The Wrack

The ultimate invasive species, the one that has penetrated to every corner of the map, left no waters or winds untouched, and helped all the others spread so quickly, is Homo sapiens.

As we rebound from winters darkest depths, springs begins to stir in the hormonal systems of other species, particularly those who mate seasonally. Chemically, love is arriving. How did St. Valentine know?

The following was published in the Biddeford-Saco?Journal Tribune and Making It At Home Sunday editions, 2/2/2014.

I will not be the first person to admit that its gotten harder to watch football this season. I still love the drama, the personalities, and the heroics of any given NFL Sunday. But some guilt has crept into the game I grew up watching every week with my father. Im not seeing it the same way I used to.

What will the next five, ten, even the next thirty years look like here at your local national estuarine research reserve?

Compare these two snapshots from the South Cascade glacier official USGS long-term monitoring site in Washington state:

The following was published in the Biddeford-Saco?Journal Tribune Sunday edition, 1/5/2014.

Quite possibly the best movie l saw in 2013 didnt open in 3,000 theaters, didnt have a Morgan Freeman voiceover, didnt follow a hobbit and his ring.

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The following was published in the Biddeford-Saco?Journal Tribune Sunday edition, 12/15/13 ?(and may also appear, with other goodies, in members' mailboxes shortly...):

Normally, I do not talk to dead opossums. But since Id watched this one keel over right in front of me, I felt I had to say something.

The following was published in the Biddeford-Saco?Journal Tribune Sunday edition, 11/24/13:

Many of the staff of the Wells Reserve at Laudholm were in West Virginia this past week for the annual conference of the 28 national estuarine research reserves. Researchers, educators, conservationists, land managers and even evangelists like me pulled ourselves away from our coastal homes to share ideas, hammer out new projects for 2014, and do some good old-fashioned colleague schmoozing.

I flew out of Portland on a sparkling, "unlimited visibility" Monday afternoon. My Southwest flight passed three miles above the Wells Reserve, giving me the rare opportunity to get a live bird's eye view of our little corner of the Maine coast. Looking down, I smiled quietly over how beautiful and tranquil the place looked.

The following was published in the Biddeford-Saco?Journal Tribune Sunday edition, 11/3/13:

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Jake Aman, a researcher at the Wells Reserve at Laudholm known fondly as our river guy, is building a ladder this month. At a cost of $40,000, provided by funders including the Nature Conservancy, the US Fish & Wildlife Service, the Maine Coastal Program, the local water district and the Reserve, its not some ordinary stepladder. Its fancy.

None of us will be climbing Jakes ladder anytime soon, though. Its a ladder for fish. With it, theyll be able to climb up and over a small but insurmountable dam on the Branch Brook, a tributary of the Little River here on the Kennebunk/Wells border. With this ladder, the Wells Reserve will reestablish an essential connection between the ocean downstream and vital nursery pools upstream. A small piece, missing for twenty years from a mosaic that stretches from New Hampshire to Newfoundland, will be replaced.

The following was published in the Biddeford-Saco?Journal Tribune Sunday edition, 10/20/13:

Quick quiz: which of the following have the backing of scientific consensus? Violent video games make kids more violent. Sugar makes them more hyper. Carbs make us fat. Vaccines are linked to autism.

Answer: none of the above. Science says so; look them up.

The bigger question: do we trust science?

The following was published in the Biddeford-Saco?Journal Tribune Sunday edition, 10/6/13:

School has started again, which means its group visit season at the Wells Reserve at Laudholm. Those schools fortunate enough to have bus rental money are sending classes our way, and our team of educators are taking the kids out on the trails, down to the beach, and through the science and history of this 360-year-old place.

For a long time, I didnt understand what environmental education was. Im a perennial skeptic, particularly when it comes to claims from my own liberal brethren, so, over the past ten years of my environmental career, Ive always taken my colleagues proscriptions with more than a grain of salt. What finally convinced me to start applying their lessons was, of course, that grand old motivator of cynic and sucker alike: money.