The Wrack

Three angles of investigation into three waterways flowing through three municipalities have reached one encouraging conclusion: The Merriland River, Branch Brook, and the Little River are ecologically healthy and the people largely responsible, those living in the combined watershed, know and appreciate it.

The design for our Sustaining Coastal Landscapes and Community Benefits project, the first study of its kind, drew from the sciences of ecology, economy, and communications. Reserve staff and their colleagues from Clark University looked at streamside buffers in Sanford, Kennebunk, and Wells to find out how they affect life in the water and how members of the community value them.

I want to share some pictures that highlight some nice days for research throughout the local area, including the Saco River, the Merriland River, Branch Brook, the Little River Salt Marsh, and Big Daddy's Ice Cream.

I have been the Natural Resource Specialist here at the reserve for over a decade. I know the land well… or at least I thought I did.

This year, several of the staff here were certified to lead kayak trips up the Little River estuary, which forms the northern boundary of the reserve. I was one of the lucky one. This was a whole new place for me. I had seen it from the river banks countless times. But being ON the water of the river is a whole new experience. Being on the water with a small group of people is even better.

Their stories add to this story. Where they have traveled from, how they heard about this trip. What they would like to learn about this estuary.

Paddling upstream to enjoy the shade of overhanging oaks, maples, and pines providing a forested buffer along the river's edge. What a peaceful, lovely trip.

Have you ever wondered what watershed conservation is all about?  Do you often consider where the water in your local river travels, and how its care affects your community and others down the river?  Here at the Wells Reserve we work with watershed conservation on a day-to-day basis.  Watersheds are areas of land which share a common feature—all water that flows above or underground drains to the same place.  The Saco River watershed connects diverse areas such as North Conway, NH, and Biddeford, ME.  The lives of the people who live within these areas are affected by the health—conservation—of their watershed.

This is my final week in Maine as a research and coastal training program intern for the summer. I have mainly been studying the detrimental effects of nitrogen runoff. The three-year project that I helped start looks at Branch Brook and the Merriland River in the Little River Watershed. We selected 20 sites to analyze nitrogen runoff and how it affects the fish, the macroinvertebrates, the river habitat, and the water quality itself.