast Tony Viehmann on Wednesday, and an excited group of day campers explored vernal pools on Thursday.

    Lisa Judd came with her kids on Earth Day and had this to say:

    The Earth Day function was fantastic! The kids had a?great time with all the activities and walked through every tide pool on the beach. They ended the day soaked and smiling! Perfect!

    Lots more programming for children, families, and adults is on the horizon for the spring and summer!

    Photos (below):

    1. Matt Loosigan of Earth Jams sings to the crowd
    2. Parachute fun on the lawn
    3. Giving the Earth a hug
    4. Walking to Laudholm Beach for the beach clean-up
    5. Tony Viehmann with narwhal whale tusk tooth
    6. Learning whale anatomy with a clam shell toss
    7. Searching for stream critters
    8. Dressing up like a water critter
    9. Making friends with a Spring Azure butterfly
  • V.I.P.S. (Very Important Pollywogs & Salamanders)

    | April 24, 2014

    Jarad HomolaLast week, UMaine Ph.D. candidate Jared Homola and postdoctoral fellow Dr. Krista Capps visited three vernal pools at the reserve as part of Jared's research into how urbanization affects vernal pools and influences the organisms within them. He is especially interested in how abrupt climate change can impact the persistence of ecologically important species and the genetic basis for the ecosystem services they provide.

  • The Yester Bunny

    | April 19, 2014 | Filed under: Opinion

    Let me introduce you to the Wells Reserves favorite, and most vexing, local bunny.