The Wrack

On December 24, 1968, the Apollo 8 mission team shared this photo of Earth as seen from orbit around the moon.  This photograph has since been credited with igniting the second wave of modern environmentalism in the United States, as people realized that the Earth was a small and unique oasis in the vastness of the universe. While modern American environmentalism has come a long way, it has slowed from a speed run to a painstakingly slow walk over the last few decades.

We’ve known for decades the high costs of digging up and burning oil, coal, and natural gas. Science, and now morality, implore us to find cleaner, more guilt-free energy sources.

For the past thirty years (and counting), each month has been warmer than its average. We may remember, year to year, locally colder Januarys or cooler Julys, but around the world, our collective thermometers have not seen a dip for 360 straight months. 

As you walk the loop trails in the Yankee Woodlot, check out our new interpretive signs! On each sign, you'll learn a little more about the Yankee Woodlot timber harvest project. Be sure to also check out these informational videos featuring some of the stars of the Yankee Woodlot project, which can be accessed using the QR codes found on each of the four signs on the trail. You can also view and read…

As you walk the loop trails in the Yankee Woodlot, check out our new interpretive signs! On each sign, you'll learn a little more about the Yankee Woodlot timber harvest project. Be sure to also check out these informational videos featuring some of the stars of the Yankee Woodlot project, which can be accessed using the QR codes found on each of the four signs on the trail. You can also view and read…

Yankee Woodlot video series: Home sweet home for plants and animals.

As you walk the loop trails in the Yankee Woodlot, check out our new interpretive signs! On each sign, you'll learn a little more about the Yankee Woodlot timber harvest project. Be sure to also check out these informational videos featuring some of the stars of the Yankee Woodlot project, which can be accessed using the QR codes found on each of the four signs on the trail. You can also view and read…

The following was published in the Biddeford-Saco Journal Tribune Sunday edition, 7/20/2014.

If the Wells Reserve at Laudholm had an oil well and a refinery and a power plant on site, we could keep the lights on, fill up our heating oil tank, and top off my Volkswagen every day for cheap. But we don’t. That’s just one of the drawbacks of fossil fuels: the infrastructure needs are enormous. Add the geopolitical strife, the pollution, and the finite supply of oil, coal, and natural gas, and it’s a wonder that our society uses the stuff as greedily as we do.

We can’t live without energy. Fossil fuels power the global economic engine, and they’re immensely profitable to their producers. If only they didn’t have those annoying consequences. If fossil fuels were as vast, inexhaustible, and reliable as the sun that rises daily over our heads, they’d be great.

We host a lot of visitors each year. We hold a lot of events. This is great because it means that people love coming to this place and enjoying all it has to offer. It also means that we inherit some amount of waste in the form of drink bottles, and we don't mind at all. Our visitors are staying hydrated (which means they will hopefully be back again), and we can take those bottles and turn them into sustainable improvements around the Reserve like solar panels, compost bins, and better signs for trash and recycling locations on campus.

Yesterday I went to the North Dam Mill in Biddeford for Making Sustainability Work, an interactive event organized by Sustain Southern Maine. Those old mill hallways are long, long, long!