The Wrack

The invasive European green crab is not only a popular topic in the media these days; here at the reserve green crabs are receiving their?fair share of attention as well? 5,878 of them so far to be exact!

The Wells Reserve has teamed up with the University of Maine, Casco Bay Estuary Partnership, and Southern Maine Health Care to study the impacts of the invasive European green crab (Carcinus maenas) on the geology and stability of our marshes. Over the summer we have been collecting abundance data that will later be used in conjunction with fyke net data, water quality data, and even geological techniques to better understand the effects green crabs are having on salt marshes throughout southern Maine.

Create a U.S./Canada working group, identify research gaps, and establish a regional approach to blue carbon science and policy.

The reserve works with Dr. Brian Beal, one of the leading scientists looking at the impacts of green crabs on soft-shell clam populations.

The following was published in the Biddeford-Saco?Journal Tribune Sunday edition, 5/18/2014.

Hey, parents! Psst  come over here. Ive got something for ya. Something I think youre gonna like.

What if I told you I had something that supercharged your kids test scores and GPA, made them more attentive and cooperative, improved good cholesterol and blood circulation, lowered obesity and stress? How much would that be worth to you? What would you pay for this wonder drug? $100? $1,000?

Well, its not for sale. Actually, its free, its legal, and youve already got plenty at home.

In his recent post, Spreading the Fish Ladder News, Jake mentioned our imminent use of passive integrated transponders, or PIT tags, to track fish. But just what is a PIT tag and exactly how does it work?

A passive integrated transponder is a miniature electronic circuit typically encased in glass and implanted under an animal's skin or in a body cavity (the fish tags we'll use are thin and just 12mm long). Each tag is programmed with a unique number to identify an individual animal. That number is read automatically when the animal travels close to a receiving station.

Last week we set up acoustical equipment in 12 locations throughout the reserve, typically about 40 feet off the trails. The equipment will create an ecological soundscape of habitats… mapping sounds of animals and other living things (biophony), sounds coming from wind in the trees, rain, and the ocean (geophony), and sounds of jet planes, people talking, trains, gunshots, and lawnmowers (anthrophony). Together, these recordings will help describe our environment over time… who is there, who is missing, what is disturbed, what has changed.

Will these soundscapes reveal habitats of vitality or quiet? What changes happen over time? Is the food web diminishing or increasing with new animals, returning animals? Are the sounds different from year to year, day to day, month to month, season to season?

Last week, UMaine Ph.D. candidate Jared Homola and postdoctoral fellow Dr. Krista Capps visited three vernal pools at the reserve as part of Jared's research into how urbanization affects vernal pools and influences the organisms within them. He is especially interested in how abrupt climate change can impact the persistence of ecologically important species and the genetic basis for the ecosystem services they provide.

We have developed a disaster response plan for the Wells Reserve and surrounding watersheds that complements and coordinates with local and county efforts and that will serve as a model for other natural resource organizations and agencies.

This month customers of the Kennebunk, Kennebunkport, and Wells Water District (KKWWD) got some news about the upgrades and repairs to the fish ladder on Branch Brook in the Winter 2014 Newsletter.?Chief Plant Operator Greg Pargellis provided a nice write-up on a really positive collaboration with the Wells Reserve to bring the fish ladder back on line.

This isn't the first time that the fish ladder has been in a KKWWD report. In the 1954 Trustees Report (see pg. 14), the Water District mentions plans to increase the height of the dam by 2 feet and to build a fish ladder which was ordered by the Maine Department of Fish and Game.

Doing field work in the largest remaining mangrove stand on St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, which abuts the island's unlined landfill.