The Wrack

Imagining this place as it was before European settlement, guided by an educator steeped in Wabanaki learning.

The top 20 images from the 44th annual Nikon Small World photomicrography competition will hang in the Maine Coastal Ecology Center through mid July 2021.

The Coastal Ecology Center's exhibits find a new home in NH.

At this nationally recognized historic site that serves as a center for our activities, we are a great example of change and adaptation. We reveal so well that as our society changes — our economies, our values — so do the places we inhabit. Thus these 19^th century buildings designed for farming have been adapted to serve our 21^st century mission of coastal science, education, and stewardship.

I have always felt our Reserve, located on the south coast of Maine, is a great example of the meeting of the past and the present — of natural ecosystems and cultural landscapes. They exist side-by-side, but are also interwoven. This place also illustrates for us that landscapes continually change; they are never stagnant. Natural systems and human actions change what we see around us — whether it is our contemporary efforts to keep our fields from reverting to forests through mowing or burning, or the natural forces of rivers and coastal currents that alter the shape and contours of our beaches. Change happens.

Rain didn't dampen spirits during the ceremony for the new exhibits! About 50 people enjoyed locally made refreshments before touring the rooms.

We are happy to report that the old exhibit pieces that left the Visitor Center a couple of weeks ago are now displayed at the Mildred L. Day School.

After standing for almost twenty years, and educating and entertaining untold thousands of visitors, the original Visitor Center exhibits are moving out to make way for new "Changing Landscapes" exhibits that arrive this spring. Today, several key displays from the room-by-room tour of habitats traveled down the hill and up Route 1 to Arundel, where they will become tools for learning at the K–5 Mildred L. Day School. Dr. Crowley and Mr. Cressey did the hauling.

Warm sun and a gentle breeze made pleasant the opening reception for George Burk's "Aspects of Change" exhibit in the Eugene Frederick Artway.