Associated People Paul Dest
WELLS, Maine, November 4, 2011 — Paul Dest, director of the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR), 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. The award is given annually to an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the reserve system.
“It is truly an honor to be recognized, and especially meaningful when it is by one’s peers,” said Dest.
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.
It's been a while since we brought up the freshwater estuary at the mouth of Wisconsin's St. Louis River. Well, it's now become an official member of the reserve system, as announced this week by the University of Wisconsin-Superior:
Our neighbor estuarine reserve in New Hampshire, the Great Bay Reserve, is part of a troubled system that was featured in a New Hampshire Public Radio series last week. NHPR's Amy Quinton took an in-depth look at Great Bay and put together some great stories that can be heard or read on the NHPR site.
The Draft NOAA Next Generation Strategic Plan is available for comment through August 10. The plan is highly relevant to the future of coastal and reserve management, so the National Estuarine Research Reserve System—including the Wells Reserve—will play a key role in addressing NOAA's long-term goals.
The U.S. Congress has passed a consolidated appropriations bill that included the highest numbers yet for the National Estuarine Research Reserve System's operations, while also funding a new program for the system: the NERRS Science Collaborative. The total amount appropriated is $23.5 million. The bill (H3288) now awaits the President's signature.
Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle has nominated the St. Louis River in the northwest part of his state to become the 28th National Estuarine Research Reserve. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will determine whether to add the site to the Reserve system.
The Governor's press release is here. The NERR System announcement is here moved.
According to the latter reference...
If NOAA approves the designation, the 15,000-acre St. Louis River site will become the second reserve in the Great Lakes. Ohio's Old Woman Creek, on Lake Erie, was designated in 1980. The St. Louis River flowing between the cities of Superior, Wisconsin, and Duluth, Minnesota, is one of the largest freshwater estuaries on Lake Superior.
In simple terms, estuaries are "where rivers meet the sea." In Wells, that sea is the Gulf of Maine, but the Wisconsin sea would be a large freshwater lake. We are used to thinking of estuaries as the places where fresh water and salt water mix. The idea of a "freshwater estuary" is not new, but it is controversial.
To learn about seiches and wind tides and how they contribute to the definition of a freshwater estuary, we recommend this University of Wisconsin Extension page. Follow the link for Freshwater Estuaries Defined.
Does the term freshwater estuary catch you by surprise?
The Coastal Zone Management Act, under which the Wells Reserve receives its federal funding, provides for the periodic review of all estuarine research reserves. This week the Wells Reserve hosted four NOAA representatives who assessed operation and management of the Reserve for the period June 2004 to April 2008.
The Section 312 evaluation team will prepare a set of findings that identify successes and areas needing improvement. Early indications suggest the Reserve will receive a positive review. We will notify members when findings become available.
Education Coordinators from throughout the National Estuarine Research Reserve System are working very closely with the non-profit Teacher Education Resource Center (TERC) to determine how often teachers educate their students about estuaries and what barriers prevent them from teaching about estuaries more frequently.
EstuaryLive, the NERR System nationwide web event, took place just before National Estuaries Day and some early statistics are now available. EstuaryLive 2006 featured four virtual field trips in one day for a total of 4 hours, 20 minutes of programming. The field trips featured segments on crabs, salmon, the scientific method, salt marshes, turtles, birds, fishermen, and much more.
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.
Associated People Michele Dionne
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.
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 $21 million more than NOAA’s FY 05 budget and $364.8 million above the President’s budget request.
—Thanks to Angela at the National Estuarine Research Reserve Association
The spending level for the NERR System is $16.4 million.
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