The Wrack

Midway through March, early signs of vernal reawakening appear at the Wells Reserve. 

The Kennebunk Savings Bank Foundation has stepped forward with a $50,000 challenge grant to help make the final payment on the 2?-acre Diane and Frederick Lord property. Just after sunset on December 22, 2005, Wells Reserve manager Paul Dest and Laudholm Trust president Susan Rouillard signed closing papers on the Lord Parcel. This final legal step marked the end of several years of discussion with the Lord…

Long-time Laudholm supporter Alice Freeman Muchnic is 99 today. She's long been a strong supporter of Laudholm Trust and the Wells Reserve.

Laudholm is as close to a home as I could want.

Here's a question: Do artificial substrates favor non-indigenous fouling species over natives?

At the annual meeting of the National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) System and NERR Association, Wells Reserve manager Paul Dest accepted the role of NERRA president for 2006-2007.

It felt great to be back at the Wells NERR after being away for four months, especially since I had spent much of that time wading through reams of data on dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll-a, and dissolved organic nitrogen from our four System Wide Monitoring Program (SWMP) sites in the Webhannet and Little River estuaries.

The NERR system just released a 10th anniversary report on the activities, achievements, and growth of the System-Wide Monitoring Program. You can download the PDF at the NERRS website. You can learn more about the program by following the links under Monitoring on that site. Visit our Monitoring page …

For several years, the Wells Reserve has participated in the Maine Dragonfly and Damselfly Survey, a project initiated by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. Sue Smith Bickford, our main odonate enthusiast, was away for most of the 2005 flight season, but today shipped off 14 specimens for identification. They will be inspected and entered into the …

Sixty-six second graders from South Berwick are out on the trails today, split into groups with six Wells Reserve docents. It's cool and gray, but most of them are prepared for their couple of hours in the woods, along the salt marsh, and on the beach.

On Friday, November 4, the House and Senate conferees agreed to legislation setting the FY 06 funding levels for science-related agencies and the Departments of State, Justice, and Commerce. The $57.85 billion spending bill that was approved included $3.9 billion for NOAA, splitting the difference between the Senate mark of $4.5 billion and the House mark of $3.38 billion. The final figure for NOAA is…