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The Wrack

The Wrack is the Wells Reserve blog, our collective logbook on the web.

Posts tagged nerrs science collaborative

  • Researchers Test Modern Technique for Finding Green Crabs

    | February 12, 2021 | Filed under: News

    Study published in Ecological Indicators demonstrates the potential for using environmental DNA to survey green crabs in estuaries.

  • Extending Science Education to Hearing-Impaired Students

    Terms like "watershed" and "estuary" are part of our daily lexicon, but have had no equivalents in American Sign Language. To encourage STEM learning in New Englands deaf community, we and our partners are introducing new terms and teaching tools.

  • Who's Edna? No: What's eDNA?

    | March 2, 2018 | Filed under: Program Activities

    Environmental DNA could dramatically change the way reserve scientists survey streams, rivers, and estuaries for finfish and crustaceans.

  • Wells Reserve to Expand Fisheries Science and Conflict Management Research

    | October 18, 2017 | Filed under: News

    Wells Reserve is expanding fisheries science and conflict management research thanks to two grants from the NERRS Science Collaborative.

  • Teaching about Coastal Impacts of Climate Change

    | March 10, 2016

    Teachers on the Estuary Returns in 2016

    TOTE kayaking

    The four New England research reserves are putting teachers on the estuary again this summer by offering free workshops that will give educators data-driven climate change activities to bring back to their classes. Each of the four TOTE (Teachers on the Estuary) workshops, one 3- or 4-day session per reserve, will train a dozen educators in reserve-style environmental monitoring, "coastal blue carbon" concepts, and ways to understand and address climate change.

    Please note: The workshop at Wells Reserve will be held Monday, July 11 through Thursday, July 14, 2016. Review of applications will begin May 31, 2016.

    Wells Reserve TOTE Application

    Wells Reserve TOTE Draft Agenda

    Wells Reserve TOTE Promotional Flyer

    To learn more about TOTE workshops, see the articles at wellsreserve.org/tote.

    Why TOTE?

    Teachers often don't get much exposure to estuarine and watershed concepts during their own education, so it can be daunting for them to develop a curriculum (and locate suitable data sets) around these topics. TOTE workshops show teachers how to access and employ custom curricula and data that already meet Next Generation Science Standards or state education frameworks.

  • NERRS Online Qualitative Research Course

    | June 19, 2015 | Filed under: Program Activities

    This course, launched in 2013, provides guidance in collecting, analyzing, and synthesizing qualitative data and using the results to improve the quality of meetings, foster effective project management, and facilitate collaborative research projects.

  • Bridging the Gulfs

    | December 17, 2014

    Interdisciplinary Methods for Stakeholder Engagement and Collaborative Research

    Lessons from the National Estuarine Research Reserve System

    Overview

    The orange bridge used as a symbol of boundary spanning through collaborative learning in the reserves.How can busy researchers work with even busier managers to facilitate effective application of science to the complex tasks of coastal management, from strategic planning to the design of best management practices and in day-to-day decision-making?

    The NERR System is completing 5 years of research nationally around bridging the gulf (boundary spanning) between science and management. These workshops will review boundary spanning projects and work toward developing a primer of best practices for use in coastal management.

    Workshop Goal

    To build awareness, capacity, and skills to enable coastal management and research communities to use expert interdisciplinary practices to engage stakeholders in developing and implementing collaborative research projects that link science to coastal management and policy.

    Project Period

    • September 22 & 23, 2014 in Maine
    • January 14 & 15, 2015 in Texas
  • Three Ways to Look at Streamside Buffers

    | July 29, 2014

    Bruce Read, chairman of the Laudholm Trust board of directors, addresses the group assembled for A Watershed Moment in June 2014Three angles of investigation into three waterways flowing through three municipalities have reached one encouraging conclusion: The Merriland River, Branch Brook, and the Little River are ecologically healthy and the people largely responsible, those living in the combined watershed, know and appreciate it.

    The design for our Sustaining Coastal Landscapes and Community Benefits project, the first study of its kind, drew from the sciences of ecology, economy, and communications. Reserve staff and their colleagues from Clark University looked at streamside buffers in Sanford, Kennebunk, and Wells to find out how they affect life in the water and how members of the community value them.

  • Disaster(s) Preparedness

    | June 14, 2014

    photo by Eileen Willard

    The following was published in the Biddeford-Saco?Journal Tribune Sunday edition, 6/15/2014.

    When Facilities Manager John Speight watched a pickup truck accidentally drive into what hed thought was a well-protected propane tank at the Wells Reserve at Laudholm last weekend, his first thought was: I hear the hiss, so Im still alive.

    His second thought was: lets keep it that way.

  • The Sandy Dialogues: Fostering Resilience through Stories

    Tin Smith
    | May 27, 2014

    Storm-damaged house in Saco, Maine, April 2007

    About the Project

    The Sandy Dialogues facilitated an exchange of expertise and experience between New Jersey and Maine that culminated in two Maine-based coastal hazard preparedness training workshops. Through this project, the Wells Reserve and its partners learned from New Jersey's Jacques Cousteau Reserve and its stakeholders about the use of decision-support systems, combined with the experience of responding to and recovering from a major storm event.

    The Sandy Dialogues stemmed from the earlier Climate Games project in Wells and a sea-level-rise vulnerability assessment done for the New Jersey coast.

    Project Period

    March to November 2014