Associated People Chris Feurt Tin Smith
On the heels of the environmental communication course with Eric Eckl at the Great Bay Reserve on August 3rd, the CTP hosted Eric and local environmental leaders and community members for a sunset boat cruise upon our research vessel on the Salmon Falls River.
Associated People Susan Bickford
We had a great mix of conservationists, teachers, planners, and municipal folks at our Making Maps the Google Way course last Wednesday. Sue Bickford, our GIS specialist, taught the basics of Google Earth and Google Maps and led the class through three tutorials. Everyone created their own maps to share either through their personal or work-related websites, presentations, or online in their My Maps account. Participants left the class eager and confident to use their new (or refreshed) map-making skills. To paraphrase one participant, "it's so helpful to now be able to show funders about the places we want to conserve!"
We’re grateful to Shane Bradt at the UNH Cooperative extension for loaning us their laptops and tutorials, which made for a seamless course.
Sue and I are planning to bring the course back in the fall and there are even rumors of us taking it on the road to reach our map-making friends in the mid-coast. Have I piqued your interest in map-making? Then sign up for our May 10th classes to be taught by Shane: Google Puts the G in GPS and Trail Mapping with GPS. We're looking forward to seeing you there!
Alison Doucette, a teacher at Nashoba Regional High School in Bolton, Massachusetts, was the first to report on the stewardship project that all TOTE participants committed to as part of their involvement in the 2010 Teachers on the Estuary workshop.
Associated People Susan Bickford Paul Dest
The Stewardship Advisory Committee held its first meeting of 2011 this morning. Here are the topics this group has been addressing:
Associated People Suzanne Kahn Eder Nancy Viehmann
With the crafts festival right around the corner, the time to mow fields for parking is approaching. Unfortunately, some of the parking fields are full of milkweed and monarchs. Fortunately, this is a good time to cut the fields to encourage strong regeneration next year.
In an effort to conserve butterflies before the mow, a small team went out to find and relocate monarch eggs and larvae. They transferred 37 eggs and 25 caterpillars from the Knight Trail fields to the Muskie field. Congratulations and thanks to Dennis, Emily, Brandon, Sonny, Suzanne, and Nancy.
Nancy inspects the undersides of milkweed leaves for eggs or caterpillars.
Late and early monarch instars.
Associated People Chris Feurt
Project Goals
- Understand and measure the value of services and benefits provided by waterfront buffer lands and wetlands
- Provide place-based economic information to support decisions that reflect the true consequences of land use, restoration, and conservation practices in southern Maine
Community Impact
This project will:
- Help people understand and compare the economic consequences of different land use practices, decisions, and policies related to waterfront buffer lands and wetlands in southern Maine
- Describe the benefits and services provided by waterfront buffer lands and wetlands in southern Maine, determined through a combination of economic and ecological methods
- Explain how those benefits and services are valued by Wells Reserve stakeholders, including land use decisionmakers, planners, and policymakers
- Evaluate how the Wells Reserve and other project partners connect economic value to different conservation approaches
- Build a stronger network of people and organizations working collaboratively to protect those qualities of the southern Maine landscape that promote clean water — the basis of the local economy
- Provide templates and tools that can be applied in other places to predict and communicate the value of the benefits and services of waterfront buffer lands and to use associated information to influence policy
- Demonstrate southern Maine's ability to serve as an effective proving ground to test and transfer advanced approaches to natural resource management
Project Period
October 2010 to October 2013
Research Team Partners
- Wells Reserve
- George Perkins Marsh Institute at Clark University
- NOAA Coastal Services Center
Accomplishments
See all entries relating to this project.
Funding Source
NERRS Science Collaborative — In its first request for proposals, the collaborative received 35 letters of intent representing 26 reserves. Twenty-nine applicants submitted full proposals. Seven were funded.
Associated People Tin Smith
Flooding in York County — is it becoming more common? Roads impassable, bridges washed out, basements full... the stories have become all too familiar in recent years.
The Mother's Day storm in May 2006 seemed an anomaly till the Patriots' Day storm hit in 2007. This March, the Wells Reserve measured 16 inches of rainfall, 5 inches more than Portland's record-setting 11. The roads closed and the sump pumps hummed again.
The Wells Conservation Commission and the Great Works Regional Land Trust are negotiating to conserve two parcels of land totaling 418 acres. Article 17 on the upcoming town ballot requests up to $450,000 for the properties. The funds are already in the town's Land Bank Account and will not impact property taxes.
It is the first warm spring day and just as the sun starts to set, the air comes alive with high pitched peeping and what sounds like ducks quacking in the woods. That is when you know spring has officially arrived. The sounds are coming from two types of small frogs: spring peepers and wood frogs.
"You never know what the day will bring!" That is especially true of my job as Natural Resource Specialist here at the Wells Reserve. For instance, last week my task was to walk down the length of Laudholm Beach with Nancy Viehmann in search of beached birds. This is part of a monthly survey for a nationwide program called SEANET.
The Seabird Ecological Assessment Network (SEANET), based at the Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, is an ongoing project assessing seabird mortality along the eastern seaboard of the United States. Over 100 citizen scientists volunteer to walk an assigned stretch of beach once or twice a month, record environmental data and report both dead and live birds seen on the beach.
April 17 was warm and dry with a light breeze, a Friday at the end of a dry week. Early in the morning, a fire crew from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service judged the conditions were just right for burning the 2-acre grassland just beyond the Wells Reserve flagpole.
The Wells Reserve is home to a core population of the New England cottontail, a rabbit being considered for listing under the Endangered Species Act. We've reported before on the Reserve's efforts to improve habitat for the rare bunnies, and now the Environmental Defense Fund has issued A Landowner's Guide to New England Cottontail Habitat Management. If you are interested in making an impact on the survival of New England cottontails, you can start by following guidelines in the new publication, which is available as a downloadable PDF from the EDF website.
Bobolinks were back in force at the Wells Reserve today. Their song might be the craziest in the region — it's so much fun to hear them bubbling with enthusiasm! Today, at least four sang from fields near the main campus, sharing the space with Eastern Meadowlarks.
It's fortunate that the reserve's Resource Advisory Committee created a grassland management plan several years ago, recognizing the value of nearly 100 acres of open fields for birds like Bobolinks and meadowlarks. The mowing regimen, needed to keep shrubs from taking over, specifically avoids the nesting period for these birds.
Showing blog posts tagged stewardship: 1–5 of 13
