The Wrack

A beautiful handmade decorative piece... or something more?

The following was published in the Biddeford-Saco?Journal Tribune Sunday edition, 9/1/13:

More than 100 artists will converge on the Wells Reserve at Laudholm next weekend for our 26^th annual Laudholm Nature Crafts Festival. Theyre all very talented, and if you attend, I promise youll find some unique, beautiful, and affordable Christmas gifts months ahead of schedule.

But exceptional as these local New England artists are, I think their finest work meets it match up against the other nature crafts show put on by the animal kingdom on a daily basis.

The following was originally published in the Biddeford-Saco?Journal Tribune Thursday edition, 8/22/13:

Wendell Berry said do unto those downstream as you would have those upstream do unto you. Situated at the mouths of three rivers, the Wells Reserve at Laudholm is downstream from most of York County. This summer, Ive been thinking a lot about whats upstream, particularly farms.

At first glance, Maine doesnt seem ideal for farming. Our colonial history is a litany of famines and failed harvests. We get some of the least sun of the Lower 48; our soils are the rock-filled remains of mile-high glaciers. Winters, though shorter than they used to be, still bookend a shockingly brief growing season. Why would anyone think of farming here?

The following was originally published in the Biddeford-Saco?Journal Tribune Sunday edition, 8/11/13:

You may have heard the story of the birth of the modern American environmental movement: Rachel Carson publishes Silent Spring in 1962, the Cuyahoga River catches fire in 1969, tens of thousands of Americans join together to celebrate the first Earth Day in 1970, and then, over the next three years, a Republican president saves the planet. Mr. Nixon creates the EPA; extends, with Maines Senator Muskie, the Clean Air Act; signs the Clean Water, Safe Drinking Water, and Endangered Species Acts; and even sets in motion the legislation that eventually establishes the local Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve.

Never mind that the Cuyahoga had been catching fire regularly since the mid-1800s, or that Mr. Nixon actually vetoed the Clean Water Act, or that Republican meant something different forty years ago. Whats important is the story: an empowering fable of scientists and the citizenry teaming up to overcome the odds and force government to turn around a country before it disappeared beneath smudge and sludge.

For the most part, its a true story. Its just not the whole story.

Enthusiastic volunteer and proud mom Eileen Willard had her boy help us understand why music in the Laudholm barn sounds So Darn Good…

Welcome to the town of Launton, its a lot like Wells.

Ever since Hurricane Paul devastated communities to the south of Launton,?the residents have been asking the town manager:?can we handle a storm like that? Whats our plan?

Feeling pressured, the town manager convened a Coastal Resiliency Task Force. Their charge: make some recommendations about what the town should do with existing and future development.

Who is on the task force? You are! Youll be assuming one of the many interests that exist in a town a lot like Wells. From Emergency Management Official to Director of the Chamber of Commerce, youve got opinions, and you think the town has a solution. But can you come to consensus with the other members on the team? Can you compromise on issues near and dear to your heart, for the sake of the town?

?

The following was originally published in the Biddeford-Saco?Journal Tribune Sunday edition, 8/4/13:

?

Music is in the ear of the beholder. Whether finch or frog, cricket or quartet, its all part of natures symphony.

Working at the Wells Reserve at Laudholm, I listen to recorded music in my farmhouse office most hours of the day. Because its such a natural fit here, Im bringing more live music to our barn this summer too. String quartets sound particularly fine in a hundred-year-old wooden barn. An acoustical engineer recently told me: Wood slats like your barns walls have ideal absorptive, reflective, and diffusive characteristics for live instrumentation. Sounds good to me.

Barns aside, Im constantly discovering new artists in our fields and marshes too.

Turning the bend on the Laird-Norton trail, the path narrows.? Above, rivulets of blue are breaking apart a gray sky. To the right, the weathered brown bark of an apple tree is imprinted with the secret language of the yellow-bellied sapsuckers.? To the left, the emerald expanse of honeysuckle leaves are dotted with red berries.? Below, a worn path parts a sea of green shaggy grass& embedded with a shaggy spot of black!

A pint-size boy held a fishing rod alongside his dad, enjoying a quiet midweek morning by the pond, when more than a dozen cars pulled into the lot behind them. The automotive intrusion didn't exactly shatter a peaceful solitude  their fishing spot was beside a busy state highway after all  but the father and son may have been curious to know? Why the sudden crowd?

The arrivals were gathering to see Low Impact Development (LID) practices in use near Willand Pond in Somersworth, New Hampshire. The pond was a fitting spot to meet, given its history.