The Wrack

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.

Last week I had the chance to rise 750 feet above the Wells Reserve at Laudholm in a 1933-vintage open-cockpit bi-plane piloted by Dave Trucksess of Seacoast Biplane Tours. Less than 5 minutes after our take-off from Sanford Airport, we were over the Webhannet River estuary and for the next 20 minutes I got an eyeful of glistening salt marsh, just-past-peak mixed-forest foliage, and Laudholm's many yellow farm buildings.

Ensconced in the front seat, windproof vest zipped up, aviator hat pulled down, a headset muffling the engine noise and carrying light commentary from my pilot, I gripped tight the camera and started to shoot.