The Wrack

Children and adults alike learned lots about whales this morning with educator Tony Viehmann during the "Making Friends with Whales & Dolphins" school vacation week offering. On hand were tons of artifacts, too, including whale oil, vertebrae, an ear bone, baleen, teeth, skulls, and more! We listened to whale songs, played whale/squid hide and seek, and explored the lengths of marine mammals outdoors. Below ar…

Since 2010, the Wells Reserve has been working with partners to develop an inventory of stream barriers in the small coastal watersheds of York County. These are usually man-made structures that prevent the upstream or downstream movement of fish and other aquatic organisms, due to the fact that stream crossings were not historically designed with fish in mind. The impacts of stream barriers are particularly severe on migratory fish such alewives or salmon, which move from the ocean into rivers to reproduce.

Last week, five local families participated in the Preschool Story Hour featuring Sarah Marwil Lamstein's Big Night for Salamanders. The "Big Night" is the first warm and rainy night in the spring when salamanders and frogs migrate to the vernal pool where they were born, to breed and lay their eggs.

Lamstein's story follows a young boy and his family as they set out on the Big Night to help spotted salamanders cross a nearby road. They stop cars, encourage drivers to slow down, and carefully pick up salamanders and place them close to the vernal pool where they are headed. The story provides a wonderful stewardship message, and encourages all of us to be mindful of wildlife crossing our roadways.

Jennifer Hatch, Marketing Manager for ReVision Energy, provided an informative introduction to solar energy options for homeowners on Wednesday evening in Mather Auditorium. Over 40 people attended this Climate Stewards evening lecture, and one lucky winner, Mr. Jed Thomas, went home with the solar charger door prize (below)!

Just hours before the vernal equinox, installers from ReVision Energy were shoveling snow off the roof of our Maine Coastal Ecology Center to make way for the reserves first major solar array. By afternoon the roof was clear and dry, thanks to its southeast exposure, and the workers went about building an aluminum framework and running wires.

A 13-ton machine rolled down the "F field" to make habitat for a 2-pound rabbit. As the grassland greens up this spring, the evidence should fade quickly away.

Tom Twist, Sustainability Officer at The Chewonki Foundation, visited the Wells Reserve last week to present our very first Climate Stewards evening lecture. This series is funded by NOAA's Climate Stewards Education Project. The lectures aim to enable community members to develop a greater knowledge and understanding of climate change, thereby appreciating the impact of their choices more, reducing their carbon footprints, and becoming more impassioned stewards of the planet.Tom Twist's presentation sent us all down this path towards climate stewardship.

Tom began his talk with reasons to move away from fossil fuels: They run out, they pollute, they cause climate change, they fund tyrannical dictators, and they help widen the divide between the wealthy and the poor. Tom explained the inverse relationship that exists between freedom and the price of oil (learn more in Thomas Friedman's Hot, Flat, and Crowded), and echoed Bill McKibben in saying that Exxon Mobile is the "richest company in the history of money."

What are people saying about the camp programs at the Wells Reserve? Here is a sampling of testimonials from the parents and grandparents of past campers.

Can you bribe a disaster? No, but you can get a dirty look for trying.