The Wrack

The Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge 50th anniversary prompts a remembrance.

On one of my first days here at the Wells Reserve at Laudholm, I was given a very simple task by my supervisor: familiarize yourself with the exhibit areas.  As the sunlight illuminated the office floor and the cool breeze rushed through my window, as if beckoning me to go outside for a walk, staying indoors was the exact opposite of the interesting afternoon I had in mind.  Reading displays and interpretive signs for hours seemed incredibly boring.

Thankfully, I was wrong.

The following was published in the Biddeford-Saco Journal Tribune Sunday edition, 12/7/2014.

My family likes to takes walks, particularly in the fall and winter. Given the calories we’re consuming lately, and the long nights given over to reading and TV, we’re trying to grab every opportunity we can to stretch our legs and lungs outside.

While golf may be a great way to spoil a long walk, as the saying goes, fortunately there’s nothing like the scientific method to enhance a little wander through the woods. Proposing, testing, and analyzing hypotheses prevents hypothermia by keeping the brain warm, I tell my wife and kids. They roll their eyes… but then we find something to examine.

Last week, I drove with Karrie Schwaab (Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge) to Yarmouth, Castine, and Holden to deliver the iPad, digital camera, binoculars, and bookstore gift certificate to the top four prize winners in our Silent Spring essay contest. Honorable mention students were also recognized with copies of Silent Spring, and all of the seventh graders who participated in the contest were awarded certificates of achievement.

Here are the top-ranked essays submitted by the winners of the 50th anniversary Silent Spring essay contest. Thank you to these and the other 257 Maine seventh graders who submitted essays.

The response to the Silent Spring Essay Contest, offered in partnership with Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, was overwhelmingly positive. A total of 24 schools and 257 seventh grade students across the state participated. The deadline for submission was December 1, and the Reserve's Education Advisory Committee immediately got to work reading and scoring each essay. What quickly became apparent to the 17 reviewers was the widespread writing talent and environmental awareness among seventh grade students in Maine! So much so, that the Committee created an additional prize-winning category of "honorable mention" for students who did not win the top four prizes, but stood out from the larger pool of applicants with their exceptional essays. Following are the contest winners: