The Wrack

From the Laudholm Trust historical archives (October 10, 1985): Mort gave a report on the computer. It has 10 mga bites of memory and will eventually hold our files on membership, businesses, foundations, gifts, and others. He is currently training Susan Sullivan and setting up the files for memberships. We have just begun and it will be a while before we see the benefits. …

With the crafts festival right around the corner, the time to mow fields for parking is approaching. Unfortunately, some of the parking fields are full of milkweed and monarchs. Fortunately, this is a good time to cut the fields to encourage strong regeneration next year.

Project Goals

• Understand and measure the value of services and benefits provided by waterfront buffer lands and wetlands
• Provide place-based economic information to support decisions that reflect the true consequences of land use, restoration, and conservation practices in southern Maine

Project Summary

Along the coast of southern Maine, the need to conserve natural buffers to protect rivers and wetlands has become a focal point for tensions between development and conservation interests. In this rapidly developing landscape, decision-makers often feel they must choose development over conservation or restoration to support local economies. While there is scientific evidence that underscores the value of protecting natural buffers around sensitive water bodies, local decision-makers need additional, place-based, economic information about the ecosystem services that these lands provide and the range of tradeoffs that are implied in related land use decisions. A team led by the Wells Reserve addressed this need by working with local, state, and federal stakeholders to better understand, measure, and communicate how southern Mainers value natural buffers and the tradeoffs they are willing to make to protect these critical resources for the future.

A Laudholm Farms promotional booklet from about 1920 was reproduced several decades later and is now scanned for sharing online. Enjoy.

Warm sun and a gentle breeze made pleasant the opening reception for George Burk's "Aspects of Change" exhibit in the Eugene Frederick Artway.

In the past couple of weeks, it's been hard not to notice the bright yellow plastic cards that have appeared in clumps of vegetation. Yesterday, I caught up with the guy who has been hanging and collecting them, field research entomologist Phil Stack. He filled me in; they are traps for catching fruit flies.

On September 17, 2009, this bird was caught in a mist net at the Wells Reserve and brought to the banding station under the copper beech. June Ficker, our highly knowledgeable and experienced bird bander, wanted photo documentation of this individual to share with other experts. Was she overly cautious or onto something? How would you identify this bird?

The thirteen educators who are participating in the Teachers on the Estuary program arrived this afternoon. In between introductions and their first workshops, they came to the farmhouse porch for a brief social.

29 people representing 13 towns and organization participated in three boat trips on the Salmon Falls and Piscataqua Rivers in July and August. The trips coincided with the release of the new Land Conservation Plan for Maine's Piscataqua Region Watersheds that covers 18 communities in southern Maine. The narrated tours brought together key municipal officials and conservation leaders to learn about the plan, its goals, and the river's status and history.

Land use changes, particularly the loss of vegetation along the water edges (associated with residential development), are having a significant impact on water quality. The Land Conservation Plan outlines actions that towns and citizens can take to maintain the natural, recreational, and economic resources that this watershed, draining 1058 square miles, provides.

Thursday was a beautiful evening for the annual Partners' Reception, a bright and lightly breezy opportunity for intimate conversation just within the Laudholm barn's wide doors. This gentle event is a way of thanking the most generous supporters of an extraordinary place and the important work done here.