The Wrack

The Saco Watershed Collaborative has begun touring the watershed for 2018!  On June 12, partners were hosted by the Forest Service for a tour at the Massabesic Experimental Forest.  

The following was originally published in the Biddeford-Saco Journal Tribune Sunday edition, 8/11/13:

You may have heard the story of the birth of the modern American environmental movement: Rachel Carson publishes Silent Spring in 1962, the Cuyahoga River catches fire in 1969, tens of thousands of Americans join together to celebrate the first Earth Day in 1970, and then, over the next three years, a Republican president saves the planet. Mr. Nixon creates the EPA; extends, with Maine’s Senator Muskie, the Clean Air Act; signs the Clean Water, Safe Drinking Water, and Endangered Species Acts; and even sets in motion the legislation that eventually establishes the local Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve.

Never mind that the Cuyahoga had been catching fire regularly since the mid-1800s, or that Mr. Nixon actually vetoed the Clean Water Act, or that “Republican” meant something different forty years ago. What’s important is the story: an empowering fable of scientists and the citizenry teaming up to overcome the odds and force government to turn around a country before it disappeared beneath smudge and sludge.

For the most part, it’s a true story. It’s just not the whole story.

I want to share some pictures that highlight some nice days for research throughout the local area, including the Saco River, the Merriland River, Branch Brook, the Little River Salt Marsh, and Big Daddy's Ice Cream.

Have you ever wondered what watershed conservation is all about?  Do you often consider where the water in your local river travels, and how its care affects your community and others down the river?  Here at the Wells Reserve we work with watershed conservation on a day-to-day basis.  Watersheds are areas of land which share a common feature—all water that flows above or underground drains to the same place.  The Saco River watershed connects diverse areas such as North Conway, NH, and Biddeford, ME.  The lives of the people who live within these areas are affected by the health—conservation—of their watershed.

About the Project

The goal of this project is to protect the Saco River estuary so it will continue to provide services and values to surrounding communities. Investigators are seeking to understand the effects of increasing coastal development on the health of the Saco River estuary and to identify ways to mitigate those effects. The project's full title is "Sustaining Quality of Place in the Saco River Estuary through Community Based Ecosystem Management."

This summer, the Wells Reserve and the University of New England sponsored two trips on the Saco River, bringing stakeholders together to talk about research findings from the first year of our collaborative project. Thanks to Tin and Jeremy for piloting the boat and to Michele for providing research findings and posing some hard questions about shoreland zoning. We had a good cross section of stakeholders …

Fishing has begun on the Saco River. On four dates in late June, researchers set fyke nets at eight sites along the river. They surveyed day and night and, except for one frightening microburst, had excellent conditions for field work. Hundreds of fish and shellfish were caught, identified, measured, and released. This project, focusing mainly on fish using the salt marsh, is part of a collaborative study with the University of New England that looks at the effects of upland land use on the river ecosystem.