The Wrack

Kennebunk resident Paul Dest, for 16 years the director of the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve, was honored on December 12 with the 2016 Dr. Nancy Foster Habitat Conservation Award from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Dest was presented with his award at the National Summit on Coastal and Estuarine Restoration and 25^th meeting of The Coastal Society in New Orleans.

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.

I had a very busy weekend. I led vernal pool walks for both the Kittery Land Trust and the Great Works Regional Land Trusts on conserved properties known for their vernal pool habitats. But not only was I busy, so were the inhabitants of these very cool pools.

all photos: Brenna Crothers

Let me introduce you to the Wells Reserve’s favorite, and most vexing, local bunny.

For the second time in less than a year, the Town of Wells and the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve have teamed up to protect a key parcel of land in the Merriland River watershed.

The 61-acre Highpine Properties parcel consists of forested wetlands, vernal pools, and the headwater streams of the Merriland River. The undeveloped tract has 100 feet of frontage on the Sanford Road (Route 109) and is nestled into the 700-acre Fenderson Wildlife Commons, a designated town conservation area. Protecting the Highpine parcel adds to one of the largest blocks of unfragmented conservation land in southern Maine.

It’s that time of year… fall is in the air and (if you’re a brook trout) love is in the air too! October and November is prime spawning time for Eastern Brook Trout. They’ve been fattening up all summer on aquatic insects. Now the mature females have bellies full of eggs and are looking for a spots with cold, clear water and loose, clean gravel where they can make their nests, called redds.

The Woods Hole Research Center, with support from the Wells Reserve, has just put up a series of web pages focused on the loss of open space in southern Maine. Their intent is to slow the pace of development and sprawl that has been rapid in our region over recent decades. The site includes sections on farms and forests, housing density, and impervious surfaces. By showing maps and graphs of both past and projected change, the real and potential landscape changes become easier to grasp.

The Land Conservation Plan for Maine’s Piscataqua Region Watersheds aims to identify and describe areas that represent the best opportunities to conserve the critical ecological, biological, and water resources of southern Maine's coastal watersheds. These Conservation Focus Areas (CFA) are presented in the plan as a series of double-sided pages that include a map of each specific area plus detailed information about its significant resources. Each CFA fact sheet is available individually here:

The Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership has released its Land Conservation Plan for Maine's Piscataqua Region Watersheds (14MB PDF).

The plan provides a scientific and experienced-based guide for the protection of natural resources vital to thriving communities. It is designed to assist citizens who are involved in sustaining and improving their communities by serving on select boards, planning boards, conservation commissions, economic development boards, schools, or non-profit community organizations such as land trusts, watershed coalitions, conservation groups, and recreation clubs.

Protecting the Headwaters of Five Southern Maine Watersheds

Sanford, the town with York County's largest population, contains the headwaters of these five rivers: