The Wrack

Dr. Gordon Hamilton of the University of Maine's Climate Change Institute presented his "Why the Arctic Matters" lecture on Wednesday evening, providing attendees with a first-hand account of his research findings on Greenland's ice sheets. He first explained that the Arctic is a system, connected to the rest of the world through its oceans. What happens in the Arctic affects life in the Gulf of Maine. His research findings are alarming.

As we rebound from winter’s darkest depths, springs begins to stir in the hormonal systems of other species, particularly those who mate seasonally. Chemically, love is arriving. How did St. Valentine know?

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.

On Saturday June 29, 2013, stakeholders in Southern Maine participated in a full day field trip hosted by Maine Sea Grant that highlighted techniques being implemented by property owners to become more resilient in the face of climate-related impacts.

Unprecedented flooding in New York City rekindled the national debate regarding climate change, sea level rise, and the fate of coastal communities. While the deniers and alarmists take turns needling one another no end, many others have begun to unify around meaningful planning for an uncertain future.

It is probably a rare coastal beachfront property owner who is not aware that beaches are dynamic systems that erode and accrete in response to storms, sediment supply, rising sea level, and the proximity of sea walls, jetties, and other forms of coastal "armor." Many beachfront owners are also aware that "natural" barrier beaches and their dune systems are able to persist in the face of sea level rise by transgressing, or migrating shoreward.