The Wrack

The White House has released a draft implementation plan for National Ocean Policy, demonstrating ongoing progress on a massive task. The draft implementation plan is guided by four themes:

1. Adopt ecosystem-based management
2. Obtain, use, and share the best science and data
3. Promote efficiency and collaboration
4. Strengthen regional efforts

The plan lays out a series of more than 50 actions? with accompanying outcomes and milestones  guided by these National Priority Objectives:

Paul Dobbins, President of Ocean Approved, shared his vast knowledge of kelp farming with a group of over 35 people yesterday during a Lunch 'n' Learn in Mather Auditorium. He came fully equipped not only with a very informative lecture, but also a huge bowl of delicious homemade kelp cole slaw for everyone to sample!

For years now, we've been handing out Seafood Watch pocket guides so people can make more careful decisions about what fish and shellfish to buy or avoid. The Monterey Bay Aquarium publishes regional guides, so the information is tailored to residents of the northeast, for example.

Now the aquarium has made ocean-friendly seafood recommendations even more convenient for smartphone users with its Seafood Watch app for iPhone or Android. At our house, the printed "pocket guide" often lived under a magnet on the refrigerator or got pierced by a thumbtack on the bulletin board, rarely making the trip to market. Now we will have the critical data in hand, as our mobile devices don't get left behind.

I noted 132 species during 2011, but only 92 of the ones on our "99 common birds" checklist. These are the ones I missed:

1. Lesser Yellowlegs
2. Spotted Sandpiper
3. American Woodcock
4. Eastern Wood-Pewee
5. Great Crested Flycatcher
6. Red-breasted Nuthatch
7. Rose-breasted Grosbeak

The Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership convened the Salmon Falls Watershed Collaborative to improve watershed planning and management — and to protect water supply sources — in the Salmon Falls River watershed.

Contents of the Fall 2011 issue of Watermark include&

On a classic October morning, a research team heads to the EliotSouth Berwick line, where a private landowner has opened his property for a Wells Reserve study of fish and fish habitat. Parking the pickup at the end of a long hayfield, the five gather up gear and step into a middle-aged pine-oak forest, then head downslope past ferns and toppled trees till the trail goes wet underfoot, the canopy breaks, and they stand at the edge of Shoreys Brook. This is headquarters for the next few hours. It is one of eight sites along the brooks 4.3 miles being surveyed for resident and migratory fish, and their habitat, in advance of a planned dam removal downstream.

Uncle Nat called me last night and we had a delightful conversation. I chanced to ask him about a large pump that I noticed in the Sheep Barn while I've been working down there over the last two weeks. It turns out that it was the back-up pump for the hydraulic ram and was located down at the Mill. This pump was used if the rams malfunctioned or broke. The pump is a one-cylinder gas pump that Nat believes was manufactured in Vermont& quite an impressive looking piece of machinery.

Charles, Mark, and Frank installed seven bat houses within four of the Reserve's fields today, in an effort to provide habitat for the local population of these insectivorous flying mammals who eat up to 1,000 insects per hour. Below are pictures taken during one of the installations. We are hoping that bats will move in to this new real estate in the spring!

In July, fifteen middle and high school teachers from seven different states participated in the Teachers on the Estuary (TOTE) four-day field-based workshop at the Reserve. Since then, they have been teaching their students about estuaries and watersheds, while also?implementing student-driven?stewardship projects. On Saturday, the more local contingency of this TOTE group (and one teacher?skyping from Kentucky!) met at the Reserve for a follow-up session. The teachers shared information about their stewardship projects, which are very impressive!