The Wrack
The Wrack is the Wells Reserve blog.
The Wrack is the Wells Reserve blog.
The following was published in the Biddeford-Saco?Journal Tribune Sunday edition, 9/21/2014.
With a too-short summer and the back-to-school fracas, anyone would be pardoned for missing the official Congressional resolution naming this coming week National Estuaries Week, the annual celebration of the places where rivers meet the sea.
Before you get too excited, please understand that the resolution is merely pending, and that estuaries dont get the whole month. According to Congress, the entire 30 days of September have, in recent years, been reserved for Gospel Music Heritage, Bourbon Heritage, Prostate Cancer Awareness, Childhood Obesity, Honey, and even Self-Awareness. (And you thought our legislators didnt do anything shame on you.)
Resolved or not, 1/52nd of a year certainly seems like a worthy amount of time to devote to estuaries, those humble places of mud and marsh that do so much.
Raise your voice on behalf of estuaries. Join our #iheartestuaries campaign to reach Congress with a simple message: "I love estuaries and this is why…"
Let your legislators know you want the NERR System funded.
Dr. Christine B. Feurt, coordinator of the Coastal Training Program at the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR), was presented with the 2012 NERR System and NERR Association Award at the annual NERRS/NERRA meeting held in West Virginia in November. The award is given annually to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the reserve system.
Paul Dest was presented with the 2011 NERR System and NERR Association Award at the annual NERRS/NERRA meeting at Ponte Verde Beach, Florida, on October 27.
For the past few years, the staff at the Wells Reserve and Laudholm Trust have taken a springtime day trip to places with missions similar to our own. It's great to get out together to see how others meet challenges big and small. Yesterday's focus was on the Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in New Hampshire. Our two Reserves are constantly collaborating, but this was a good chance to broaden and deepen the relationship.
Today the National Estuarine Research Reserve System adds its 27th site, this one along the coast of Texas. The Mission-Aransas Reserve is the third largest reserve in the system, comprising 185,708 acres of contiguous wetland, terrestrial, and marine environments.